Anati
Amati is the official language of the Anatim Empire and is the most influential amongst nearby languages. It can be traced back to Proto-Anati just over 2000 years before Lemuria's shift. That predecessor was a significant step away from any previous languages, howver.
Writing in almost all of the native settlements on Lemuria is in Aniti and it's a native tongue to all those who arrived with the island. However, the natives quickly picked up the need to communicate in the ligua franca of the world they had arrived in - English. Some of them have picked up a couple of words or phrases in other Earth languages represented amongst the new arrival, but for the most part - they keep to Anati and English.
Writing in almost all of the native settlements on Lemuria is in Aniti and it's a native tongue to all those who arrived with the island. However, the natives quickly picked up the need to communicate in the ligua franca of the world they had arrived in - English. Some of them have picked up a couple of words or phrases in other Earth languages represented amongst the new arrival, but for the most part - they keep to Anati and English.
Writing System
Just like in many other languages, the same symbol is sometimes used to represent a few different sounds and the reader is expected to know which one. Compare the letter 'a' in the words 'father' and 'rat' in English, for example. Likewise, there are times when symbols exist in a word for etymological reasons that are no longle applicable. However, for the most part, these are the sybols used in modern Anati along with the sound(s) they represent.
/a/ /ɑ/ /æ/
/b/
/d/
/ʤ/
/e/ /ɛ/ /ɜ/
/f/
/g/
/h/
/x/
/i/ /ɪ/
/j/
/k/
/q/
/l/
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/ʊ/ /ʌ/
/p/
/r/ /ɹ/ /ɾ/
/s/ /z/
/ʃ/
/t/
/ʧ/
/θ/
/ð/
/u/
/v/
/ʏ/
/ʔ/
A centered point signals a significant break, similar to a period.
Two vertical points represents a break in the flow in the way a comma, dash, or semi-colon might.
Anati doesn't have upper case. Important names and words are surrounded with these markers.
These surround an aside, similar to how brackets work.
Two lines surrounding text indicates a quote or a message from an authority. If the rest of the paragraph is part of the quote, end-lines can be omitted.
Numbers
The Anati number-system uses 12 as its base rather than 10 like most on Earth are used to. This means that just like the arabic base ten for from one digit to two when it goes from 9 to 10, Anati uses only one digit up to 11 and switches to two in order to write the number 12. In written form, it subdivides 12 ino repeating patterns, making them relatively easy to follow, though the change in base can still be tricky for many from Earth. Examples of the pattern are given here. | Zero. |
 | One. |
 | Two. |
 | Three. |
 | Four. |
 | Five. |
 | Six. |
 | Seven. |
 | Eight. |
 | Nine. |
 | Ten. |
 | Eleven. |
 | Twelve. |
 | Thirteen. |
 | Fourteen. |
 | Twenty. |
 | Thirty-six. |
 | Hundred-and-thirty-two. |
 | Hundred-and-forty-four. |
Negative numbers are preceeded by the letter λ. It is possible to write letters larger than 11 as several numbers after each other that are then read left to right as multiples of 12, just like most of us are used to reading numbers but with multiples of 10. This is considered less elegant and is mostly used for tallying and very informal writing.
As can be seen, the number is a bit special with it's top dash, but otherwise, the multiple of 12 is indicated verically and the numbers between those multiples are written horisontally. Numbers 1,2, and 3 add a dash each only for the sequence to be repeated with first one dot, then two, and finally three before reaching the next multiple of 12. Lines vertically are repeated in the same way but with a small tick instead of the dot. When reaching 144 (12*12), the letter ʌ is added on top of a new zero. Which letter is used indicates a multiple of 144, with several letters being possible in a way similar to roman numerals.
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Phonology
A lot of the same limitation on what is pronouncable in English also goes for Anati. There are three major differences. Anati doesn't have the /w/ sound that English does. It also has three different sounds for the letter <r>, the soft one at the beginning of "red" in England and most of North America, the rolling one like in Scottish "far", and the one that almost disappears like in the way many pronounce "car," Using the wrong one rarely changes the meaning of a word, but it does clearly mark someone as a non-native speaker.
The final big change in pronounciation is uses the letter <x> when writing words using the latin alphabet. It is pronounced far back in the mouth with a raspy sound. Languages such as German has this sound where it is the final one in "Bach," for instance. As some words on Anati are seemingly loan-words from Ancient Greek and those have already been romanized into English with other spellings, those speels are used instead. For instance, Helios should rightly be named "Xelios," but hte common English spelling is used by the people of Earth.
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Impossible combinations
These are the sounds that cannot exist in these combinations, not to be confused with romanized spelling.- ɛ, ʌ, and æ cannot appear at the end of a root.
- ʊ cannot be followed by a vowel.
- ɪ and i can't be next to each other.
- ɪ cannot be preceeded by a consonant cluster if those are the only parts of a root.
- j cannot have more than one consonant on either side.
- i, iː, u, uː, ə, and ɜː cannot be followed by an r-sound.
- A fricative cannot be followed by θ or ð.
- gz followed by a vowel cannot be at the end of a word, even if there is one or more consonants between the vowel and the word-ending.
Sound changes
- If an r-sound is preceeded but not followed by a vowel, it disappears and instead adds rhoticity to the preceeding vowel. If that vowel is not a, ɑ, or ɑː; the resulting sound becomes ɚ.
- An r-sound followed, but not preceeded, by a vowel-sound becomes ɹ.
