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 Old Church Marolevic Middle 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 de facto national 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. The language is a development of Old Church Marolevic with heavy influences from Solarian, Vulgar Solarian and Amathian, which have contributed significant loanwords to the language and also influenced the development of its grammar. This has led to a minority of linguists insisting that the language is more akin to Solarian languages than to Marolevic; however, the vast majority of scholars believe that it is a Marolevic language. 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.

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 Constans Volev 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), with some remnants of the dual number still existing. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. In addition to these properties, nouns are divided into categories based on the principal letter used to determine an ending:

Verbal morphology and grammar

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