Nesarian Language

**Nesarian** is an Elvic language natively spoken in Nesaria. It is the official language of the Imperial Government of the Nesarian Empire, and it is the default *lingua franca* across Inecuria and most ex-Imperial territories in Asia, leading to it having far more second-language speakers than native speakers. Nesarian was originally written with a complex runic alphabet, but switched to the Elvo-Onshian alphabet in the 4th century AD. It also adopted a standardised romanisation in 1874, which this wiki uses.

Unlike many languages of Inecuria, Nesaria only has a weak system of honorifics and has a negligible distinction between formal and informal speech. This is a trait that has seemingly always been present within the language, and is reflective of Nesarian culture as a whole, which has always demanded humility from its ruling classes.

## Linguistic Conservatism

The languages of Inecuria all display a remarkably conservative nature with few changes over time, but no language of the continent embodies this more than Nesarian. The ravages of time have still caused limited change - many awkward words have been shortened over time, some slang terms have risen to official usage and some words have been borrowed from other languages - but a modern Nesarian would have little trouble reading the words of their ancestors written literally thousands of years before, for the words are similar if not exactly the same, and the grammar is identical. Contrary to what linguists know to be natural to languages, the Nesarian language effectively froze in time in approximately the 2nd or 3rd century AD and has barely shifted since.

The most logical explanation for this is the fact that Nesarian was used as a *lingua franca*, but was explicitly *not* made a replacement for local languages across the continent. Nesarian's extremely widespread use as a deliberate second language is a major factor in why it has seen so little change; the language was carefully documented in archives across Inecuria for the purpose of teaching, and those who learnt Nesarian did so in the understanding that they had to speak the foreign tongue more or less perfectly, or otherwise they would not be understood by people from other countries. The adoption of the Elvo-Onshian script aided in teaching Nesarian, including in Nesaria itself, as increased literacy allowed for ancient texts to be used for reference to teach modern speakers.

A combination of the state's desire for linguistic standardisation and the generally traditionalist outlook of Nesarians meant that a highly conservative attitude towards language is a core facet of Nesarian culture. This was, undoubtedly, greatly aided by the fact that the Nesarian language was already a remarkably simple, efficient and mostly unpretentious language before it rose to prominence as the dominant language of the continent, which gave its speakers few reasons to actually need to corrupt and change it. This itself was a result of the fact that Nesarian is the mutant offspring of Old Eshérian clashing with Nesaria's many native languages, which forced the language to simplify and streamline its grammar and pronunciation, similar to how Old English's contact with other languages eroded many of its complexities.

## Phonology

Pronunciation varies with accents and dialects, but listed here is the Standard Ascarian accent and dialect, the speech considered the "standard" form of Nesarian. The Latin letters are listed in alphabetical order, although the vowel sounds are grouped together first, then consonants.

It should be stressed that r is never an approximate r (/ɹ/) ,nor is it a trill (/r/), but /ɾ/, an alveolar tap. However, Mortian speakers often mispronounce this as /ɹ/ due to this sound appearing in their native tongue but not /ɾ/.

The letter a is pronounced as /a/ in the Ascarian accent, but in many accents of Nesarian it is /æ/, particularly in Cortath. This distinction does not truly matter, as /a/ and /æ/ are considered allophones in Nesarian (and, for that matter, in all Elvic languages) - that is, both can correctly be used for the same sound.

Usually, Nesarian vowels will slightly lengthen if they form part of a stressed syllable, for example in the word vetreda (volcano); the stress pattern is ve-**tre**-da, and the stressed e is notably longer than the unstressed e - though not as long as é. However, some vowels undergo more dramatic changes in some circumstances.

### Variable Vowels

In Nesarian pronunciation, sounds are rigidly bound to the letter they represent, although three of them can change depending upon their location within the word, known as the "variable vowels" - namely, i, o and a. This is true not only in the Latin alphabet, but also the Elvo-Onshian alphabet - where i, o and a do not change their character even if their sound changes.

#### I

The letter i has fairly simple rules. In stressed syllables, the sound is a long /iː/, but when unstressed the sound is shortened and tightened to either /i/ or /ɪ/ - these two latter sounds are considered allophones in Nesarian, meaning they are understood to mean the same sound.

If i precedes r as part of the same syllable, especially at the end of a word, this usually becomes /ɪːɾ/ regardless of stress; though not a strict rule, it is considered strange not to do this, and it is a common mistake made by foreign speakers.

#### O

The letter o is usually pronounced as /ɒ/, although this can lengthen to /ɒː/ in stressed syllables. This is not a strict rule, as the lengthening does not always occur.

When the letter o forms part of a stressed syllable and it is immediately followed by the letter r in an unstressed syllable (or as part of the same syllable), the sound becomes /ɔːɾ/. For example, both manicor (birther) and soralua (skyray) are pronounced /ɔːɾ/, as "cor" is stressed in the former and "sor" in the latter - in the case of soralua, the r can be said to be occupying two syllables, both sor and ra.

