Rikane

Rikane
Rikano
Pronunciation	[ɹikanɒ]
Created by	Aenil2
Date	2025
Ethnicity	Rikivan
Native speakers	20,000 (2018)

Rikane (ethnonym: Rikano /ɹikanɒ/) is a member of the Parno-Rikane language family, primarily spoken in the Parnian subcontinent, which corresponds to the region around present-day Mongolia. The Rikivan people migrated from differents parts of the world, mainly from Parvikia (Levant) and and Sirka (Wu region of China), and regrouped themselves in Parnia, which lead to the development of Rikane, at the expense of the other languages that were brought by people who came from outside of the Parnian subcontinent. Because of this, we could technically say that Rikane is a lingua franca in the Parnian subcontinent

Phonology

Because of the high numbers of indigenous languages in Parnia, the phonology of Rikune is really simple, with very few sounds and allophony

Vowels

Rikune has between 3 and 4 vowels, depending on the dialect :

Vowel chart of Rikune

	Front	Back
Close	i	o~ɒ, (ʌ)
Open	a

/ʌ/ is debated, as most speakers do not consider it part of their phonemic inventory. Only a few dialects acknowledge its presence (such as Standard East Rikane), and even in those, it is not frequently used in basic vocabulary.

Consonants

Rikane has a quite simple consonant chart, composed of 13 consonants, with very few allophony rules, listed under the table

	Labials	Coronals	Dorsals	Glottals
Nasals	m	n
Plosives	p	t	k	ʔ
Fricatives	f~ɸ	s		h
Others	w	l, r	j

Allophony :

• /t/ becomes /tʃ/ before /i/
• /w/ becomes :
  • /ɰ/ before back vowels
  • /w̃/ before/after a nasal
  • /ɰ̃/ before back vowels and after a nasal

Stress

Like present-day Swedish, Rikane has a system of pitch accent, to mark different words. This pitch can change depending on the form of the word.

Compare "aroni" /a.rɒ̂.ni/ - spider and "aroni" /a.rɒ̌.ni/ - skull

Phonotactics

The basic syllable shape of Rikane is (C)V(H), where H denotes nasals, semivowels and /ɹ/

Morphology

Just like the phonology, the morphology is quite simple and minimal, but it has his few weird quirks

Nouns

Gender

Nouns in Rikane can belong to one of 3 genders:

• Spatial
• Astral
• Terral

The gender of a noun modifies almost all of the marking of the sentence, as every word (except prepositions and adverbs) should be marked for gender (except in very informal speech, where those gender markings are often omitted)

The rules to determine the gender of a noun are really simple :

• The noun is an astral noun if its radical ends in a vowel or a semivowel
• The noun is a terral noun if its radical ends in a plosive or the trill
• The noun is a spatial noun if its radical ends in a nasal or a fricative

Cases

Rikane has a really small amount of cases, and thus a quite large amount of case syncretism :

Direct

The direct case acts like a nominative, except it can act as an accusative if the verb is in the passive voice

Indirect

The indirect case is the complete opposite of the direct case : it acts like an accusative, except when the verb is in the passive voice

Oblique

The oblique case marks every noun which isn't in the Direct nor in the Indirect

Genitive

The genitive case is used to indicate the possessor of an object. It can be completed by a particle, to show if the possession is either alienable or inalienable

Numbers

Rikane doesn't really have numbers, they are just denoted using numerals