Kandi

Asaari
Tsán asáari, Asáari
Pronunciation	[/t͡sán at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/]
Created by	–
Native to	United States of America
Native speakers	21,020 (2012)
Language family	Tanisi Tsan Asaari
Early form	Proto-Tanisi
Dialects	Asaari proper Virginian Asaari Carolinian Asaari
Official status
Regulated by	Tsárapi áyasáari
Language codes
ISO 639-1	as
ISO 639-2	aas
ISO 639-3	aas

Tsán asáari, ꔌꖟꔷ ꕉꕦꔹꗏ , or simply Asáari, ꕉꕦꔹꗏ, or Asaari /at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/ is a language spoken in the eastern United States of America. It is not known to be related to any extant language and is thus a language isolate. The name, Tsán asáari /t͡sán at͡sá͜ɑɣɪ/ simply means "the ocean blue language", or "the language that is ocean blue".

Asaari is a heavily agglutinating or polysynthetic language, with a complex verbal morphology. The language has repeatedly been analysed as lacking nouns and adjectives altogether, in favour of verbs. Asaari is a tonal language with a limited vowel inventory, and an extensive array of consonants.

The language is being constructed by Waahlis to represent is fierce love for tones, voiceless consonants, and the voiceless lateral fricative.

I also wish to make it clear that this language has no connexion what so ever to the invented language and species of Asari, in the video game Mass Effect! The name is purely coincidental as Asaari is derived from the word for "blue" in the language (Yes, I'm aware the species of Mass Effect also happen to be blue...), which was propably inspired from the European word "azure". The final "-i" is a relativising suffix. No connexions, okay!?

Phonology

Consonants

Asaari has 23 consonants, called tsínáa /t͡sɪ́ná͜aʔ/, traditionally categorised into the following groups:

• màaráyi /mɑ̀ⁿːʀáʔjɪ/ - "shaking" or voiced consonants.
  • mháasi /m̥á͜ɑʔsɪ/ - "smooth" or approximants and voiced nasal consonants.
• tuáaqi /tʼá͜ɑʔcɪ/ - "shocking" or ejective consonants.
• tsamàaráyis /t͡samɑ̀ⁿːʀáʔjɪs/ - "non-shaking" or voiceless consonants.
  • yéelhàyi /jɛ́͜əɬɑ̀ⁿjɪ/ - "gliding" or fricatives and voiceless nasal consonants.
  • quáasi /qʼá͜ɑʔsɪ/ - "stopping", that is stop consonants.
  • sitsàayi /sɪt͡sɑ̀ːⁿjɪ/ - "jumping" or affricates.

Asaari consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Uvular	Glottal
			central	central	lateral
Nasals	voiceless	mh /m̥/	nh /n̥/
	voiced	m /m/	n /n/
Stops	ejective	pu /pʼ/	tu /tʼ/			qu /cʼ ~ qʼ/
	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/			q /c ~ q/		' /ʔ/
Affricates	ejective			tsu /t͡sʼ/	tlu /tɬ'/	tshu /t͡ɕʼ/
	voiceless			ts /t͡s/	tl /t͡ɬ/	tsh /t͡ɕ/
Fricatives	voiceless	ph /ɸ ~ pɸ/	th /θ ~ tθ/	s /s ~ ts/	lh /ɬ/	sh /ç ~ ɕ/	h /χ ~ h/
Approximant					l /l/	y /j/	r /ʁ ~ ʀ/

Vowels

Asaari has three main vowels, /a/, /ɪ/ and /ɛ/. The vowels can all bear tone. The tones may change the vowels' qualities and articulation; these allophones are enclosed in square brackets. Vowels may be long or short. Long vowels are written twice in the native orthography.

Asaari vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close			[ɨ̃]
Near-close		ı /ɪ/
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid	e /ɛ/, [ɛ̃]
Near-open
Open	a /a/				[ɑ̃]

Diphthongs

There are three so called "diphthongs¨" in the language. This is however merely a traditional name, as the diphthongs have long since collapsed into long vowels. Originally, these were homogeneous diphthongs, composed of doubled vowels.

