Ahtialan

Ahtialan language (ah. а́хтіаљєдаі кі́єн̃ау ['ɑxtijäɮɛˌdäi 'kijɛ̃n͈ãʊ̃]) - central Mikui language of the Ahtialan family, state language in the Ahtialan Commonwealth of the conworld Haivööri, lingua franca in the Mikui continent, in the Commonwealth it is spoken by approximately 60% of the population and by minorities in Amultia and Makratia.

Ahtialan is one of the two oldest languages of RWHÔ, the second being Makratian, that were said in about 1994 or 1995, when the author was only at the age of four, that will exist. So called "ancient Makratian" did not survive, but a complex alphabetic system was designed in about 1996 that helped the child's language to somehow last until the first major reform in 2005. Today it is a well developed a priori conlang with history, tradition, literature and ideology.

Language name written in Ahtialan script.

=Name and rights= As the author is not a native English speaker, the name "Ahtialan" was derived directly from Polish name of this language, "ahtialański". In this form it is phonetically correct comparing to its name in the conlang itself, but (as usual) English pronunciation may be misleading. However, any separate name for English was never created, and the form "Ahtialan" is supported by the Polish conlangers. Originally, it is «ахтіаљєдаі» («ахтіаљ-» + suffix for language names, «-єдаі»), from «А́хтіаља» (name of the country), which originates from the common word «ахтіалумє», meaning "armadillo", Ahtialan national animal (also depicted in state coat of arms).

However, «ахтіаљєдаі» might be used for any Ahtialan language, and the standard version (made by the author) is called «ӓљалаі» ['ɑjɫawäi], transcribed in English as "aylawai". The etymology of this word is derived from old Ahtialan «ӓља» "scent" or "gust" + «лаі» "flower", but as both "scent" and "flower" have other names, it is considered to be meaningless (apart from the language, state and nation).

The author says that Ahtialan language can be used as anyone wishes unless it is used for commercial purposes. It means that creating conlangs based either completely or partially on Ahtialan or borrowing to other conlangs any part of it are allowed. The only wish is to give an a priori name to any new conlang based on aylawai.



=Phonology= Ahtialan language has a very complex phonetic system which dissimilated heavily in 2005-2010. It includes the following phonetic features: vowel length (short and long), clicks, ejectives, even implosives, consonants of a range from bilabial fricatives to epiglottal and glottal, dynamic stress, nasalisation (important, but not written) and more.

Vowels
Aylawai features 12 vowel phonemes, allophones are noted in brackets. In Ahtialan some [u] turned into [i˞] and [o] (rarely [ä]) to [ə]. There are two types of vowels written as , that is: [ä] and [ɑ]. Vowel noted with the retroflex hook are typical only to Ahtialan language: they are not articulated in a retroflex manner, but rather than that, the tongue is shrank (as a muscle it can shrink or compress itself) and located before the alveolar ridge (that is, in the front of the palate), with which it forms an oval causing [i˞] to sound like [y], even if it is not phonemically rounded. All vowels except [ʉ] differ in length. Vowels cannot influence each other and polyphthongs such as «ааєаоуы» (there are words like that) will be always read [äːɛäɔuwʉ], without assimilating anything.

Consonants
Some consonants unusual to Polish language were "designed" by the author before acquiring any linguistic knowledge, like clicks or epiglottal [ʜ] or compressed [ɮ] (which is more like [ɮ˞], look above), others were introduced after, like [θ], [ʢ] or [ɣ]. Nonetheless the modern Ahtialan consonantal system is impressive.

Phonotactics
Vowels appear as short or long, but the true articulation of the phonemic vowel length varies: some are more rounded than others, some are moved from the centre of articulation (with schwa being the centre), sometimes long vowels are realised only with a higher tone, gemination, e.g. [ta.a], is also not rare. Central and initial «an» and final «-ant» are pronounced [ãɰ̃] (nasal "a"), final «-unt» might be pronounced as [ũ] (not [ũɰ̃]!). Other endings, like -ont or -ent, rarely nasalise. By rule most of the final, single [ɨ] is realized as [ʉ].

