Suhalan language

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Suhalan
Limba Suxaranu
PronunciationIPA: [suxaɹanu]
RegionSuhala, North Coius
EthnicitySuhalan people
Native speakers
~10,200,000 (2020)
Early forms
Standard forms
Standard Suhalan
Standard Sojajianixe
Dialects
  • West Suhalan
  • Northwest Suhalan
  • Central Suhalan
  • East Suhalan
  • Sojajianixe
Solarian script
Official status
Official language in
 Suhala
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byAxatemie Nașonaje Suxaranu
Language codes
ISO 639-3shl
SuhalanLangMap.png
  Countries or regions where Suhalan is an official language
  Regions where Suhalan is spoken but is not recognized as an official language
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Suhalan (Suxaranu [suxaɹanu] or Limba Suxare [limba suxaɹanu]) is a Solarian language spoken in southern Euclea and northern Coius. It is the official language of Suhala and is its primarily spoken language, as well as Suhalans in northern Tsabara. Many speakers of Suhalan are multilingual, typically with Vespasian, Rahelian, or Atudean. Diglossia is especially common in Suhala itself. Including the population of Suhalan-speakers outside of Suhala, Suhalan is spoken by approximately 10.2 Million people. The language has significant influence from Gaullican, Vespasian, and Rahelian, having many loanwords from these languages.

History

Suhalan is a Solarian language, descending from Solarian. Solarian was adopted relatively late into the Solarian period, and modern Suhalan possesses significant substrate influence from !Punic, with Suxaro-Suhalan having influence from Paleo-Suhalan. All varieties of Suhalan have adstratum influence from Gaullican, Rahelian, and Pardari with Tsabaro-Suhalan having more Gaullican influence in addition to influence. Suxaro-Suhalan holds significant Vespasian influence, especially on the western side of the island.

Solarian Period

Solarian was introduced to the Island around 113 BCE, when the island was first invaded by Solarian forces. Nimenese and Paleo-Suhalan were the most spoken languages prior to this, with Nimenese being prevalent on the south and eastern coasts. Some Piraean influence also existed on the west coast. The Island was slow to adopt Solarian, and its pre-existing languages stayed strong for centuries after its conquest, leading to the mockery of its inhabitants by Solarian writers who deemed them 'uncivilized'. Nevertheless, Solarian grew and by the 4th century BCE it was the majority language of the Island, with other languages relegated to secondary status in the centre and southern coast.

The Solarian of Suhala stayed much closer to Classical Solarian for much longer than other dialects, undergoing less sound changes and keeping more grammatical features, partially due to its distance from the rest of Euclea and periods of de facto self-governance. Eventually Old Suhalan had become distinct enough from Vulgar Solarian to be considered its own language by modern linguists, although there is little consensus on when this split happened, with timescales of between the 10th to the mid-12th century having been proposed. Old Suhalan was marked by a simplification of the case system into a nominative-accusative, a genitive, and a dative which took over the functions of the Solarian locative and ablative. Old Suhalan also possessed a freer word order and less loanwords than its contemporary Solarian languages, with the main superstrate influences from Rahelian, Pardari, and Gaullican being unevenly distributed across the island.

Old Suhalan was the primary language for internal administration, commerce, and literature, meaning that a large corpus is available. Solarian was largely used only for external communication with states in Euclea, and the Old Suhalan language held a markedly more prestigious position in Medieval Suhala than its contemporaries did in their respective areas. The earliest works in Suhalan are the Nepitagara Documents and the Sermons of St. Simjone, with Suhalan literature tracing its origins to the mid-12th century focusing on accounts of the lives of saints, rulers, or folk heroes, such as the Kanșode de Nepito.

After the Povelian invasion of the western side of the island, the use of Suhalan as an administrative gradually declined as more and more local documents were written in Povelian. The Suhalan on the west side of the island also underwent significant influence from Povelian, adopting many of its spelling conventions and loaning many words. Suhalan on the east side, by contrast, took in far fewer loanwords. Futher dialectical differences would emerge, with Coian Suhalan, Central Suhalan, West Suhalan, and East Suhalan becoming more distinct in their phonologies and lexicons. The earliest examination of Suhalan from a linguistic perspective would be done by !Dante, defining it as an eia language, and noting that it "Displays 3 vulgar languages", and remarking that Suhala's geographic qualities were the likely cause. Later Suhalan-focused analysis would mostly come in the 16 and 1700s, from both Povelian and Suhalan intellectuals.

