Malakë

Malakë (mlk. /ma'lakə/; ddo. Malakē /ma˨˦ la˨ ke˦/) is the language of the Taka people, the vast majority of whom reside in the Takahmyok Federation. Various Malakë dialects are spoken by almost all Taka as their first language, and Standard Malakë is also spoken as a second language by a large number of Hmyok, especially those who reside in the western provinces of the country.

Malakë has been spoken in a recognisable form for at least 800 years. Additionally, the undeciphered Betang Carving, found in a cave in eastern Takahmyok, is theorised by some to be in an ancestor of Malakë, although research is still underway. Ancient accounts from as far away as Ternium also mention a language called "Melak, spoken to the east", but it is unknown if this referred to an older form of Malakë, a related and now extinct language, or an entirely unrelated tongue.

Malakë is one of the Takahmyok Federation's two "federal languages", with the other being Ddo. It is spoken in the homes of the majority of citizens in the western portion of the federation, roughly corresponding to the old Taka Kingdom. It is also spoken natively by Taka who reside in the western portion of the federation, where Ddo is otherwise the main language of communication. Malakë, along with Ddo, is also used as an administrative language in the hill provinces that line the northern edge of the federation (see: Takahmyok language policy). While various "hill languages" are spoken in the homes in the region, speakers with different first languages may default to Malakë as a lingua franca.

-Typology (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese\_language and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish\_language for examples)

-Picture of the language name(s) written in its script(s) (if applicable)

Classification:

Malakë is generally regarded as a language isolate. Some linguists have attempted to link Malakë with Pala and other languages of the Waccan Hills, but evidence for these languages having a common ancestor is thin, and correspondences are more likely to be the result of extensive language contact and borrowing.

At it stands, Malakë displays very little dialectal variation, and communication is largely unimpeded between speakers from different provinces. Nonetheless, a Standard Malakë has been codified by the Takahmyok Education Docency, based largely around the speech of the co-capital \_\_\_. Speech in the west and northwest differs slightly from Standard Malakë in the realisation of the vowels.

 /i/
 /ə/
 /u/
 hëkën u mamisu
"twist the seed pod"
/həkən u ma'misu/

Georgaphic Distribution:

-Example maps of distribution at whatever times

-Notable diaspora (if applicable)

History:

-Origins

-Migrations (if applicable)

-Impact of history (sound changes etc.) on writing (if applicable)

-Other noteworthy stuff (hard to pin it down to specific stuff)

Status section (maybe not though since we don't really have a "modern day" other than 0 MT and speaker numbers change over time so the only way to make it work for Pollasena langs would be to make grsphs for speaker number):

-Speaker number(?)

-Sociolinguistic situation and legal status (if applicable)

Phonology:

Malakë has a fairly small phoneme inventory, with 9 consonants and 4 vowels

 Stop
 Nasal
 Other

All pairs of initial consonants and vowels are attested, while /s/ and /ŋ/ also occur syllable-finally.

Stops are almost always unaspirated, although speakers of Northern dialects aspirate word-initial stops.

The phonemes /s/ and /r/ display a wide range of allophony, with realisations alternating especially often at the boundary of root words and affixes.

* /s/ is elided between vowels. /

-Example words for each phoneme

-Phonotactics

-Finer details of realization (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewa\_language#Phonology for examples)

Orthography:

-Ortho (if applicable)

-Romanization w/ example words for each letter

Grammar:

-Noun stuff and example noun inflection paradigm (if applicable, and with declension examples if applicable and irregular example if applicable)

-Pronouns and determinatives (if applicable)

-Adjective stuff and example noun inflection paradigm (if applicable, and with declension examples if applicable and irregular example if applicable)

-Copula (if applicable)

-Verb stuff and example verb inflection paradigm (if applicable, and with conjugation examples if applicable and irregular example if applicable)

-Adverb stuff and example verb inflection paradigm (if applicable, and with conjugation examples if applicable and irregular example if applicable)

-Affixes and particles (however applicable)

-Compound words (if applicable)

-Example of maximal affixing (if applicable)

-Syntax

-Other notable grammar stuff (hard to pin it down to specific stuff)

Registers section (if applicable)? (or part of Grammar or Language Examples)

-Examples of register differences

Phrases section?

-(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palauan\_language#Palauan\_phrases and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish\_language#Basic\_greetings\_and\_phrases and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewa\_language#Sample\_phrases for examples)

Numerals section? (could also go in Grammar or Language Examples)

-(Also explanation of different numeral categories if applicable)

Literature section (if applicable)

-Notable literary works and literary artists (if applicable)

Language Examples section?

-(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani\_language#Lexicon and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish\_language#Language\_examples for examples)

Notes on influence from applicable languages (could go in History or Grammar or both)

-Loanword examples

-Examples of loans into other applicable languages

Descendants

(For protos)

-Urheimat

-Sound correspondence example tables

-Inflection correspondences (if applicable)

-Comparison table of descendant cognate sets

--Numeral comparison

-Possible relation to other families

(For dialects) distinguishing features of phono, grammar, etc.

Separate page(s) for in-depth explanation of history/grammar stuff if needed