Glottal [h] is dominant over [x], however, they can randomly appear or mix, and in the non-standard speech [x] often changes into [ɬ]. After [i], [x] turns into [ç]. Usually [r] is very trilled, but between vowels turns into [ɾ], like [ɣ] into [ɦ]. The default front fricative pair is [β]:[f], but even in the standard aylawai accent /β/ can be turned into [v], and /f/ into [ɸ]. The sound /v/ that appear in some words cannot be changed into [β] and the orthography separates them (Cyrillic <в>:<ԝ>). Plosives and affricates can be prolonged (marked by titlo in Cyrillic), but the modern pronunciation of double-plosive/affricate is in an ejective fashion, so «п» is pronounced [p], «п҃» - [pː], and «пп» - [p’]. Ejective /t/ is usually retroflex. Double s, «ss», used to be also pronounced as an ejective, but for about two years its articulation place and manner is bidentalized glottal fricative, usually noted [h̪͆]. "Rh" cluster [rx] is read [ʁ], however, there are exceptions (like «вєрха»). [l] and [ɫ] are allophones with the second more frequent, but /ɫ/ have to be distinguished from /ɮ/, which is dominant as a lateral. Glottal stop is phonemic only inside a word (usually vowel sequences make polyphthongs, but sometimes they are separated by a glottal stop which is visible in the orthography).

Officially, there are four clicks: dental [ǀ], palatal (or compresed) [ǃ˞], palatal rounded or even exolabial [ǃ˞ʷʷ] and [q’]. Phonologically, [q’] is an ejective, but by the language it is traditionally considered to be a click. In the non-standard speech and other dialects, all clicks are possible. There is a theory that the reconstructed proto-language had bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal and lateral clicks.

Fortis and lenis "m" and "n"
Ahtialan language has an unusual feature of distinguishing between the so called "n" and "m" fortis (strong) and lenis (weak). [m] and [m͈] are rather new and they are not yet widespread. The difference is about the power or articulation plus nasalisation influence. Lenis sound is very weak, sometimes quiet or devoiced, usually also denasalized (they then become similar to [b] and [d], but most vibrations are still focused either on the nasal cavity or the soft palate). N lenis is turned to [ɲ] after the soft sounds ([i], also by [j] in the yottified and retroyottified vowels, not by the orthographic «ј»).

N and m fortis have a surprising ability to nasalise all nearby sounds, including those preceeding. They easily nasalise fricatives far from the centre of articulation (quite good at resisting this process is [j], turning usually into short [ĩ] and [j], e.g. «һёы» is read [f͡n͈ẽĩjʉ]). Worth mentioning is nasal [ʜ̃], that because of the force and place of articulation, drastically changes the sound value from [ʜ]. Syllables «ан» and final «-ант», read [ãɰ̃], help the nasalisation process. Final «-ан» always ends with n fortis, pronounced strongly, always making "a" nasal. N fortis usually do not start a word. M fortis have a tendency to bend some vowels, like «муа» is read [m̃ɯ̃ə̃].

There are so called "brakes", that is, consonants that are very good at breaking the nasalisation spread over the sentence, usually they are plosives as [k], [p], [t], [q’] (the more centred is the best), unless such a consonant stays very near n fortis - then they form an affricate with it. If in a long sentence there is only one n fortis (initial, for the best effect), and there are no good brakes, the nasalisation can spread in the sentence and last for the next four or five words of three syllables.

Some affricates built of n fortis are distinguished orthographically, but by default the language doesn't differ n lenis and fortis in writing. M fortis is much weaker than n fortis. In the Palan language (north Ahtialan), n fortis appears in the alphabet as a separate letter.

[ʢ]-coloured vowels
In some rhotic languages (like in General American, the US way of pronouncing the English language, or in Chinese Pǔtōnghuà) vowels can be [ɹ]-coloured, that is, a weak [ɹ] (gaining in power with time) is pronounced simultaneously with the vowel.

In Ahtialan, there are [ʢ]-coloured vowels. They are rare, but used in some basic words, and most often appear when after [ɕ] is a stron vowel, like in the question superparticle «ща» the epiglottal sound applies to both the consonant and [ä] vowel.

Dissimilation and assimilation
Ahtialan before 2005 was quite simple and with the exception of sounds like [q’] or [ʜ] it did not differ much from the Polish phonetics, it even had the nasal vowels ǫ and ę. After the 2005 Great Reform a massive dissimilation process had appeared that resulted in often change of the alphabet. It was also somehow connected with the statement that "the Ahtialan language has to possess more than 60 letters in the alphabet" (it does not even today) and with acquiring the phonological knowledge. Finally, Ahtialan language gained phonemes unusual for the Polish language and unknown for the author before (like [ʜ], [i˞], [ǃ˞], [ɮ] or [q’] - that explains why [q’] is still considered a click) and other phonemes that were artificially introduces after ("because they sound well", e.g. [ʢ], [ǀ], <ö>).

