Loulanese language

Kroraini
Shanshanese, Loulanese
Kroraiññe 鄯善語 / 樓蘭語 ཀྲོ་རཻཡྣྱ་ཉེ་
Pronunciation	[kroˈrəɪ̯ɲe]
Native to	Kroraine
Native speakers	23 million (2018) >50 thousand L2
Language family	Hyndo-Euclean
Early forms	Proto-Kroraini Old Kroraini Middle Kroraini
Dialects	Saka dialect
Writing system	Solarian script Xiaodongese characters (chiefly historical) Rygyalic script (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Kroraine
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xto

The Kroraini language (Kroraini: Kroraiññe, pronounced [kroˈrəɪ̯ɲe]), also known as the Shanshanese language, is a Hyndo-Euclean language with between 23 and 24 million speakers, which is primarily spoken by the Kroraini people. Communities of Kroraini speakers exist in Xiaodong and Kumuso, but the vast majority of Kroraini speakers are found in Kroraine, where the Kroraini people are the majority and the language holds official status.

Kroraini represents what is possibly the last extant member of an independent branch of the Hyndo-Euclean family of languages. It is of interest to linguists, as it falls on the centum side of the centum-satem isogloss, which contradicts the previously held assumption that the isogloss was the result of an east-west phylogenetic divison within Hyndo-Euclean.

Modern Kroraini has developed over a period spanning at least 2,400 years, with some estimates placing the separation of Proto-Kroraini as far as 4,000 years before present. The earliest forms of the language were brought to the area by migratory Hyndo-Euclean-speaking pastoralists, who settled in the mountainous terrain in the region between modern Yi and Xiaodong, where the land was unsuitable for the agricultural methods practiced by the surrounding peoples at the time. The oldest attested manuscripts in Old Kroraini date to the 4th century, making it a language of Late Antiquity, on par with Late Solarian.

Standard Kroraini is not a tonal language, but some regional varieties have developed tonal registers. The written language is highly conservative, being based upon Classical Kroraini and retaining a great deal of historic and etymological spelling. The verbal morphology of Kroraini is extremely conservative, and the language employs a system of 10 nominal cases.

Grammar

Main article: Kroraini grammar