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Zyrilian (Þuqklērrwa) is the language primarily found on the planet Ebrya. Zyrilian originates from Alqati, but has spread enough to become the most popular language on Ebrya, due to the fact it is easily understandable by most land animals even if they are only fluent in their species's language. Zyrilian is the native language for about 20,000 animals in Ebrya, most of which being Alqati.
Table of contents:
Language Info
Language Info
Þu'yeimwa Hesuēwaz
Alphabet
Alphabet
Þu'zēkoryqe
Zyrilian has both the elements of an alphabetic and syllabic writing system. Essentially, the letters of the Zyrilian alphabet represent parts of syllables. The letters are then arranged together into blocks to represent syllables of words. The Zyrilian alphabet uses 32 letters in total, 17 of which being consonants, and 15 being vowels. Some disagree whether or not the palatalizer can be counted as a consonant or a letter in the first place but it typically is, especially within Ebrya.
Language rules
Language rules
Þu'yeimwa Esolhya
Like many other languages in Ebrya, object–subject–verb (OSV) is the word order used for Zyrilian, however the word order of Zyrilian is highly flexible due to its universalness. Other word orders are often used for emphasis or theatricality. And as touched upon in the "Alphabet" section, the letters of Zyrilian are not written on their own like most alphabets, but rather arranged into blocks that represent syllables. The syllables in these blocks are read and written from top-to-bottom and left-to-right, similar to English. Due to Zyrilian not having any kind of digital script, the way letters can be written is fairly flexible, and lines of letters are often combined (like in the example on the side). Zyrilian additionally has gendered nouns, though these are a more recent language addition due to the arrival of Valaians. In most Alqati communities, gender is not an existing construct, or exists very differently from Valai gender constructs, so these nouns aren't used in most dialects.
An example of the Zyrilian writing system.
Zyrilian as another product of its universalness also tends to borrow words and change the sounds to fit the language. This is most often seen with names, as names are always translated into Zyrilian sounds - such as the name "Emily" turning into Uemilye. Unlike other languages that do this, such as Olbano, this is not done out of respect or tradition but merely to make words easier to understand for native speakers. An additional unique function of the language is that, since all words must have an even number amount of syllables, there cannot be any letters on their own. This can lead into some difficulties where shortenings of words or words borrowed from other languages will have an odd number of syllables. To rectify this, Zyrilian speakers are allowed to add the palatalizer to any part of the word to make it even. In some cases this palatalizer letter is not heard in the spoken version of the word. This phenomenon is referred to as silent palatalization.
In the case of verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. of Zyrilian the language does not have many native words for these things. This is due to the fact that simple words were and always have been effective enough to communicate simple and complex ideas and feelings, such as "shelter" being Qerrþ which can also be used as a word for house or town and "sad" being Lænro which can be used for basically any synonym of sad (though "grief" is Lætyax which is a combination of Lænro and Tyaxh ("death")). It has been kept this way for a very long time both because spoken language is not entirely vital for Alqati and because it makes the language easier to learn and understand. In some cases it can make the language harder to learn however.
Zyrilian also has a lot of forms of punctuation in its writing form. It has equivalents to the period, comma, and question mark; but also has punctuation for certain tone. The "enthusiasm" punctuation can also sort of be used like an exclamation point. The tone/emotion ones are not used nearly as often, as they are usually reserved for informal speak, and informal writings are hard to come across on Ebrya. Additionally, with the period equivalent, more squiggles can be written for emphasis, resembling ellipses.
The evolution of the phrase "dangerous area."
History
History
Zelâ
In ancient history, Zyrilian is believed to originate from a coastal Alqati tribe known as the Wqesyal. The language was originally only vocal, simply being sounds that the Alqati made to communicate to each other. By 600 BCE, Zyrilian became a logographic language as Alqati adapted to writing. At the time, symbols were used to communicate basic ideas like "danger" and "safety." The language slowly evolved to communicate objects and feelings such as "rock" and "sad."
As Alqati aren't very territorial, lots of Wqesyal Alqati started to mingle with other Alqati tribes and, rarely, other animal tribes and develop their own forms of communication. By the 1200s, Zyrilian started to adapt a lot of words and sounds from other animal languages. Before, Zyrilian only had 3 vowels, and now it had up to 8. As Alqati developed better vocal chords they developed a more varied language. More and more Alqati tribes started to develop their own languages by this period.
The 1400s-1500s is around the time the language transitioned completely from a logoconsonantal language to a logosyllabic language. The language now had 20+ letters, and much of the old logograms were now lost to time. By the 1800s, the language became completely a syllabic alphabet.
Creation
Creation
Kotswa
Contrary to Olbano, Zyrilian is entirely my own creation. I realized Ebrya would need languages completely different from the ones on Valai to easily communicate that it is, well, a different planet. However I thought that since making a conlang is a lot of work and I don't think I'm particularly a master at it (I only really know the basics of linguistics - though creating these conlangs has made me learn a lot more!) instead of making multiple conlangs that would only be used for maybe like... 5 chapters in the whole story? I could just create a 'universal' one that is the main language spoken and used, even if not everyone in Ebrya speaks it. It just makes things a lot easier for me. In the case of the creation process, I derived some inspiration from Korean, particularly its "syllabic alphabet" which is probably the most noticeable. I actually find the writing system of Korean really cool, so if you want to learn about it as well here's these two Wikipedia articles: Hangul & Korean language. For most of the symbols I used this ancient writing system called "Linear A" for inspiration. The rest of it is mostly based off crocodile sounds/communication and whatever my own brain thought looked cool.
(Also Zyrina is considered an "evil" God but I didn't name the language after him because I think it's evil Valaians think it's evil)Page updated
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