Menakan language

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Menakan
Menskans
Native toMenako Islands
RegionMenako Islands
Native speakers
ca. 1 million
Veterran
  • Vismaric
    • East Vismaric
      • Menako-Feinan
        • Menakan
Official status
Official language in
Flag of the Menako Islands.svg Menako Islands
Regulated byMinistry for Cultural Preservation
Language codes
ISO 639-3mnk

Menakan (Menskans) is an East Vismaric language spoken mainly and orginating from the Menako Islands. Currently there are around 1 million native speakers of Menakan, almost all of them situated on the Menako Islands themselves. It is sometimes spoken as a second language, with currently there being 300.000 second language speakers. it most closely related to Feinan and Vistrasjorder, spoken in Norsund.

Due to the language being spoken in an important trading hub for the Hellonian Realm, it has adopted elements from both Hellonian and German. Due to its late standardization and status as a relatively simple language for communication, it is one of the least inflective language in the Vismaric languages. Menakan only has one common gender and officially only has two cases - nominative and genitive (expect for pronouns which are also inflected in the object form). Menakan has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular. Adjectives are only inflected when used with a linking verb for number, otherwise all adjectives are standardly inflected with the suffix -na. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles. Verbs are entirely regular and are only inflected based on tense.

History

Phonology

Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Continuant sibilant s
non-sibilant f v θ (ð) j h
Lateral l   ʎ
Trill r
Short/lax vowels
Front
unr.
Front
rnd.
Central Back
Close ɪ ʏ
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open ɑ
 
Long/tense vowels
Front
unr.
Front
rnd.
Back
Close i ~ y ~ u ~
Close-mid øː
Open-mid (ɛː) (œː) (ɔː)
Open

Grammar

Orthography

Menakan is written using the Hellonian runic alphabet.

Consonants
Grapheme Phonetic realization (IPA) Examples
ᛒ/b [b] unaspirated Voiced bilabial stop bok [buk] "book"
ᚦ/d [t] unaspirated voiceless dental stop duk [duk] "towel"
at end of a word
[ð̠] voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
bad [bɑð̠]
ᚦᚾ/dn [ð̠n] bidner [biːð̠nər] "invite"
ᚠ/f [f] fot [fɔt] "foot"
ᚷ/g in most cases
[g] Voiced velar stop
grot [grɔt] "big"
before t or s or before a pause:
[x] voiceless velar fricative
Magt [mɑxt] "power"
ᚻ/h [h] voiceless glottal fricative har [haːr] "hair"
J/j [j] ja [jaː] "yes"
ᛕ/k [k] ok [ɔk] "and"
ᛚ/l [l] län [lɛːn] "land"
ᛗ/m [m] mamma [mamːa] "mum"
ᚾ/n [n] nam [naːm] "name"
ᛝ/ŋ [ŋ] kring [kriŋ] "circle"
ᛝᛕ/ŋk [ŋk] drunk [dryːŋk] "drink"
ᛈ/p [p] par [paːr] "pair"
ᚱ/r [r] (voiced alveolar trill or tap) rik [riːk] "realm"
ᛋ/s [s] sos [sɔs] "sauce"
ᛏ/t in most cases
[t]
takk [tɑk] "thanks"
at end of word
[θ̠]
sätt [sɛθ̠] "seated"
ᛏᚾ/tn [θ̠] sältna [sɛːlθ̠na] "salted"
U/v [v] varer [vaːrər] "to be"