Rakas
| Rakas | |
|---|---|
| Karosaganaki | |
 Karosaganaki written in Higsata (left) and Yusuki (right) | |
| Pronunciation | [kaɾo̞saɡaɾ̃aˈci] |
| Created by | Hildägard Millinnster Friðlech (alias) |
| Date | 2025 |
| Setting | Yossam |
| Ethnicity | Rakas |
Dakas
| |
Rakas (/ˈrækəs, ˈrɑ-/; Rakas: Karosaganaki [kaɾo̞saɡaɾ̃aˈci]), is a Dakas language spoken by the Rakas people, native to the lowlying forested regions and grasslands of Yossam. It is the most widely-spoken Dakas language. Rakas is a mostly isolating language with a modest phonology and fairly simple phonotactics.
Name
Rakas (Rakas: [ˈdakas, ˈɾa-]) is the endonym of the Rakas people, borrowed into English to refer to both the people and language, though the Rakas people rarely refer to their language as the Rakas language, instead calling it Karosaganaki, which literally means ‘we speak it’, or ‘that which we speak’.
Writing System
Rakas is written with the Higsata and Yusuki syllabaries. Higsata is written by pressing specialised tools into wood to imprint marks into it. It is the older of the two, used for public signage and in formal situations. Yusuki is written with a brush on paper, and is used for personal notes and corresspondences.
Phonology
Rakas has a fairly small consonant inventory with between ten and eleven consonants, five monophongs, and two diphthongs, far fewer than its closest relative, Wetih. Its syllable structure is fairly simple, being CV(C), where any consonant besides /ʔ/ can be placed in coda position. It has a simple vowel harmony system that affects mid vowels. Stress falls on the first syllable of the main root in a word.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar & Palatal |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | (m) | n ~ ɾ̃ | |||
| Stop | voiceless | t | k | (ʔ) | |
| voiced | b | d ~ ɾ | ɡ | ||
| Continuant | w ~ β | s | j | h ~ θ | |
- /m/ may occur in loanwords.
- [n] and [ɾ̃] occur in free-variation, with [ɾ̃] ocurring most often between vowels. It is realised as [ŋ] in coda, except before alveolars (besides itself) and /j/.
- /k/ and /ɡ/ are palatalised to [c] and [ɟ] respectively before /i/ and /i̯o/.
- Voiceless stops are generally unreleased as codas.
- Glottal stop is initial only and may be analysed as the lack of a consonant.
- /b/ is realised as [m] in codas, and sometimes initially in women's speech.
- /d/ may be realised as [ɾ], occurring most often between vowels. It is sometimes pronounced [r] as a coda.
- /ɡ/ is realised as [ʔ] in coda position, sometimes causing creaky voicing in the preceding vowel.
- /w/ may be realised as [β]. It is sometimes pronounced [ɸ] as a coda, most frequently after /u/.
- /j/ is sometimes realised as [ʃ] as a coda, most frequently after /i/.
- [h] and [θ] occur in free-variation as an onset. As a coda, it's always realised as [θ].
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
| Other | u̯e, i̯o | |
- The segments /u̯e/ and /i̯o/ occur mostly as part of Rakas's vowel harmony.
Vowel Harmony
Rakas's mid vowels are affected by a simple vowel harmony, where vowels later in a word affect earlier vowels, depending on stress.
| Stressed | Unstressed | |
|---|---|---|
| e(...o) | u̯e | o |
| o(...e) | i̯o | e |