Ilda

Ilda
ildaska vloskās
Pronunciation	[ildasˌkʰa vl̪osˈkʰaːs]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2023
Setting	Radael
Native to	Ilda, Maranösia
Ethnicity	Ilda-Maranösic peoples
Extinct	~200 UH
Revival	405 BH-412 BH
Language family	Yeldhic Ilda-Maranösic Ildaïc Ilda
Early forms	Proto-Yeldhic Proto-Ilda-Maranösic Proto-Ildaïc
Official status
Regulated by	Zeror Academy

Ilda(ildaska vloskās, Ilda: [ildasˌkʰa vl̪osˈkʰaːs]) is the equivalent of Ancient Greek in my con-world of Radael.

Most of our knowledge of Ilda comes from surviving literature that was not destroyed by the Moshurian Pillage of Ilda, such as Zeror of Ilda's Ildaska Mondenikās, which has been invaluable in the reconstruction of the Ildan language, as well as its long-spanning history.

It is part of the Yeldhic superfamily of languages, and most likely developed from Proto-Yeldhic, despite Ilda being located in the Paleoyeldhic strip.

Origin

Much of the Ildan language we know of today was taken from Zeror of Ilda's Ildaska Mondenikās, who wrote the historical compendium in both Moshurian and Ilda, allowing linguists and researchers to decrypt what was written. Additionally, many medical terms in Moshurian originate in Ilda, such as zudözaba from Ildan sudusapās, meaning "tibia". However, not all vocabulary could be retrieved from the Ildaska Mondenikās and other texts alone- so many words are comparatively reconstructed. These reconstructed words are usually taken from other languages such as Moshurian, and are labeled with an *(asterisk) at the beginning of a word.

The language was prominently used within the many empires and city-states that sprung up from Ilda and Maranösia, until Ilda underwent a general Decline and eventually became extinct around 200 UH, by that time little more than a language used ceremonially, and even this was becoming less and less common.

The Ildan language and its syntax, morphology and phonology were still preserved however, by a secret society known as Ildasia who exclusively spoke Ilda, which Zeror of Ilda was part of, having learnt the language from either a friend or his mother.

However, when the Moshurians invaded and pillaged Ilda, the majority of the members of Ildasia were suspected as potential rebels against the Moshurian regime, and were thus given the choice of being imprisoned or going into exile. Almost all of Ildasia's documentation, including the original copy of the Ildaska Mondenikās was burned. Zeror, with his knowledge of Moshurian, was able to avoid persecution, and ended up settling in Taráhus, where he secretly rewrote the Ildaska Mondenikās in both Ilda and Moshurian.

Phonology

Orthography

Romanisation

The Ilda romanisation is mostly directly phonetic, although some digraphs, like ⟨sw⟩ and ⟨zw⟩ are pronounced [ʃ] and [ʒ] respectively. Additionally, the symbol ⟨γ⟩ is pronounced [ɣ], and the digraphs ⟨pt⟩ and ⟨bd⟩ are pronounced [tt] and [dd].

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Palatal	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d		k g		q	ʔ
Nasal	m	ɱ		n		ŋ	ɲ
Fricative		f v	θ	s z	ʃ ʒ	ɣ	ç		h
Lateral Approximant			l̪	l			ʎ

Prosody

Stress

In Ilda, stress falls oxytonically, or on the last syllable. However, if a word contains the graph ⟨ā⟩, stress falls on the syllable that contains the ⟨ā⟩.

Morphology

Nouns

Almost all nouns in Ilda end in the suffix -as or -ās. This feature comes from Proto-Yeldhic, which used the suffix *-ḗs to denote nouns in the genitive case, although some linguists believe that the genitive suffix was *-sḡa, and that instead the Ilda suffix was derived from the Proto-Yeldhic accusative suffix, *-Vḵs.

Cases

		Case
		Genitive	Accusative	Dative
Example
	dinuγ	dinuγāska	dinuγāswa	iswodinuγ
	initās	initāska	initāswa	iswinitās

Ilda has three noun cases- the genitive case, the accusative case and the dative case.

Genitive case

The genitive case is denoted with the suffix -aska/āska, save for the word tāsnaq(meaning "horse"), where instead the prefix o- is used. The suffix most likely comes from the Proto-Yeldhic inset *-asẘa-. The prefix o- most likely comes from Proto-Ildaïc, where the prefix *ṓ- was used to denote possession of an object.

Example: Us otāsnaq uswas(The height of the horse)

Accusative case

The accusative case is indicated with the suffix -aswa or -āswa. It originates in the Proto-Yeldhic suffix *-aʕʷḗ, which represented a direct object pronoun.

Example: Kunās irodin us dinuγāswa.(She greeted the dog)

Dative case

The dative case is indicated with the prefix isw-, with the prefix iswo- being used if the root word starts with a consonant. It originates in the Proto-Yeldhic prefix *ʕʷjo-.

Example: Okimet iptim us iswodinuγ.(Okimet gives to the dog)