Kandi
 | This article is a construction site. This project is currently undergoing significant construction and/or revamp. By all means, take a look around, thank you. |
| Asaari | |
|---|---|
| Lha asáari, Asáari | |
 | |
| Pronunciation | [/ɬa at͡sá͜aʀɪ/] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | United States of America |
| Native speakers | 21,020 (2012) |
Lhisan
| |
Early form | |
Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Tsárapi áyasáari |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | as |
| ISO 639-2 | aas |
| ISO 639-3 | aas |
Lha asáari, or simply Asáari, Asaari /at͡sá͜aʀɪ/ 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, Lha asáari /ɬa at͡sá͜aʀɪ/ 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 /t͡sɪ́ná͜a/, traditionally categorised into the following groups:
- màaráyi /mɑ̀ⁿːʀájɪ/ - "shaking" or voiced consonants.
- tsamàaráyis /t͡samɑ̀ⁿːʀájɪs/ - "non-shaking" or voiceless consonants.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | central | lateral | ||||||
| Nasals | voiceless | mh /m̥/ | nh /n̥/ | |||||
| voiced | m /m/ | n /n/ | ||||||
| Stops | ejective | p' /pʼ/ | t' /tʼ/ | q /qʼ/ | ||||
| voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | q /q/ | ' /ʔ/ | ||||
| Affricates | ejective | ts' /t͡sʼ/ | tl' /tɬ'/ | tsh' /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 ~ x/ | |
| 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.
| 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] |
Tone
| Vowel | Diphthong | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | Medium tone | i /ɪ/ | e /ɛ/ | a /a/ | ii /ɪː/ | ee /ɛː/ | aa /aː/ | |
| High tone | í /ʔɪ́/ | é /ʔɛ́/ | á /ʔá/ | íi /ɪ́͜ɨ | ée /ɛ́͜ə/ | áa /á͜ɑ/ | ||
| Low tone | ì /ɨ̀ⁿ/ | è /ɛ̀ⁿ/ | à /ɑ̀ⁿ/ | ìi /ìⁿː/ | èe /ɛ̀ⁿː/ | àa /ɑ̀ⁿː/ | ||
| Rising | ií /ɪ̌ː/ | eé /ɛ̌ː/ | aá /ǎː/ | |||||
| Falling | iì /ɪ̂ː/ | eè /ɛ̂ː/ | aà /âː/ | |||||