Farmoshi language

Farmoshi
Doñ Pharmuś doņ pqarmyš
Region	Milevia (Parshita)
Ethnicity	Kesrash, X
Language family	Milevic Southern Milevic Socelic Farmoshi
Early forms:	Proto-Milevic Proto-Southern-Milevic Imperial Milevian Farmoshi
Writing system	Terminian alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Farmosh
CWS code	FMS

Farmoshi (Farmoshi: doņ pqarmyš, tr. Doñ Pharmuś), also known as Kesrashi, is the national and official language of Farmosh and the first language of a slight majority of its citizens. It is a member of the Southern group of the Milevic language family, itself thought to be part of a larger Shaelic macrofamily. It is an agglutinating language and makes liberal use of compounding to form new words.

The language serves as an important lingua franca within the country.

The Farmoshi language is classified as a descendant of Imperial Milevian, the administrative and religious language of the Milevian Empire. Whilst preserving many grammatical elements, its phonology has undergone major changes, one of its most prominent characteristics being the shifting of glottal fricatives into velar nasals.

Name

The language is known as Doñ Pharmuś "language of the many" in official contexts and state media. The language was given this name to contrast with Terminian, which was dubbed Doñ Yẹwuś "language of the few" by Balkists prior to the Referendums on Milevian Sovereignty 1876. In informal contexts the language is commonly referred to as Pharmuśdoñ or Mileddoñ, and even by its former name Kesraśdoñ "Kesrashi language."

Varieties and related languages

Dialects

• Central, centred around the city of Phamphar and the basis of the standard language

Related languages

• Sucaili, spoken in X.
• some other languages i still need names for

History

Standardisation

Farmoshi (then still Kesrashi) was first standardised in the early 1800s(?) by the Terminian Institute for the Languages of the East. X.

X.

Phonology

Consonants

Farmoshi distinguishes three voice-onset times among plosive and affricate consonants:

• voiced
• tenuis (unvoiced, unaspirated)
• aspirated

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ñ⟩	ŋ ⟨ṅ⟩
Plosive	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩		g* ⟨g⟩
	tenuis	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	tɕ ⟨c⟩	k ⟨k⟩
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨ph⟩	tʰ ⟨th⟩	tɕʰ ⟨ch⟩	kʰ ⟨kh⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ɕ ⟨ś⟩		h ⟨h⟩
Approximant		w ⟨w⟩	l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩
Trill			r ⟨r⟩

^* /g/ is only found in certain positions and loan words.

Vowels

The vowel nuclei of the Farmoshi language are given in the following table.

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i ⟨i⟩	i: ⟨ī⟩	ʉ ⟨u⟩	ʉ: ⟨ū⟩	u ⟨ụ⟩	u: ⟨ụ̄⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨e⟩	e: ⟨ē⟩			o ⟨o⟩	o: ⟨ō⟩
Mid			ə ⟨a⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨ẹ⟩	ɛ: ⟨ẹ̄⟩
Open				aː ⟨ā⟩

The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Farmoshi.

Grammar

Nouns

Animacy

Farmoshi has three noun classes based on animacy, which are assigned semantically based on these categories:

• Animate - people, animals, deities, heart/soul/mind
• Semi-animate - dead organisms (excluding 'corpse'), most body parts/organs, plants, groups/collectives of animate nouns, ethnicities, countries, certain processes + verbal nouns, emotions
• Inanimate - miscellaneous (includes objects not classifiable under the other two categories)

Adjectives and adverbs

There is no morphological distinction between adverbs and adjectives. Many words can be used with either function. They precede the word they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or X.

Verbs

Copulae

Farmoshi makes use of four affixal copulae, which are suffixed to the predicate if it is an adjective or a noun phrase. The copula used depends on whether the sentence is positive ("to be") or negative ("not to be"), and whether the subject is an animate or inanimate noun (semi-animate nouns use the animate copulae). These copulae are not used when the complement is a prepositional phrase, and cannot exist as independent words; other verbs (such as dẹcen "to lie (positional)) are used instead.

	Animate	Inanimate
Positive	-rer -rer	-rí -rī
Negative	-ņar -ñar	-ņi -ñī

• bú won wonírí (bụ̄ won wonīrī) The ship is very big.
• ŋotlaŋ walš ŋatpqarrer (ṅotlaṅ walś ṅatpharrer) They are my friends.
• pqarm jadņar (pharm yadñar) Many [people] are not happy.
• ŋek nalíņí (ṅek nalīñī) The hill[s] is/are not tall.
• *pqarmyšar cisilyš ŋar rer (pharmuśar cisiluś ṅar rer) → pqarmyšar cisilyš ŋar dæcen (pharmuśar cisiluś ṅar dẹcen) Farmosh lies next to Czisilia.

Additional verbal affixes can be added after adding the copula suffix, such as tense suffixes.

