4
Terrkovkin and Yamotian, the Languages of the Empire
Terrkovkin is the language of the Terrenic people which originates from the central regions of the archipelago. Terrkovkin is a fusion and evolution of the old languages of the ancient tribes. Once Luka founded the Terren Empire he decreed Terrkovkin to be the National Language of the empire. Due to this Terrkovkin is used in all formal imperial decrees, military orders, and official ceremonies as well as also being the language most commonly used in the legal code and within imperial courts of law. The language itself is marked by sharp consonants and guttural throat sounds, giving it a commanding, almost forceful tone. Vowels are often short and subdued giving the language a distinct focus on consonantal strength.
Terrkovkin Alphabet and Punctuation
The Terrkovkin alphabet consists of 22 consonants, 6 vowels, and 12 punctuation marks.
Consonants: | Vowels: | Punctuation: |
C - /k/ (hard "c" sound) D - /d/ F - /f/ G - /g/ H - /h/ J - /ʤ/ (like "j" in "jam") K - /k/ λ - /l/ M - /m/ N - /n/ φ - /p/ R - /r/ S - /s/ T - /t/ V - /v/ X - /ks/ (like "x" in "box") Z - /z/ Ꝙ - /kw/ Y - /j/ (like "y" in "yes") W - /w/ ˀ - (glottal stop) |
E - /ɛ/ (as in "bed") I - /i/ (as in "machine") O - /ɔ/ (as in "more") U - /u/ (as in "rule") Y - /ɪ/ (as in "bit") |
? - (Question Mark) ! - (Exclamation Mark) , - (Comma) "" - (Quotation Mark) = - (Equals Sign) χ - (Division Sign) - - (Subtraction Sign) + - (Addition Sign) - (Multiplication Sign) () - (Parentheses) ∵ - (Therefore Sign) |
Consonants: Terrkovkin uses a combination of soft and hard consonants. Stops (like /p/, /t/, /k/) are prominent, giving the language a precise and punctuated rhythm. Voiced fricatives (/v/, /z/) and rolled /r/ sounds are also common.
Stress and Vocal Rhythm: The stress in Terrkovkin is generally penultimate (on the second-to-last syllable), though this can shift for emphasis in certain verb forms or for stylistic purposes. Terrkovkin speech is almost exclusively spoken in Heroic(Dactylic) Hexameter. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows:
| u u | u u | u u | u u | u u |
( for a long syllable, u for a short, and u u for a position that may be a long or two shorts)
A syllable is long if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong. It is also long (with certain exceptions) if it has a short vowel followed by two consonants, even if these are in different words.
Morphology
Nouns:
Nouns in Terrkovkin are declined based on case (grammatical role), number (singular, plural), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neutral). This does not apply to proper nouns which are not declined in case.
Adjectives:
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case, gender, and number.
Pronouns:
Pronouns in Terrkovkin do adapt to case and number, but they are minimalistic and avoid completely avoid gender distinctions.
Cases:
Nominative = subject (subject of the sentence)
Genitive = of subject (possession)
Dative = to/for subject (indirect object)
Accusative = object (direct object)
Arcanitive = made manifest by subject (spellcasting)
Verbs:
Verbs are highly inflected and express not only tense but also aspect (whether an action is completed or ongoing) and mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative).
Adverbs:
Adverbs agree with the verbs they modify in case, gender, and number.
Tenses:
Present Tense Actions happening now: Luka vedi (Luka leads).
Imperfect Tense Ongoing past actions: Luka vedet (Luka was leading).
Future Tense Actions yet to occur: Luka veduth (Luka will lead).
Present Perfect Actions completed in the past actions with influence on the present: Luka vediria nok (Luka has led us).
Pluperfect Tense Actions that occurred antecedent to a time in the past: Luka vedinat (Luka shall be leading).
Future Perfect Tense - Actions that will have been completed in the future: Luka veditsa (Luka will have led)
Aspect:
Perfective Completed actions: Luka vedam (Luka has led).
Imperfective Ongoing actions: Luka vedith (Luka is leading).
Moods:
Indicative Facts or statements: Luka ved (Luka led).
Subjunctive Hypotheticals or wishes: Luka vederu (May Luka lead).
Imperative Commands: Vedirimus, Luka! (Lead, Luka!)
Verb endings can be added together to make more specific demotions
For example:
Imperfect Subjunctive - Vederuet Luka ros (May Luka be leading them)
Future Perfect Imperative - Vedirimusitsa Luka!(Luka, you will have led!)
The ending combination is always Mood, then Aspect, then Tense.
Terrkovkin generally does not have a set word order thanks to its rich inflection. In Terrkovkin word order can be flexible to emphasize certain parts of the sentence, and can be identified with each other based on gender and case.
Example:
Normal: Luka sheer vedi (Luka leads the army).
Emphasis on army: Sheer, Luka vedi (The army, Luka leads).
