Balak language

Balak
Balákzem . Balaakzem .
Pronunciation	/bɑˈlak.zɛm/
Region	Vaniua
Ethnicity	Balaks
Native speakers	57 million  (2016)
Language family	Vaniuan Eastern Vaniuan Kashisan Balak
Early forms:	Proto-Vaniuan Proto-Eastern-Vaniuan Proto-Kashisan Old Balak Middle Balak Balak
Writing system	Vaniuan script
Official status
Official language in	Balakia
Regulated by	Institute of Balak Language and Linguistics at the University of Yercésven
CWS code	bks
Location of Balak speakers in Vaniua   regions where Standard Balak is the language of the majority   regions where Standard Balak is the language of a significant minority   regions where Chindushi is the language of the majority   regions where Chindushi is the language of a significant minority

Balak (. Balaakzem .; Balákzem, /bɑˈlak.zɛm/) is a Kashisan language within the Eastern Vaniuan branch of the Vaniuan language family. It is primarily spoken in Balakia, along with notable diasporas in Komania and Gushlia. Balak belongs to the Kashisan branch of the Vaniuan language family. It is written in the Balak alphabet, a modified variant of the Vaniuan alphabet. The Chindushi language is often considered to be a particularly divergent dialect of Balak, although is disputed.

The Balak language is considered a continuation of Middle Balak, X. Throughout history the language has been considerably influenced by the Khamaian language, the ancestor of which also served as a substrate for Proto-Kashisan. One resulting feature that distinguishes Standard Balak from other Vaniuan languages is the presence of whistled sibilants, a feature shared with Amaian.

There are roughly 57 million Balak speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Balakia and regional or minority status in Gushlia and Komania.

Name

The language is natively known as Balákzem, pronounced /bɑˈlak.zɛm/.

Classification

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Modern Standard Balak is heavily based on the Western dialect (specifically that of Yercésven) which is generally more conservative than other dialects, particularly with its phonology.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d		k g
Fricative	f v	s sᵝ z zᵝ	ʃ		h
Affricate		t͡s	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Approximant			j	ɰ
Flap or tap		ɾ
Lateral app.		l

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Grammar

Morphology

Balaki is a moderately agglutinative language, though it does preserve fusional affixes for nouns and verbs. Nouns are divided into two animacy classes - animate and inanimate - and are inflected slightly differently depending on the class they are on; inanimate nouns don't inflect for plural number, while animate nouns do.