Rikutsaren languages

The Rikutsaren languages (Ricutsaren, ) are the family of languages derived from and including Ancient Rikutsaren, a language created by The Two and their human compatriots in 440 AD. The languages are spoken primarily in the nation of Rikutsar. Records were thorough, the population of Rikutsar was small and, as such, Ancient Rikutsaren is remarkably well-preserved and attested for a language of the era. It is still understood by speakers of Rikutsaren today. The language remained highly inflected and agglutinative through the 10th century AD. Due to the low population, high loyalty to the monarchy, good education and efficient long-distance communication, the language remained nearly unchanged through almost the entire period, and more pronounced changes to grammar and pronunciations would not arrive until Old Rikutsaren. 
==Classification==
The Rikutsaren languages are fundamentally members of the far older Lenidian language family. Primarily derived from the Lithic branch, its grammar has remained largely unchanged from its alien predecessor. However, its vocabulary borrows often from human languages such as Proto-Finnic, Gallaecian, Latin, Aramaic, Sanskrit, and Proto-Nyungan. These correlate with languages encountered by The Two during their expedition.
From here I will use Rikutsaren and language to refer to this language family.
==Distribution==
Ancient Rikutsaren was spoken exclusively in the Archipelago, and by the end of the period speakers were living across the entirety of its land. For a long time, there were no discernible dialects, but today there are 3 distinct languages in the family, each with many dialects.
*Rikutsaren, the modern-day language of Rikutsar, is spoken by about 8 million people, primarily in the archipelago but also in other places in the world.
*Swórlac, spoken on the island of the same name, split from Ancient Rikutsaren quite early.
*Sornuver is spoken on the west coast of Australia. It has only a few thousand speakers and has always been very small.
*Ancient Rikutsaren remains in use by the Government of Rikutsar.
In the Future, these languages will evolve into the languages (and later branches) of Suwnov, Ceenuvər, and Rrônuəd respectively.
Ricutsaren is split into 8 regional dialects:
*Northern, spoken in Nuartsar.
*Western, spoken in most of Sareanár.
*Southern, spoken in Weantsan and southern Subrep cantons.
*Plains, spoken in most of Bevicul.
*Lewariteo, spoken in Lewariteo canton.
* Central, spoken in most of Nevar, Pirreas canton, and Simiolśo canton.
*Ceagár or Imperial, spoken in Ceagár canton and parts of Nuchul canton. Used as the standard for the Rikutsari language.
*Eastern, spoken in Siositeo and Iteotses cantons.
Swoorlac is split into 2 dialects:
* West Swoorlac - spoken in Lanul and Gréttsan cantons.
*East Swoorlac - spoken on Swórtaoc.
==Phonology ==
 	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar 	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal 	m 	 	 	n 	 	 	 	 	 	
Plosive (Stop)	bp 	 	 	td 	 	 	kg 	 	 	
Affricate 	 	 	 	ts / tʃdz / dʒ	 	 	 	 	 	
Fricative 	 	fv 	 	s / ʃz / ʒ 	 	 	xɣ 	 	 	h
Approximant 	 	 	 	 	 	j 	 	w 	 	
Trill 	 	 	 	r 	 	 	 	 	 	
Flap or tap 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Lateral app. 	 	 	 	l 	 	 	 	 	 	
===Vowels===
 	Front 	Back
Close	i~ɪ / y~ʏ	u
Mid 	e / ø~œ 	o
Low 	a 	
===Allophones and Diphthongs===
====Vowels ====
Vowels are quite common in the language. The nucleus of a syllable can theoretically contain an unlimited number of vowels unless /i/ or /u/ occurs intervocalically. Both languages have many diphthongs using all the vowels except /y/ and /ø/.
==== Vowel Dominance ====
Vowels can be classified into two categories: Major and Minor. Major vowels are /a/, /e/, /ø/, and /o/, while minor vowels are /i/, /u/, and /y/. This system was passed down from Lithic and Rendic. Initially, it emerged due to the high prevalence of diphthongs ending in /i/ and /u/. In grammatical affixes that agree with vowels in the root, they agree with the major vowel in a diphthong.
====Consonants====
Ancient Rikutsaren had 26 consonants, 2 more than English (/ts/ and /dz/ don't occur in English). 13 of these consonants are alveolar, and are used in 64% of all words. /r/ is by far the most used consonant in the language, used in 10% of words.
===Stress===
Penultimate syllables are always stressed, and both vowels in a diphthong are stressed if both are major or minor vowels. In diphthongs consisting of a major and a minor vowel, the major vowel is always stressed, causing the minor vowel to be shortened in many cases.