- If h appears at the beginning of a word and is before a back, low, or near-low vowel; it changes into x.
- u and uː turns into ʊ at the beginning of a word.
- A nasal sound before ŋ becomes ə if it's preceeded by a consonant and disappears if it's not.
- If a phoneme appears twice (and, intheory, more) in a row, it is pronounced as a long version of itself. If the phoneme is a stop, it, any extra compies merge into one and if it is immediately preceeded by a vowel, it becomes a longer form of itsel, or the closest vowel that has a long form (possibly əː). An exception is ʔ, which never alters the vowel and only merges.
- If two vowels follow each other, they typically form a diphtong, or become an elongated version of itself if they are the same. If a diphong would get a third viwel sound next to it, that sound disappears. If a long vowel ends up near another vowel, it becomes hort and forms a diphthong. In some cases, meges or the removal of a sound that would be too much might lead to the final remaining vowel to become mid-centralised.
- If x is preceeded by a vowel and that vowel isn't at the beginning of a word, itdisappears. If it was also followed by a vowel, it turns into a syllable break instead.
Morphology
There are some general guides for how to change a word into a different kind of word. These aren't always applicable as some words have their own root word rather than being derived. If a word already has the affix as part of its root, it might lose one of the sounds that would have been part of the addition. Typically, if the sound closest to the end of the root the affix would attached to is a vowel, the vowel closest to it from the affix is ignored. Vice-versa goes for consonants. If this would create an illegal cluster or remove all parts of the affix, either ʌ, ə, or ʔ (in that order of frequerncy) is inserted between the root and the affix (or just to the root if none of the orgiginal affix is left.
Adjective → adverb.
Example: slow → slowly.
Prepend ka-, or k- if the first would create an illegal combination.
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]).
Example: responsible → responsibility.
Prepend nars- the the root starts with a vowel or t, otherwise prepend nasə-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]).
Example: Driving is faster than walking.
Prepemd ʃɑ- or ʃɑn- if the first would create an illegal cluster.
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]).
Example: import → importance.
If the word starts with a consonant, prepend xə-. If the word starts with with a vowel, prepend xɛθ- instead.
Noun → adjective relating to noun.
Example: economy → economic
Prepend an-, or anə- if the first would create an illegal combination.
Noun → verb (to do [noun]).
Example: craft → crafting
If the root starts with a vowel or a voiced consonant that isn't atop, fricative, or africative, prepend ʤ-. In all other cases and if the first would create an illegal combination, prepend ʧə- instead. If the word ends in only one consonant, it is removed.
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]).
Example: appoint → appointment.
Prepend ɛn- if the first vowel is frontal or ʌn- if the vowel i a central or back one. If this would create an illegal cluster, use ɛnə- or ʌnə- instead. The first vowel of these prefixes disappear if the pattern would repeat more than two phonemes in.
Verb → adjective (tending to do the verb).
Example: annoy → annoyed
-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]).
Example: dancing → a dance
Prepend nʌs-, adding ʔ between, should this create an illegal cluster.
Verb → noun that verb physically produces.
Example: build → building
Prepend ɑɪ- if the root starts with a consonannt or ɑɪθ- if it starts with a vowel. In some older words, the prefix is ɑɪʔ- instead.
Verb → resulting noun.
Example: know → knowledge
Prepend θə- if the root starts with a consonannt or θɛd- if it starts with a vowel.
One who Xs.
Example: paint → painter
-
One who Xs Place of.
Example: wine → winery
If the root ends in a vowel or s, append -lʊs, otherwise append -ʉs. If the last vowel of the root is o and there is no more than one consonant after it, that sound turns into ə.
Diminutive.
Example: drop → droplet.
The article il is placed in front of the word. For adjectives and advers, conjugations are used instead.
Augmentative.
Example: lord → overlord.
The article qru is placed in front of the word. For adjectives and advers, conjugations are used instead.
Negation.
Example: real → unreal
The article ani is placed in front of the word.
Phonetics
This is a list of the sounds that exists in most dialects of Anati, as described using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
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Consonants
| Manner ↓ / Place → | Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Stop | p b | t d | k g | ʔ | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Affricative | ʧ ʤ | |||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | h | ||
| Approximant | ɹ | j | ||||||
| Lateral approximant | l |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː ʏ | u uː | |
| Near-High | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Middle | ə | ||
| Low-Mid | ɛ | ɜː | ʌ ɔ |
| Near-Low | æ | ||
| Low | a | ɑ ɑː |
Sentence Structure
Anati follows a common subject—verb—object order. Adjectives come before the nouns they modify and adverbs before their verbs. Indirect objects follow a direct object. However, the order of the subject and the objects can be moved if indicated by a determiner particle before them. They are conjugated as nominative, accusative, and dative, and some prepositions regulate them in addition to their syntactic meaning.
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Adjective Order
Adjectives and adverbs are placed before what they modify, Any that denote number are always placed first, but the order of the rest can vary. Properties are mostly listed in the order the speaker considers them relevant, but there are a few common tendencies. Color often comes before other sensory information which in turn comes before shape. "Four evil, blue, stinking, spherical robots" would make a lot of sense.
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Dictionary
Spoken by
Common Phrases
Iikar! /ɪkʰɑːr/
Hello!
Halimera! /xɑlimɛːɹɑ/
Good morning/day!
Idraq halimeret! /ɪðraq xɑlimerə/
Have a good day!
Irregular verbs
To be
Present
Indicative Perfect: nadh /nað/ to be
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