Case Endings
Pronouns
First-person singular: ni (I/me), nis (my/mine)
Second-person singular: tu (you), tus (your/yours)
Third-person singular: hu (he/she/it), hus (his/her/its)
First-person plural: nik (we), niks (our)
Second-person plural: tik (you)
Third-person plural: Ric (they)
Cases | Singular | Plural |
Nominative | Ni | Nik |
Genitive | Nei | Niktri |
Dative | Nihi | Nikabis |
Accusative | Ne | Nok |
Arcanitive | Ne | Nobis |
Cases | Singular | Plural |
Nominative | Tu | Tik |
Genitive | Tui | Tikstri |
Dative | Tibi | Tikubis |
Accusative | Te | Tos |
Arcanitive | Te | Tibis |
Cases | Singular | Plural |
Nominative | Hu | Rus |
Genitive | Hui | Rustri |
Dative | Hibi | Rubis |
Accusative | He | Ros |
Arcanitive | He | Ribis |
Tense | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Present | e | es | i |
Imperfect | ё | ei | et |
Future | u | ut | uth |
Present Perfect | iri | ire | iria |
Pluperfect | ini | ina | inat |
Future Perfect | it | itse | itsa |
Aspect | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Perfective | a | ae | am |
Imperfective | il | ilt | ith |
Mood | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Indicative | (Base form of word) | (Base form of word) | (Base form of word) |
Subjunctive | einim | eineru | eru |
Imperative | iriti | irint | irimus |
Singular | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
Nominative | der + (Base form of noun)-e | die + (Base form of noun)-e | das + (Base form of noun)-e |
Genitive | des + (Base form of noun)-en | det + (Base form of noun)-en | dem + (Base form of noun)-en |
Dative | des + (Base form of noun)-e | det + (Base form of noun)-e | dem + (Base form of noun)-e |
Accusative | der + (Base form of noun)-en | die + (Base form of noun)-en | das + (Base form of noun)-en |
Arcanitive | ruf + (Base form of noun)-en | ruf + (Base form of noun)-en | ruf + (Base form of noun)-en |
Singular | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
Nominative | e | st | t |
Genitive | en | t | en |
Dative | e | t | t |
Accusative | e | est | et |
Arcanitive | n | t | n |
Nouns | Verbs | Adjectives | Adverbs |
katze (cat) | vedi (lead) | stralyn (hidden) | lintra (smoothly) |
Yamotian is the secondary language spoken primarily by the coastal and eastern most regions of the empire. It has roots in the ancient explorers who landed in the Inarishima peninsula many years ago and has since developed a long and illustrious oral tradition. Due to this Yamotian is associated with the more artistic and spiritual side of the empire, and much of the nation's folklore is written in Yamotian even if it originally came from Terrkovkin, as Yamotian is generally considered more "artistic".
Yamotian Alphabet
The Yamotian alphabet consists of 20 consonants and 6 vowels. Yamotian does not have punctation, but many writers will sometimes borrow punctuation from Terrkovkin for simplicity.
Consonants: | Vowels: |
匚 - /ɔ:/ Ꮝ - /d/ 千 - /f/ Ꮆ - /g/ 卄 - /h/ ﾌ - /dʒ/ Ꮵ - /k/ ㄥ - /l/ 爪 - /m/ 几 - /ŋ/ ㄖ - /ɔɪ/ 卩 - /p/ 尺 - /r/ 丂 - /ʃ/ ㄒ - /t/ Ꮙ - /v/ 山 - /w/ 乂 - /ʒ/ 乙 - /z/
|
乇 - /eə/ 丨 - /i/ Ҩ - /ɪə/ ㄩ - /ʊə/ ㄚ - /ɒ/ と - /und/ |
Consonants:The Yamotian language is known to be extremely difficult to learn and understand for those not used to it, due to its flowy loopy linguistic structure. As a language, Yamotian is lacking in many hard consonants, being much more focused on rapid and sharp changes of lingual flow.
Stress and Vocal Rhythm: Yamotian emphasizes creativity and personal decisions and thus does not have a set vocal stress, although most tend to place stress on the last syllable of each word to more clearly demonstrate where one word ends and the other begins.
Morphology
Nouns:
Nouns are not gendered or declined in Yamotian and pluralization occurs through extra textual or lingual context.
Adjectives:
Adjectives usually come before the noun and modify it.
Pronouns:
Pronouns in Yamotian do adapt to plurality.
Verbs:
Verbs in Yamotian are indicated by word order and although they do not have nearly as many forms as in Terrkovkin they do have them.
Adverbs:
Adverbs are applied to verbs, and generally come after the verb they modify.
Yamotian follows a rather strict Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order and uses its word order to clarify which words agree with each other and provide context for nouns and verbs. In Yamotian order helps identify who is doing what to whom.
Although word order is set, Yamotian has the ability to be written both horizontally and vertically. When it is horizontally written it is read left to right, when vertical it is read top to bottom. For example:
卄丨 Ꮝ卂丂尺乇丂ㄒ Ꮝ乇尺ㄥㄥㄩ(Hi there, Hello)
卄 Ꮝ
丨 乇
Ꮝ尺
卂ㄥ
丂ㄥ
尺ㄩ
乇
丂
ㄒ
(Hi there, Hello)
Word Endings | What they do |
-丂/乇丂 | Used for plurals and present simple verbs. |
-乇Ꮝ | Used for past simple verbs and second communion. |
-丨几Ꮆ | Used for gerunds, first participles, and long tenses. |
-千ㄩㄥ | Changes verbs to adjectives. |
-爪乇几ㄒ/丨ㄖ几 | Change verbs to nouns. |
-乇尺 | Used for comparative forms. |
-乇ㄒ | Used for superlative forms. |
-ㄥㄚ | Used for adverbs. |
Nouns | Verbs | Adjectives | Adverbs |
Ҝ卂ㄒ (cat) | ㄥ千卂Ꮝ(lead) | 卄丨ᏍᏍ千几乇(hidden) | 尺爪ㄩㄩㄒ卄ㄥㄚ(smoothly) |
