Carucerean Ziba

Carucerean Ziba
Gauzaba
Native to	Carucere
Native speakers	~250,000
Language family	Zibaic Ziba Eastern Ziba Carucerean Ziba
Writing system	Solarian using the Gauzaba alphabet.
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Carucere
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gau
Location map of Carucere, where Gauzaba is spoken

Carucerean Ziba, known locally as Gauzaba (lit. bitter language), is a language that evolved in the Colony of Saint-Brendan from the Eastern dialect of the Ziban language used by the gowsa and their descendants in modern day Carucere. After the first arrivals of the gowsa in the 1850s, Gauzaba gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics during the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A recognized minority language in Carucere, it is estimated that about 15% of the population of the country continues to speak the language on a daily basis, although the number of casual speakers is estimated to be far higher. Gauzaba is considered by most linguists to be a partially creolized language, rather than fully.

An estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary is of Ziban origin, although Gauzaba has adopted words from other languages, including the Gaullican and Papotement languages. Nonetheless, there are a few key differences with Ziban, including more analytic morphology and grammar than agglutinative, and a spelling that reflects Gauzaban pronunciation rather than standard Ziban. Still, Gauzaba is largely mutually intelligible with most Ziban dialects, especially in written form.

Gauzaba is the second most widely spoken native language in Carucere, behind Papotement. About 10% of Carucereans, almost all Gosa-Carucereans, speak Gauzaba as their first language. However it is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language by the majority of Gosa-Carucereans. The language is widely used during Gosa cultural and religious events, and remains an important part of Gosa culture and identity.