Asári
| Asári | |
|---|---|
| Asári | |
| Pronunciation | [[Help:IPA|aˌsa:'ri]] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | Thessia and other Asari Worlds, the Citadel |
| Native speakers | Trillions (2185) |
Asáric
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | as |
| ISO 639-2 | asa |
| ISO 639-3 | asa |
Background
Asári is the most-spoken language in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Asari race, first to discover the Citadel Station, quickly became the leaders of galactic government and other affairs. Being one of the most widespread and certainly the 'oldest' spacefaring race in the modern Milky Way, the Asari enjoy the benefits of having Asári as one of the four administrative languages of the Citadel Council.
The Asari language detailed in this article is High Asari, or Asári teporu (AT).
Asári is of my own creation, even though it is meant to be spoken by a race of aliens created by Bioware. I have not copied or used any material from other Asari-langauge Conlangs. (Nor am I aware that they exist as of writing this sentence)
Phonology
| Letters | Pronunciation | Further information |
|---|---|---|
| a | [a:] | has no short version |
| c | [kʰ] | - |
| e | [ɛ] / [e:] | - |
| g | [g] | - |
| h | [h] | - |
| i | [i] | - |
| k | [kʰ] | rarely used, usually replaced by c |
| l | [l] | - |
| m | [m] | - |
| n | [n] | - |
| o | [ɔ]/[o:] | short/long |
| p | [p] | - |
| r | [r] | |
| s | [s] | - |
| t | [t] | - |
| u | [ʉ] | has no short version |
| v | [v] | - |
| x | [ks] | - |
| y | [i] | makes the same sound as i |
| z | [z] | rarely used |
The Asári alphabet also has stress marks that can be placed over any vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý) to indicate the primary stress placement on a word if it does not follow the standard stress rules.
Consonants
Here is a chart of the Consonantal Phonemes in Asári:
| Phonemes | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | kʰ g | |||||
| Affricate | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | (ɲ) | |||||
| Fricative | f v | s | ʃ | ks | h | |||
| Approximant | r | |||||||
| Lateral approximant | l |
The digraph sh represents [ʃ], and ng represents [ɲ].
Vowels
Here is a table of the vowel phonemes in Asári:
| Phonemes | Short | Long | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Closed | i | - | ʉ | |
| Mid-closed | - | e: | ||
| Mid-open | ɛ | ɔ | - | - |
| Open | a | - | - | - |
Asári has a relatively small number of individual phonemes, which is what makes it so easy for other species to learn and one of the reasons it is the main administrative language of the Citadel Council.
Stress
Stress falls on the first syllable of a word, unless specified otherwise by an accented vowel. Vowels in stressed syllables are always long, if a length distinction can be made for that vowel. This can change the meaning of seemingly homophonic words:
- teporu [te:'pɔ,rʉ] (high, adj.) vs. tepóru [tɛ,po:'rʉ] (gate, n.)