Moshurian

Moshurian
uthilikh
The Moshurian endonym(uthilikh) written in Moshurian script.
Pronunciation	[ˈuðˌilix]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Setting	Radael
Native to	Moshurian Empire
Ethnicity	Moshurians
Native speakers	~450,000,000 (400 UH)
Language family	Yeldhic Paleoyeldhic Tulooric Moshurian
Early forms	Kóftąbriác Yeldha Proto-Tulooric Early Moshurian Ancient Moshurian Middle Moshurian
Standard form	Taráhus Moshurian
Dialects	Taráhus dialect(Taráhus gugtui) Oalan dialect(Oalan gugtui) Loïha dialect(Loïha gugtui) Odezyë dialect(Odezyë gugtui) Far East dialect(Dmuriékh gugtui) Sépenzg dialect(Sépenzg gugtui)
Writing system	Moshurian alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Moshurian Empire Iśatúr Confederacy
Recognised minority language in	Eastern Gegfen Alliance
Regulated by	Ministry of Linguistic Regulation
Map of Moshurian speakers. Dark green represents a Moshurian-speaking majority and light green represents a significant minority.

Moshurian(endonym: uthilikh; Moshurian: [ˈuðˌilix]) is a Tulooric language spoken in mostly Talkoch. It is the most spoken language in Talkoch, and also has significant minority communities on Etzeán Island and the Eastern Gegfen Alliance, also called the Dmuriékh(lit. "far away east"). It is the sole official language of the Moshurian Empire, and is thoroughly used administratively and academically in the Moshurian Empire, no matter what one's mother tongue is.

It is one of the only surviving languages indigenous to the Munsanukh Valley, which is generally considered, alongside Tuloor Lake, to be the birthplace of the Moshurian race, culture and language.

Origin

The Moshurian culture originates in the Paleoyeldhic cultures that initially settled Munsanukh Valley, who's indigenous inhabitants had been pushed further south. A landslide blocked off the exits of the Valley, leading to an extended period of isolation from other Paleoyeldhic cultures, eventually forming into Koftábriąc Yeldha. Koftábriąc Yeldha then split into the Tulooric and Najmunsaic branch, where Early Moshurian developed in the Tulooric branch from Proto-Tulooric, while languages such as Aquq and Hátuli developed in the Najmunsaic branch from Proto-Najmunsaic.

Etymology

Endonym

The Moshurian endonym, uthilikh, is most likely derived from Moshurian mythology, in which the god of creation's daughter, Khaurnán, sent her son, Uthiliran, to lead the Moshurian people. Etymologically, the word is probably derived from the Proto-Yeldhic word uliqʷ, which most likely meant "small lake" or "pond", possibly referring to Tuloor Lake, which is deduced to be the Moshurian homeland.

Exonym

Their exonym of Moshurian comes from a nomadic legend of the god of travel and nomads, Dündŵęk, who traveled to Tuloor Lake(the homeland of the Moshurians) in search of an inn to rest. The Moshurians had plenty of inns(möşhüř as they are called in Ancient Yeldha), and Dündŵęk was finally able to rest. After departing, he thanked the Moshurians, and later mentioned them to the other gods as simply möşhüřiànöřmà, or "inn people". This exonym stuck within nomadic circles, who then passed the exonym to the more settled peoples of Talkoch.

Phonology

Orthography

The Moshurian alphabet, with phonemic pronunciation.

Moshurian has its own script that is read right-to-left, top-to-bottom. Each symbol can be easily deciphered by simply looking at how high or low the symbol is. If the symbol goes down below the line on the paper, it is a consonant.

The sound /h/ is represented with the〈kh〉glyph, and the /ɸ/ sound is represented by the 〈fh〉dipthong, transcripted as ⟨fkh⟩.

Abjad form

The Moshurian alphabet can be written in an abjad form, although this is mostly used by Kutic traders who adapted the Moshurian alphabet to a structure similar to their own native Kutic script, which itself is an abjad.

The form mostly follows the rules of the Kutic abjad, such as no inset vowels being represented, although the glyphs for ⟨a⟩ and ⟨á⟩ are used in an onset position.

The Moshurian Empire does not officially recognise the abjad form, and even in traditionally Kutic-dominated territories, such as along east to west trade routes, children are taught the alphabetical form of the script when learning Moshurian.

Origin

The origin of the Moshurian alphabet is heavily debated. According to the Gécheb Bizörith, the Moshurian alphabet was designed by a secret society called Akhakuöm, who took inspiration from the Tiragii military cuneiform. Eventually after the bust of Akhakuöm by the Moshurian state, the script was changed to fit the standard Moshurian dialect and re-issued as the government Moshurian alphabet.

In the Sóvók religion, one of the books in the Idērigidwi claims that a man named Udeldoi presented a script to the king of Moshuria so as to record military victories for propaganda.

