Aldzinian language

Aldzinian
Ѓакка̄ Алженщох Ģakhā Alženśoh
Native to	Gabrielland
Region	North Gabrielland Region
Ethnicity	Aldzinians
Native speakers	700,0000 (2020)
Language family	Gabrielt Aldzinian
Writing system	Govoric alphabet latin alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Aldzina province
Language codes
ISO 639-1	al
ISO 639-2	ald
ISO 639-3	–
Distribution of Aldzinian speakers in the North Gabrielland region   Majority language (>50%)   Minority language (>20%)

The Aldzinian language (Standard Gabrielt: មដឣល្ឌិនន "Mada Aldzinan", IPA: /mada alˈd͡zinan/ Aldzinian: Ѓакка̄ Алженщох "Ģakhā Alženśoh", IPA: /ˈɟakʰaː ˈalʒenɕɔh/) is a language isolate within the Gabrielt language family primarily spoken in the Aldzina province located within the Northern Gabrielland region, spoken mainly by the Aldzinian people, but also by other people groups residing in or surrounding Aldzina. Speakers also exist in the neighboring Adinnyan region, primarily in the Dzakramila and the Meladza provinces. Within the Northern Gabrielland region, it is also spoken in the neighboring provinces of Ortom, Edzuli, and Altrang. According to the latest 2020 Gabrielt census, around 700,000 people collectively speak the Aldzinian language.

Aldzinian is of particular interest to linguists and grammarians alike as the language has arguably preserved the most features and inflectional patterns from Proto-Gabrielt. Aldzinian, as a language isolate within the langauge family, did not descend from Literary Gabrielt, and split off earlier from the Proto-Gabrielt languages compared to the other branches of the Gabrielt language, which was by then still a singular language with burgeoning dialects. With its archaic sentence formation, inflectional morphology, and native vocabulary, Aldzinian is one of the hardest languages to understand in general by other Gabrielt speakers without prior knowledge of the language, whereas in other circumstances similar-sounding words or phrases might hint at a general meaning being conveyed. Much later in the language's development, Kento-Polyash languages began to influence the language to some extent, leaving many couplets of words and resulting in a rich and varied vocabulary.

The language is an official language in the Aldzina province, and is the language of education, media, government, and administration. While the Aldzinian language possesses several notable dialect groups, they are still very intelligible to speakers of other dialects, and are not considered separate langauges. Although so, the eastern dialects which retain more native-words serve as the de-facto official standard used in schools, offices, and government institutions. The Aldzinian language council serves as the language's regulatory body, and oversees the language's development and exposure. Services in Aldzinian are available in the southern portions of the Dzakramila province, where sizeable minorities of speakers live. Outside of the traditional Aldzinian homelands, very few, if any, Gabrielts speak the language, and speakers usually switch to Standard Gabrielt to facillitate communication.

Currently, Aldzinian is written in a modified Govoric alphabet, introduced by the Kento-Polyashi traders in the early 20th century. It is one of the few languages in Gabrielland written in the Govoric script, and one of three languages written in Govoric within the Gabrielt language family. In more recent times, a latin alphabet developed by the Aldzinian language community has gained ground, and is becoming more widespread. However, for all official purposes, the Govoric alphabet is still used.

Phonology

The phonology of the Aldzinian language is still highly influenced by pre Proto-Gabrielt, as evident by the lack of merged and shifted sounds present in virtually every other branch outside of the Aldzinian branch. It still maintains two rhotic sounds inherited from pre-Gabrielt, and possesses unshifted variants of the fricatives, resulting in a far greater number of phonemes. As a lot of the phonemes in Aldzinian are still unmerged or unshifted, cognates in other languages may be harder to distinguish. Aldzinian also retains palatalization and labialization, a feature shared by the neighboring Tazbakan languages as the Tazbakan languages split before palatalization and labialization was lost in the Proto-Gabrielt language.

Aldzinian vowels are differentiated in length and pitch. Aldzinian is the only Gabrielt language which still has pitch as a phonemic feature.

