Flewtish

Flewtish
Flũťa / Флӯтьа
Flag of the Flewtish people. It is a simplified version of an ancient flag. The green represents nature, the white represents peace and the orange represents the joy to be alive.
Pronunciation	[ɸlûːtʷa]
Created by	Aggelos Tselios
Date	2023
Native to	Russia, Finland
Native speakers	approx. 1 million (2023)
Language family	Language Isolate Flewtish
Writing systems	Latin Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in	Flewtish Autonomous Republic, Russia
Regulated by	Instituto Standarzabüro Flutadene Glung (Institute of Standardization of the Flewtish Language)
Map of where Flewtish is spoken today. Dark blue areas indicate a majority Flewtish-speaking population, whereas light blue indicate areas where Flewtish is an important language.

Flewtish (endonym: Флӯтьа [ɸlûːtʷa] or Флӯтьа глӯн [ɸlûːtʷa ɡluːŋ] ) is a language spoken in much of Northwest Russia and the Karelia region, as well as a large pocket in Eastern Finland since 500BC, following the Flewtish migrations westwards. Flewtish is a language isolate, meaning it does not genetically relate to any other known language on the planet, similar to Basque in Europe.

Flewtish is a polysynthetic language, something uncommon for the Siberian or the European languages, hinting a distant Urheimat far away from today's Russia (Usually placed near the Mongolian border, see Proto-Flewtish). The language is split into 4 periods: Proto-Flewtish, Old Flewtish, Ḟlǔṫas Eṽétt (Modern Latin Orthography: Fluṫas Ewet), and Modern Flewtish, each one signified by the historical events accompanying them. It is a biscriptal language, using both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts to be written (In Finland and elsewhere respectively), although during the early medieval period there were Turkic writings too. An important aspect of the language is differentiating between labialized and non-labialized consonants (Referred in Flewtish as "rounded" and "unrounded") see eg. [kʷáɣ.op] "Warmth" and [káɣ.op] "Deer".

While standardized, the language spans over a massive geographical area and as a result, forms a dialect continuum with the most extreme corners (from east Finland to the Ukhta city being completely unintelligible to each other. One example could be the simple sentence "My favorite pets are cats". Following are the two examples in the dialects spoken in Ukhta (Chukwa in Flewtish) and Kvuppeg (Kuumu, a city in Finland), both written using the Latin script for convenience:

1. Wo tepō päzćocha enokka mäua [wo ˈtʲepoːa ˈpɘʐʷot͡ʃa ˈenʲoka ˈmɘua] "Me pet favourite is cat"
2. Pezoḱōgwo nētepoga nemäja [ˈpezokʷoːɡwo ˈneːtepoga ˈnemɘja] "Favourite-me pets cat"

For this reason, some classify Flewtish as a language family, the common ancestor of which is Proto-Flewtish.

Etymology and history

Flũta is an evolution of Proto-Flewtish *flȳdʰa, meaning "Blooming" or "Saturated". The reason for this name is that the regions that Flewtish speakers settled were far more greener and developed than their previous homeland. Flewtish is possibly a Paleo-siberian language that through migration reached it's current territory. This can be further supported by similarities with the Yeniseian languages, like having a pitch accent, vowel harmony and vowel length distinction.

Following harsh winters in the area and raids from other local tribes, migrations westwards began in search of a better homeland. Eventually, after ~1000 years, Flewtish people decided to settle to modern day Arkhangelsk (Tengwrikutt in Old Flewtish, lit. God's city) and the areas around, where their language would remain. Small pockets of their language that settled in the way during that migration period survived for a few more centuries before being assimilated to neighboring nations.

Flewtish, from it's early years, was influenced by Mongolic, Turkic and later Indo-European and Uralic languages. The most obvious example would be the large amount of Turkic and Finnic loanwords into Flewtish (eg. Кӣлъиту "to converse") but even titles from the states with Flewtish rule such as "Gǎngÿán [ʔgâŋɢán]" (Leader, possibly related to Khagan), "Tãngṽrǐ [ʔtaːŋʷɾiː/" (Same origin as Tengri) and "Tãěrṽágn /ʔtɘɾ.wáŋ/" (Local ruler, related to Tarkhan). On the Indo-European side, the word "оѡыг /ˈówyg/" (Sheep) is probably borrowed from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₂ówis (Or perhaps from Proto-Balto-Slavic) and the word "ғамегь" (milking, from PIE *h₂melǵ-).

