Ketaserang

Ketaserang
ketasiraangeh
Pronunciation	[ketɐsɪˈraːŋeh]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2025
Setting	Adventures in the Poccasins
Native to	Ketaserang & Kenalerambo
Ethnicity	Serus
Native speakers	2.56 million (2025)
Language family	Bebaaye Nyé-Seru Seru Ketaserang
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Poccasin Federation

Ketaserang(/kətæsɪˈræŋ, kɪ-/; ketasiraangeh [ketɐsɪˈraːŋeh]) is the language spoken by the Seru people, an ethnolinguistic group of related peoples inhabiting the Ketaserang & Kenalerambo archipelago in the Poccasin Federation. Variously considered a single language and a dialect continuum, Ketaserang has the largest population of native speakers for an indigenous language in the Poccasin Federation, at 2.56 million speakers; only the English creole language Bemé has more speakers at 15 million. Because of this high native speaker number, there have been various calls for independence by the Seru peoples to form their own state distinct from the Poccasin Federation; however, these calls have mostly died down since the 1999 Internal Autonomy Act, which gave each region in the Poccasin Federation their own devolved regional government and a right to withdraw from the Federation if a two-thirds majority vote for independence is achieved.

Phonology

Ketaserang consonants

			Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
						plain	labialised
Stop	plain	voiceless	p	t	c	k	kʷ	ʔ
		voiced	b	d	ɟ	g	gʷ
	prenasalised	voiceless	ᵐp	ⁿt	ᶮc	ᵑk	ᵑkʷ
		voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Implosive(1)	plain		ɓ	ɗ
	prenasalised		ᵐɓ	ⁿɗ
Fricative	voiceless			s				h
	voiced		(β)	z
Nasal			m	n	ɲ	ŋ	(ŋʷ)
Affricate	voiceless			(t͡ʃ)
	voiced			(d͡ʒ)
Tap				ɾ
Trill				(r)
Approximant	semivowel		w		j
	lateral			l	ʎ

¹ All implosive stops are voiced.
There are 39 phonemic and 4 allophonic consonants in Ketaserang, 58.1% of these being plosives or implosives; more than any other language spoken in the Poccasin Archipelago.

/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ is an allophone of /t d/ before /ɪ iː/. However, some dialects also shift /c ɟ/ to /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ in the same way, leading to differing spellings of certain words, like kitiaap (standard) and kiciaap (non-standard), both pronounced [kɪˈt͡ʃaːp] and meaning "ketchup".

/r/ is a stressed allophone of /ɾ/, as in mḅaraang [ᵐɓɐˈraːŋ] "belongings". In contrast, /ŋʷ/ is an word-medial and unstressed allophone of /ᵑɡʷ/, such as in duḍeengwe [dʊˈɗɛːŋʷe] "wooden flute".

/β/ is an allophone of /b/ before /s z/, such as in absuh [ɐβsʊh] "curve (n.)".

Ketaserang vowels

	Front		Back
	lax	tense	lax	tense
Close	ɪ	iː	ʊ	uː
Mid	e	ɛː	ɔ	oː
Open	ɐ	aː

Ketaserang has 5 lax and 5 tense vowels. Lax vowels appear in unstressed and/or closed syllables, while tense vowels always appear in stressed and typically open syllables. However, tense vowels can still appear in closed syllables if stressed; examples include kuukti [ˈkuːk.t͡ʃɪ] "spiked wheel" or maseeh [mɐˈsɛːh] "religious".