Oalanii
 |
This entry contains reconstructed words and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence. |
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| Oalanii | |
|---|---|
| Seilim | |
| ∅ | |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2023 |
| Setting | Radael |
| Era | 4,000 UH-2,300 UH |
| Revival | 300 BH |
Taskaric
| |
Dialect | Several hypothesised |
Oalanii, also called Seilim[1] is a comparatively reconstructed language that was most likely spoken in what is now the Moshurian city of Oalan, hence its name. Most of our knowledge of the language is reconstructed from Siktó-Oalanii and Irhekhee-Oalanii translated tablets as well as comparatively reconstructed from contemporary languages, child languages such as Zanúzh, and parent languages like Proto-Taskaric.
The Oalanii endonym is unknown, as no surviving record written in the Oalanii logographic script mentions their own name, though we know the Siktó called them the *séékm'e, which is also most likely the root of the Endépéd word for the Oalanii, zaakyuma, although this word is now mostly used to mean Moshurian speakers who are from Oalan and/or speak the unique Oalan dialect.
History
Oalanii, and its original native speakers, the Oalanii peoples, are of Taskaric origin. However, unlike most of their other cultural cousins, they did not settle in Birnu, and instead the Oalanii derive from a group of Proto-Taskaric peoples who sailed south and then west in the Néekh Strait, also called the β-Taskaric peoples(as opposed to the α-Taskaric peoples, who settled Birnu). Some notable cultures that derive from the β-Taskaric peoples are the Néekh and of course, the Oalanii.
β-Taskaric
At some point around 9,500 UH, the β-Taskaric peoples split once more into two distinct peoples, called by Terran scholars as the γ-Taskaric and λ-Taskaric peoples.
Through several thousand years, the γ- eventually populated most of the rocky steppes of SNE(southern north-east) Talkoch, and split into dozens of little tribes that each claimed parts of different steppes. However, though they were tribally organised, they did not develop cities or even agriculture in general. They were still largely nomadic, roaming the steppes for food and shelter. Eventually though, the Proto-Oalanic peoples, specifically of the Tutaakmaki Steppe began to leave the SNE Talkoch steppes, and began to advance south into the lush, fertile plains of the Oalan River Basin. There were already Yeldhic peoples in this region, who had already began to practice proto-agriculture which they had probably learnt from the Paleoyeldhic peoples that were further south.
However, the Proto-Oalanic were battle hardened from centuries of war between the tribes, and they quickly drove out the Yeldhic peoples militarily, though importantly they also assimilated agricultural techniques from them. Thus, the Proto-Oalanic very quickly switched from a nomadic to a pastoral lifestyle, and larger settlements began to pop up in the river basin as larger populations could be sustained. Eventually, the largest, the city we now call Oalan, emerged as a megacity from the rapid agriculturalisation.
Oalan, the city
Though not the first, it was certainly one of the earliest cities of Talkoch. The opportunies of Oalan meant that many of the people living in other smaller settlements began to migrate into Oalan, leading the city to expand even further across both river banks of the Oalan river and into the basin as a whole. As the people of the basin became more and more centralised, a unified state, language and culture began to form as previously distinct dialects converged in proximity of one another to form the early Oalanii language.
The Oalan state, now ruled under one "duke" of sorts, began to quickly expand across the basin, eventually controlling even the other γ-Taskaric peoples who remained in the steppes. As valuable minerals were found and mined in said steppes, they began to fuel the ever-growing consumer population of the city. As the city expanded, so did its culture: writing, trade, currency, maths, recorded history and philosophy were probably all produced in the city by its greatest minds. Thus, the possible morphology of the Oalanii language was massive: far greater than even the Ilda language, who's culture also reached similar levels of prosperity as the Oalanii.
The end of Oalan
Nobody is entirely sure of how this evidently expansive civilisation inevitably collapsed. We know that at the very least the language lasted till at least 2,300 UH, as no writings survive past that date. Although the exact way it actually fell in the first place is heavily debated, there is a general consensus that it was most likely a slow decline till collapse. The collapse was most likely caused by either too much resource extraction and agriculture to sustain the city, leaving the soil bare of nutrients and causing starvation, or it could be a mass emigration due to some unknown cataclysmic event. Either way, we know some Oalanii descendants advanced further south around 970-520 UH, as the Zanúzh and Bayù are direct descendants of the Oalanii language, but that is all that is entirely sure.