Both of these interpretations are considered simply as urban legend, as orthographic analysis of the Izkanà(one of the earliest Moshurian documents) by calligraphers showed that the early Moshurian alphabet had many similarities with the logographic Oalanii script, which may have influenced Munsanukh orthographies as a whole.

The glyphs for /b/ comes from Oalanii *ʕbạn, while the glyph for /d/ comes from Oalanii *dḕmsir.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Labiodental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Retroflex		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n						ŋ
Stop	p	b					t	d					k	ɡ
Affricate									t͡ʃ
Fricative	ɸ		f		(θ)	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x		h
Approximant										j
Lateral								l
Flap												ɽ

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Near-front	Central	Back
Close	i	y			u
Near-close			ɪ
Close-mid	e	ø			o
Mid				ə̃
Open-mid	ε
Open	a				ɑ

Prosody

Stress

Stress in Moshurian is paroxytonic, meaning stress is placed on the penultimate syllable of a word, e.g. zazuŋ, pronounced [ˈzaˌzuŋ], or uthilikh, pronounced [ˈuð.ilix].

Phonotactics

Syllables in Moshurian typically follow the pattern of (C)(G)V(V)(G)(C).

Morphology

See also: Moshurian/Swadesh list.

Verbs

Verbs in Moshurian are inflected by default with the infinitve suffix -omh, and then the root of the verb (e.g. dáfhér in dáfhéromh, to eat) is inflected with a different suffix depending on the pronoun.

Suffixes

	Singular	Plural
Infinitive	-omh
First person	-ék(-ïk)	-ékeŋ(-ïkeŋ)
Second person	-ot	-(o)tuŋ
He	-eź	-iŋź
She	-aş	-aŋéş
They	-iş	-éiméş

Example

Suffixes for "dáfhér"

	Singular	Plural
Infinitive	dáfhéromh
First person	dáfhérék	dáfhérékeŋ
Second person	dáfhérot	dáfhérotuŋ
He	dáfhéreź	dáfhériŋź
She	dáfhéraş	dáfhéraŋéş
They	dáfhériş	dáfhéréiméş

Numerals

Numerals in Moshurian are labelled as cardinal by adding the suffix -i to a number.

Moshurian	English
iyg	one
oyamö	two
tikré	three
igoyà	four
tikoyam	five

Pronouns

Demonstrative

Demonstrative pronouns

English translation	Pronoun
this	gá
that	gánué
these	gáloŋ
those	gánuéloŋ

Personal

Personal pronouns in Moshurian are, for the most part, identical to their verb inflections.

Personal pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First person	ék	ékeŋ
Second person	ot	otuŋ
He	eź	iŋź
She	aş	aŋéş
They	iş	éiméş

Possessive

Possessive pronouns in Moshurian are identical to personal pronouns, except that they add the prefix ta- before the personal pronoun.

Possessive pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First person	taék	taékeŋ
Second person	taot	taotuŋ
He	taeź	taiŋź
She	tayaş	tayaŋéş
They	taiş	taéiméş

The exceptions to this rule are the male third person possessive pronoun, where the prefix tay- is used instead because the personal pronouns begin in a-.

Syntax

Constituent order

Moshurian uses an OSV(object-subject-verb) sentence structure.

Cases

Moshurian has three noun cases: the nominative, the accusative and the genitive. The nominative is not indicated, while the accusative is indicated with a -géd/-éd suffix for all nouns but pronouns and the suffix -e for pronouns. The genitive case is indicated with the prefix ta-/tay-.

		Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
Noun	Consonant-ending/starting	-	-éd	ta-
	Vowel-ending/starting		-géd	tay-
Pronoun	Consonant-ending/starting		-e	ta-
	Vowel-ending/starting			tay-

Tenses

In Moshurian, there are four main tenses- the present, the future, the far future and the simple past. To indicate that a phrase is in a certain tense, an indicator is used just before the object, e.g. öş gersetigéd kestolék(I built a house).

Tense indicators

Present	Future	Far Future	Simple Past
(uź)	ïş	ïşé	öş

The present tense indicator, uź, is used like a natural in music. By default, no indicator is used to indicate the present in a non-contextual sentence, but as indicators are continuous, meaning that if an indicator is placed then all succeeding sentences will be in the indicator's tense until a new indicator appears, uź may be needed to clarify that a sentence does not follow the tense of the previous sentence.
Example: öş abáragéd udubék. budur ibiş. - I went to the park. It was great.
ös abáragéd udubék. uź budur ibiş. - I went to the park. (The park) is great.

Noun phrase

1. Sögéd kél mosok dáfhéréiméş.

   grass-ACC PL cow(PL) eat-3PL.

   Cows eat grass.

