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Kyrdan languages: Difference between revisions

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| region      = [[w:Vaalbara|Mu]] (Archaean Earth)
| region      = [[w:Vaalbara|Mu]] (Archaean Earth)
| protoname  = Proto-Kyrdan
| protoname  = Proto-Kyrdan
| familycolor = D86FFF
| familycolor =#ccccff
| family= One of the primary language families
| family= One of the primary language families
| child1      = Kirtumur
| child1      = [[Kirtumur]]
| child2      = Cirdamur
| child2      = Cirdamur
| child3      = Kērsalur
| child3      = Kērsalur
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! Sērsal
! Sērsal
! Cirdamur
! Cirdamur
! Kirtumur
! [[Kirtumur]]
! Kērsal
! Kērsal
! Ilusal
! Ilusal
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Other varieties are generally not considered to be separate languages and are not standardised. Though they still survive as primarily spoken languages, the use of them is restricted to day to day conversations between the native speakers. Almost all speakers of these dialects are bilingual and know at least one of the standard languages. The situation is much better in the east, where the locals generally speak in more or less pure Ilusal or Ruosal with each other and only introduce new loanwords if necessary, while in the south Sērsal mixed with Cirdamur and is now extinct, even though it was the only dialect that had any literary tradition. In '''Pilmu''' people predominantly speak Cirdamur with various degrees of Sērsal admixture, although there have been attepts to revive the language and standardise it.
Other varieties are generally not considered to be separate languages and are not standardised. Though they still survive as primarily spoken languages, the use of them is restricted to day to day conversations between the native speakers. Almost all speakers of these dialects are bilingual and know at least one of the standard languages. The situation is much better in the east, where the locals generally speak in more or less pure Ilusal or Ruosal with each other and only introduce new loanwords if necessary, while in the south Sērsal mixed with Cirdamur and is now extinct, even though it was the only dialect that had any literary tradition. In '''Pilmu''' people predominantly speak Cirdamur with various degrees of Sērsal admixture, although there have been attepts to revive the language and standardise it.


A few languages left little to no written records and are extinct, among those '''Old Kirdum''' is the most well known thanks to several inscriptions and temple metal tablets. It is likely that Kērsalur slowly substituted Kirdum, becoming a new prestige variety and liturgical language. An evidence of this is the bilingual inscription from the temple of Entirŋum, which tells about the sermon, delivered in that temple by the Green Goddess with the Kērsalur words on top and a smaller text and a less precise translation in Kirdum (this is also the only bilingual text with Kirdum words). Other language, known from another Kirdum inscription the lake Aita, was called '''Qaǯašale''', but nothing is known about it apart from its name. The inscription also implied the existence of other languages in that area, but no names were mentioned in it.
A few languages left little to no written records and are extinct, among those '''Old Ķyrdum''' is the most well known thanks to several inscriptions and temple metal tablets. It is likely that Kērsalur slowly substituted Ķyrdum, becoming a new prestige variety and liturgical language. An evidence of this is the bilingual inscription from the temple of Entirŋum, which tells about the sermon, delivered in that temple by the Green Goddess with the Kērsalur words on top and a smaller text and a less precise translation in Ķyrdum (this is also the only bilingual text with Ķyrdum words). Other language, known from another Ķyrdum inscription the lake Aita, was called '''Qaǯašale''', but nothing is known about it apart from its name. The inscription also implied the existence of other languages in that area, but no names were mentioned in it.
 
==Writing systems==
The Kyrdan languages have kept the ancient logo-syllabic writing system, called ''Namķaudir'' (from Ķyrdum "that preserves words"), adapting it to their evolution. This writing system was in use for over a millenium and was kept almost completely unchanged until the regularisation of the Kērsalur spelling. The first inscriptions were purely ideographic, which makes them technically impossible to know in which language they were written, though some ideograms later became logograms in Namķaudir, so many of these ideograms can be recognised and read, even though their original pronunciation is unknown. This later script is a syllable-based logography (or a logo-syllabic system) in which symbols represent morphemes and individual syllables rather than whole words or even sentences. Thus many words are written with purely phonetic glyphs with only small common morphemes having their own separate logograms. Along with words written phonetically, a special set of symbols, called ''zēalak'' ("silent words") are used, which are not pronounced, but indicate proper names, placenames, natural phenomena, stars and planets, living beings (except humans). They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, but help to disambiguate interpretation. The exact number of symbols is unknown, since most of them are rarely used and can be found in religious text or old inscriptions. Kērsalur has the largest amount of syllabic symbols - 460, while Cirdamur and Kirtumur have less - 333 and 360 respectively. All three varieties have separate set of symbols: one for syllables of the form '''CV''' and one - of '''VC''' (where '''C''' is a consonant and '''V''' is a vowel).
==Vocabulary comparison==
==Vocabulary comparison==
The table below provides a vocabulary comparison that illustrates phonetic correspondences among different Kyrdan varieties:
The table below provides a vocabulary comparison that illustrates phonetic correspondences among different Kyrdan varieties:
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! Sērsal
! Sērsal
! Cirdamur
! Cirdamur
! Kirtumur
! [[Kirtumur]]
! Kērsal
! Kērsal
! Ilusal
! Ilusal
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| ''hōn''
| ''hōn''
| ''zōn''
| ''zōn''
|-
! window
| ''nim''
| ''nim''
| ''nim''
| ''lim''
| ''lim''
| ''nim''
|-
|-
! man
! man
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| ''yieri''
| ''yieri''
|-
|-
! small
! fog
| ''yɛ̄ča''
| ''din''
| ''yēci''
| ''eddin''
| ''yēri''
| ''etten''
| ''yēši''
| ''etten''
| ''yieri''
| ''itin''
| ''yieri''
| ''ettin''
|-
|-
! storm
! storm
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| ''fuor''
| ''fuor''
| ''khuor''
| ''khuor''
|-
! column
| ''gōkabir''
| ''guggabir''
| ''kukkapir''
| ''kukkapir''
| ''kukkapir''
| ''kukkupir''
|-
! shore
| ''ališ''
| ''attiš''
| ''arris''
| ''aššis''
| ''arris''
| ''arris''
|-
! image
| ''nilen''
| ''nillin''
| ''nizzin''
| ''neššen''
| ''niššin''
| ''nezzen''
|-
|-
|}
|}


[[Category:Language families]]
[[Category:Language families]]  [[Category:Kyrdan]]
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