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 /ɰ/, w /w/ |
| Trills | b /ʙ̥/ | r /r/ | |
Notes :
- In the "neo-phonology", the approximants /β̞/, /ð̞/ and /ɰ/ are 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 | e /e̞/, é /ɛ̝:/ | o /o̞/ | |
| Open | á /æ:/ | a /ä/ | ó /ɒ:/ |
Morphology
Riukish nominal morphology is fusional, whereas verbal morphology is agglutinative. Inflections are mainly suffixes, even though circumfixes are often used.
Verbal
Riukish verbs are inflected with 5 moods, 3 tenses, 2 aspects and 9 voices. Each voice is conveyed using an affix, glued to the verb root before the inflection. There are also are 2 non-finite forms :
- The participle, which serves the role of indicating the agent of an action
- The transgressive, which serves to indicate concurrent actions
Active voice
The active voice is the initial form of the verb, which indicates that the subject is the one who does the action. The arguments of the verb must be in the Nominative/Accusative case
Here is the active voice paradigm :
| nírú - to live | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-finite forms | ||||||
| Participle | nírúnire | |||||
| Transgressive | nunírúti | |||||
| Finite forms | ||||||
| Indicative | Conditional | Jussive | Potential | Optative | ||
| Absolute | Past | anírú | anírúne | anírúta | anírúldo | anírúru |
| Present | nírú | nírúne | nírúta | nírúldo | nírúru | |
| Future | inírú | inírúne | inírúta | inírúldo | inírúru | |
| Relative | Past | anírúte | anírúva | anírúgú | ánírúngo | ánírúgi |
| Present | nírúte | nírúva | nírúgú | énírúngo | énírúgi | |
| Future | inírúte | inírúva | inírúgú | ínírúngo | ínírúgi | |
Middle voice
The middle voice indicates that the subject is both the one who does the action and the one who is undergoing change. The arguments of the verb must be in the Ergative/Absolutive case
It is formed by prefixing "da-" to the main root
Passive voice
The passive voice indicates that the subject is the patient of the actions. The arguments of the verb must be in the Nominative/Accusative case. It's subdivided into 2 different voices :
- Dynamic passive
- The dynamic passive (or eventive passive) is a passive action that was/is/will be taking place.
- It is formed using the suffix "-noí" to the verb root
- Static passive
- The static passive (or stative passive) is a passive action that was/is/will be done to the subject that did/does/will result in a state in the time focused upon
- It is formed using the suffix "-té" to the verb root
Adjutative
The adjutative voice conveys the information that the subject is helping the agent.
It is formed by adding "-róu" to the verb root