Shilahite

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 (Shilahu; 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, King Aryahu I 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.

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 ranging from High Shilahite (HS) ('alīh; אליה) to Shilahite Vulgate (SV) (məlwəfīyat; מלופית).