Ketmen language

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Ketmen
RegionSoltenna
EthnicityKetmen
Native speakersX  (no date)
Language family
Ketmen
  • Proto Ketmen
    • Old Ketmen
      • Ketmen
Writing systemYachiroese script, X script (theorized)
CWS code

Ketmen is a pre-ngerupic minority language spoken in the People’s Republic of Yachiro. It is a linguistic isolate theorized to have once been part of a larger family of pre-ngerupic languages in Soltenna. Since the arrival of the Mañic peoples in Yachiro, Ketmen has been on the decline. The Ketmen people once inhabited the entirety of mainland Yachiro, but a history of suppression and colonization by the Yachiroese has severely decreased the number of Ketmen speakers. today the language is spoken mostly in small isolated communities on the small southwestern Ketmen islands.

Speakers

Recognition

Phonology

Typology and grammar

Writing

Today, Ketmen is written with a modified version of the Yachiroese script. X

X script

The X script is a name given to several pre-Mañic inscriptions theorized to have been written in an older stage of Ketmen or a related language. The script remains undeciphered due to lack of evidence of older stages of Ketmen.

Recent history and revitalization efforts

Theorized external relationships

Ketmen is traditionally classified as a language isolate, however several attempts have been made by linguists to connect it to other language families. These attempts include the Ruic languages, the Qgam language, as well as the Xuni substrate language. Only the Xuni substrate hypothesis has any substantial evidence, as linguist X was able to find several potentially related words. However it still remains unclear as to whether this is evidence of actual relation, prehistoric contact, or simply loans from Mañi.