Tengarian language

Tengarian language
Native to	Tengaria Bistravia Ravnia Amathia
Native speakers	26.8 million (2020)
Language family	Euclean
Early forms	Proto-Euclean Proto-Marolevic Proto-Tengarian Tengarian
Writing system	Solarian Apsinthian Soravian
Official status
Official language in	Tengaria
Recognised minority language in	Bistravia Amathia
Regulated by	Imperial Academy of Languages
Language codes
ISO 639-3	TEN

The Tengarian language is a South Marolevic language spoken in southern Euclea, primarily in the country of Tengaria. It is one of Tengaria's official languages, and is the principal spoken language of the country. In addition, the language is also spoken by communities in Bistravia, Amathia, and Ravnia, and is a recognised minority language in these states.

It is one of the oldest attested Marolevic languages due to the proximity of the Tengars to the Empire of Arciluco, and was used as a basis for Old Church Marolevic, although the language itself was never written until the 15th century. The languange has very heavy influences from Solarian, Vulgar Solarian and Amathian, which have contributed significant loanwords to the language and influenced the development of its grammar. The language is also partially digraphic, with three historic alphabets- versions of the Solarian, Apsinthian and Soravian- as possible for the usage of the language, although the modified Solarian alphabet is predominant.

History

The Tengars, as a Marolevic tribe, spoke a dialect of the Proto-Marolevic language, as they migrated into the lands which currently comprise the country of Tengaria in the 4th and 5th centuries. After the conquest and eventual assimilation of the Tengars into the Empire of Arciluco, the language continued to be spoken by Tengars, although the language of trade and administration was first Solarian before gradually giving way to Vulgar Solarian and Proto-Amathian. Solarian was also used for liturgical services, and as the scholarly language used by Arciluco. As such, it was not a Literary language, and no examples of its writing survive, although there are historical mentions to a language which the Tengars spoken in Arciluco. The Empire later adopted the Apsinthian Alphabet for a time, but Tengarian was never a written language. This period of Tengarian is known as "Proto-Tengarian". Because they were part of the Empire, Amathian Missionaries used the language of the Tengars to develop Old Church Marolevic for the conversion of other Marolevic countries.

The Iconoclast schism in the late 14th saw great changes. The fall of Arciluco and the western half of the Empire becoming the Empire of Tengaria and claimant to the Empire's authority saw the centre of power shift from an Amathian speaking to a largely Tengarian speaking region. Although Solarian was upheld as the official language and continued to be used as both the language of scholarship and liturgy as part of a Solarianist revival, the spread of Amathian as a trading language began to decline. A scholar of the Tengarian Golden Age, a grammarian and Solarianist, named Cornelius Lapidus, studied the Tengarian language and published the first comprehensive grammatical text of the language in 1393, De Grammatice Linguae Tengaricae, in which he developed a Solarian alphabet to provide the first transcripition of Tengarian words. This, in combination with a glossary for those attempting to study Solarian in 1401, are seen as the foundational text for the Tengarian language.

Although Solarian continued to be the primary written and scholarly language for the next few centuries, writing in Tengarian venacular also increased, and it became the primary spoken language in the Empire. The language evolved and underwent modifications throughout the centuries, but the grammar remained largely the same, although the lexicon expanded and more words were added and developed over time. In 1847, the Imperial Academy of Languages was established to regulate Tengarian and its usage in schools, and remains the regulating body of the language. Alternative lexicons were proposed by Tengarian nationalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to replace words Solarian origin, but were never adopted. In 1935, following the establishment of the Tengarian Republic, Tengarian became the official language used in all government matters, and remains the dominant written and legal language in the country to this day.

Alphabet

The language was originally first written in the Apsinthian Alphabet by Amathian clerics from Arciluco. In fact, the Apsinthian script was invented to be able to better write in the languages of the Marolevic tribes before the peoples of Amathia adopted it to replace the Solarian alphabet. This script remained the primary system of writing the langauge before the collapse of the Empire of Arciluco in the 14th century. Coinciding with the birth of the Empire of Tengaria, a push for greater connexion to a Solarian heritage saw an modified Solarian alphabet introduced by Cornelius Lapidus in 1393. Throughout the following centuries, this script would be largely used, and became the dominant usage of those who could read or write in the language, and eventually became the alphabet used when the government began establishing its own schools. In the 19th century, Tengarian nationalists and Pan-Marolevic supporters began to advocate for the adoption of the Soravian script, although it was limited and never became widespread. Although depending on region the alphabet use might differ- such as in areas proximate to the Amathian border, the use of Apsinthian is more common- making it technically digraphic, the primary alphabet used by speakers of the language in the Solarian alphabet.

