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DispatchFactbookCulture

by The Federated Imperium of Kajal. . 7 reads.

Riikan: the Voice of the Land

WORK IN PROGRESS


Contents


Overview



Riikan is the official language of Kajal. It is musical, of medium complexity, and easily recognizable. Riikan is indigenous to the Kajali province Mejar, on the homeworld of Kajur, and emerged as the first tongue of the province in antiquity. It is spoken as a first language primarily within the holdings of the Federated Imperium of Kajal, and some smaller population centres abroad. The majority of speakers outside of the Federated Imperium are typically second- or third-language speakers, the majority of whom typically rely on machine translation, though many have also devoted significant effort to learning the language "naturally" with the aid of accelerated-time virtual environments.

Riikan is one of four trade languages that have survived to present day within the Kajali sphere of influence, and originated in the Mejar province of Kajur in antiquity. The other three trade languages are Deriiv'kan, Ljosai'kan, and Solaan'i; these languages are colloquially referred to as Deriiv, Ljosan, and Solaan. Deriiv'kan and Ljosai'kan are dialects of Riikan that developed following colonization of the worlds of Derivan and Ljosa; Solaan'i is instead descended from the equatorial dialect of the Dajar'i language. Deriiv'kan, Ljosai'kan, and Riikan are mutually intelligible but diverge significantly in informal conversation and slang, while Solaan'i has historically been taught as a second language throughout the Era Imperial.

Prior to the Era Imperial, Riikan was the dominant language only of the Imperial Domain of Mejar (Soramur Onou Mejari). The adoption of Riikan as a world trade language was promulgated by the 1st Imperium of Kajal in starting in 775 Era Imperial with the establishment of the Mar Kajurmani, which also designed and published an updated "modern" script which remains in standard use today. The related trade languages of Deriiv'kan and Ljosai'kan utilize similar symbol sets but differ significantly enough that official communications are often represented in triplicate with each form. Older "monumental" forms of Riikan script are typically much more difficult to interpret as such forms are similar to pictographic representations such as hieroglyphics, while intermediate forms combine recognizable symbols into compound characters of fixed width and height to represent ideas. The primary innovation of the Imperial script was to define each symbol as a sound or phoneme, written in sequence instead of as a single character or matrix representing an idea.

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Basic Pronunciation Guide



Riikan uses a similar set of sounds to many Solarian languages, including Solarian Common English (SCE), and as such has both been transcribed and transliterated according to guidelines set by Mar Kajurmani for second-language learners. The following examples are accepted representations in SCE.

Vowels

Consonants

  • = ah [ ɑː ]

  • (AR) = arr [ ɑːr ]

  • = ay [ aɪ ]

  • = ee [ ˈiː ]

  • = oh [ əʊ ]

  • = ooh [ uː ]

  • (Y) = wai [ waɪ ]

  • (B) = buh

  • (C) = suh

  • (D) = ad

  • (F) = fuh

  • (H) = ha

  • (HH) = ah

  • (J) = ihj, juh

  • (K) = ka

  • (L) = el

  • (LL) = lel

  • (M) = ehm

  • (N) = ehn

  • (NN) = ohn

  • (R) = ar, ruh

  • (S) = es

  • (SH) = shuh

  • (TH) = thuh

  • (V) = vi

  • (X) = zhi

  • (XH) = shi

  • (Z) = zhuh

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Vocabulary



The following are some of the most common verbs used in Riikan, and are typically taught early in the education of new Riikan speakers. Riikan is an agglutinative language and uses combinations of words to convey specific meaning beyond what individual words would convey alone.

  • to be (iy)

  • to have (ianas)

  • to do (iana)

  • to see (iyan)

  • to read (iyal)

  • to write (kam)

  • to love (riis)

  • to want (miiy)

  • to hate (irisa)

  • to buy (ianar)

  • to stay (iro'hara)

  • to go (hara)

  • to return (sherya)

  • to arrive (alarur)

  • to leave (alarar)

  • to drink (kiiva)

  • to eat (kimar)

  • to be able to (kimar'iy)

  • to find (myr)

  • to earn (miyaa)

  • to travel (ka)

  • to walk (al'an)

  • to run (al'ar)

  • to descend (himiru)

  • to ascend (himira)

  • to build (xhiyou)

  • to destroy (xhianas)

  • to learn (shiya)

  • to ask a question (kanrir)

  • to answer (kansoru)

  • to call (sori)

  • to speak (kan)

  • to use (mira)

  • to sleep (myaka)

  • to lead (ser)

  • to command (sera)

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