In the 2010 Great Reform the dissimilation process is heading towards the end. Actually Ahtialan still has some its tendencies (lately [ð] was recognised and today it is official). Some assimilation tendencies have started, like [ʧ] and [ʨ] are blending with [ʨ] and [ʃ], [ɕ] with [ʃ], also, [ɑ] and [ä] are less frequently distinguished than before.

What is interesting, is that quite intensively nasal consonants appear in the language, soon after "m" fortis was recognised, the nasal "ł" [w̃] appeared, but without any features similar to n and m fortis (look above), not nasalising anything in the sentence. It appears in some short and basic words, like «лао» [w̃äɔ] or «ланік» [w̃ä'ɲik].

=Alphabet= The Ahtialan language has an advanced writing system.

Ahtialan alphabet
The native script, somewhat based on the Latin script, saved the language from forgetting that happened to old Makratian. First letters most probably were designed in 1996 and the full set (including foreign signs like "Q", "X" and "V") was complete not after 1998. The script had only some basic letters, without Polish (Ł was introduced after). Polish sounds were signed by adding a horizontal line above the glyph, similar to modern macron (e.g. ā, ē, like a modifier or a samyok sannya). All historical differences that appear in moder Polish orthography were also written, much later the same was for English, Russian and Spanish, so no phonetic transliteration was allowed. Notably, the Polish letter <Ó> <ó> is written as <Ú> <ú> (open u with accent). For the Ahtialan language, the Ahtialan alphabet was fully prepared in the early 2005, and soon minuscule and mediscule were designed.

Computer font for the Ahtialan script had been created by another Polish conlanger Milya0. It represents an alphabet of three scales (with two usually used) supported by a number of ideographs of only functional meaning (no lexical).

Cyrillic

 * ''Main page: Ahtialan Cyrillic

Ahtialan script can't be widely used and a script for computers was designed. It is modified Cyrillic. It shares almost all orthographic features that appear in the Ahtialan script.

Vowels
Ahtialan Cyrillic script uses 10 letter for signing vowels:
 * а є і и о ө у ү ұ ы
 * А а: [ä], [ɑ]
 * Є є: [ɛ]
 * І і: [i]
 * И и: [iː] (more frequent letter for the long "i")
 * О о: [ɔ]
 * Ө ө: [ə], [ɘ]
 * У у: [u], after "љ": [i˞]
 * Ү ү: [i˞], in some dialects, after n, m fortis it can be [y]
 * Ұ ұ: [ʉ]
 * Ы ы: [ɨ]

Long vowels are noted (with an exception of [i] that also has the form [и]) by doubling the letter.
 * Аа аа - [äː], [ɑː]
 * Єє єє - [ɛː], [eː]
 * Іі іі - [iː]
 * Оо оо - [ɔː], [oː]
 * Өө өө - [ɘː], [ɨɘ]
 * Уу уу - [uː]
 * Үү үү - [ʏ˞ː]
 * Ұұ ұұ - [ʉ]
 * Ыы ыы - [ɨː]

There are also so-called yottified vowels (that is jV, e.g. "ja", "je", etc.) and retroyottified (like Vj, e.g. "aj", "ej", etc.), five of each type (only for а, є, о, у, ы) In 2010 Great Reform the letter Ӳ ӳ was changed to Ѵ ѵ.
 * я е ω ю ѵ
 * ӓ ё ӧ ӱ ӹ

Consonants
The complete table of the full alphabet (minuscule, majuscule, modifiers, diacritical marks) looks like that:


 * If you cannot see some signs or they look strange, try the image version of this table.

Modifiers
Ahtialan language uses many modifiers, but only some of them were transliterated into Cyrillic:
 * 1) ъ (hard sign) is a modifier, usually marks a click, used for [ǃ˞], [ǀ] i [q’].
 * 2) ь (soft sign) is a modifier, marks either [ʛ] or [ǃ˞ʷʷ].
 * 3) ◌҃ (titlo) represents Ahtialan sа-ор єаsао, written above a consonant marks its long articulation, used mainly for the plosives
 * 4) ◌̊ (ring above) represents sа-ор нудунт, functionally it is the same as samyok sannya, marking the word with a different pronunciation
 * 5) ◌̲ i ◌̳ are used below the numbers and indicate decimal and hexadecimal systems, so 1̲6̲ is equal to 1̳0̳.