Eyalian

Eyalian language
Ejale ena
Pronunciation	[/ɛ.ˈjɑ.lɛ/]
Created by	Raistas
Setting	Planet Keta
Native to	Oare Kahoana
Ethnicity	Eyan/Tarnan
Language family	Aiwanic Ketan Eyalian language
Early forms	Proto-Ketan Eanoan
Official status
Official language in	the United Republics of Five Nations, the Tarna Republic
Recognised minority language in	the Virjan Federation

The Eyalian language (Ejale ena, [ɛ.ˈjɑ.lɛ. ɛ.ˈnɑ]) is a Western language in the Ketan language family. It was originally spoken by the Eyans and slowly spread with the expanse of the Oare Empire eastwards. It later split into two major dialects: Tare and Kei ("west" and "east" respectively). Both dialects are still mutually intelligible with each other, but Keian is nowadays treated as a separate language from Tarnan, which is commonly named Eyalian, or Eyalian Proper. Both dialects are used as spoken langauges in their respective republics as official languages, but the only official language of the whole United Republics is Tar Eyalian.

It is also the primary liturgical language of Ayatarvism (Le-Ajatarvo - the main religion of the eastern part of the continent) and the predominant language of most works of the Ajatar philosophy. Old Eyalian, in its variants, was the lingua franca of the former Oare Empire and lands to the east of it. Even nowadays Tar Eyalian is considered to be a language of high culture in these regions and is commonly taught in educational institutions.

The language became standardised by the time of the Oare Empire, about a thousand years ago by various writers and scholars. This period is generally referred to as Old Eyalian. The language spoken between after the split into two main dialects is generally referred to Modern Eyalian, or Tar Eyalian. This shift is marked by several grammatical and phonetic changes, although Old Eyalian is still generally intelligible to both Tar and Kei speakers.

Eyalian is a moderately synthetic language, with a relatively simple nominal and more complex verbal morphology.

Etymology

It is generally believed that the word "ejale" originates from an ancient Kvetain word "eb qəlajəsi", the exact translation of which is undetermined, but is usually translated as "spoken from the gods' name", which connotes a divine origin of the language. From what is known from the ancient texts sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities. The language was meant to be spoken and not written and words were valued by the way they sounded. Thus almost all ancient linguistic works were forgotten and disappeared without a treace.

History

Eyalian is a Ketan language and is one of three languages with an extensive literary tradition (the other two being Virjalian, which is a close relative of Eyalian, and Phomˀald, which is much younger than the previous two written languages). There are other languages with a long written history are Zėnan, Pietan and Kianne, but they were not continuous. Eyalian and Virjalian also share a common period, usually called Old Qenan. Several texts are known from this period, but the data they had given is insufficient to clearly establish whether Old Qenalan was a single language of both nations, or both Virjans and Eyans used a single written standard. Even if the second is true, both languages were likely very close during that period.

The oldest evidence of the split between Tar and Kei goes back to almost a seven hundred years ago, however Kei Ejale was finally standardised only two hundred years ago. Prior to that Keians used a modified Tarnan orthography. Modern Tar Eyalian also underwent a spelling reform two hundred years ago. Nowadays both standards are referred to as Ejale and Keile respectively, though some speakers occasionally refer to Eyalian as Tarejale, mostly among the Tarnans.

Phonology

Consonants

The following is a table of phonemes in both Eyalian varieties. There are some differences between them: Tarnan preserves the phoneme /x/ (mostly word-initially) and underwent the debuccalization of [s̠] to [ɦ] in all positions. That's why Tarnan /ɦ/ (which becomes voiceless [h] before plosives) does not correspond to Keian /h/ (which is often voiced word-medially under the Tarnan influence). Keian also has a phoneme /ɲ/, which is not phonemic in Tarnan. Also Keian phoneme /s̠/ can be pronounced as [ʃ] (often by speakers from the East of the Keina Republic) as it is already close to that place of articulation. Unlike in Tarnan, /j/ and /ʋ/ in Keinan are strongly fricated, especially /ʋ/, which often becomes a true fricative [v].

Tar Eyalian consonants

	Labial	Dental		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		central	lateral
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t		c	k
Fricative	f	z /θ/			x	h /ɦ/
Approximant	v /ʋ/	r	l	j

Kei Eyalian consonants

	Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		nj /ɲ/
Stop	p	t		c	k
Fricative	f	z /θ/	s /s̠/			h
Approximant	v /ʋ~v/	r	l	j, lj /j~ʝ/