Daulerim

Kesm labal daulerim gol lablan emok kartim "To speak the language of Daulerim is to speak the tongue of the Emperor"

Daulerim is the name of the most widely spoken language within the Daulerim Empire. It is part of the Nostire-Kaliaric language family and thus related to Illodzin. The name of Daulerim explicitly refers to the Empire, however it can also be refered to by its two main dialects Malarite and Illangarene. Some have also dubbed it the Central-Nostiran Dialect Cluster.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, ĩ		u
			õ
	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a, ã

Daulerim has generally the same vocalic inventory, which is also reconstructed for Proto-Nostiran and Proto-Nostire-Kaliaric. The major differences in this regard between subbranches is the retentation of long vowels. Kaliaric languages, have retained them mostly, with the exception of later loss, while during the initial split, Nostiran languages have lost them.
Central Nostiran has lost its long vowels in open syllables first, as they become nasal vowels. Nasalisation segmentalised to various degrees in the process. Thus some Daulerim dialects do have proper nasal vowels, while others have fully segmental nasals, thus is pronounced either [astalan] or [astalã]. Nasal vowels have preserved in illangarene in particular, where the name is pronounced [astlã]. This is particular for word-final nasal vowels, while word-medial nasal vowels have completely segmentalised.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Glottal
Stop		t	k
+voice	b	d	g
Fricative		s *ʃ		h
+voice	v	ʒ (j)	ɣ (gh)
Trill		r
Nasal	m	n
Lateral		l

The consonantal system of Daulerim is fairly typical for its family. One particularity is that there is only a single row of fricatives. Voicing is normally not further specified, but all fricatives can be realised as fully voiced, except word finally.

Syntax

Atypically for its family, Daulerim is a SOV language, while most Kaliaric languages have a SVO word order. The SOV word order within its own system slightly irregular too. The reason for the SOV order is generally attributed to influence from Emat. Apart from its general verb-final word order, head-directionality in Daulerim is mixed. Adnominal genitives are generally postpositioned, such as the phrase Emok Daulerim or Karrush Daulerim "Daulerim Empire", bolg millinim "House of the woman" (illangarene: bolg millim). Adjectives are, like in Emat, prepositioned to their head Haiva Karten "righteous Lord". Illodzin on the other hand postpositions both adjectives and genitives.

Morphology

Nominal Case

There are three cases for Daulerim, a nominative, a genitive and an accusative. Additionally there is a relic locative case, which is only used for derivation. There is also a marked nominative case, which must not be confused with a proper ergative case.
Originally Proto-Nostire-Kaliaric distinguished definiteness and number for its five cases. The inventory of Daulerim is smaller in comparison. Specific forms for class and number only exist for the accusative case. The Nominative retains its definiteness distinction, while the genitive is the same for all number, class and definiteness.

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Locative
Singular	-ø	-(V)ghtV	-im	-a
Singular-Definite	-i
Plural	-ø-(PL)	-s(a)t	-im-(PL)

Name
Emok Daulerim
Spoken by
Humans and other species, primarily Daulerim people
Spoken in
Northern and Central Illangar
Official language in
Daulerim Empire
Other human realms co-officially.
Number of Speakers
40+ million
Language Family
Nostire-Kaliaric Languages
Writing System
Daulerim Alphabet  (Emat derived scripts also)