Shataranjan

Shataranjan, also referred to as Classical Shataranjan in order to distinguish it from Old Shataranjan, was the language of Shataranjans, inhabitants of the tidally-locked planet of Shataran, located around 500 light years from the Solar System.

There are two main descendants, the one spoken on the always bright side which is eternally illuminated by their star, and the other spoken in the darkness of the hemisphere facing against the star.

= Phonology =

Consonants
The consonant inventory in noteworthy for having a retroflex series of sounds, no labiodentals and a contrast between voiced and voiceless bilabial trills. All nasals and occlusives can be geminated.

Phonotactics
The syllable structure is (C)(L)V(L)(C).

= Transcription = If diacritics are not available, carons, acutes and macrons may be substituted with v, y and doubling the vowel, respectively (č = cv, ś = sy, ū = uu). /ŋ, ɬ, ç/ may be transcribed with the digraphs ,  and , respectively.

= Grammar = Shataranjan is a predominantly agglutinative language with some fusional traits. It is notable for having evidentiality and a system of classifiers.

Verbs
Verbs in Shataranjan are highly inflected, similar to Old Shataranjan. Verbs conjugate for mood, evidentiality, aspect, tense, person and number.

Verbs of motion
Shataranjan does not have a verb that covers the function of "to go" in all of its senses, instead the manner by which the action is carried out must be specified by the type of the verb.

Classifiers
Shataranjan has inherited Old Shataranjan's system of classifiers. A classifier takes case marking that would normally be placed on the noun, while the noun itself takes a partitive case ending.

= Lexicon = See Shataranjan/Vocabulary.

Example text
= Miscellaneous =