Shengaielen

**Shengaielen** was the dominant language spoken on the Ouaios continent of the planet Miramac between circa 2m1100k and 3m600k, the direct descendant of Shenkheel and the direct ancestor of modern Chaeingaiel. As it was the primary language of the Sheelki people during the founding of the Mirdiannyus, the majority of the union's founding documents are written in Shengaielen. Lexically, it is recognizable and understandable to a fluent Chaeingaiel speaker as the majority of the language's grammatical and phonemic drift had concluded by the golden age of Shengaielen writing.

## Differences from Chaeingaiel

### Plurality

Shengaielen had four separate denotations for plural nouns:

* *-e* was used for nouns deemed 'inanimate', such as *livaye* (boats) or *diae* (days). This is the only suffix to consistently remain in modern Chaeingaiel.
* *-i* was used for nouns deemed 'animate', such as *nepili* (plants) or *vaigi* (animals). Which nouns were considered 'animate' provide insight into the Ouaio culture at the time: nouns such as *ess* (fire), *davel* (dream), *mira* (planet), and *talv* (emptiness) were considered within the same domain as plants, animals, and people. The evidence of this suffix is seen in many modern Chaeingaiel words such as *goti* (fish) from *got*, *essi* (fire) from *ess*, and *talvi* (space) from *talv*. Even *Sheelki* is a victim of this phenomenon; the Ouaio people had referred to themselves as *Sheelk* since before recorded history in the majority of languages from the Luagjs family.
* *-en* was used for concepts and the intangible. Abstract ideas such as *yehreten* (religions), *gaielen* (people), as well as literally intangible nouns such as *atalen* (ghosts) used this suffix. Historians believe that the need for this suffix arose from the Ouaio people's emerging fascination with philosophy and the concept of reality. *Shengaielen* itself arises from *Shenkheelen*, referring to the rapidly-emerging myriad of Shenkheel dialects which Shengaielen was intended to unify.
* *-an* was used for gerund nouns, such as *nayhelan* (discussion, literally *speakings*) or *kobaian* (studies, literally *thinkings*).

### Emergence of apostrophed affixes

Shenkheel is distinct from its successors in its complete lack of Chaeingaiel's iconic apostrophed affixes. Shengaiel's long history saw the transition from words to affixes and the emergence of new ones: *bie* (of) became *'eb*, *mek* (in) became *'ek*, and location indicators such as *'yvei* (over) and *'el* (inside) emerged. Shengaielen documents can frequently be dated quite effectively by the prevalence and variety of apostrophed affixes. Notably, prefixes did not emerge until close to 3m500k, leading to debate as to whether they can be considered an element of Shengaielen.

### Removal of the definite article

Shenkheel used the definite article *O* and left indefinite nouns without an article. This distinction slowly became obsolete and eventually fell out of use around 3m; in modern Chaeingaiel it is either marked with a slashed or otherwise altered character in Tidn or other written scripts, or left entirely to the interpretation of the reader. Verbally, it is often indicated through additional emphasis on the first syllable of the word. Interestingly, this change was occurring in the midst of the Mirdiannyus' founding; this is evident in its founding documents, which use *O*, slashed characters, and implied articles somewhat interchangeably.