Modern Suhalan

Early on under Etrurian control, the Suhalan language was mostly left untouched, however it stopped being used for administrative purposes and most literature written on the island began to be written primarily in Vespasian. The language quickly became associated with rural people and the poor, with educated Suhalans sometimes forgoing its use entirely even in private. It was not legally recognized as a language after Etrurian federalization, however the rights of Suhalan speakers were somewhat protected and the language continued to be widely used among most people on the island.

In 1885, the first comprehensive grammar of Suhalan was published by Suhalan writer Gafrieje Ardasu Sartore de Seśari, named Unu Anajusu Compjeśu des Limba Suxaranu, or "A Comprehensive Analysis of the Suhalan Language". Gafrieje would write other major works of Suhalan literature, including Su Korvu Rubru Sanqbine d'Ajambasaj ("The Blood-Red Raven") and Laglva Emesu("Emesis Blue"). His work, as well as the work of a few other Suhalan writers, managed to gain recognition for the Suhalan language, which was acknowledged as a regional language of Etruria in 1901.

Suhalan achieved a brief moment of popularity after the Great War, with the work of Suhalan-language poets, writers, and intellectuals being widely consumed. This came to a crashing halt with the rise of the National-Solarians, who suspected Suhalans of harboring councilist and secessionist sympathies, and who supported the Etrurianization of Suhala. Etrurianization involved the favoring of Etrurian groups in Suhala, whose numbers swelled, and had a devastating effect on the public use of the Suhalan language. Use of Suhalan in public was criminalized, and children who spoke in it during school would be beaten. These efforts lead to the Suhalan liberation movements adopting the defense of the Suhalan language as one of their main goals, with the Fronte Naşonaje bro su Padria et Konkorśa publishing their seminal pamphlet "Saje Ajexe - Finoas Rebiteto!" ("Peace be Unto You - Until the Reseeing"), railing against the supression of Suhala. Many works of Suhalan literature were smuggled out of the island into temporary safe havens in nearby countries. Many Suhalans left the country between the Great War and the Solarian War, and strengthened Suhalan communities in Eastern Euclea and the Asterias, with a significant Suhalan-language community developing in Eldmark.

After Suhalan independence, the language quickly became more used in everyday life, aided by the pro-Suhalan position of the new ruling parties and by the slow emigration out of the country by Etrurians. Suhalan became the national language of commerce and governance, and soon it replaced Vespasian in literature. Under the Ligbe Rufra de Suxare, a concerted policy of "De-Etrurianization" was implemented, with the creation of the Axatemie Nașonaje Suxarano to regulate the Suhalan language and many Vespasian loanwords for technical field being replaced by ones loaned from Solarian, Gaullican, or calqued from Vespasian. Western Suhalan was also suppressed, being seen as having too much Vespasian influence, and the language underwent significant orthographic reform, removing instances of digraphs like ll and sc and standardizing the use of letters like Çç and Şş. This policy of De-Etrurianization was halted after the LRS regime was replaced, and nowadays Suhalan dialects recieve more support from the government.

Nearly all Suhalan speakers are literate, with Suhalan communication online being prevalent, and most linguists and Suhalan language authorities agree that the language's future is positive. Overall, Suhalan is the most spoken language in Suhala, even despite the recent influx of primarily Atudean and Rahelian speaking immigrants, due to the efficacy of Suhalan language-learning programs.

Phonology

Suhalan has 20 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes, with a phonological inventory relatively similar to that of other Solarian languages. Its most crosslinguistically rare phonemes are the dental affricate /θ/ and the labiovelar plosives.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar/Palatal Velar Labiovelar
Nasal m n
Plosive voiceless p k k͡p
voiced b g ɡ͡b
Fricative f θ s ʃ x
Affricate voiceless t͡ʃ
voiced d͡ʒ
Approximants l / ɹ j / w

Notes:

