User:Jordan D/Sandbox/Inivuk
| Inivuk | |
|---|---|
| Vukinineq | |
| Pronunciation | [/ˈvʌkɪˈnɪnɛk/] |
| Created by | Jordan DeHart |
| Date | 2013 |
| Setting | Amenia |
| Native to | Yuushaki, Suuthaki |
| Ethnicity | Aqineq |
| Native speakers | 30,000~ (70 P.D.) |
Nunvuk
| |
Dialects |
|
| Sources | Eskimo-Aleut languages, Quechua languages |
Inivuk, also known as Vukinineq by some speakers, is a language spoken on the fictional island of Inineq and is considered the primary language of the island. The language was spoken throughout the Suuthaki (Kingdom of Light) and the Yuushaki (Kingdom of the Auroras). As of 70 P.D. (Post-Disaster), the language has around 30,000 L1 speakers, and about 50,000 speakers in total.
History
Internal history
Inivuk is typically thought to be derived from Nunvuk, or Akilivuk (Speech of Akilu), the supposed language spoken by Akanu, the mythological first chief of the original tribe and discoverer of Inivuk. It's believed the language was once spoken on the possibly mythological Akilineq island north of Inineq. Some scholars believed that Akilu was not the sole chieftain of this era and other chiefs may have spread out to other, yet undiscovered islands, hinting on the possibility that the Nunvuk language tree extends further than believed.
External history
The language that would eventually be molded in Inivuk was originally called Dalma which was a language inspired by the Hellenic languages of Greece. Within a few years, Dalma eventually turned into Darmish and was a more Germanic language. The languages' next evolution was a drastic change that was a mix of Polynesian and Eskimo-Aleut languages. Some of the oddities left in the language due to its origins as an IE-based language is explained through the fictional cultures interactions with the Varna peoples, who speak a language based off the Ind-Aryan branch of IE.
Name
Inivuk is made up of the words Inuk and Vuk . Inuk, often morphed to /ini/ when used as a prefix, typically means "man" or "people" in the various Nunvuk languages while "Vuk" tends to mean "tongue" or "speech". In addition, the name can be translated to Tongue of Inineq, as the /ini/ also refers to Inineq in some regional dialects, since Inineq can translate to The country of man. In Yuushaki dictonaries circa 70 P.D., the name is often translated to Language of Inineq.