Sarkiki language

From CWS Planet
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Sarkiki
sarkikim
EthnicitySarkiki
Language family
Early forms:
Old Otsuki
  • Sarkiki
Writing systemLetso-Terminian script
Official status
Official language in Juhashka
(Sarkik)
CWS codesar

Sarkiki (Sarkiki: sarkikim, Sarkikim), is a Milevic language spoken by the Sarkiki people of Sarkik, an autonomous region of Juhashka.

Geographic Distribution

Name

Classification

Varieties and related languages

Dialects

Related languages

History

Agyur invasion

Colonial era

Standardisation

Sarkiki was first standardised in the mid-1800s by the Terminian Institute for the Languages of the East.

X.

Phonology

Consonants

Sarkiki distinguishes two voice-onset times among plosive and affricate consonants. The voiceless or 'fortis' set is pronounced with considerable aspiration, while the voiced or 'lenis' set is pronounced with partial or full voicing.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m
⟨m⟩
n
⟨n⟩
Plosive/Affricate fortis
p

t
tʃʰ
c

k

ǩ
lenis b
b
d
d

x
ɡ
g
Fricative voiceless f
f
s
s
ʃ
š
χ
h
h
q
voiced v
w
z
z
ʒ
ž
ʁ
ǧ
Approximant j
j
Flap ɾ
r

Vowels

Sarkiki has eight monophthongs.

  Front Back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
Close i:
í
y:
y
  u:
ú
Near-close ɪ
i
    ʊ
u
Close-mid e:
é
     
Open-mid ɛ
e
     
Open     ɑ:
a
 

Vowels are categorised into two categories: the 'full' or long vowels, and the 'reduced' or short vowels. These two sets differ in both quantity and quality, with the reduced set being produced as considerably shorter and a more central articulation. In some dialects of Sarkiki the two high reduced vowels may be merged together in unstressed positions as [

Phonotactics

Grammar

Nouns

Animacy

Animacy in Sarkiki has largely been lost, with the three degrees of distinction present in Proto-Milevic being reduced to a simple distinction in 'natural' animacy in its use of copulas and possessive/existential verbs.

Adjectives and adverbs

Verbs

Copulae

Particles

Adpositions

Derivational morphology

Syntax

Alignment

Orthography

Sarkiki is primarily written in the Terminian alphabet, which was inherited from its days as part of the Terminian Empire. It is also rarely found written in the Mahavic alphabet.

Literature

Writing System

Vocabulary

Examples