Asaari vowels and diphthongs

Monophthongs
i /ɪ/	e /ɛ/	a /a/
Diphthongs
ii /ɪː/	ee /ɛː/	aa /aː/

Tone

There are three phonemic tones in Lha asáari, the high, medium, or default, and the low tone. The tones have immense effects on the qualities of the vowels.

• Short and long vowels with the high tone are pronounced with a glottal closure, that is, a coda glottal stop, /ʔ/. The long vowels are diphthongised - this is the sole trace of the homogeneous diphthongs.
• Low tone vowels are nasalised. This nasalisation is phonetically marked with a superscript minuscule "n", so that the nasalisation marking does not coincide with the tone diacritics.

Asaari vowels and diphthongs

		Monophthongs				Diphthongs
Quality	Medium tone	i /ɪ/	e /ɛ/	a /a/		ii /ɪː/	ee /ɛː/	aa /aː/
	High tone	í /ɪ́ʔ/	é /ɛ́ʔ/	á /áʔ/		íi /ɪ́͜ɨʔ/	ée /ɛ́͜əʔ/	áa /á͜ɑʔ/
	Low tone	ì /ɨ̀ⁿ/	è /ɛ̀ⁿ/	à /ɑ̀ⁿ/		ìi /ìⁿː/	èe /ɛ̀ⁿː/	àa /ɑ̀ⁿː/

Phonological processes

Apart from the low tone vowels being nasalised, and the diphthongs collapsing into long vowels, Asaari has a few other compulsory phonological changes.

Emphatic consonants

The term emphatic is a controversial one but refers to a certain form of assimilation in the Asaari language. Following high tone vowels, fricative consonants and /ʁ/ change their pronunciation.

Asaari emphatics and finals

Phonological changes
	ph	th	s	lh	sh	h	r
Plain	/ɸ/	/θ/	/s/	/ɬ/	/ç/	/h/	/ʁ ~ ʀ/
Emphatic	[p͡ɸ]	[t͡θ]	[t͡s]	[t͡ɬ]	[ɕ]	[χ]	[ɣ]
Final	-	-	-	-	-	[h]	[r]

Unreleased consonants

When in coda position of a word, consonants are pronounced with no audible release. This applies to all oral occlusives, or plosives. Ejective plosives are never found in final position and thus never unreleased.

Asaari finals

Phonological changes
	p	t	q
Plain	/p/	/t/	/c ~ q/
Unreleased	[p̚]	[t̚]	[c̚ ~ q̚]

Orthography

The Asaari natively use the Vai syllabary to write amongst themselves. This modified syllabary is called the Asaari abugida.

The abugida symbols are composed of one onset consonant and one vowel. Vowels carrying different tones are perceived as proper vowels and do thus have their own symbols. There are a few gaps in the syllabary, since some combinations are not possible in the language, or have been lost.

The native name for the syllabary is qiráas atsàari, ꘒ ꕉꔍꔹꗏ, which means "imperfect script". It is near-homophonous to qiráas asáari ꘒ ꕉꕦꔹꗏ, which would mean "Asaari" or "blue script".

There are a few problems with the script; ejective consonants and long vowels are not denoted by symbols of their own. Instead, they are marked with the following symbols:

• ꔷ - which marks ejectivity on a consonant, and also that that the vowel should be elided if final.
• ꔹ - marks long vowels.