We also know how the modern, Moshurian city of Oalan came to be: the region was conquered by Moshuria in 281 BH, and the site, which was coincidentally on the same spot as the original city, was chosen by Moshurian settlers due to its prime location for fishing and farming, which most historians suspect was the same reason that the original Oalanii settled the area.
The etymology of "Oalan" is unknown, though we know it is a Moshurian word, and that it is most likely not derived from the name of the city given to it by the original Oalanii. The most popular theory is that it comes from Middle Moshurian ukhalan, meaning "beaver heaven", as early explorers noted the unusually high amount of beavers in the region. The change from ukhalan to Oalan most likely comes from the Oalan patois, where glottal/velar fricatives that are surrounded by vowels are not pronounced, and initial /u/ often turns into /o/. As censuses were updated, the city names eventually began to appear similarly to their local pronunciation[2].
Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pulmonic | *p *b | *t *d | *k *g | *ʔ | |
| labialised | *pʷ *bʷ | *kʷ *gʷ | *ʔʷ | |||
| Fricative | *f *v | *s *z | *h *j | *x | ||
| Nasal | *m | *n | *ŋ | |||
| Approximant | *w | *l | *y | *ẅ | ||
Vowels
Prosody
Stress
Stress in Oalanii is oxytonic(or placed on the last syllable).
Intonation
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Syntax
Constituent order
Cases
We know that Oalanii had at least four grammatical cases, and from Proto-Taskaric, we can deduce that these cases were probably the nominative, accusative, dative and/or ablative. The existence of the ablative case is controversial, as the case does not appear in Oalanii's child language of Zanúzh, although proponents of the existence of the Oalanii ablative case have pointed out that though modern Zanúzh does not have an ablative case, it does have an ablative preposition, ûk, which would have most likely served as an ablative prefix in more ancient registers of the language.
Another source of controversy over Oalanii grammatical cases is whether the cases were indicated by prefixes or suffixes. Proponents of the prefix theory point to the fact that early forms of Zanúzh as well as modern-day registers of Bayù(another direct descendant of Oalanii) use prefixes to denote grammatical case. However, proponents of the alternative theory state that among other Taskaric languages, suffixes seem to be the dominant pattern among grammatical case indicators, and that modern Oalanic languages usage of prefixes bear similar characteristics with neighbouring non-Taskaric languages that would have not existed during the era of the Oalanii language, implying that the prefix feature was borrowed from other languages instead of originally derived from Oalanii.
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | (Ablative)[3] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone | *ə-/*∅[4] | *tə- | *sə- | *taw(ə)- | |
| Examples | *kúlú(m) | *əkúlú(m)/*kúlú(m) | *təkúlú(m) | *səkúlú(m) | *taw(ə)kúlú(m) |
| *ógóx | *ə(j)ógóx/ógóx | *tə(j)ógóx | *sə(j)ógóx | *taw(əj)ógóx | |
| Meaning | wheat | wheat | (transitive verb) wheat | to the wheat | (away from the wheat) |
| river | river | (transitive verb) river | to the river | (away from the river) | |
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | (Ablative) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone | *-o | *-lə | *-nu | *-uw | |
| Examples | *kúlú(m) | *kúlú(m)o | *kúlú(m)lə | *kúlú(m)nu | *kúlú(m)uw |
| *ógóx | *ógóxo | *ógóxlə | *ógóxnu | *ógóxuw | |
| Meaning | wheat | wheat | (transitive verb) wheat | to the wheat | (away from the wheat) |
| river | river | (transitive verb) river | to the river | (away from the river) | |
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Dialects
Example texts
Other resources
- ^ From Siktó word *séékm'e, which most likely referred to the Oalanii or related peoples.
- ^ Although some emperors such as Son Echuin tried to impose a unified standard dialect of the language, and thus insisted that cities like Oalan be referred to by their original names, like Ukhalan or in the case of Sépenzg, Sipénaşg.
- ^ As aforementioned, prefix theory supporters also argue on the existence of the Oalanii ablative case.
- ^ It is debated among prefix theory supporters on whether there was a nominative indicative prefix.