Barakhinei
From Almeopedia
| Barakhinei | |
| Native name | Barakhinei |
| Verdurian | barahinei |
| Characteristics | |
| Location | western Eretald |
| Family | Eastern |
| Subfamily | Central |
| Standard | Barakhina |
| Writing system | alphabet |
| Info available | full grammar |
| Sample wordlist | |
| one | a |
| two | dhu |
| three | di |
| river | keler |
| town | kumond |
| people | chikril |
| big | kêshkê |
| little | parvê |
Barakhinei is the language of Barakhún, Hroth, Rhânor, and Mútkün, west of Verduria.
Barakhinei [ba ra xi ˈne i] is, like Verdurian, Ismaîn and Sarroc, a descendant of Caďinor. It's divided into three dialect groups: Western (Barakhún and Rhânor), Central (Mútkün and the northern principality of Hroth), and Southern (the remainder of Hroth).
The language is written in its own alphabet, an independent derivation of the Caďinor alphabet. Official business in the Barakhinei lands was written in Caďinor until the 3300s; the written vernacular was largely developed by women, who were using it to write romances, poems, and essays by the late 3000s. Plays (adlelekâ) are still performed entirely by women.
Some notable facts about the language:
- There is a strong divergence between masculine and feminine speech. This is most noticeable lexically— there are words used only by women or only by men— but extends to phonology and syntax as well. (For instance, women avoid the dative, and use more synthetic verb forms.)
- Nearly every spoken sentence includes a phatic particle, expressing a mood (e.g. anger, disbelief, or pity) or a pragmatic point (e.g. that the information is common). These particles differ in male and female speech.
- All three genders have been retained from Caďinor, though the ablative has been lost. It has retained most verb distinctions, except for the dynamic aspect. Word order has become SVO.
Sample text
- Kêtô lê fêti et ibru klât? Kê kêsht ibro ê shkê? Ridibel kokue, sîk eshtê thizi kêbrizê e kolaodê sachêi, ku eli nhêrulo shkebûr.
- what-acc thou-nom say-2s about book-s.acc part.anger / which type-s.nom book-s.gen be-3s part.ques / comedy-s.nom part.lamentation / not be-subj.3s something edifying and suitable woman-pl.dat / like life-s.nom saint-s.gen part.disbelief
- What's this about a book? What sort of a book is it? Some silly comedy, I suppose, and not something edifying and suitable for women, like a saint's life.