  • Geminate fricatives and fricatives before the liquids /l, r/ are allophonically voiced
  • /n/ and /m/ allophonically assimilate into [ɱ, ŋ, ŋ͡m] before consonants with their places of articulation, i.e /nf/ and /ng/ are realized as [ɱf] and [ŋg]
  • /n/ and /m/ allophonically assimilate into [ŋ] after /u/ and /ɔ/
  • /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ /, and /d͡ʒ/ are typically realized as [ʃʲ] and [t͡ʃʲ]  [d͡ʒʲ]
  • Central Suhalan dialects replace the phonemes /k͡p/ and /ɡ͡b/ with /ʍ/ and /w/ respectively
  • Many younger speakers of Central Suhalan dialects, due to hypercorrection, often replace instances of [w] with [ɡ͡b] in situations where [w] would be correct in Standard Suhalan, i.e Standard Suhalan Vicljom becomes Qbicljom
  • Many speakers of Central Suhalan dialects hypercorrect /l/ into /j/ in situations where the former would be correct in Standard Suhalan, i.e Standard Suhalan Limba (Languge) and Falsu (Deceptive, Sneaky) becoming Jimba and Fajsu
  • In the Northwest Suhalan dialect, /d͡ʒ/ is realized as [ʎ], likely due to influence from Vespasian.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i u
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Notes:

Orthography

Suhalan uses the Solarian alphabet, with 5 vowel letters (along with an acute diacritic to distinguish homophones, and 24 consonant letters.

Suhalan Letter Suhalan Name IPA sound Notes
Aa A a
Bb Be b
Cc Ce k
Çç Çe Represents in Coio-Suhalan
Dç dç Adçe Represents in Coio-Suhalan
Dd De
Ee Ej ɛ
Ff Ef f
Gg Ge g
Ii I i, j* Represents the semivowel j when before a vowel
Jj Je j
Kk Kab k
Ll El l
Gl, gl Egle ,ʃ Represents word-initially and ʃ intervocalically. Represents ʎ in Northwest Suhalan and word-initially in Central Suhalan, ð in Coio-Suhalan, and ʒ intervocalically in Central Suhalan
Mm Eme m
Nn Ene n
Oo O ɔ
Pp Pi p
Qp, qp Aqpa k͡p
Qb, qb Aqba ɡ͡b
Rr Are ɹ
Ss Es s
Şş Eşu ʃ Represents ʒ in Coio-Suhalan
Śś Śeśa θ
Tt Ta t
Uu U u, w Represents the semivowel w when before a vowel
Vv Ve w
X Exir x
Z Eze ʃ Represents ʒ in Central Suhalan and ð in Coio-Suhalan

Grammar

Suhalan is grammatically and typologically similar to other Solarian languages, and is a fusional language. Nouns and adjectives are inflected for case, gender, and number. Verbs are conjugated for tense, aspect, mood, as well agreement with the person and number of their subject.

Pronouns

Suhalan has 6 personal pronouns that decline for 3 cases, those being the nominative, accusative, and dative. Pronouns can be cliticised, with dative pronouns being procliticised before verbs with initial vowels (written with an apostrophe '), and encliticised (written with a hyphen "-" between the verb and pronoun) after nouns to indicate possession. Accusative pronouns can be encliticised (written with a hyphen "-" between the verb and pronoun). It also possesses a three-way distinction between demonstratives, proximal, medial, and distal.


Personal Pronouns

case Number and person
Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd M. 3rd F. 1st 2nd 3rd M. 3rd F.
Nominative Jo Tu Ide Ida Nor Bor Idi Ider
Accusative Me Te Idu Ida Ne Be Idor Idar
Dative Mi Ti Si Si Nośre Besdre Sir Sir

Demonstrative Pronouns

Case Type and Number
Singular Plural
Proximal Medial Distal Proximal Medial Distal
Nominative Unc/Anc Iśśu/a Icle/a Or / Ar Iśśor/ar Iclor/ar
Oblique Uic Iśśi Icli Ir Iśśir Iclir

Nouns

All nouns in Suhalan are either masculine or feminine, and the gender of a noun can usually be told from its ending. However, there are nouns which have a feminine ending and follow a feminine declension pattern but are masculine, and vice verse, leading to some ambiguous situations. Suhalan posesses two grammatical numbers, the singular and plural. It also has two grammatical cases, the Nominative and the Oblique. The nominative is used for the subjects and direct objects of verbs, while the oblique is used for nouns with prepositions or the indirect objects of verbs. Nouns can be grouped into declension patterns.

