Miraikarian

Miraikarian (Miraikarian: Kulía Miráikáríanái) is an extinct language spoken by the Miraikarian Empire between -3000 and -1500. It is notable for its extensive language contact with Proto-Indo-European.

Classification
The general concensus among linguists is that Miraikarian is a language isolate, unrelated to any other known languages. However, there is an increasingly popular theory that it is related to the Paleo-Aralese language spoken on the shores of the Aral Sea around the same time as Miraikarian, attested only in a single sentence and a few names.

Some have suggested that the language may be related to the Yeniseian languages. One theory links Miraikarian to the proposed Karasuk language family consisting of Yeniseian and Burushaski, in a macro-family known as Miraikarasuk.

History
Proto-Miraikarian likely originated in modern-day Kazakhstan around the year -5000. From there, its speakers migrated to the Miraikaria (modern-day Volga) river basin and founded the Miraikarian Empire. The Paleo-Aralese language may have branched off Proto-Miraikarian during the migration to the Miraikaria river basin.

The Miraikarians reached the Miraikaria river basin and founded the city of Miráikáría (near present-day Volgograd), named after the river, around -3500. They invented the Miraikarian Traditional syllabary, which was based on the Proto-Miraikarian hieroglyphs, a logographic script which was also used by the Paleo-Aralese. Around the same time, Miraikarian and Proto-Indo-European started influencing each other, and they started having many features in common. Around -3000, the Miraikarian Empire was founded, and Miraikarian became a prestige language in and near the Empire.

By -2000, the Miraikarian Empire and its language had spread to the entire Volga river basin and beyond. There was evidence of languages descended from Miraikarian spoken as far as modern-day St. Petersburg. At that time, a simplified version of the Miraikarian Traditional syllabary was created for everyday texts, which was dubbed the Miraikarian Simplified syllabary.

Afterwards, vernacular Miraikarian in parts of the Empire started diverging from the standard language of the city of Miráikária, and was later known as Vulgar Miraikarian.

The Miraikarian Empire collapsed due to unknown reasons around the year -1500, and different dialects of Vulgar Miraikarian began to diverge into 3 dialect groups: Southern, Northwestern, and Northeastern. These dialect groups then started to become many languages, most of which were undocumented.

By the year 0, languages descended from Miraikarian ceased to be spoken, due to the invasion and assimilation of the area by various Slavic, Iranic, Turkic, and Uralic peoples.

Phonology
Miraikarian had the following consonants: Miraikarian does not distinguish voicing in consonants. All obstruents have a voiced allophone which appear between vowels.

Miraikarian had the following vowels: Miraikarian also distinguishes between a high and low tone on vowels.

Orthography
Miraikarian has been written using 2 syllabaries. Miraikarian Traditional was used between -3500 and -1800. Miraikarian Simplified, a simplification of Miraikarian Traditional, was used between -2100 and -300. Languages descended from Miraikarian after -300 were only fragmentarily attested, and the Greek alphabet was used.