Asitane

General information
This is a work in progress. More to come later.

This document details the native language of the region of Asitane. During the period of controlby the Nobian Empire, Common came to replace Asitanian as the lingua franca of the region, and became the first language of the burghers and valley farmers. Residents of more isolated areas continued to speak Asitanian, as well as minorities in the cities and valley. It was also preserved in as the liturgical language of the cult of the Grey Children, the religion of Asitane prior to the era of Empire. Since the withdrawal of Nobian influence from nearly the entire region, the Asitanian language has begun to rise again. Today there are three main dialects, all descended from the ancient tongue here described. Lower Valley Asitanian is the dialect spoken by the Grey Children clerics, and by minorities in the cities of the southern valley; Upper Valley Asitanian is the dialect spoken by residents of the upper valley, and the frontiersmen of the north; Southern Asitanian is spoken by the relatively isolated populations living in the hills and forests of the south.

Vowels
Vowels are distinguished by length, short and long.

Orthography
The residents of Asitane during this period had no writing system. I will thus use the Latin alphabet with the following correspondence: Long vowels are represented by a doubled vowel.

Phonotactics Syllables adhere to the pattern CV(N), where N is any consonant except plosives and /ɹ/. Vowels may be short or long.

Mutations:
 * A bilabial consonant in the coda rounds the preceding vowel
 * /h/ is elided if the preceding syllable ends in a consonant.
 * When a stop follows a consonant articulated in a different location, the stop assimilates to that same position. E.g. /xt/ -> /xk/
 * A plosive following a nasal assimilates to also become nasal. E.g. /mp/ -> /mm/

Verbs
Verbs conjugate to morphologically represent gender, number, tense, mood, and polarity.

There are three tenses: past, present, and future.

There are seven moods: The conjugation patterns follow below. The endings indicate tense, gender, number, and polarity, while moods are represented by suffixes inserted before the inflections.
 * Indicative
 * Subjunctive
 * Desiderative
 * Potential
 * Conditional
 * Hortative

Affirmative Negative Modal suffixes The affirmative participle is formed by an irregular conjugation pattern, which follows. Negative participles are formed instead by adding a suffix between the verb stem and regular negative inflection. The suffix is: The passive participle is formed by adding a suffix to the end of the corresponding active participle. The suffix is -man if the active participle ends in /m/, and -tan otherwise.

The gerund is used to form a noun out of a verb, which takes the meaning of "the act of doing x." The gerund is formed by a suffix, and declines like a first declension noun. The suffixes are as follows: