Balak language

Balak
Balâkzem Balākzem
Pronunciation	[bɑˈlæ:ksɛm]
Region	Vaniua, Puzimm, Lahan
Ethnicity	Balak-speaking peoples
Native speakers	over 175 million (L1)  (2016)
Language family	Vaniuan Eastern Vaniuan Kashisan Balak
Early forms:	Proto-Vaniuan Proto-Eastern-Vaniuan Proto-Kashisan Old Kothlenic Middle Jazaghan Balak
Writing system	Vucheshian
Official status
Official language in	Balakia Gushlia Kunjut Hodek Sonka Ebo Nganagam Tuyo
Regulated by	Institute of Balak Language and Linguistics at the University of Qerşeven (Balakia)
CWS code	JZG
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 (Balākzem; Balâkzem, [bɑˈlæ:ksɛm]), alternatively known as Jazaghan (Ḑazağan; Jazağan, [d͡ʒɑzɑˈʁɑn]) is a Kashisan language within the Eastern Vaniuan branch of the Vaniuan language family. Balak is a pluricentric language, with multiple standard varieties used in different countries where the language is official, although the most widespread standard form is the Qersheven Standard. Balak is written in the Balak alphabet, a modified variant of the Vucheshian alphabet.

The Balak language is considered a continuation of the Middle Jazaghan language, which was used as a trade language during the later years of the Great Horde. Throughout its history the language has been considerably influenced by the Khamaian language, the ancestor of which also served as a substrate for Proto-Kashisan, as well as the Koman language.

There are over 175 million native Balak speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Balakia, Gushlia, Kunjut, Hodek, Sonka, Ebo Nganagam, and Tuyo, and regional or minority status in Komania.

Geographic Distribution

Miraria

Central Miraria

Balak is a national language of Hodek, where it is spoken by X million people.

Baredina

Puzimm

Balak is an official language in Sonka and Ebo Nganagam, and is the primary lingua franca of the region of Kahamogo within the latter.

Ystel

Balak is spoken by a minority community in Jute, concentrated primarily in the city of Numudu.

Name

Standard Balak is known natively as Balâkzem, pronounced [bɑˈlæ:ksɛm].

Classification

Modern Standard Balak is a Kashisan language descended from the Eastern Vaniuan branch of the Vaniuan languages. The Kashisan languages can further be subdivided into Kaatian and the Kothlenic languages, the latter of which includes Standard Balak and the other Jazaghan varieties, Rasha, and the Covayan creole.

The Kashisan languages in eastern Vaniua

Standard Balak is based on Central Balak dialects (no. 10 on the map), which are X.

Dialects

The Balak dialects are the traditional local varieties of the language; many of them are not mutually intelligible with standard Balak, and exhibit great differences in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. Many of these dialects are in fact considered to be separate languages in some sources.

The Balak dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into Kothlenic Balak and Huklenic Balak, less frequently labelled as Cistarkhan Balak and Transtarkhan Balak respectively.

Official status

Balak is an official language in Balakia, Gushlia, Kunjut, Hodek, Sonka, Ebo Nganagam, and Tuyo.

Phonology

Consonants

Balak consonant phonemes

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d		k ɡ
Fricative	(f) v	s sʷ z zʷ	ʃ		h
Affricate		t͡s t͡sʷ	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Approximant		l	j	ɰ
Rhotic		r

Notes:

• /f/ is only used in loanwords, though some speakers may substitute /f/ with /v/.
• /sʷ, zʷ, t͡sʷ/ have a number of possible realisations and, in certain dialects, mergers:
  • Whistled sibilants [sᶲ, zᵝ, t͡sᶲ]
    • Distribution: Common in central and eastern Balakia, as well as other conservative varieties and the standard language. It is by far the most common realisation.
  • Consonant clusters [sv, zv, t͡sv]
    • Distribution: Occurs in transitional dialects spoken in Gushlia and close to the Balak-Gushli border.
  • Merger with plain sibilants [s, z, t͡s]
    • Distribution: Present in varieties spoken in southern Balakia and along parts of the east coast. Also occurs in some areas of western Balakia and eastern Gushlia.
  • Merger with post-alveolar sibilants [ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ]
    • Distribution: Reported to occur in the idiolects of some younger speakers, particularly in urban regions such as Qersheven.
  • Merger with labiodental fricatives [f, v, p̪͡f~f]
    • Distribution: Present in northwestern varieties, including Torosh Balak.

Vowels

Balak has a system of 10 phonemic vowels, typically analysed as featuring a distinction between 5 short vowels and 5 long vowels. Vowel length is not always considered a distinctive feature in Balak phonology, because it normally co-occurs with changes in vowel quality. One feature or the other may be considered redundant, and some phonemic analyses prefer to treat it as an opposition of tenseness. However, even if not considered part of the phonemic opposition, the long/tense vowels are still realised as phonetically longer than their short counterparts. The changes in vowel quality are also not always the same in all dialects, and in some there may be little difference at all, with length remaining the primary distinguishing feature as in other standard varieties of Jazaghan.

