Ibjekofhun

General Information
Ibjekofhun, also called Imperial (natively Riksu Ìbǵäkohfjeve "Speech Imperial" or Redau iktät "Citizens' voices") was the official and national language of the White Coast Empire, a thalassocracy dominating the subcontinent of Edalith on the planet Patrona. It was the language of commerce, diplomacy, religion, and science for centuries, and borrowings from it link many Edalith languages.

Classification
Ibjekofhun is an Edalith language (see Proto-Edalith) of the White Coast subbranch. During the time of the empire there were several White Coast languages, but standardization and then the fall of the empire reduced this to two: the Ibjekofhun described here and modern White Coast language, which is technically a descendant of a closely related ancient White Coast language, though its direct Ibjekofhun influence is obvious. Other Edalith languages include Alemarese, Barejine, Egnizhuzh, Garla, and Zegrezhu.

Consonants

 * The glides /j ɥ w/ alternate with short vowels /i y u/.
 * /l/ was barely a separate phoneme in Old Ibjekofhun, as it mainly arises from a process of liquid dissimilation, described below, though it emerged as its own phoneme due to loanwords in later speech.

The Sibilant Shift
In the older texts, as the writing system was being refined, we find evidence of a shift in the sibilants, as shown in the table below.

Vowels

 * Every vowel contrasts two lengths: short and long, and two phonations: modal and breathy. Phonation is only distinguished in stressed syllables.
 * In late Ibjekofhun, the /æ/ vowels merged into their corresponding /e/ vowels.

Stress
Stress is always on the final vowel of roots.

Syllable structure
The core of a syllable is always a vowel, though consonant clusters are common. Some phonotactic rules are as follows:

Voicing assimilation
Clusters are only formed with consonants of the same voicing in native and nativized words, with the exception of /ɸ ɕ x/ plus /ɾ~l/, where the obstruents originate from voiceless sonorants in Proto-White Coast.

Adjacent to breathy vowels and as a part of cluster assimilation, voiced consonants can devoice. Sonorants protect adjacent obstruents from devoicing. While the stops and fricatives devoice in a straightforward manner, the sonorants do not.

Epenthesis
An epenthetic echo vowel appears to break word-peripheral clusters of sonorants and to separate a word-internal non-vowel-adjacent sonorant.

Liquid dissimilation
/ɾ/ dissimilates to /l/ if another /ɾ/ is present in the following coda or syllable. This is especially noticeable in the nominative singular of animate nouns, which have the ending -ar.


 * 3s animate pronoun *kor-ar > kolar

What happens if three /ɾ/ occur? The first becomes /n/, the second /l/.


 * grirg-ar > gnilgar "surprise, rapt attention, restlessness"

Palatalization rules
Some morphological environments cause palatalization of a preceding segment. Some consonants change their place of articulation to palatal: /n t d k g ɸ β θ ð x w/, Some send their palatalization to the preceding vowel: /m p b ɸ ɾ/. /ts dz/ deaffricate. Other consonants and some /ɸ/ don't change. Back vowels front, /e/ raises, /i/ lengthens, and the fronted vowels /y ø æ/ gain a following /iː/.

Orthography
The Imperial writing system was an alphabet based on the acrophonic principle: a letter representing a sound is derived from a picture of a word beginning with the sound, except for , which comes from words beginning in breathy vowels. Many letters have multiple forms, though by the late Imperial period the glyphs were standardized. Many religious groups kept alternate sets, however. The voicing contrast was originally unwritten, later an overline developed to distinguish voiced consonants. Breathy vowels were written with a following , and long breathy vowels repeat the vowel after it. Length on non-breathy vowels was never indicated in writing except in poetry and music.

First declensions

 * 1) Takes the second form after voiced sonorants. Devoices preceding voiced obstruents.
 * 2) Voices preceding consonants.
 * 3) Devoices preceding consonants.

Second (breathy) declensions
These endings are used when the stem ends in a breathy vowel (or a breathy vowel followed by /ɸ/ for some dull nouns).


 * 1) Palatalizes preceding segment.

First declension

 * 1) Palatalizes preceding consonants in the early period. In later times this palatalization extended to all plural forms, and was lost from the animate genitive singular.
 * 2) Devoices preceding consonants.

Second (breathy) declension
These endings are used when the stem ends in a breathy vowel (or a breathy vowel followed by /ɸ/ for some dull nouns).


 * 1) Palatalizes preceding consonants in the early period. In later times this palatalization extended to all plural forms, and was lost from the animate genitive singular.

Third (nominal) declension
Third declension adjectives decline with the same endings as the nominal first declension.

Comparative forms
Adjectives also have a comparative and excessive form, formed with suffixes on the root which then take first declension adjective endings.


 * 1) Palatalizes preceding vowels