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The Peshpeg language, or ''Peshpeg humbi todak inlak'' "true humans speak this way", is a highly endangered language in the valleys of the Kilmay Rī Mountains and the prefectures of south-central Minhay. The language is considered moribund: according to the last census, only about ninety fluent speakers remain, all older than sixty years. Younger generations speak only [[Minhast]], from either the Wolf Speaker, Stone Speaker, or City Speaker dialects. Efforts to revitalize the language have been largely unsuccessful; with the exception of the City Speakers, most Minhast are either apathetic or even actively hostile to revitalization efforts. Social and economic discrimination towards the Peshpegs has only accelerated the decline of the language. | The Peshpeg language, or ''Peshpeg humbi todak inlak'' "true humans speak this way", is a highly endangered language in the valleys of the Kilmay Rī Mountains and the prefectures of south-central Minhay. The language is considered moribund: according to the last census, only about ninety fluent speakers remain, all older than sixty years. Younger generations speak only [[Minhast]], from either the Wolf Speaker, Stone Speaker, or City Speaker dialects. Efforts to revitalize the language have been largely unsuccessful; with the exception of the City Speakers, most Minhast are either apathetic or even actively hostile to revitalization efforts. Social and economic discrimination towards the Peshpegs has only accelerated the decline of the language. | ||
Peshpeg is classified as a language isolate. Any similarities to the Minhast language are due to language contact, with most of the influences being unidirectional; only a handful of Peshpeg words, most of them related to the fauna and flora of their original homeland, have been adopted by the Wolf Speaker and Stone Speaker dialects. However, Minhast has had an enormous impact on the Peshpeg language; close to 70% of the Peshpeg lexicon comes from Minhast, the original base-10 numerical system has been supplanted by the vegisimal system of the dominant language, and most noticeably the original morphosyntactic alignment has shifted from a nominative-accusative type to | Peshpeg is classified as a language isolate. Any similarities to the Minhast language are due to language contact, with most of the influences being unidirectional; only a handful of Peshpeg words, most of them related to the fauna and flora of their original homeland, have been adopted by the Wolf Speaker and Stone Speaker dialects. However, Minhast has had an enormous impact on the Peshpeg language; close to 70% of the Peshpeg lexicon comes from Minhast, the original base-10 numerical system has been supplanted by the vegisimal system of the dominant language, and most noticeably the original morphosyntactic alignment has shifted from a nominative-accusative type to a tripartite one, with the evolution of the ergative subsystem clearly driven by Minhast's ergative-absolutive alignment. Some linguists have explored the possibility of a relationship with [[Ín Duári]], another endangered, non-Minhast language, but plausible evidence for such a relationship has not been demonstrated. | ||
Peshpeg is classified as an SOV language | Peshpeg is classified as an SOV language. The language apparently had an extensive vowel harmony system, which has been preserved to some extent in its present-day form. Aggluginative and fusional features appear in various areas of the grammar. | ||
The verb system distinguishes tense, aspect, number, and person. Interestingly two verbal subsystems co-exist, one reflecting an older nominative-accusative system, and the other reflecting an ergative-absolutive system. Although most ergative-absolutive languages are split, rarely does the split occur based on source language; splits in ergative languages typically occur based on tense/aspect (as in various Iranian languages, notably Kurdish), free versus bound pronominal forms (as in the Minhast dialects of the Salmonic Branch, and certain Australian languages like Murinypata), and clause types (e.g. Yup'ik, Inuktitut, and other Eskimoan languages). The nominative-accusative subsystem is limited to a handful of verbs, mostly auxiliary verbs such as ''rui'' "to do" and ''joa/jora'' "to go" (used to express the future tense), as well as one perceptual verb, ''bu'' "to see". But even within this system some inflections, such as all of the plural forms of the non-present tenses, person-number forms of the ergative-absolutive subsystem appear. The newer ergative-absolutive system employs an auxiliary verb plus a verbal noun. The older subsystem has agreement markers for only the subject, whereas the newer subsystem bears obligatory polypersonal marking on the auxiliary. | The verb system distinguishes tense, aspect, number, and person. Interestingly two verbal subsystems co-exist, one reflecting an older nominative-accusative system, and the other reflecting an ergative-absolutive system. Although most ergative-absolutive languages are split, rarely does the split occur based on source language; splits in ergative languages typically occur based on tense/aspect (as in various Iranian languages, notably Kurdish), free versus bound pronominal forms (as in the Minhast dialects of the Salmonic Branch, and certain Australian languages like Murinypata), and clause types (e.g. Yup'ik, Inuktitut, and other Eskimoan languages). The nominative-accusative subsystem is limited to a handful of verbs, mostly auxiliary verbs such as ''rui'' "to do" and ''joa/jora'' "to go" (used to express the future tense), as well as one perceptual verb, ''bu'' "to see". But even within this system some inflections, such as all of the plural forms of the non-present tenses, person-number forms of the ergative-absolutive subsystem appear. The newer ergative-absolutive system employs an auxiliary verb plus a verbal noun. The older subsystem has agreement markers for only the subject, whereas the newer subsystem bears obligatory polypersonal marking on the auxiliary. | ||