Phonology

Flewtish phonology varies between dialects. The tables below contains the standard dialect's phonology, with the phonemes in parentheses only found in Kvuppeg Flewtish. Please do note that the lack of /t͡s/ is found in all dialects, apart from Chukwa Flewtish.

Consonants

Manner/Place	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m mʷ			n nʷ			ŋ
Stop	b p bʷ pʷ			d t dʷ tʷ			g k gʷ kʷ	(q)	(ʔ)
Affricate			t͡s	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative	f v fʷ		ð	s z	ʃ ʒ		ɣ x	ʁ
Approximant		ʋ				j
Lateral approximant				l lʷ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y	(ɨ)*	u (ɯ)*
High-mid	e	(ɘ)	o
Low	a

* Only found in Chukwan Flewtish

Orthography

Scripts

Flewtish is officially written with the Cyrillic script as law enforces it in Russia. However, up until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, the language was actually written with the Latin script, which was brought over by Viking sailors around the 9th-10th century. The Latin script is used mostly in Finland with the local dialects and by older people elsewhere, but any new speakers are taught to write with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Cyrillic Script for Flewtish
Аа /a/	Бб /b/	Вв /v/	Гг /g/	Ғғ /ɣ/	Дд /d/	Ðð /ð/	Ее /e/	Зз /z/	Ии /i/	Ыы /y/	Кк /k/	Лл /l/	Мм /m/	Нн /n/	Оо /o/	Пп /p/	Рр /ʁ/	Тт /t/	Сс /s/	Уу /u/	Фф /ɸ/	Ьь (ʷ)	Хх /x/	Цц /t͡s/	Чч /t͡ʃ/	Шш /ʃ/	Ѡѡ /w/	Ъъ /ʔ/

Latin Script for Flewtish
Aa /a/	Bb /b/	Cc /t͡s/	Dd /d/	Đð /ð/	Ää /ɘ/	Ee /e/	Ff /f/	Gg /g/	Hh /x/	Ii /i/	Yy /ɣ/	Jj /j/	Kk /k/	Ll /l/	Mm /m/	Nn /n/	Oo /o/	Pp /p/	Rr /ʁ/	Ss /s/	Tt /t/	Uu /u/	Üü /y/	Vv /v/	Ww /w/	Xx /ʒ/	Zz /z/

There are various diacritics used in the language that aren't considered part of either alphabets. For example, both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets for Flewtish use a line/tilde above a vowel (eg. ā,ӣ) if it is a long one. In addition, the Latin alphabet uses an accent above a consonant (eg. ŕ, ś) to indicate rounding (Or labialization) of the letter, whereas the Cyrillic script uses the soft sign (Ьь). In older inscriptions of the Latin alphabet, a letter would take a diaeresis (eg. s̈, ḧ) instead, and the acute accent would be used to indicate a glottal stop following the consonant.

Digraphs and trigraphs

There are three digraphs and one trigraph in the Latin alphabet of Flewtish. The Cyrillic version does not contain any. These are: ch for /t͡ʃ/, sj for /ʃ/ and, very rarely, ui for /ɨ/, and dzj for /d͡ʒ/

Grammar

Flewtish is a polysynthetic language, using circumfixes or other affixes to change word meaning, or show different grammatical functions. Some dialects tend towards a more moderate, agglutinative model (By using fewer morphemes per word than other dialects), however the principle of affixation is shared between all dialects.

In addition, Flewtish contains an animate-inanimate distinction. If any part of speech within a sentence is animate, the subject, object and verb must take the -ü suffix.

Consonant harmony

Flewtish has a consonant harmony system, which limits what letters can appear to what words. The distinction does not appear directly in loanwords but can be found in all native Flewtish words. Consonants are split to three categories (A, B, C). Phones from category A may not appear in the same word as phones from category B, and phones from category C may appear in any word.

Category A is comprised of all palatals, velars, /f/, /x/ and /ʒ/. Category B contains all uvulars (In the standard dialect, only /ʁ/ exists, but other accents may contain /q/ and /ɢ/), labials, the dental plosives and /ʔ/. Category C contains all nasals, sibilants, (post-)alveolars, dentals and approximants, with the exception that the dentals should undergo a process of fortition and become plosive (So, for example, /ð/ will become /d/). The following table visualizes this rule:

Category	Contents
A	All palatals, velars, /f/, /x/, /ʒ/
B	All uvulars (standard dialect: /ʁ/; other accents may include /q/ and /ɢ/), labials, dental plosives, /ʔ/ and all labials
C	All nasals, sibilants, (post-)alveolars, dentals (undergoing fortition to become plosives, e.g., /ð/ to /d/), approximants, bilabials, /v/, /l/ and /p/

Nouns

There are 10 cases (12 if dialectal ones are included) in Flewtish, formed usually with the use of an affix (For example: The apple: Hetceńe, I ate the apple: Wo jepgo hetceńen), with the exception of the nominative case which doesn't need any inflection directly. The exact suffixes can be found below, in the "Cases" section.