Short/lax vowels Front Back Close ɪ ʊ Mid ɛ ɔ Open ɑ

Long/tense vowels Front Back Close iː uː Mid eː oː Open aː

Notes:

• Long vowels may be pronounced as short or half-long vowels when unstressed, but typically retain their quality.

Phonotactics

The basic formula for a Balak syllable is (C)(v)V(F); C denotes any consonant, V denotes any vowel, and F denotes any consonant except for /sʷ, zʷ, t͡sʷ/. /v/ can occur as a medial consonant between the rest of the syllable onset and the syllable nucleus, but only after the consonants /t, d, k, g/.

Prosody

Stress is moderately variable in Balak, and most words regularly follow a set of rules for stress placement:

• If a word contains at least one syllable which either:
  • contains a long vowel
  • ends with v or y as a coda
  • begins with sv, zv, or cv
  • features a medial v

then the last occurrence of such a syllable receives primary stress.

• If no such syllables are present in the word, the final syllable receives primary stress.

Secondary stress is placed on every second syllable away from the syllable with primary stress in either direction.

Orthography

Balak is written using the Balak alphabet, which is a modified variant of the Vaniuan script that uses different pronunciation and additional letters not found in other Vaniuan languages.

Additions

The Balak alphabet adds 7 letters to the Vaniuan script, as well as 3 digraphs which are categorised as distinct letters:

Sound	Uppercase	Lowercase	Romanisation	Name
/d͡ʒ/	Ḑ	ḑ	j	yuh de
/t͡ʃ/	Ç	ç	ç	yuh ce
/æ:/	Ā	ā	â	bêh a
/i:/	Ī	ī	î	bêh i
/e:/	Ē	ē	ê	bêh e
/o:/	Ō	ō	ô	bêh o
/u:/	Ū	ū	û	bêh u
/sʷ/	SV ~ Sv	sv	sv	se ve
/zʷ/	ZV ~ Zv	zv	zv	ze ve
/t͡sʷ/	JV ~ Jv	jv	cv	ce ve

Modifications

There are 2 letters in Balak whose pronunciations diverge from their typical readings in Vaniuan languages:

Sound	Uppercase	Lowercase	Romanisation	Name
/t͡s/	J	j	c	ce
/h/	Q	q	q	qaman qe

Historical characters

There are 4 obsolete characters previously used to write older forms of Balak, but are now only used in certain loanwords and place names in the standard language:

Sound	Uppercase	Lowercase	Romanisation	Name
/s/, /z/	Þ	þ	þ	(jaza) þe
/j/	Ñ	ñ	ny	(jaza) nye
/n/, /g/	Ŋ	ŋ	ng	(jaza) nge
/ɛ/	Æ	æ	á	á

Overview table

Letter	Name	IPA	Transliteration	Notes
L l	le le	/l/	l
B b	be be	/b/	b
P p	pe pe	/p/	p
V V	ve ve	/v/	v
F f	fe fe	/f/	f
S s	se se	/s/	s
SV sv	se ve se ve	/sʷ/	sv
Z z	ze ze	/z/	s
ZV zv	ze ve ze ve	/zʷ/	zv
D d	de de	/d/	d
Ḑ ḑ	yuh de yuh de	/d͡ʒ/	j
T t	te te	/t/	t
R r	re re	/r/	r
K k	ke ke	/k/	k
G g	ge ge	/g/	g
M m	me me	/m/	m
J j	je ce	/t͡s/	c
JV jv	je ve ce ve	/t͡sʷ/	cv
Ç ç	yuh ce yuh ce	/t͡ʃ/	ç
C c	ce şe	/ʃ/	ş
Þ þ	(ḑaza) þe (jaza) þe	/s/, /z/	(þ)	Obsolete, historical /θ/; Still used in grammars to denote certain qumta stems
Q q	qaman qe qaman qe	/h/	q	Pronounced as /χ/ in learned speech
Ğ ğ	ğe ğe	/ʁ/	ğ
N n	ne ne	/n/	n
Ñ ñ	(ḑaza) ñe (jaza) nye	/j/	(ny)	Obsolete, historical /ɲ/
Ŋ ŋ	(ḑaza) ŋe (jaza) nge	/n/, /g/	(ng)	Obsolete, historical /ŋ/
Y y	ye ye	/j/	y
X x	xe xe	/h/	x	Only used to transcribe Daikhra loanwords
H h	he he	/h/	h
Æ æ	(ḑaza) æ (jaza) á	/ɛ/	(á)	Obsolete
A a	a a	/ɑ/	a
Ā ā	bēh a bêh a	/æ:/	â
I i	i i	/ɪ/	i
Ī ī	bēh i bêh i	/i:/	î
E e	e e	/ɛ/	e
Ē ē	bēh e bêh e	/e:/	ê
O o	o o	/ɔ/	o
Ō ō	bēh o bêh o	/o:/	ô
U u	u u	/ʊ/	u
Ū ū	bēh u bêh u	/u:/	û

Grammar

Morphology

Balak 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.

Nouns

Nouns are split into two classes - animate and inanimate - X.