The Tengarian alphabet has the following 30 Solarian letters and 29 Apsinthian and Soravian letters (the Soravian removing 4 letters and adding an additional 3):

Solarian	Apsinthian	Soravian	Sound	Name	Pronunciation
А	Ⰰ	А	/ɑ/	A	a in "father"
Æ	Ⱑ	N/A	/e/	Yae	e in "red"
B	Ⰱ	Б	/b/	Be	b in "ball"
C	Ⰽ	К, Ч	/k/, /tʃ/	Ce	c in "scan" ch in "choice"
D	Ⰴ	Д	/d/	De	d in "door"
E	Ⰵ	E	/e/	E	e in "red"
F	Ⱇ	Ф	/f/	Fe	f in "flag"
G	Ⰳ	Г, Џ	/ɡ/, /dʒ/	Ga	g in "goat" g in "general"
H	Ⱈ	X	/h/	Ha	h in "aha"
I	Ⰹ	И	/i/,/j/	I	i in "machine" y in "yes"
J	Ⰶ	Ж	/ʒ/	Je	s in "treasure"
K*	Ⰽ	К	/k/	Ka	c in "scan"
L	Ⰾ	Л	/l/, /ʎ/	El	l in "lamp"
М	Ⰿ	M	/m/	Em	m in "mouth"
N	Ⱀ	H	/n/, /ɲ/	En	n in "north" gn in "gnocchi"

Solarian	Apsinthian	Soravian	Sound	Name	Pronunciation
O	Ⱁ	O	/o/	O	o in "floor"
P	Ⱂ	П	/p/	Pe	p in "spot"
Q	Ⱉ	N/A	/k/	Qu	k in "kettle"
R	Ⱃ	P	/r/	Er	"r" as in "curd"
S	Ⱄ	C	/s/	Es	s in "song"
Ș	Ⱎ	Ш	/ʃ/	Șe	sh in "shopping"
Т	Ⱅ	T, Ц	/t/, /t͡s/	Te	t in "stone" zz in "pizza"
Th	Ⱚ	Ѳ	/θ/	The	"th" in "thigh"
U	Ⱆ	У	/u/, /w/	U	oo in "boot" w in "cow"
Ū	Ⱏ	Ъ	/ɤ/	Ūr	u in "turn"
V	Ⰲ	B	/ʋ/	Ve	v in "vision"
W*	Ⱗ	N/A	/w/	Veve	w in "west"
X	Ⱓ	К+C	/ks/	Ix	x in "six" x in "example"
Y	Ⱛ	Ь	/j/, /i/	Ye	y in "yes" i in "machine"
Z	Ⰸ	З	/z/	Ze	z in "zipper"

{*}Only used in more contemporary loanwords.

As noted above, the letters in Tengarian may be may pronounced different according to different general principles (when written in Soravian, these different sounds are sometimes written with other letters).

• C: If C comes before E, I, AE or Y, it is pronounced /tʃ/, as in "choice". In all other cases, it is pronounced /k/, as in "cap".
• G: If G comes before E, I, AE or Y, it is pronounced /dʒ/, as in "general". In all other cases, it is pronounced /ɡ/, as in "girl".
• GN: GN together makes the sound /ɲ/, like in "gnocchi".
• T: If T comes before I with a vowel following, it is pronounced /t͡s/, as in "pizza". In all other cases it is pronounced /t/, as in "stone".

Grammar

Nominal morphology

Tengarian nouns and adjectives possess grammatical case, number, and gender. Tengarian has six cases, one more than Solarian and one fewer than Old Church Marolevic: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental and vocative (the locative of Old Church Marolevic was merged in with the instrumental case). Number is either singular (one) and plural (multiple). Nouns, adjectives and pronouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Nouns are divided into four categories based on the principal vowel used to determine an ending, called "stems". Although like Old Church Marolevic, the stems were once greater in number, over time they became reduced in usage. Dialects of Tengarian utilised some different morphologies for noun-endings until the language became more uniform from education in the 19th and 20th centuries.

O-Stems

O-Stems can be masculine or neuter, although the majority tend to be masculine.

Masculine ("town") & Neuter ("word")

	Masculine		Neuter
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
NOM	grad-	grad-i	verb-om	verb-a
GEN	grad-i	grad-ū	verb-i	verb-ū
DAT	grad-u	grad-omu	verb-u	verb-omu
ACC	grad-om	grad-omo	verb-om	verb-a
INS	grad-u	grad-omu	verb-u	verb-omu
VOC	grad-e	grad-i	verb-e	verb-a

A-Stems

The vast majority of A-Stems are feminine, with only a few exceptions.

Feminine ("woman")

Case	Singular	Plural
NOM	jen-a	jen-e
GEN	jen-e	jen-ū
DAT	jen-i	jen-amu
ACC	jen-am	jen-ama
INS	jen-a	jen-amu
VOC	jen-e	jen-e

I-Stems

U-Stems can be variably masculine, feminine or neuter.

Feminine ("family") & Neuter ("guest")

	Masc. & Fem.		Neuter
Case	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
NOM	gen-i	gen-i	gost-	gost-a
GEN	gen-i	gen-ū	gost-i	gost-ū
DAT	gen-i	gen-umū	gost-i	gost-umū
ACC	gen-im	gen-imi	gost-	gost-a
INS	gen-e	gen-umi	gost-u	gost-umi
VOC	gen-e	gen-uje	gost-e	gost-uja

U-Stems

U-Stems can be variably masculine or feminine.

Masculine ("house")

Case	Singular	Plural
NOM	dom-u	dom-ovu
GEN	dom-ui	dom-ovū
DAT	dom-ovi	dom-ūmū
ACC	dom-um	dom-umu
INS	dom-ū	dom-ūmi
VOC	dom-u	dom-ove

Verbal morphology and grammar

Tengarian verbs possess person, number, voice, aspect, tense and mood.