Fiction:United Order of Tophos and its Sublime Territories/Pravaran

"Pravaran. The embodiment of our race and our great nation. For centuries, it has stood as the only civilized - and beautiful - speech of Cyranai, resisting all attacks on its integrity. Peasants have tried to corrupt it and those extragalactics attempt to replace it with their own imperialist tongues, and Pravaran has repressed and destroyed all belmishes with a vengeance. The exact same could be said of this country, for better or for worse."

- Sh'aci Qodi, Tophosan philosopher

Pravaran (Pravaran: Txeh Debhel [tχɛ̥ dɛbʰɛl]) is a dialect continuum and the official language of both the and the. There are two main dialects of Pravaran, the dialect spoken in the, the official language of the United Order, and the one spoken in the , the national tongue of the Successors. While it is strictly enforced in Andromeda, the Cyranai variant has dozens of different dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible and on the verge of becoming different languages. Attempts have been made to standardize the language and prevent divergence, but to no avail.

Despite extensive conatct with foreign languages from Cyrannus, Cyranai Pravran has remained relatively unchanged aside from a handful of loanwords. However, the Andromeda dialect has borrowed and been influenced extensively by Radessic, due to the Successors' alliance with, with features such as object-subject-verb order, tone and being written in the Radessic abjad. As a whole, notable feautures of Pravaran are an elaborate noun class system, split ergativity and dorsal harmony.

Pravaran Writing System
The original writing system of Pravaran was the Pravaran abugida (Cyranai Pravaran - Phiyalh [pʰijʌl̥]), which reached is current state as early as 700 BNE and standardized around 360 BNE, descending from the various vernacular scripts of the Pravar. It is an abugida, which means that vowels are written as diacritics on consonants, which are full letters. If the vowel precedes the consonant, it is written underneath, and if it follows the consonant it is written above the letter. In words composed entirely of vowels, the diacritic is placed on a null-consonant letter. The abugida is typically written from right to left in vertical columns going from top to bottom, but archaic or poetic works can also be written right to left vertically from bottom to top. This writing system is the only one used in Cyranai.

On the other hand, in Andromeda an entirely different script is used. Due to influence from the Radeon, Pravar in the Successors of Mas'asi have completely borrowed the Radessic abjad. As an abjad, vowels are not indicated, which can lead to large amounts of ambiguity due to Pravaran's extensive number of vowels. Tone is indicated as letter following the syllable, but this does not fully the problem. As a result, the Pravaran abjad has separate letters for long vowels and diphthongs (which are treated as long vowels) and some write short vowels as diacritics, but this is frowned upon by the government as being "impure".

Phonology

 * Consonants

The exact realization of the rhotics varies depending on the dialect. In standard Cyranai, /ɾ ɾ̥/ are phonetically [r ~ ɹ r̥ ~ ɹ̥] next to obstruents (stops, affricates and fricatives) and sentence-finally and are [ɾ ɾ̥] elsewhere. In Andromedan Pravaran, the rhotics are [ʀ ʀ̥], and in other dialects it varies, with the most common nonstandard realizations being [χ ʁ]. Pravaran's voiceless fricatives undergo extensive intervocalic lenition, with /ɸ s ʃ χ/ being [β̞ ɹ ɹ̠ ʁ̞] between vowels. Additionally, Paravaran feautures coda dorpping, with final /ɴ̥ ɴ/ being realized as pharyngealization and nasalization of the pervious vowel and final /χ/ also pharyngealizes the previous vowel and is realized as [ħ]. In Andromedan Pravaran, the rhotics /ʀ̥ ʀ / pharyngealize the vowel before and are elided in coda position.

Andromedan Pravaran has a slightly different consonant inventory from Cyranai, with multiple sound changes. The most notable of them are as follows: /ʃ ʒ/ become /χ ʁ/, /l̥ l/ become /ɬ ɮ/ and /pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ/ become /p͡x t͡x k͡x q͡χ/. Additionally, the voiced aspirates (/bʰ dʰ gʰ/) have become regular voiced sounds. The other dialects in Cyranai also have other variations, with the speech of the land ruled by the Tisan clan notable for their replacement of /q/ with [ʔ] and voicing dissimilation (voiced sounds will become voiceless next to another vocied sound and vice versa). Therefore, one can tell from just these minor quirks of pronounciation the place of origin and socioeconomic class of the person they are speaking with.


 * Vowels

Cyranai Pravaran lacks /e o ɪ ʊ/ and Andromedan Pravaran lacks /ɛ ɔ/, with /i u/ only occurring word-finally. There is some vowel allophony, but not as extensive as with the consonants. One notable feauture of the Cyranai dialect is that when /i/ follows /ʃ ʒ/, it is realized as a syllabic [ɹ̩]. In Andromedan speech, the short vowels /e o/ assimilate in height to the last long vowel in the word, if there are any. For example, the word Jhálos is phonetically [d͡ʒæːɮɒs] (where [ɒ] is a lowered /o/). An allophonic feauture of the majority of the dialect continuum is the changing of the vowels /ɑː eː/ depending on the preceding consonant. After velars, uvulars and glottals, /ɑː/ is [ɑː] and /eː/ is [ɤː]. After palatals and palato-alveolars, /ɑː/ is [æː] and /eː/ is [eː].


 * Tone

A signature feature of Andromedan Pravaran is the presence of tones. There are three tones, high, mid and low, and are a result of Old Pravaran voiced aspirates and influence from Radessic. Root-initially, voiced aspirates became tenuis (regular voiced stops) and left a low tone on the two following syllables. Root-finally, vocied aspirates became tenuis and made the two preceding syllables high tone. When root-medially between two vowels of the same quality, vocied aspirates became tenuis and made the following two syllables low tone. All other syllables are mid tone. This gives Andromedan Pravaran a unique sound compared to other dialects, a natural result of their isolation.

Grammar

 * Nouns and Pronouns


 * Verbs


 * Adjectives and Adverbs


 * Adposiitons and Locative Phrases

Syntax

 * Subordinate Clauses


 * Questions


 * Negation