Riukish
| Riukish | |
|---|---|
| Ribnú | |
| Pronunciation | [riβnʉː] |
| Created by | Aenil2 |
| Date | 2024 |
| Setting | Conworld |
| Native speakers | L1 : 600 (1872 CC) L2 : 3200 |
Isolate
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | brn |
Riukish (autoglossonym: Ribnú; Riukish : [riβnʉː]) is a minority language spoken in Lincai (Riukish : Ricda [ricð̞ä]), province in which the majority language is Makari. Riukish is a language isolate, as it is not related to any languages known in the Ragian subcontinent, place where the Proto-Kinavel language evolved. One of the hypothesis about the provenance of Riukish is that merchants from Kalari brought their language to Lincai, around 900 years ago.
Gramatically speaking, Riukish is a fusional language, even though verbs can be considered as agglutinative. It has a split-ergative alignment, with case depending entirely on verb voices, a concept that Riukish makes extensive use of.
Etymology
Following the previous hypothesis, the language name could come from the Early Kalari word «Rŭivnĭu» /rʷiβnʲu/ which, at that time, meant "story, novel". In the now extinct Kalari language, that word became «Ruivnu», and meant "tongue"
Phonology
Consonants
The following table is Riukish consonant inventory. It is composed of 19 phonemes, 5 of which being approximants and 5 of them being fricatives according to the traditional pronunciation.
| Consonants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Labials | Alveolars | Dorsals | |
| Nasals | m /m/ | n /n/ | ng /ŋ/ |
| Plosives | p /p/ | t /t/ | c /c/, k /k/ |
| Fricatives | f /ɸ/ | s /s/ | z /ç/, x /x/, h /h/ |
| Approximants | v /β̞/ | d /ð̞/, l /l/ | g /ɣ̞/, w /w/ |
| Trills | b /ʙ̥/ | r /r/ | |
Notes :
- In the "neo-phonology", the approximants /β̞/, /ð̞/ and /ɣ̞/ are able to be pronounced /β/, /ð/ and /ɣ/
- /c/ and /ç/ can be pronounced /kʲ/ and /ʃʲ/
Vowels
There are 9 vowels in Riukish, 8 of which form short-long pairs :
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i,í /iː/ | ú /ʉː/ | u /u/ |
| Mid | Example | Example | Example |
| Open | Example | Example | Example |