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. Though no longer formally utilised by any extant military institution, the language remains popular among enthusiasts up to the modern day. 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 compounding in its 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

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Design principles

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• The language shall be suitable for use on both the combat and intelligence fronts;
• The language shall be easy for trained personnel to interpret, yet confounding to hostile forces;
• The language's vocabulary shall be updated every 10 years to better serve these purposes.

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. Among select Torosh regiments, 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, as well as an analogous historical practice among Koman troops of adopting the Mishar language for military use. In particular, Başanon Fertezeh approached 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 and Fertezeh met again to discuss the long-term future of the Maramer Cant. During this discussion, Fertezeh proposed the creation of a fully fledged language to supercede the cant, with novel grammar and vocabulary. Fertezeh chose the name Qayraban for this new language; when asked about its meaning, he stated that the name had been revealed to him in a recent dream, and that he would simply give it a meaning. Suggesting that he could assemble a small team to flesh out the language and proper documentation for it, Fertezeh once again gained the Emperor's support and funding.

Fertezeh covertly founded the Qayraban Working Group to discuss the project, to which Imperial funding was provided. The group's membership comprised a small group of trusted linguists, who met in Fertezeh's quarters on a weekly basis to discuss various aspects of the language. It was in the first meeting of this group that the design principles of the language were established; subsequent meetings covered topics with varying degrees of specificity. On the question of how roots would be sourced, it was decided that _. A proposal by then-Crown Prince Jimashim prompted the incorporation of roots from colonial languages and vernaculars, as a means of both making the language more ethnically neutral and confounding foreign powers unfamiliar with the Empire's indegenous languages. [stuff].

[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 15 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel qualities, though vowels have additional distinctions in length and tone.

Consonants

The 15 consonants are:

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

Vowels

The 6 vowel qualities are:

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e ~ ɛ	o ~ ɔ
Open	æ ~ a	ɒ

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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

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Morphology and syntax

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Vocabulary

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