Attian

Attian (Attian Mkhedruli: რა აღდჺ, Latin: Ta Athnai, /ta aθˈne/) is a constructed, a posteriori and naturalistic language. It has no other purpose than to be an excellent display of my personal debauchery and pleasures.

Naturalism nowadays implies the creation of fictional settings, to legitimate the choice of vocabulary, semantics and pragmatics. I will for once actually do such a thing, implementing the language into the modern world of Caucasus. Perhaps then I can justify a few loan words.

The language is being created by the user and administrator Waahlis of Linguifex'. Obviously, and almost self-evidently, it has no native speakers and is not the official language anywhere else than in an office.

Background

Attian (Attian Mkhedruli: რა აღდჺ, Latin: Ta Athnai, /aθˈne/) is a language isolate spoken in the Caucasus, across the borders of Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. It is not known to have any transparent genetic connections to any other language, despite a number of attempts of classification.

The language has been documented in the Caucasus since at least the 9th century AD, with the discovery of the Hayastani documents, (Attian: Eggrava ta Hayaztan, ვფფპალა რა ტაყასრად) a Greek transcript of the languages in an around the Transcaucasian settlements. The now fragile documents were written by the Byzantine Greek philosopher Antenor Erevanon, in an effort to investigate the ethnic diversity i the region:

I have seen many different men of various posture and pride passing these roads, none less awe-inspiring than the other: The Armenioi, an intelligent breed, clever and calculating merchants speaking a language not too dissimilar to our own. Then there are the Georgioi, quite similar to the Armenioi, but far more divided and barbaric in their utterances, just like the warmonging Kurds and Turks. Then there are the Caphessonioi, peaceful, tranquil, with a timid stance towards strangers, speaking a language using the very letters of our own alphabet. The Attnicoi on the other hand, are interesting, a reclusive tribe of people, shy to speak with their proper, unintelligible speech; preferring to use that of their neighbours[...] - Antenor Erevanon, 9th century philospher and settler

The number of speakers of the language is unknown, but the numbers are estimated to be fairly low. Influence by neighboring languages, such as Armenian, Georgian and enclaves of Greek and Qafesona speakers threaten the language by the inclusion of loanwords, but the greatest threat is from the universal English language, as more and more Attians acquire internet and television, featuring the language.