In this sentence, sögéd is the object, mosok is the subject, and dáfhéréiméş is the verb with inflection. in noun phrases, Moshurian still uses the object-subject-verb structure.

Verb phrase

See also:Verbs.

sögéd duà ché dáfhér!

grass-ACC IMP no eat!

Do not eat the grass!

In imperative verb phrases, the imperative indicator, duà, is put before the verb, as ché is still considered, at least grammatically, part of the verb when present. Additionally, verbs take on their root form, as opposed to their infinitive form in said sentence type.

In this sentence, sögéd is the object, and the verb is dáfhér. The subject does not appear and is instead implied to be the recipient of the imperative phrase.

Dialects

Standard dialect

The standard dialect of Moshurian is, according to the Ministry of Linguistic Regulation(MLR), officially the Taráhus dialect spoken in the capital, although Tárahus is so large that several districts have developed their own dialects, many of which who are vastly different from each other, so it is still unclear on which is considered the standard within the family of Taráhus dialects.

Inner Taráhus dialect

The Inner Taráhus dialect is generally considered by Moshurian linguistics to be what the MLR constitution means in the line:

"[...] The dialect spoken around the capitol and the [MLR] shall be considered the dialect to be used for the transmission of necessary information to Moshurian citizens. For non-Moshurian areas of the Empire, the standard [dialect] of the most prominent non-Moshurian language shall be used to convey said information."

However, this quote can be considered quite vague, as the MLR and the wider capitol has changed location many times in Taráhus. One year, the MLR headquarters was located in the district of Oźmaneli, where a borderline unintelligible dialect of Moshurian is spoken, and, for that year, the bizarre Oźmaneli dialect was considered the standard, causing great confusion to non-Oźmanelis.

Oźmaneli dialect

The Oźmaneli dialect is a dialect spoken in the inner city district of Oźmaneli. It has garnered much attention from linguists, as its pronunciation is widely different from typical pronunciation.

Additionally, it is the only dialect to utilise the zero copula, an effect where the verb "to be" is not used in a statement, e.g. instead of "I am tired" it would be "I tired".

Phonetic differences

In general, the pattern seems to be that voiceless consonants tend to get voiced, but this is not always the case.

• /ŋ/ is pronounced [ɳ] or [ɟ]
• /x/ is pronounced [ɣ]
• /ð/ is pronounced [θ]
• /b/ is sometimes pronounced [ʙ] before a /ɽ/.
• Speaking of /ɽ/, it is pronounced [ɬ]

Morphological differences

• mosok ⇒ Oźmaneli mudźuk.
• pusadi ⇒ Oźmaneli bsédodifh.
• uthilikh ⇒ Oźmaneli utuɟul.
• surus/zazuŋ ⇒ Oźmaneli şild/soéş.

Oźmaneli rhyming slang

Very similar to Cockney rhyming slang in London, Oźmaneli has its own rhyming slang, that often leaves many non-Oźmanelis stringed(confused).

• abaza(football) rhymes with dzul iz upaza(colour and shape) → dzul
• zebatalomh(confuse) → usuŋtua sibatal(stringed instrument) → usuŋtua

Oalan dialect

The Oalan dialect is the specific dialect of Moshurian spoken in the city of Oalan and its surrounding suburbs. The Oalan dialect is not as different from the Taráhus dialect, although /ð/ is pronounced [θ], which is a conventional pronunciation among most non-standard dialects.

Loïha dialect

The Loïha dialect is the dialect of Moshurian speakers who reside in the Golden Plain. Loïha is possibly the most distinct but still intelligible dialect of Moshurian. This is because there are very few morphological differences, but quite large sound changes.

Notably, the Loïha dialect can be split into two groups: the Western and Eastern dialects. Western Loïha tends to be a bit more distant from the standard, whereas Eastern is the opposite. However, what is universal across both dialects is that glottal stops are incorporated in everyday speech.

Sound changes

• From /ð/ → [ð](Western) or [θ](Eastern)
• From /x/ → [ʁ](Western) or [χ](Eastern)
• In diphthong C̥V → /ʔV/.

Odezyë dialect

The Odezyë dialect is phonetically not very different from standard Moshurian, but it does have a bizarre mannerism that cannot be found in any other dialect- that being the suffix -áktu. It is placed directly after any sort of proper noun, including names. The origin of this is heavily debated- although the most prominent theory claims that it may come from the Aquq genitive suffix -ḗC̥ə̹.

Far East dialect

The entire existence of the Far East Moshurians(Dmuriékh; Moshurian: [dˈmuɽi̯ˌex]) is shrouded in mystery, but they seem to speak a certain dialect of Moshurian that only slightly varies from the standard Taráhus dialect.

Phonological differences

• [u] → [ʊ] or [ɯ] in some cases
• [VC̃] → [Ṽ].