Akrizani language

**Akrizani** (Akrizani: Akři's'eni pödyj, Aкp̌иӏcйӏэни пöдый [akθ̠iʔtsʼeːni pɵdɨj]), also called **Akerizyen** or **Akerizi**, is a Danukan language spoken by the Akrizani in the Manstoven district of the state of New Danuk. It is the most spoken out of all of the Danukan languages, with about 50,000 speakers.

## Dialects

There are many dialects of Akrizani, but they can be grouped into the Shukveren, Qivri, Kramash, and Tumzri dialect groups, all of which have subdialects. Each dialect has a low mutual intelligibility with the others. Occasionally, the dialects will be grouped into larger dialect groups, being the Northern Group, which contains Shukveren and Qivri, and the Southern Group, which contains Kramash and Tumzri.

It is often taught in schools, along with Belzhyirian. Though, most Akrizani-speaking villages will use Akrizani as their primary language. After the invention of the telephone and the introduction of a writing system, a standardized variety was formed.

## Phonology

Akrizani can have as much as 26 to 33 consonants. Below is the phonology for Shukveren and Qivri dialects.

\*May not be found in the standard, Kramash, and Tumzri dialects.

Voiced stops have a tendency to become nasals as a coda or word-initially. For example, *бaшp̌* /baʂr̥/ "deer" becomes *мaшp̌* [maʂr̥]. Often, words like this one would be spelled like the second word, but older speakers may use the first spelling variant. Kramash Akrizani avoids this by adding a vowel before it, so it becomes *aбaшp̌* [abaʂr̥]. In some subdialects, like in Avas, the stop may change first before the addition of the vowel, resulting in *aмaшp̌* [amaʂr̥].

Some dialects have the labial-labiodental stops [p͡p̪] and [b͡b̪], represented by *пф* or *бв*, respectively, like in the words *пфажоӏсӏ* [p͡p̪aʐoʔtsʼ] "a species of cod" and *ебвимaвки* [jeb͡b̪imaːvki] "to hold down with an object (such as a stake)". Often, they are only found in loanwords or words that are specific to that dialect. Both of these words are specific to the Qivri dialect.

Ejective fricatives tend to become affricates after a glottal stop, like in *вyyӏшӏapy* [wuʔʈʂʼaːru] "barrel". Normal fricatives have this sound change in Shukveren and some subdialcts of Qivri and Tumzri, like in *cэӏф* [sɛʔpf] "three".

/ʟ/ occurs in all dialects except Shukveren, where it has merged with /l/. The fricative /ʟ̝/ is commonly realized as an allophone of /ʟ/, but is contrastive in a few dialects of Tumzri and Qivri, particularly around the Central Lakes region. Take the minimal pair *љo* [lo] "to put down", *лo* [ʟo] "shore"*,* and *лъo* [ʟ̝o] "to clap".

/r̥/ is rare as a phoneme and is found in most dialects of Shukveren and Qivri. Before a plosive or ejective, it becomes [θ̠]. It corresponds to its voiced equivalent /r/ in other dialects.

In some Tumzri dialects, /q/ is /ʡ/. The epiglottal plosive /ʡ/ and its ejective counterpart /ʡʼ/ are both extremely rare cross-linguistically, and are represented as *къ and къӏ*. In some Tumzri words, a place where a /q/ or /ʡ/ is expected might have a /ʔ/, often before fricatives or plosives. For example, *xaшкъap̌* "pond" would be pronounced as [haʂʔar̥] instead of [haʂqar̥]. Despite the phonemes' rarity, they are common throughout the language and can be found in some fairly common words, like *къи* [ʡe] "it".