• bú won wonírími (bụ̄ won wonīrīmi) The ship was very big. (past)
• ŋotlaŋ walš ŋatpqarreron (ṅotlaṅ walś ṅatpharreron) May they be my friends. (subjunctive/optative)
• pqarm jadņarmi (pharm yadñarmi) Many [people] were not happy. (past)
• ŋek nalíņími (ṅek nalīñīmi) The hill[s] was/were not tall. (past)

Syntax

The basic word order, both in conversation and the written language, is subject-object-verb in both transitive clauses and intransitive clauses.

Alignment

The language shows a form of split-ergative system shared by most other languages in the Milevic family; the system is occasionally dubbed Milevic alignment. Animate nouns follow a nominative-accusative pattern, while inanimate nouns follow an ergative-absolutive pattern. Semi-animate nouns behave similarly to animate nouns, except that they are not marked for the accusative case, while the nominative case is marked with the ergative suffix -ar.

Orthography

Farmoshi is written using one of two scripts depending on the context, those being the Terminian alphabet and the traditional Decwabmẹ ("correct writing") script.

Terminian alphabet

The Terminian script has been used by Milevic groups in Farmosh since the Xth Century, and had become a widespread vernacular script by the Xth Century, displacing Decwabmẹ.

In X, shortly after the Balkist regime took power in Farmosh, attempts were made to phase out the Terminian alphabet as it was seen as a symbol of imperialism and foreign influence. To that end official state media exclusively used Decwabmẹ, which was also required to be taught in education. The general population continued to use the Terminian script, however. During the latter half of the 20th Century the Terminian alphabet began to see renewed usage by state media, while Decwabmẹ, which had previously been widely used in state publications and media, was relegated to official and ceremonial purposes. Farmoshi language courses in other countries are commonly taught using the Terminian script.

Written Farmoshi texts in the Terminian alphabet are easily recognisable as such by distinguishing features such the use of the extended characters æ æ and ǽ ǽ, ņ ń and š ś, and the ligature ŋ ŋ, among others. In addition, y y is commonly used, while u u is much rarer, and digraphs with q h (such as pq ph) also serve to distinguish the language the language from others using the Terminian alphabet.

Decwabmẹ

The Decwabmẹ script was the historical script of the Milevian Empire, adopted in X. Although displaced by Terminian in the Xth Century, a revival of the script was proposed by Balkist scholars(?) in X and was made official by the Balkist regime in X. The teaching of the script was made mandatory, although in practise only major educational institutions abided by this law, and the Terminian alphabet was still used as the vernacular script by the common folk. The limited usage it had further decreased as the Terminian alphabet became more favoured by state media in the second half of the 20th Century. In the modern age it is primarily used in ceremonial or official contexts, and as a common script for writing clan names and signatures.

When written in Decwabmẹ, Farmoshi exhibits a wealth of historical spelling stemming from Imperial Milevian orthography.

The Farmoshi government hires workers proficient in Decwabmẹ to transliterate new laws and other related documents.

Correspondence chart

Correspondence chart of official and most widespread writing scripts (with Latin romanisation added)

Latin	Terminian	Terminian (Latinised)	Decwabmẹ	Decwabmẹ (Latinised)	IPA transcription
A a	a	a	TBD	TBD	/ə/
Ā ā	á	á	TBD	TBD	/a:/
B b	b	b	TBD	TBD	/b/
C c	c	c	TBD	TBD	/t͡ɕ/
Ch ch	cq	ch	TBD	TBD	/t͡ɕʰ/
D d	d	d	TBD	TBD	/d/
E e	e	e	TBD	TBD	/e/
Ē ē	é	é	TBD	TBD	/e:/
Ẹ ẹ	æ	æ	TBD	TBD	/ɛ/
Ẹ̄ ẹ̄	ǽ	ǽ	TBD	TBD	/ɛ:/
G g	g	g	TBD	TBD	/g/
H h	q	h	TBD	TBD	/h/
I i	i	i	TBD	TBD	/i/
Ī ī	í	í	TBD	TBD	/i:/
K k	k	k	TBD	TBD	/k/
Kh kh	kq	kh	TBD	TBD	/kʰ/
L l	l	l	TBD	TBD	/l/
M m	m	m	TBD	TBD	/m/
N n	n	n	TBD	TBD	/n/
Ñ ñ	ņ	ń	TBD	TBD	/ɲ/
Ṅ ṅ	ŋ	ŋ	TBD	TBD	/ŋ/
O o	o	o	TBD	TBD	/o/
Ō ō	ó	ó	TBD	TBD	/o:/
P p	p	p	TBD	TBD	/p/
Ph ph	pq	ph	TBD	TBD	/pʰ/
S s	s	s	TBD	TBD	/s/
Ś ś	š	ś	TBD	TBD	/ɕ/
T t	t	t	TBD	TBD	/t/
Th th	tq	th	TBD	TBD	/tʰ/
U u	y	y	TBD	TBD	/ʉ/
Ū ū	ý	ý	TBD	TBD	/ʉ:/
Ụ ụ	u	u	TBD	TBD	/u/
Ụ̄ ụ̄	ú	ú	TBD	TBD	/u:/
W w	w	w	TBD	TBD	/w/
Y y	j	j	TBD	TBD	/j/

• ^{a b c d e} q is typically Latinised as q in the context of other languages.