Rikane
| Rikane | |
|---|---|
| Rikano | |
| Pronunciation | [ɹikanɒ] |
| Created by | Aenil2 |
| Date | 2025 |
| Ethnicity | Rikivan |
| Native speakers | 20,000 (2018) |
Rikane (ethnonym: Rikano /ɹikanɒ/) is a member of the Parno-Rikane language family, primarily spoken in the Parnian subcontinent, which corresponds to the region around present-day Mongolia. The Rikivan people migrated from differents parts of the world, mainly from Parvikia (Levant) and and Sirka (Wu region of China), and regrouped themselves in Parnia, which lead to the development of Rikane, at the expense of the other languages that were brought by people who came from outside of the Parnian subcontinent. Because of this, we could technically say that Rikane is a lingua franca in the Parnian subcontinent
Phonology
Because of the high numbers of indigenous languages in Parnia, the phonology of Rikune is really simple, with very few sounds and allophony
Vowels
Rikune has between 3 and 4 vowels, depending on the dialect :
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | o~ɒ, (ʌ) |
| Open | a |
/ʌ/ is debated, as most speakers do not consider it part of their phonemic inventory. Only a few dialects acknowledge its presence (such as Standard East Rikane), and even in those, it is not frequently used in basic vocabulary.
Consonants
Rikane has a quite simple consonant chart, composed of 13 consonants, with very few allophony rules, listed under the table
| Labials | Coronals | Dorsals | Glottals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m | n | ||
| Plosives | p | t | k | ʔ |
| Fricatives | f~ɸ | s | h | |
| Others | w | l, r | j |
Allophony :
- /t/ becomes /tʃ/ before /i/
- /w/ becomes :
- /ɰ/ before back vowels
- /w̃/ before/after a nasal
- /ɰ̃/ before back vowels and after a nasal
Stress
Like present-day Swedish, Rikane has a system of pitch accent, to mark different words. This pitch can change depending on the form of the word.
Compare "aroni" /a.rɒ̂.ni/ - spider and "aroni" /a.rɒ̌.ni/ - skull
Phonotactics
The basic syllable shape of Rikane is (C)V(N)(S), where S denotes semivowels
Morphology
Just like the phonology, the morphology is quite simple and minimal, but it has his few weird quirks
Nouns
Gender
Nouns in Rikane can belong to one of 3 genders:
- Spatial
- Astral
- Terral
The gender of a noun modifies almost all of the marking of the sentence, as every word (except prepositions and adverbs) should be marked for gender (except in very informal speech, where those gender markings are often omitted)
The rules to determine the gender of a noun are really simple :
- The noun is an astral noun if its radical ends in a vowel or a semivowel
- The noun is a terral noun if its radical ends in a plosive
- The noun is a spatial noun if its radical ends in a nasal or a fricative