Othian

Othian is a Trans-Naganian language belonging to the Melenian branch. It is native to the island of Otha off the southeast coast of Nagain, but is spoken widely across Is Nagain as a lingua franca, and is the only official national language of the country.

Othian
Ѡôѳіѡ
^(woθiw)

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Pronunciation: [ˈwoː.θɪu]

Ethnicity: Othians, Nagainians

Language Family:
Macro-Elvish?

• Trans-Naganian
  • Melenian
    • Insular
      • Othian

Orthography

Othian was historically written in Shandian, a semi-syllabary used for various languages across the continent of Nagain, until 2855, when, as part of a series of modernising reforms, a Dvekmenu-based alphabet was created and adopted. Dvekmenu was chosen as it was the script used by their closest neighbours, the Rossans, and their largest trading partner, the Vessians. A 25-year transition period was implemented during which both Shandian and the new Dvekmenu scripts were acceptable for official use. Despite the Dvekmenu alphabet being the sole script in official use since 1 Sun's Coming 2880, Shandian remains in frequent use. Continued use of Shandian is particularly strong in Otha itself, as Othian is used mostly for official and business purposes outside Otha, and many users learned the language after the adoption of the new alphabet.

Some choices for the script were idiosyncratic, such as using ⟨у⟩ to represent /ɨ ~ ɨː/, while using ⟨и⟩ to represent /ə/. They revived the obselete character ⟨ѡ⟩ to represent both /ʊ ~ uː/ and /w/. Despite Gothic using ⟨ѳ⟩ to represent both /θ/ and /ð/, and ⟨х⟩ to represent both /x/ and /h/ (for Vessian Gothic), Othian uses ⟨ԁ⟩ for /ð/ and ⟨ь⟩ for /h/, using ⟨ь⟩ to also mark devoiced sonorants (/r̥/, /n̥/, and /m̥/). The sound /ɬ/ is written ⟨ль⟩ as if it were a devoiced sonorant (indeed /ɬ/ developed from an earlier /*l̥/). The usual forms of some of the letters vary from the standard forms used in Ros or Vasmark. ⟨Лл⟩ and ⟨Дд⟩ often written more like Tira Vellan letters as ⟨Λʌ⟩ and ⟨Δδ⟩ respectively. ⟨Ее⟩ is often written as ⟨Єє⟩, especially the capital form, making them allographs rather than distinct letters as they are in some languages (including Rossan, which the Othian alphabet was heavily influenced by). Lowercase letters that have a different cursive form are generally written in their cursive form even in print (и, г, т, п are written as и, г, т, п). Long vowels are marked with a circumflex accent (^) or macron (¯), the "round vowels" (а, е, і, о) getting the circumflex, and the "broad vowels" (и, у, and ѡ) getting the macron. Geminate consonants are written as double letters. Pellen Hu, the designer of the script, stated the oddities were the result of aesthetic choices meant to "make the language more beautiful". He apparently considered using the hard yer (ъ) for /h/, but opted for the soft due to "the ugliness of it [the hard yer], especially at the beginning of words."

The script is largely phonemic, except for those accents/dialects in northern Otha which merge the sounds of ⟨у⟩ into ⟨і⟩, rendering ⟨у⟩ a redundant letter, and the digraphs ⟨ау⟩, ⟨ое⟩ and ⟨еу⟩ redundant.

Othian can be transliterated into Vallaran in two ways, a standardised Vallaranisation, or inconsistent phonemic transliteration. For example, Киѡну Ьен can be rendered according to the standard Vallaranisation as Cywnu Hen, or as Cuwny Hen; Ільисмîн as Illysmîn or Illismene.

Grammar

Grammar is typical of other Trans-Naganian languages, with features such as inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns and extensive use of proclitics. It marks evidentality with proclitic markers. It has a rich mood system for verbs, but simple noun system, without grammatical gender or noun classes. Recently the future tense is being increasingly constructed analytically ("Гемак рӯл" instead of "Геѡрьӯл"), likely due to Gothic influence, which conjugates noun tense only for past and non-past and uses the preposition "вил" ("will") for future constructions.