Qayraban

Qayraban
Region	International: most parts of the Kothlenosphere
Language family	Constructed language Military auxiliary language A posteriori language Qayraban
CWS code	–

Qayraban is a moderately successful constructed language originating in eastern Vaniua. Created by a team of linguists at the University of Qersheven - headed by professor Başanon Fertezeh - it was intended for use as an auxiliary language within the Imperial Balak Army, both as a more ethnically neutral language to bridge language barriers between unrelated peoples employed in the army and as a means of confounding foreign powers. To this end, members of all ranks within the Imperial Balak Army were educated in Qayraban, as were intelligence agencies. Fertezeh was posthumously awarded the honorific Başemuy in 2003 for his work on Qayraban.

As a constructed language, Qayraban is to an extent "naturalistic", with syntactic and morphological features derived primarily from existing natural languages. However, while root words follow this trend to a large extent, its vocabulary as a whole and extensive derivational processes have been labelled as "oligosynthetic", a quality not known of any natural language.

Qayraban holds a celebrated place in Balak collective consciousness as an integral part of Balak heritage; some circles give it equal status to Balak itself in this regard. The discontinuation of its use in the Shomosvani military, and subsequent declassification of its documentation in 1959, heralded a boom in Qayraban-language literature, as (ex-)military personnel sought to both preserve the language and more covertly express disdain for the Kuulist regime. Both this and the language's former prolific use among armed forces have made Qayraban a source of numerous loanwords, both in Balak itself and in indigenous languages across the former Balak Empire.

Classification

no.

History

The idea of a bespoke language for military use can trace its roots to non-verbal means of communication used by armies under the Great Horde, which used a complex system of banners and drums to set the pace, commands and directions of troops in a battlefield, as well as for intimidation before battle. Following the collapse of the Great Horde, musical aspects of this non-verbal communication developed further among Torosh groups, culminating in the development of a military cant by the zenith of the Torosh Khanate. Orders would frequently be chanted or sung in this cant, with other rhythmic elements such as drums performing a similar role as they had under Asharid rule. This cant was used to great effect, though the eventual decipherment of orders by ethnic Balak forces proved to be a disadvantage during the Khanate's collapse.

Scholars at the University of Qersheven took note of the use of a cant for military purposes, with Başanon Fertezeh approaching Kamat III of Maram (later Kamat I of the Balak Empire) in 1852 to propose that he be commissioned by the Qak for such a project. This cant would have undergo intermittent vocabulary updates to mitigate the weakness of the earlier Torosh cant, but would maintain Balak grammar structures. Kamat was receptive to the idea, and personally funded the project. This "Maramer Cant" - often referred to as Şam-e Maram in correspondence (şam being am ad-hoc borrowing from Vosan cam "language") - was the first codified attempt by Fertezeh to create a constructed language for military use, and would go on to be used by pan-Balak forces in the Balak-Zwazwan War.

Following Balak unification in 1866, Kamat _. [creation of qayraban itself] _.

[use in military] _.

[discontinuation] _.

Phonology

Qayraban's phonology was loosely modelled on contemporary Vaniuan languages, including Balak and, to a smaller extent, Vosan. Its phoneme inventory is notable for being both small and phonotactically restrictive relative to most Vaniuan languages, with only 13 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel qualities, though vowels have additional distinctions in length and tone.

Consonants

The 13 consonants are:

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t	k
Fricative	f	θ s	x
Approximant	w	r l	j

Vowels

The 6 vowel qualities are:

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	æ	ɒ

_

In addition to a distinction in quality, Qayraban vowels exhibit secondary distinctions of length (long/short) and tone (high/low). These can be demonstrated through the minimal pairs given in the table below.

	High tone	Low tone
Short	saq /sáx/ "TBD"	zaq /sàx/ "TBD"
Long	sağ /sá:x/ "TBD"	zağ /sà:x/ "TBD"

Phonotactics

Qayraban syllable structure is (C)V(C). [elaboration] _.

Orthography

[stuff goes here] _.

Morphology and syntax

[stuff goes here] _.

Vocabulary

[stuff goes here] _.