However, oralo (trying) is not pronounced this way, as the first "o" syllable is unstressed and "ra" is stressed (as o-**ra**-lo). Oralo is a particularly confusing example given that it is a modification of ora (try), which itself is pronounced with a /ɔːɾ/, as the "or" syllable is stressed and "a/ra" is not.

#### A

The pronunciation of the letter a is the most fluid of the variable letters. Usually, it is pronounced either as /a/ or /æ/ depending on accent, and like other Nesarian vowels, it lengthens when stressed.

However, a can significantly lengthen and move further back in the mouth to become /ɑː/. Like with o, this especially happens when a forms part of a stressed syllable that is immediately followed by r - though unlike o, this does not happen every single time, and it is also not the only time it occurs.

For example, the shift occurs in arsoa (sky above the sea), pronounced **ar**-so-**a**, but it does not in agnar (titan), pronounced ag-**nar**, where the a remains /aː/ and is simply lengthened rather than deepened to /ɑː/. Confusingly, it does occur in agnaru (titanic), pronounced ag-**nar**-u or ag**-na**-ru (the r blends into both the "nar" and "ru" syllables).

/a/ shifting to /ɑː/ also happens in megano (warrior), pronounced me-**ga**-no or meg-**a**-no, but not in megasu (warlike), pronounced me-**ga**-su, where again the a is slightly lengthened like normal but does not become /ɑː/.

Whilst the shift can only occur when a is stressed, the rules on why it happens are inconsistent, and whether or not the shift occurs has to be learnt on a word-by-word basis.

## Suffixes

Nesarian grammar operates off a system of a base set of words (all nouns) which can have their meaning changed through suffixes. Though pronunciation is sometimes inconsistent in Nesarian, the grammar is extremely standardised, and its modular system follows very clear rules; this is both a cause and an effect of the language's widespread use as a lingua franca by non-native speakers.

The list of all the suffixes in Nesarian is below. Each suffix has two variants; the first is the form used if the suffix follows a consonant, and the second is if the suffix follows a vowel. If the vowel is a singular monophthong following a consonant, it is usually deleted, but if the vowel follows another vowel, the second vowel will be deleted but the first will not. The vowel is not deleted if doing so could lead to confusion with another possible suffix.

* E / Te - makes a singular noun into a plural noun. *Sacli* (river) becomes *saclite* (rivers). Note that in the specific case of where a word ends in a consonant followed by the letter Y followed by a vowel (in the form cYv), for example in the word *Artamodya* (Leviathan), both Y and the vowel are deleted and the suffix changes to "ite"; so the plural of *Artamodya* is *Artamodite*, not *Artamodyate* or *Artamodye*.
* U / Su - makes a noun into an adjective. *Cava* (death) becomes *cavsu* (dead). Note that where this suffix follows the letter u, the suffix is changed to "isu", for example how *evu* (truth) becomes *evisu* (true). Also note that where this suffix is appended to a syllable where the immediately preceding consonant is an S (as in *mossa*, evil) then the vowel is deleted entirely and the suffix is treated as if it is being appended to a consonant (so the adjective form of *mossa* is not *mossasu*, but *mossu*).
* Ua / Sua - makes a noun into a comparative adjective. *Sava* (farness) becomes *savua* (further). *Sava* is an example of a particular modification to this suffix, which also applies to the ui/sui suffix next on the list; if the comparative or superlative adjective suffixes (but *not* the normal adjective suffix) are appended to a vowel following the letter V which itself follows a vowel (in the form vVv), the final vowel is deleted entirely and the suffix is treated as if it is being appended to a consonant (so it is *savua* rather than *savsua*). Another example of this is *cava* (death) becoming *cavua* (dead-er - a rare term for obvious reasons) rather than *cavsua*.
* Ui / Sui - makes a noun into a superlative adjective. *Camo* (sweetness) becomes *camsui* (sweetest).
* Is - makes a noun into an adverb. *Lifa* (blood) becomes *lifis* (bloodily). Where this suffix follows a vowel preceded by S (in the form Sv), this suffix changes to "lis", and where it follows the consonant S, the letter is deleted and the suffix also changes to "lis", as in the case of *esa* (goodness) which becomes *esalis* (goodily) and not *esis*.
* S - makes a noun into a present tense verb. *Mega* (war) becomes *megas* (to war).
* Sa - makes a noun into a future tense verb. *Fela* (conquest) becomes *felsa* (will conquer).
* Si - makes a noun into a past tense verb. *Ora* (try) becomes *orasi* (tried). How to determine whether a word should be a past tense verb or an adjective is a matter of context. For example, when determining whether to use *alvsi* (the past tense form of "to unite") or *alvu* (the adjective form, "united") is whether you are speaking of something that is united, such as the United Kingdom (in which case you would use the adjective, *alvu*) or whether you are speaking of something being united in the past tense, such as the phrase "they united their forces" (in which case you would use the past tense verb, *alvsi*).