The Blatian Language

For some, it represents the last stage of th Ikarian Language, for others, it is its descendant. Regardless of debate, today the vernacular language of most of the inhabitants of the former territories of the Ikarian Empire is Blatian (despite the Ikarian language being the official language of The Blatian Empire, the Kingdom of Cloudia and the Republic of Valia.

Origins:

Blatian emerged as the vernacular language of most Ikarians around the 3rd-4th centuries AP. It was (and still is), the day to day language for people belonging to the middle and lower classes of society (while Ikarian is used at the Imperial Court and by the nobility as a mark of distinction). Initally it was the language used by the bards to sing about the stories of the gods or the glory of the Emperors and Kings that ruled during and after the Ikarian Empire. When the Empire fell in 460 AP and thanks to the renown songs of famous bards, the Blatian language became trully a literary language and achieved its status as the national language of the country reaching such an extent that the name of their native speakers changed from Ikarians to Blatians.

Dialects:

Blatian has 4 distinctive dialects, mutually inteligible between them (although an standard Blatian dialect is used across the country central, western, eastern and insular (also called Valian). The main differences between them are phonetic and use of different words. (Valian for example is very influenced by the neighbouring Seris language).

Main differences with Ikarian

Blatian has a more simple grammar than Ikarian. Declensions from Ikarian have dissappeared (something that can also be seen in vernacular Seris after the 7th century AP). In their place Blatian uses prepositions to mark the position of the word inside the sentence. For example the old Ikarian Accusative has been replaced by the use of the preposition "ta". Genitive is replaced by the preposition "da", Dative by the preposition "ó" and Ablative by "tys" ( all of these prepositions followed by the names in nominative). Locative, on the other hand dissappeared).
Conjugation of verbs also changed, the old standalone particles "me" for the past tense" and "maw" for future, have become suffixes. So for example " i learned" in Blatian will be " Po thèyareme" instead of the Ikarian "Pawp me thèyare"; and " I will learn" would be "Po thèyaremaw/thèyaremo" instead of the Ikarian "maw thèyare".
Progressive and habitual aspects,present in the Ikarian language have been forgotten in Blatian.

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g k l m n p r s t ŋ ɲ ʃ ʎ ʦ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g
Affricate				ʦ
Fricative		f	θ	s	ʃ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l		ʎ

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: stress is on the middle or final syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	ó
ɛ	è
ŋ	ng
ɲ	ny
ʃ	sh
ʎ	y
ʦ	ts
θ	th

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key”.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Pronouns

1st singular	po /pɔ/ I
2nd singular	pa /pa/ you
3rd singular masc	ró /rɔ/ he, it
3rd singular fem	pel /pel/ she, it
1st plural	mó /mɔ/ we
2nd plural	yè /ʎɛ/ you all
3rd plural	óu/ɔu/ they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	pa /pa/ my
2nd singular	yu /ʎu/ your
3rd singular masc	mon /mon/ his
3rd singular fem	shè /ʃɛ/ her
1st plural	sha /ʃɔ/ our
2nd plural	tan /tan/ your (pl)
3rd plural	nyi /ɲi/ their

Verbs

Past	Particle after the verb: me - thèyareme / θɛ'ʎareme/ learned

Future

Particle after the verb: mɔ - thèyaremo /θɛ'ʎaremɔ/ will learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Ikarian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Particle -è before the verb èthèyare /ˈɛθɛˌʎare/ have learned

Ikarian has a base-10 number system:
1 - ino
2 - yud
3 - pen
4 - petor
5 - pompe
6 - tha
7 - sefte
8 - uhto
9 - dab
10 - deke
Hundred - mu
Thousand - nutmu

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ta
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -ɛl
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɛ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ko
Else: Suffix -iko
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ke
Noun to verb = Suffix -a
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɛ
Tending to = Suffix -aʎ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -un
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ip
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ot
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -i
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ
Else: Suffix -iɲ
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʎior
Else: Suffix -eʎior

Kallian influence in the Blatian language:

It is believed that Blatian originated as a dialect of Ikarian spoken in the Kallian plains that soon spread to the rest of the country. As such, it has inherited some characteristics of the extinct Kallian language. For example Blatian has many words originated from Kallian, mostly related to agriculture and nature such as, for example,: mearko (stone), bille (spring or fountain), Shato (calf), sheste (meaning plant). Also because of the pronuntiation of the old Kallian language, most of the words in Ikarian that began with -s, began with -sh (pronounced as: /ʃ/) in Blatian. Same for those words that began with -u in Ikarian, in Blatian begin with -b.
Comparison of texts between Ikarian and Blatian:

English	Ikarian	Blatian
I,Tiberius, Emperor of the Ikarians built this temple in honor of the Gods	Pawp, Tiberios, Rigas aw Ikarianan, san peeslumok me trivakaure am duth aw Tawanan	Pó,Tiberiu, Rigas da Ikarianó, trivakaureme ta san peeslumo am dú da Tawanó

Root Languages

• Ikarian language

Spoken by

• The Blatians