Aldzinian consonant phonemes

			Labial			Alveolar			Palatal			Velar			Glottal
			Plain	Pal.	Lab.	Plain	Pal.	Lab.	Plain	Pal.	Lab.	Plain	Pal.	Lab.
Nasal			m	mʲ	mʷ	n	nʲ	nʷ	ɲ			ŋ		ŋʷ
Plosive	unaspirated	unvoiced	p	pʲ	pʷ	t	tʲ	tʷ	c			k	kʲ	kʷ
		voiced	b	bʲ	bʷ	d	dʲ	dʷ	ɟ			g	gʲ	gʷ
	aspirated	unvoiced	pʰ	pʰʲ	pʰʷ	tʰ	tʰʲ	tʰʷ	cʰ			kʰ	kʰʲ	kʰʷ
		voiced	bʰ	bʰʲ	bʰʷ	dʰ	dʰʲ	dʰʷ	ɟʰ			gʰ	gʰʲ	gʰʷ
Affricate		unvoiced				t͡s	t͡sʲ	t͡sʷ	t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʲ	t͡ʃʷ
		voiced				d͡z	d͡zʲ	d͡zʷ	d͡ʒ	d͡ʒʲ	d͡ʒʷ
Fricative		unvoiced				s	sʲ	sʷ	ʃ ɕ	ʃʲ ɕʲ	ʃʷ ɕʷ	x	xʲ	xʷ	h
		voiced				z	zʲ	zʷ	ʒ ʑ	ʒʲ ʑʲ	ʒʷ ʑʷ
Approximant						ɹ l
Trill						r

Aldzinian vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

Orthography

A a /a/	Á á /á/	À à /à/	Ā ā /aː/	Ā́ ā́ /áː/	Ā̀ ā̀ /àː/	Б б /b/	Бь бь /bʲ/	Бв бв /bʷ/	Бб бб /bʰ/	Ббь ббь /bʰʲ/	Ббв ббв /bʰʷ/
В в /w~ʷ/	Г г /g/	Гь гь /gʲ/	Гв гв /gʷ/	Гг гг /gʰ/	Ггь ггь /gʰʲ/	Ггв ггв /gʰʷ/	Ѓ ѓ /ɟ/	Ѓѓ ѓѓ /ɟʰ/	Д д /d/	Дь дь /dʲ/	Дв дв /dʷ/
Дд дд /dʰ/	Ддь ддь /dʰʲ/	Ддв ддв /dʰʷ/	E e /e/	É é /é/	È è /è/	Ē ē /eː/	Ḗ ḗ /éː/	Ḕ ḕ /èː/	Ё ë /jo/	Ж ж /ʒ/	Жь жь /ʒʲ/
Жв жв /ʒʷ/	Җ җ /ʑ/	Җь җь /ʑʲ/	Җв җв /ʑʷ/	Ӂ ӂ /d͡ʒ/	Ӂь ӂь /d͡ʒʲ/	Ӂв ӂв /d͡ʒʷ/	З з /z/	Зь зь /zʲ/	Зв зв /zʷ/	S s /d͡z/	Sь sь /d͡zʲ/
Sв sв /d͡zʷ/	И и /i/	И́ и́ /í/	Ѝ ѝ /ì/	Ӣ ӣ /iː/	Ӣ́ ӣ́ /íː/	Ӣ̀ ӣ̀ /ìː/	Й й /j/	К к /k/	Кь кь /kʲ/	Кв кв /kʷ/	Кк кк /kʰ/
Ккь ккь /kʰʲ/	Ккв ккв /kʰʷ/	Ќ ќ /c/	Ќќ ќќ /cʰ/	Л л /l/	Ль ль /lʲ/	М м /m/	Мь мь /mʲ/	Мв мв /mʷ/	Н н /n/	Нь нь /nʲ/	Нв нв /nʷ/
Њ њ /ɲ/	Ң ң /ŋ/	Ңв ңв /ŋʷ/	O o /o/	Ó ó /ó/	Ò ò /ò/	Ō ō /oː/	Ṓ ṓ /óː/	Ṑ ṑ /òː/	Ṑ ṑ /òː/	П п /p/	Пь пь /pʲ/
Пв пв /pʷ/