Femidina

Nouns in the Feminine declension tend to come from the Latin 1st declension.

"House"
Case Singular Plural
NOM kas-a kas-ar
OBL kas-e kas-ir

Efixenu

Nouns in the Epicene declension tend to come from the Latin 3rd declension, and can be either masculine or feminine.

"Tree"
Case Singular Plural
NOM arbor-e arbor-er
OBL arbor-i arbor-ipor

Masculinu I

Nouns in the Masculine I declension typically come from the Latin second declension

"Dog"
Case Singular Plural
NOM kan-u kan-or
OBL kan-o kan-ir

Masculinu II

Nouns in the Masculine II declension typically come from the Latin fourth declension. Many nouns that use the Masculine II declension are feminine, and use feminine articles and feminine adjectival agreement.

"Hand"
Case Singular Plural
NOM man-u man-or
OBL man-ui man-ipor

Verbs

Verbs are highly inflected, and belong to one of three conjugation patterns classified by their infinitive endings, are, ere, and ire. Suhalan is traditionally regarded to have 4 tenses, the present (bresente), preterite (preśeriśu), imperfect past (imperfejśu), and future (fuśuru), as well as 3 moods, the indicative (indixaśibu) , subjunctive (supjunctibu), and imperative (imperaśibu).

-are verbs

Kantare, "to Sing"
Mood Tense & Aspect Number and person Estmerish
equivalent
(only sg. 1st)
Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Indicative Present Kant-o Kant-ar Kant-at Kant-amor Kant-aśir Kant-ant I sing
Preterite Kant-abi Kant-abiśśi Kant-abit Kant-abimor Kant-abiśśir Kant-aberunt I sang (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect Kant-apa Kant-apar Kant-apat Kant-apamor Kant-apaśir Kant-apant I was singing
Future Kant-arav Kant-arar Kant-aret Kant-aremor Kant-arajśir Kant-arent I will sing
Subjunctive Present Kant-e Kant-er Kant-et Kant-emor Kant-eśir Kant-ent If I sing, May I sing
Preterite Kant-aberi Kant-aberir Kant-aberit Kant-aberimor Kant-aberiśir Kant-aberint If I sang (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect Kant-are Kant-arer Kant-aret Kant-aremor Kant-areśir Kant-arent If I was singing
Future Kant-araj Kant-arïar Kant-arajat Kant-arajamor Kant-arajaśir Kant-ajant If I will sing
Imperative Present Kant-a Kant-emor Kant-aśe (You) sing!

-ere verbs

Sapere, "to know"
Mood Tense & Aspect Number and person Estmerish
equivalent
(only sg. 1st)
Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Indicative Present Sap-jo* Sap-er Sap-et Sap-emor Sap-eśir Sap-ent I know
Preterite* Sap-vi Sap-viśśi Sap-vit Sap-vimor Sap-viśśir Sap-verunt I knew (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect Sap-epa Sap-epar Sap-epat Sap-epamor Sap-epaśir Sap-epant I was knowing
Future Sap-epo Sap-epir Sap-epit Sap-epimor Sap-epiśir Sap-epunt I will know
Subjunctive Present* Sap-ja Sap-jar Sap-jat Sap-jamor Sap-jaśir Sap-jant If I know, May I know
Preterite* Sap-veri Sap-verir Sap-verit Sap-verimor Sap-veriśir Sap-verint If I knew (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect Sap-ere Sap-erer Sap-eret Sap-eremor Sap-ereśir Sap-erent If I was knowing
Future Sap-eperi Sap-eperir Sap-eperit Sap-eperimor Sap-eperiśir Sap-aperint If I will know
Imperative Present Sap-e Sap-imor Sap-eśe (You) know!

Notes: Verbs with roots that end in t, d, k, or g will undergo palatalization when conjugated for the 1st person present indicative and the subjunctive preterite, becoming ș, ç, or dç respectively. Verbs with roots that end in k or g or a vowel will become qp qb or change the v into a b respectively when conjugated for the indicative and subjunctive preterite.

