Please note that some of the language construction within this will be new as to reflect the work of the language as it evolves. I am assuming the names and what not are the "anglicized" forms of the name or the postulated modern take on them.
The first step I always take when tackling the work of constructed languages is sound; and before I can begin work on the other languages I need to nail down the central sounds or feelings of the languages in general.
We know a few quick facts about the languages.
Krytan has Hebrew, Greek and Italian Influences.
Ascalonian has Saxon and Norman influences with some Russian aspects.
Orrian has naming aspects from Greek, Urdu / Persian and Arabic.
We know that both the Titans and the Mursaat had names that were Latin in basis and that Arena Net has already used designs in the naming for Titans. We also know that Kurzick has a latin like structure to its language in the Old form.
From this we can extrapolate a things.
- Likely the languages of Tyria (the continent) stem from a collective mother langua once spoken from Orr. We can then assume that Krytan and Ascalonian are variants of this.
- We know that Orrian areas used Arabic and Greek naming practices. In this fact we can assume that most likely there is an aspect of each in the language. How this appears will be purely fanon.
- We know from a post said by Matt Medina (he invented the New Krytan script) that there were sounds such as "Ach", "Meh" and "Muh" in the language. Along with the names found in Orr such as "Azabe Qabar" and Vizier Khilbron" I will postulate the following consonants.
Phonology
This phonology is constructed using notes on Ancient Greek, Persian and a few other sources. The words before the hyphen are the simplified romanization of the alphabet I will be using.
Stops:
a - /b/ - as in boy
p - /p/ - as in pig
t - /t/ - as in tall
d - /d/ - as in dog
k - /k/ - unaspirated, consonant sounds like the c in call
kh - /kh/ - aspirated, consonant expresses a puff of air when said (ken)
g- /g/ - as in get
' - /ʔ/ - Glottal stop marked with a '
Nasals:
m - /m/ - as in may
n - /n/ - as in name
Affricate:
ch - /tʃ/ - as in chess
dj - /dʒ/ - as in djinn
Fricatives:
z - /z/ - as in zebra
sh - /ʃ/ - as in show
zh - /ʒ/ - as in zhang
Approximants:
rr - /r/ - trilled r
r - /ɹ/ - as in roll
l - /l/ - as in lay
y - /j/ - as in yawn
Vowels:
u - /ə/ - as in cut
i - /i/ - as in ski
o - /o/ - as in mole
a - /a/ - as in maw
e - /e/ - as in may
Allophones:
/ɪ/ - as in kick. /i/ becomes /ɪ/ when occurring before laterals.
a - /b/ - as in boy
p - /p/ - as in pig
t - /t/ - as in tall
d - /d/ - as in dog
k - /k/ - unaspirated, consonant sounds like the c in call
kh - /kh/ - aspirated, consonant expresses a puff of air when said (ken)
g- /g/ - as in get
' - /ʔ/ - Glottal stop marked with a '
Nasals:
m - /m/ - as in may
n - /n/ - as in name
Affricate:
ch - /tʃ/ - as in chess
dj - /dʒ/ - as in djinn
Fricatives:
f - /f/ - as in fort
v - /v/ - as in van
s - /s/ - as in sayz - /z/ - as in zebra
sh - /ʃ/ - as in show
zh - /ʒ/ - as in zhang
Approximants:
rr - /r/ - trilled r
r - /ɹ/ - as in roll
l - /l/ - as in lay
y - /j/ - as in yawn
Vowels:
u - /ə/ - as in cut
i - /i/ - as in ski
o - /o/ - as in mole
a - /a/ - as in maw
e - /e/ - as in may
Allophones:
/ɪ/ - as in kick. /i/ becomes /ɪ/ when occurring before laterals.
Basic Word Construction
This is where things now get damn complicated, we have no real construction of the language itself. Meaning I will have to take a lot of liberties here. The phonology was constructed primarily from Arabic with a tinge of Greek and latin. I kept the Vowels simple to allow easier transference when we get to Krytan and Ascalonian.
For the simplicity of construction I will assume that this is a Subject - Verb - Object language. I will then assume that it most likely uses similar construction to arabic, latin and greek.
A few things we may assume:
- Gender most likely exists, but not in extremes, this may mena there is a common male or female ending for most roots rather than specific gendered endings. There is no evidence of a neutered gender.
- Most likely this language will use case endings similar to Latin or Greek, and Old Iranian (to give it an older feel than modern Iranian).
Cases:
Cases are endings of a noun root that imply meanings such as "with or in something". They are common many greek languages.
Nominative - Case of the agent, the subject of the sentence.
Accusative - Case of the object, the acted upon aspect of the sentence.
Genitive - Case of possession, or the possessive.
Vocative - The declarative case, "oh this!" is the mark of vocative!
Dative - Case of giving, or something being given.
Locative - Case of location, in or on.
Ablative - Case of with or along.
More to come!