Similarly, possession is shown with a suffix.

Possession Suffixes in Flewtish

Suffix	Rough English Translation	Example
-mno	Mine	hetsjeńemno
-ði	Your	hetsjeńedi*
-muk	His/Hers/Its	hetceńemuk
ne-, -mno	Our	nehetsjeńemno
ne-, -sji	Your (plural)	nehetsjeńesji
ne- -ktu	Their	nehetsjeńektu

* See section Consonant harmony

Flewtish doesn't have articles, but uses the -e suffix as a replacement for the definite article, and sal for the indefinite article.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Flewtish have three degrees (Positive: crasnī, Comparative: cakrasnī and Superlative: crasnītta), which correspond roughly to the English and German suffixes -er and -est. They lack a plural number and they are always used in their singular form.

Word order

Flewtish is strictly an SVO language, except in answers, where the SOV form is used instead. Like most European languages, it uses word intonation to show emphasis.

Pronouns

Flewtish contains the usual three pronouns, with a distinction on the third person pronouns for animate and inanimate objects. Flewtish does not use standalone pronouns often, resorting instead to suffixes on the root verb.

Pronouns in Flewtish

English	Flewtish
I	Ғен
You	Ðи
(He or she)/it	У/Шов
We	Неғен
You (pl.)	Неши
They	Увок(ы)

Cases

Flewtish has 10 cases, most of which correspond to English prepositions. Depending on the dialect, the number or the actual inflection of the cases may vary significantly (The easternmost dialects spoken in Finland for example preserved the ancient attributive case whereas all other dialects eventually lost it).

Cases in Flewtish

Case	Affix	Example	English Approximation	Notes
Nominative	(None)		House	-
Genitive	-den	Dõmmaden	Of the house	-
Accusative	-n	Dõmman	The house	The accusative is formed when an action is done upon the object.
Vocative	-e	(Ē) Dõmmae	(Hey) house!	Dialectal only, conflicts with suffix -e (Similar to English 'the')
Adessive	-je	Dõmmaje	At the house	Dialectal only, usually fused with the inessive
Inessive	-seg	Dõmmaseg	In the house	Also exists as e-root-sek
Ablative	-sje	Dõmmasje	From the house	-
Essive	-l	Ēne Dõmmal	As a house	Rare, now usually the Russian borrowing 'как' is used.
Translative	-se	Dõmmase	(Transformed) into a house
Instrumental	-om	Dõmmaom	With a house	If it conflicts with the accusative, then it becomes -on
Causal-Final	-d	Dommad	For the house	-
Comitative	k-, -to	Kodommato	With (the company of) the house	Often fused with the instrumental.

Basic Vocabulary

Numbers

Numbers from 0-10 in Flewtish

Number	English	Flewtish
0	Zero	Нўл
1	One	Sál/Сал
2	Two	Āwy/А̄ѡы
3	Three	Děgn/Денг
4	Four	Sãx/Саж
5	Five	Ðōgn/Ðōнг
6	Six	Káwo/Каѡо
7	Seven	Evé/Еве
8	Eight	Xü/Жў
9	Nine	Nãkk/На̄кк
10	Ten	Cásjt/Кашт

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Flewtish (Latin): Ikeyü emūkeü uvokü citewük nesvabodū vem ānnu edostonsvansek vem nejuse. Uvokü bülek snatćenom vem eḿo, vem uvokü velka ciwukütta esalseksald sal sakkŕam ḱongopden.

Flewtish (Cyrillic): Икеғы емӯкеы увокы китеѡык несвабодӯ вем а̄нну едостонсвансек вем нейусе. Увокы былек сначьеном вем емьо, вем увокы велка киѡукытта есалсексалд сал сакрьам кьонгопден.

IPA: [íkeɣy èmuːkey úvoky kitewyk nèsvaboduː vém ânu edóstonsvansek vém néjuse || úvoky býlek snat͡ʃenom vém emʷo | vém úvoky vélka kìwukyta esálseksald sál ˈsakrʷam kʷongopden]