Rasha language

Rasha
Raşahon Raşahon
Pronunciation	/rɑˈʂɑ̃õ/
Region	Vaniua
Ethnicity	Rasha
Language family	Vaniuan Eastern Vaniuan Kashisan Rasha
Early forms:	Proto-Vaniuan Proto-Eastern-Vaniuan Proto-Kashisan Old Jazaghan Middle Rasha Rasha
Writing system	Vaniuan script
Official status
Official language in	Gushlia
CWS code	RAX

Rasha (Raşahon; Raşahon, /rɑˈʂɑ̃õ/) is a Kashisan language within the Eastern Vaniuan branch of the Vaniuan language family. It is closely related to the pluricentric Jazaghan language. Rasha is written in the Rasha alphabet, a modified variant of the Vaniuan alphabet.

Name

Standard Rasha is known natively as Raşahon, pronounced /rɑˈʂɑ̃õ/.

Classification

Rasha 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 Hershemic languages, the latter of which includes Rasha.

The Kashisan languages in eastern Vaniua

Phonology

Consonants

Rasha consonant phonemes

		Nasal	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Dorsal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t			k
	Voiced	b	d			g
Fricatives	Voiceless	(f)	s	ʂ
	Voiced		z	ʐ		ʁ
Trill			r
Approximant			l		j

Notes:

• /f/ is only used in loanwords.
• The phonemes /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are realized as fricatives (namely [β, ð, ɣ]) in all places except after a pause, after a nasal consonant, or after a lateral consonant; in such contexts they are realized as voiced stops.

Vowels

Standard Rasha contrasts up to 6 oral vowels and 3 nasal vowels.

Oral vowels Front Back Close i u Mid e o Open ɛ ɑ

Nasal vowels Front Back Mid ɛ̃ õ Open ɑ̃

Word-final /ɛ/, /e/, and /i/ are only found in loanwords.

Notes:

• X.

Two or more vowels are permitted to occur next to each other in Rasha. However, these vowels must either all be plain or all be nasal; plain vowels cannot occur directly before or after nasal vowels, and vice versa. Thus the addition of certain suffixes may cause a preceding word-final vowel to mutate and assimilate into a nasal in the following manner:

• /ɑ/, /ɛ/ > /ɑ̃/
• /e/, /i/ > /ɛ̃/
• /o/, /u/ > /õ/

An example using the suffix -hon /õ/ "language" would be Raşa /rɑˈʂɑ/ ('Rasha'), which becomes Raşahon /rɑˈʂɑ̃õ/ ('Rasha language') when the suffix is added; /rɑˈʂɑõ/ would not be permitted.

Phonotactics

The syllable structure of Standard Rasha is (C)V(M)(C), where M represents the medial consonants X.

X.

Grammar

Morphology

Rasha 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.

In Rasha nouns are split into two genders - animate and inanimate - X.