Jalaia

Jalaia is the language spoken in the fictitious nation of Kuarjalainankuna as well as the most common language used by the Deities of Anarturia. It is highly agglutinative.

Background

Jalaia is the spoken language of the Kingdom of Kuarjalainankuna in my constructed world of Anarturia. It is heavily based on Uralic and Semitic languages.

History

Use in Lauredonia

Jalaia was used in the Great Elven Kingdom of Lauredonia, one of the four dominant kingdoms of Avrón during the Era of the Beginning. During these years, the language corrently known as Proto-Esseyainan was spoken, which also became the root for the Levynätystä and Eijiouwan languages. It was spoken across the majority of the Skenörrjavage peninsula.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m̥ m			n̥ n			ŋ̊ ŋ
Plosive	p				t d		k	ʔ
Fricative				s				h
Affricate			θ
Approximant		ʋ				j
Trill				r
Lateral fric.				ɬ
Lateral app.				l

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y		u
Close-mid	e ø		o
Near-open	æ
Open		ä

Phonotactics

Phonotactics greatly differ between official and colloquial Jalaia. An example of this is the number of consonants that an initial consonant cluster is permitted to have.

Official Jalaia

In official Jalaia, a syllable usually follows the following pattern: (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C). A syllable either begins with one consonant or two consonants, even when in written language the syllable begins with a vowel. In the latter case, in spoken official Jalaia, the syllable begins with an unwritten glottal stop.

A syllable can end with one, two or three consonants, or, in written language, with a vowel. In spoken language, however, the end of the syllable will be marked with an unwritten glottal stop.

An example would be the word "enkyvnästettetinäs", "I do not like you", which is pronounced [ˈʔeŋ̊kyʋ̯næsˌtet:etˌinæs]. Remember this word for the next example.