Asaari abugida
		Vowel
		-a			-e			-i
		/a/	/áʔ/	/ɑ̀ⁿ/	/ɛ/	/ɛ́ʔ/	/ɛ̀ⁿ/	/ɪ/	/ɪ́ʔ/	/ɨ̀ⁿ/
Onset	(none)	ꕉ	ꕱ	ꕊ	ꔀ	ꖺ	ꗢ	ꕪ	ꖷ	ꔧ
	p-	ꕐ	ꕑ	ꕒ	ꔅ	ꔆ	ꗩ	ꗨ	ꔇ	ꗪ
	t-	ꔎ	ꔐ	ꔒ	ꕚ	ꕜ	ꖁ	ꕽ	ꕾ	ꘅ
	q-	ꖏ	ꔫ	ꖐ	ꗛ	ꗜ	ꗝ	ꖴ	ꖵ	ꖶ
	'-	ꖋ	ꗘ	ꖍ	ꗗ	ꗘ	ꗙ	ꖰ	ꖱ	ꖲ
	ts-	ꔋ	ꔌ	ꔍ	ꕗ	ꕘ	ꕙ	ꗯ	ꗱ	ꗲ
	tl-	ꕪ	ꕌ	ꕭ	ꔞ	ꔟ	ꔠ	ꘃ	ꘄ	ꘆ
	tsh-	ꖉ	ꗉ	ꗊ	ꗋ	ꗍ	ꖑ	ꖨ	ꖪ	ꖳ
	ph-	ꕓ	ꕔ	ꕖ	ꔈ	ꔉ	ꔊ	ꗫ	ꗬ	ꗮ
	th-	ꕞ	ꔕ	ꔖ	ꕠ	ꕡ	ꖇ	ꗻ	ꗽ	ꔺ
	s-	ꔻ	ꕦ	ꕧ	ꗳ	ꔿ	ꔛ	ꖤ	ꗿ	ꘀ
	lh-	-	ꖆ	ꖃ	-	ꔳ	ꔱ	-	ꘇ	ꔦ
	sh-	-	ꕨ	ꕩ	-	ꔜ	ꔝ	-	ꘁ	ꘂ
	h-	-	ꕬ	ꕍ	-	ꔂ	ꕅ	-	ꗤ	ꗥ
	l-	ꕿ	ꖻ	ꖼ	ꔵ	ꗓ	ꗕ	ꕳ	ꖅ	ꕴ
	y-	ꖢ	ꖣ	ꖎ	ꔬ	ꔭ	ꕸ	ꖝ	ꖞ	ꗄ
	r-	ꕀ	ꕁ	ꕂ	ꖙ	ꕏ	ꖗ	ꗏ	ꖿ	ꖽ
	m-	ꕎ	ꕮ	ꕯ	ꔃ	ꕆ	ꕇ	ꗦ	ꘈ	ꘉ
	n-	ꕺ	ꕻ	ꗇ	ꗅ	ꗆ	ꕼ	ꖟ	ꔨ	ꖡ
	mh-	ꕰ	ꕃ	-	ꕈ	ꕄ	-	ꘊ	ꘋ	-
	nh-	ꗁ	ꗂ	-	ꕶ	ꕷ	-	ꖛ	ꖜ	-

The full index of Asaari logograms. All of them are fairly common.

Punctuation

Qiráas atsàari does not use Latin punctuation. It is somewhat more limited, but uses the following symbols:

• ꘎ - Marks a full stop.
• ꘏ - Question or interrogation mark.
• ꘍ - Denotes a comma, separates clauses.
• ꖫ - Has the function of an English colon or semicolon.

Logograms

The Atsàari script does also have a number of logograms: Single characters that mark a full word.

These are rather few, and they can all be spelt out with the syllabary. It should be noted however, that whilst the logograms are very comfortable and quick to write, they are never marked for affixes, inflexion or the like. That means they must be pronounced out of context.

Grammar

Asaari has a fairly complex grammar; it lacks the common definition of a noun. Instead, all nouns are so called "nominals" verbs conjugated in a certain pattern.

Morphology

Verbs

Nominals

Nominals are a conjugation of verbs that function primarily as nouns. A nominal is most often defined as a predicative verb, nominal or adjective, but may also include other predicates.

Predicative

The predicative construction of a nominal has a usage most often analogous to an English copula, used in a predicative expression.