==Writing System ==
Modern Rikutsaren is written by its native speakers and the government of Rikutsar using the Rikutsaren Script, an evolved version of the original script created for use in Ancient Rikutsar. Transcriptions of Rikutsaren into languages that use the Latin alphabet are almost always made using the Rikutsaren Orthography.
[this needs to be fleshed out moooore]; [nope, still waiting on the redesign, also it's gonna be based on a theoretical Lithon script]
==Vocabulary==
The vocabulary of Rikutsaren currently consists of nearly 1,900 words. It can be found here.
==Gender==
[actually it's been hazy whether or not genders exist in Rikutsar. in Ancient Rikutsaren they may have, but in the modern language it's kind of... formal. idek if or when they go on nouns or verbs and it's been ugh... on the back burner]
[upon looking at my wordlist, gender seems not to be used at all anymore]
== Nouns and Noun Phrases==
=== Case & Noun Strength===
In Rikutsaren, nouns can be one of 3 "strengths": strong, neutral, and weak. Strong and weak were passed down from Lithic, but neutral is a Rikutsaren innovation.
Lithon-derived nouns are strong or weak, but most other words are neutral. Declensions are baked into each noun, so they must be memorized. In Ancient Lithon (and to some extent today), declensions actually referred to "strong" things and "weak" things.
Nouns are inflected by 5 grammatical cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Instrumental, and Dative. Pronouns can also be inflected by case.
===Number ===
Singular nouns are unmarked. In the plural, nouns end with -ac (strong, major), -ec (strong or weak, minor, after consonants), -c (strong or weak, minor, after vowels) or a repetition of the last major vowel (weak, major). Examples include: 
*gath (fort, stronghold) > gathac (strong, major)
*pyr (tower) > pyrec (strong, minor)
* fau (adventure) > fauc (strong, major)
* føs (string) > føsø (weak, major)
Any noun that refers to a group of multiple things will necessarily be plural, unless the noun refers to the group as a single unified whole (see [collective nouns] for details).
===Definiteness===
There was no definiteness in Lithic. Instead, the Nominative case was used. However, in Rikutsaren, the strong nominative affixes -a and -e are used as definite affixes. These affixes occurs after the noun they modify and also after any gender affixes.
Additionally, the word e was split from the definite, with the meaning of "this" or "what".
===Collective Nouns===
Nouns that refer to a group of multiple things that are counted as a single unified whole are marked with the collective suffix -á
*rons "tree", ronsá "forest"
*ulc "wolf", ulcá "wolf pack"
Some nouns are collective by default, such as bituf "snow" or berar "grass". Referring to singular instances of these is done using the weak accusative case endings -at and -et
*bituf "snow", bitufet "snowflake"
* berar "grass", berarat "blade of grass"
===Adpositions===
Adpositions come after the noun, but also after any adjective that may modify it. Adpositions cannot exist in phrases that do not have nouns, and are instead represented as adverbs in such environments.
[need example]
==Pronouns==
Pronouns in Rikutsaren precede their complement.
===Personal Pronouns===
Personal pronouns are listed in the table below. As Rikutsaren has an affix-based verbal conjugation system, there are no subject pronouns, and these pronouns do not occur on their own.
 	singular	plural
1st person	na 	siel
2nd person	vaz 	le
3rd person	ca 	mi
=== Possessive Pronouns===
Possession is marked by the Genitive case. All pronouns use the weak declension, so personal pronouns can be made possessive by adding -i.
===Correlatives ===
 	 	Where 	What 	Who 	When 	How 	Why 	
 	 	ta / gea	-(a,e)	ir / cir	geo 	ach 	ré 	
Interrogative	-as 	geás 	eas 	iras 	geos 	achas	réas 	Determiner
Proximal 	-(a,e)t	tat 	et 	iret 	geot 	achat	rét 	Pronoun
Distal 	lu- 	luta 	lu 	luir 	lugeo	achat	rét 	Pronoun
None 	ba- 	bagea 	bá 	bacir 	bageo	bách 	baré 	Adverb
Some 	oś- 	ośea 	ośa 	ośir 	ośeo 	ośach	ośeré	Adverb
Every, Each 	vas- 	vasta 	vasa 	vaśir 	vaśeo	roch 	vahré	Adverb
All 	ro- 	rogea 	roa 	rocir 	rogeo	roch 	roré 	Adverb
Else, Other 	te- 	teta 	té 	tecir 	tegeo	teach	teré 	Adverb
==Adjectives and Adverbs==
Adjectives are formed by adding the suffix -u to the end of a noun.Adverbs are formed by adding the suffix -ai to the end of a noun. In a noun-phrase the adjective always come after the noun they modify, but in a verb-phrase the adverb always comes before the verb (preserving the rule that verbs come last). For multiple adverbs or adjectives, the word o "and" splits them.
