Shilahite

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Shilahite (KARI: Shīlahīyat; Square Script: שילהית) is the official language used by the Order of Undergraduates of Singapore, a fraternity in (whichever university the author ends up in future).

General information
Named after Shiloh (Shīlahu; שילה), the pre-royal capital of Israel, it is a constructed language for formal usage. It is the language of official documents, and is only ever spoken in either highly formalized or structured contexts, ranging from drill commands to court verbatim of the King, the head of the Order. Shilahite may be written in the Latin alphabet via the KARI (King Aryahu Romanization Index); while use is widespread, only Square Script may be used for official writing.

Before the formation of the Order, The Statuary Commision thought that a non-English language should be used in a formal context to add prestige, being inspired by the Vatican's use of Ecclesiastical Latin. Since Hebrew and Arabic were both attributed liturgical status, he decided to come up with a Semitic language that was based on both in vocabulary, but differing greatly in inflection.

A treatise of the Shilahite language, Yā Sakurāwatu, is still under compilation by the Royal Commission of the Shilahite Language (RCSL). Yā Sakurāwatu contains a dictionary and rules on the grammar of the language.

Vowels
Only vowels with mater lectionis (י, ו)  are notated Square Script, but all vowels are written in KARI notation. Vowel pronunciation is much more flexible than that of consonants and may be spoken in whichever manner the speaker feels most comfortable in. Long vowels, ā ī ū, are simply longer in duration than their short counterparts, a i u. Here the alif is used as a null consonant.

Alphabet
Difficult consonants: The consonants ע ח ק ט ס צ are emphatic consonants.
 * א /ʔ/ is the stop in between "uh ' oh"; ע ' /ʕ/, ח kh /ħ/ and ק q /q/ are versions of א /ʔ/, ה h /h/ and כ k /k/ pronounced further back in the throat.
 * The consonants, ט th /ʈ/ ,ס s /ʂ/, צ ch /ʈʂ/ are retroflex versions of t, s and ch, pronounced at the roof of the tongue.

Registers
The Shilahite language consists of a spectrum of registers, with High Shilahite (HS) ('alīyêh; עליה) as the higher tier and Shilahite Vulgate (SV) (melwefīyat; מלופית) as the common dialect. Generally, High Shilahite is used for communication within members of the Sab' - the seven-man council of government - while Shilahite Vulgate is employed in other contexts. For example, the HS term for a wife is b'alt בעלת "lady" rather than the SV zawgat זוגת "spouse" (lit. pair). The following are the recognised dialects by RCSL:
 * Royal Shilahite. Used during communication with the King. Quadrilateral roots are more common, such as beheqel בהצל in place of ekel אכל (eat), and pronouns are based on the word shaq שק i.e. shaqayi שקי (me).
 * Sevener Register. The lower form of High Shilahite, it uses the specialized HS vocabulary without quadrilateral roots and special pronouns present in the Royal register.
 * Standard Speech. Used for day to day communication, Standard Speech is based on accurate pronunciation of the emphatic consonants and intonation.
 * Dialect. Intonation is not present and emphatic consonants are not pronounced.

Nouns
Nouns decline in four forms: For the absolute case, the ending u is used when it is being described by an attribute. Therefore, "the holy man", אניש קדושו, is anyeshu qdūsawa, not anyesh qdūsawa .
 * Absolute. The base form of a noun. anyesh אניש, man.
 * Construct. The form of a noun illustrating belonging. anyesh-i-chadq אניש-צדק, man of righteousness.
 * Emphatic. The definite form of a noun. anyeshawa אנישו, the man
 * Vocative. The address form of a noun. A feature unique to Shilahite within the Semitic languages. yā anyeshā! יא אנישא, O man!

Definite article
Definiteness in Shilahite is marked by the "wêh" suffix "(wêh sawfī; וה סופי)" and the particle "yā". The suffix "wah" is attached to the end of a noun to mark definiteness in general, while "yā" performs a variety of functions: yā is used as a definite marker only when weh is a suffix at the end of a phrase. The weh suffix is gender declinable, which distinguishes Shilahite from other Semitic languages. The following is the declension for the word zawg 'ז'וג, "spouse".
 * Marks uniqueness: yā Ilêhwa יא אלהו (the) God
 * Definiteness of a construct noun: yā taurat i Dawlatū יא תורת דולתו the taurat of the State
 * A particle for address: yā Alāhā אלהא יא O God!

The word Alêh אלה, "God" is an irregular noun which declines as such: Alāhu (Alêh) אלה, Alāhā אלהא, Ilêhwa אלהו, Ilêhi אלה.