• It is a dog. - mées
• Sara is a girl. - Sára lhináan
• The house is crushed.- tláta quirásináayan

Relative

The relative construction of an Asaari nominal is equivalent to a modifying relative clause. In the language, this is used to create objects, but also to modify other arguments.

• That which is a dog - méesi
• Did you see her who is Jonna? or Did you see Jonna?
• The man who is angry kicks the tree. - nar yéeitsán háranilhèqa

Relative
Mood ↓	Number →		Singular			Dual			Plural
	Gender ↓	Person →	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	masculine		sí-	shá-	yée-i/n	tlí-	thá-	ti-	sí--	shá--	yée--
	feminine		sí-yih	shá-yih	yée-yih	tlí-yih	thá-yih	ti-yih
	neuter				-i/n			ti-i/n

Applicative

The applicative form has the function to promote an oblique argument of a verb to the core object argument, and indicates the oblique role within the meaning of the verb. When the applicative voice is applied to a verb, its valency may be increased by one. The applicative in Asaari is parted in four; applicative proper, benefactive, malefactive and locative. The applicative proper has mainly comitative and instrumental functions.

• He wrote a letter with a pen. - Àyéeyitlá àpuéni ayítlisi.
• He fetched wood with his hands. - Àyéehem àrási tsáran.
• He fetched it with me. - Àyéehemíir àmi.

Applicative
Mood ↓	Number →		Singular			Dual			Plural
	Gender ↓	Person →	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	masculine		àsí-	àshá-	àyée-	àtlí-	àthá-	àti-	àsí--	àshá--	àyée--
	feminine		àsí-yih	shá-yih	àyée-yih	àtlí-yih	àthá-yih	àti-yih	àsí--yih	àshá--yih	àyée--yih
	neuter				à-i/n			àti-i/n

Conjugation

Noun
-			/-/			...
Person		Singular							Plural
		1st		2nd		3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
		masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	neuter
Indicative
	Object enclitics	-yi	-yiis	-shi	-shiis	-ar	-saár	-íir	-ʾin	-ʾíih	-ʾsíir
	Predicative	See non-past perfective conjugation
	Relative	sí-	sí-yih	shá-	shá-yih	yée-	yée-yih	-i	sí-ʾi-	shá--i	i-ʾ-i
	Applicative	àsí	àsí-yih	àshá-	àshá-yih	àyée-	àyée-yih	à-i	àsí--i	àshá--i	àʾi--i
	Benefactive	sí-yáa	sí-yáayih	shá-yáa	shá-yáayih	yée-yáa	yée-yáayih	-yáa	sí-ʾiyáa	shá-ʾiyáa	-ʾiyáa
	Malefactive	tsá- yáa	tsá-yáayih	tshá-yáa	tshá-yáayih	shé-yáa	shé-yáayih	ʾi-yáa	tsá- ʾiyáa	tshá-ʾiyáa	ʾi-ʾiyáa

Verbs proper

Verb
-			/-/			...
Participles
Non-Past			-áyyah
Past			-áayan
Person		Singular							Plural
		1st		2nd		3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
		masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	neuter
Indicative
	Object enclitics	-yi	-yiis	-shi	-shiis	-ar	-saár	-íir	-'in	-'íih	-'íir
	Past
	Perfective
	Imperfective
	Retrospective
	Non-Past
	Perfective	á-	á-yih	là-	là-yih	àra-	àra-yih	-	na-	ha-	ya-
	Imperfective	tí-	tí-yih	tlá-	tlá- yih	rì-	rì- yih	é-	tí-ʾi-	tlá-ʾi-	-ʾi-
	Retrospective	ràa-	ràa-yih	qà-	qà-yih	yása-	yása-yih	àari-	ràa--	qà--	àari--
Irrealis		páa-	páa-yih	qáa-	qáa-yih	yée-	yée-yih	tháa-yih	páa--	qáa--	tháa--
Imperative		tsí-	tsí-yih	tshá-	tshá-yih	shà-	shà-yih	'í-	t'í-	tl'í-	-'í