-ire verbs

Benire, "to arrive"
Mood Tense & Aspect Number and person Estmerish
equivalent
(only sg. 1st)
Singular Plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
Indicative Present Ben-jo* Ben-ir Ben-it Ben-imor Ben-iśir Ben-junt* I arrive
Preterite Ben-ibi Ben-ibiśśi Ben-ibit Ben-ibimor Ben-ibiśśir Ben-iberunt I arrived (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect* Ben-jepa Ben-jepar Ben-jepat Ben-jepamor Ben-jepaśir Ben-jepant I was arriving
Future* Ben-ja Ben-jer Ben-jet Ben-jemor Ben-jeśir Ben-jent I will arrive
Subjunctive Present * Ben-ja Ben-jar Ben-jat Ben-jamor Ben-jaśir Ben-jant If I arrive, May I arrive
Preterite Ben-iberi Ben-iberir Ben-iberit Ben-iberimor Ben-iberiśir Ben-iberint If I arrived (at a specific point of time)
Imperfect Ben-ire Ben-irer Ben-iret Ben-iremor Ben-ireśir Ben-irent If I was arriving
Future Ben-iperi Ben-iperir Ben-iperit Ben-iperimor Ben-iperiśir Ben-iperint if I will arrive
Imperative Present Ben-i Ben-imor Ben-iśe (You) arrive!

Notes: Verbs with roots that end in t, d, k, or g will undergo palatalization when conjugated for the 1st person present indicative and the subjunctive preterite, becoming ș, ç, or dç respectively.

Syntax

Suhalan is a head-initial language, being typically SVO, placing adjectives after nouns, using prepositions. Its most prominent head-final syntax is the placing of indirect objects before the verb. Suhalan interrogative phrases are SOV, so while the phrase "My friend writes books" would be said (SVO) as:

  • Amixu-mi ixxipet kiśapir

while the phrase "My friend writes books?" is said (with rising intonation & SOV) as:

  • Amixu-mi kiśapir ixxipet?

Suhalan is also a pro-drop language, meaning that there are sentences with objects and verbs and no stated subject, like

  • Bro s'ixxipjo kiśapir-mi

meaning "I write my books for him" (also note that the oblique pronoun si becomes a proclitic before the verb with an initial vowel and that the oblique pronoun mi, used as a genitive, becomes an enclitic after kiśapir, or "books" in the oblique case.

Sample Text and Vocabulary Comparison

Vocabulary Comparison with other Solarian Languages

Estmerish Solarian Suhalan Etrurian Esmeiran Montecaran Gaullican Luzelese Tosuton
key clāvem glabe chiave llave ciàve clé chave clau
night noctem nojśe notte noche nòte nuit noite nit
sing cantāre kantare/-je cantare cantar cantàr chanter cantar cantar
goat capram kabra capra cabra càvra chèvre cabra cabra
language linguam limba lingua lengua lèngua langue língua llengua
plaza plateam piașa piazza plaza plàça place praça plaça
bridge pontem ponte ponte puente pont pont ponte pont
church ecclēsiam eglesia chiesa iglesia céxa église igreja església
hospital hospitālem offiśaje ospedale hospital ospedàl hôpital hospital hospital
cheese cāseum (fōrmāticum) casiu, formaśixu, formadço, cacio, formaggio queso formàxo fromage queijo formatge

Sample of The Lord's Prayer

Solarian Suhalan Direct Translation Estmerish
Pater Noster qui es in caelis

sanctificetur nomen tuum.

Adveniat regnum tuum.

Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra

Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,

Et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Padre-nor, qpid in kejo est.

Nobe-ti saxartiśor iśśet.

Majixeśu-ti beniperir.

Bojonta-ti in se terre pomot in kejo fiśor iśśet.

Nor in diedoze der pana-nor pośișa.

Et condonar depiśor-nor, pomot kondonamor depiśorer-nor

Et no in tentașo duxar-ne, aut de majó liberer-ne. Amen.
Father our, who in heaven is.

Name your venerated be.

Kingdom your may it come.

Will your in the earth like in heaven enforced be.

To us in today give bread our daily

And forgive trespasses our like we forgive trespassers our.

And not in temptation lead us, but from evil deliver us. Amen.
Our Father who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth like in heaven

Give us today our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses like we forgive our trespassers

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.