===Degrees of Comparison===
(WIP)
The Rikutsaren language uses 2 Degrees of Comparison,
 	Comparative	Superlative
Positive	-lø 	-sech
Equative	-cast 	-cast
Negative	-balø 	-basech
"lø" and "sech" are used as adverbs of comparison, corresponding to "so" and "not so [much]" or "very" and "not as." When referring to an amount of something, the comparative affixes become standalone in verbal environments. (ex. "I have more." "Lø nedref.").
== Verbs==
Since Rikutsaren exhibits SOV alignment, verbs occur at the end of the sentence. Within a verb phrase, non-finite verbs appear last.
Verbs can be conjugated by person, tense, aspect, modality, and gender in Elder Rikutsaren. There are distinct markings for person in the singular vs. the plural, and verbs can be in the past, present, or future tense. Additionally, infinitive verb forms can be inflected for tense. Verbs typically have 438 possible forms as a result.
=== Person and Number===
Rikutsaren has three tenses: past, present, and future. They occur consistently across all moods and aspects, and are represented by prefix immediately before the verb root.
gerund 	-es 	-es 	 	 	 	
 	past 	past 	present 	present	future 	future
 	singular	plural	singular	plural 	singular	plural
infinitive	ea- 	ea- 	é- 	é- 	eo- 	eo-
1st person	na- 	sa- 	ne- 	se- 	no- 	so-
2nd person	da- 	la- 	de- 	le- 	do- 	lo-
3rd person	ca- 	ta- 	ce- 	te- 	co- 	to-
===Aspect===
Rikutsaren has four aspects represented by suffixes on the verb: 
*The Perfective aspect (which is unmarked) represents an action that was, is, or will be complete, no matter the tense, and also a non-habitual (generic) action. Thus it is called complete and generic.
* The Frequentative aspect (marked by -tsa) represents a complete action that is habitual.
*The Imperfective aspect (marked by -wa) represents an incomplete action that is generic, analogous to the continuous aspect in English.
*The Habitual aspect (marked by -si) represents an incomplete and habitual action. In the early notes while developing this aspect system, this was code named the "pledged" aspect because it is analogous to English phrases where someone has pledged to do something, regardless of whether or not they've begun yet. 
**For example "I have been walking", "I am walking", and "I will be walking", where "walking" refers to a habitual exercise, would all fall under the habitual aspect.
===Modality===
Rikutsaren represents modality, as it does many grammatical concepts, with a suffix. There are 6 moods:
*The Indicative mood (which is unmarked) is the sole realis mood in Rikutsaren. It represents a verb that is a statement of fact.
*The Conditional mood (marked by -nor-) is similar to the English conditional, and represents a verb whose validity is dependent on some condition.
* The Subjunctive mood (marked by -sol-) represents a verb which the speaker is encouraging or discouraging. Can be used as a softer form of the Imperative. Can also serve to affirm or emphasize a verb ("Did you eat?" "I did eat"; "Dapas?" "Napassol")
*The Imperative mood (marked by -sur-) represents a command or request. In Ancient Rikutsar, as is the case in modern times, the Imperative was not normally used colloquially or informally and was generally seen as authoritative, harsh, and formal.
*The Permissive mood (marked by -us-) represents a verb that is allowed or permitted by the speaker.
*The Potential mood (marked by -tse-) represents a verb that is speculated to be possible or not possible, or a verb that the subject speculates they are capable or not capable of doing. Equivalent to English "could."
*The Epistemic mood (marked by -eru-) represents a verb which is definitely possible or not possible, or a verb that the subject is definitely capable or not capable of doing. Equivalent to English "can." Generally thought to imply an intended action and can be taken as a promise.
TO ORGANIZE:
In English, -ness, -dom, -hood, and other affixes can be used to form mass nouns from adjectives. In Rikutsaren, the process works the other way, starting with mass nouns and forming adjectives by taking the -(e)v ending. (rúv "slowness" > rúvev "slow")	In English, -ness, -dom, -hood, and other affixes can be used to form mass nouns from adjectives. In Rikutsaren, the process works the other way, starting with mass nouns and forming adjectives by taking the -(e)v ending. (rúv "slowness" > rúvev "slow")
 	However, some adjectives derive from count nouns, and as such mass nouns can be further derived by adding the -ge / -eg ending.
 	Yet adjectives can still turn into nouns in Rikutsaren, even adjectives that are themselves derived from nouns (fiocu "breeze" > fiocuv "breezy" > fiocuveg "breeziness")
Category:Rikutsaren languages
Category:Languages
Category:Rikutsar