Languages

Qariyyu nouns, verbs, and adjectives are notable for their classification along bodily lines—different parts of the body are associated with different meanings, selected for by means of prefixing. It is from the Yashdari family, and is most intelligible with modern Tharrabic (from which the formal language has borrowed much grammar and vocabulary); it has also borrowed a fair few words from the unrelated Xixrut language. Qariyyu is written with the ayizar, a series of glyphs representing whole roots and marked with various diacritics to create full words.

Phaeroian verbs—specifically in the Caerydic dialect, the de facto preferred version—have three separate forms for active, middle, and passive voice. Nouns have three cases: nominative, subjective, and either ergative or accusative; and four genders: common, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Fortunately, if you learn the basic verb forms, the rest of the language is relatively easy to work with. The New Phaeroian Syllabary is used across the region of Oma, though it competes with the Voerian abugida in Einir and the Cerementi script in eastern Aion.

Arrahng is from the Koorra family, and partially intelligible with Kereyatj, Danyoweka, Ginyaoka, and Raikauka. It is notable for its multiple noun classes with defined plurals, most of which are ignored in the trade dialect; its lack of tense in verbs; its impressive list of converbs and aspect markers; and its use of pitch in vocabulary. Arrahng is written using the alphabet bearing the same name.

Kshamakaraktha is from the Dhunic family, and is spoken across the equatorial archipelago of Sayintha. It has quite an impressive set of verbal classifiers, to the point where entire sentences can be incorporated into a single word; it also has split ergativity, with nouns taking an ergative-absolutive alignment and verbs a nominative-accusative one. (This sometimes gets extra tricky, because a great many nouns are derived from verbs.) It is written using the Thakrau script, an abugida derived from the complex knots used by early travellers to mark numbers and accounts.

Tehapuan, the most spoken Malehinese languages, has four alignments for verbs (ergative, locative, active, and observative), grammatical declension using articles, and a very simple phonology—albeit one that for some Malehinese languages is quite overstocked. The Tehapuan syllabary drew inspiration from the Booladjirra abjad that preceded it, but is considered more pleasant to look at.