Caseic language

Caseic is the most common language of the Caseic Archipelago, and is the official language in most states therein. It is subdivided into three dialects: the Southern Dialect, which is considered standard in the Caseic Federation; the Northern Dialect, which is considered standard in the Greater Nayela Union and Prefichi; and the Esiga Dialect, which is considered standard in Esiga.

History

During the 600s TT, a pidgin trade language used in Ibe-Jibin, Ibe-Nacha, and Framaja-Nayela began to form. In the 500s TT, it was standardised into a form known as Standard Weatherplague Caseic. This standard form began to be used as an official language of the Nacha Republic and Chacya Kingdom, especially for the purpose of trade. As travel throughout the Caseic Archipelago became easier with the development of new technology, the language spread to the Cajia Kingdom.

With the rise of the Caseic Federation, the Caseic language became the official language of the whole archipelago, with other languages diminishing.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal stop	m	n
Plosive	p b	t	k g
Affricate		t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	s
Approximant	w~ɥ	ɹ	j (w~ɥ)

Vowels

	Front	Central
Close	i	ʉ
Mid	e~ɛ	ɞ~ə
Open	a
Diphthongs	ae, œy, ei

Orthography

Romanisation

This is the orthography used to represent Caseic on this wiki.

Romanisation

Letter	Sound	Notes
a	a
ae	ae~aj
ai	øy
b	b
br	bɹ
bw	bˠw
c	k
ch	t͡ʃ
cr	kɹ
cy	kj
e	ɛ
ei	ei~ej
f	f
g	g
gr	gɹ
gy	gj
h	h	Only used in transcriptions of Esiga Caseic
i	i~y
j	d͡ʒ
l	l	Only appears in Northern and Esiga dialects
m	m
n	n
o	o
p	p
pr	pɹ
r	ɹ
s	s
sw	sw
t	t
u	ʉ
w	w~ɥ
y	j

With respect to sounds, tildes indicate phonetic variation, e.g. ⟨w⟩ is realised as /w/ before ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩ but as /ɥ/ before ⟨i⟩.

Hyphens are used to indicate separate components in compound nouns, e.g. Ibe-Jibin ("Jibin city"), or to indicate broken diphthongs, e.g. naje-in ("eatery"). Apostrophes indicate clitic forms of pronouns.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns have case and number indicated by particles. Different particles are used for common and proper nouns.

Common nouns

Case	Singular	Plural	Mass
Ergative	framoc	framoc cya	framoc am
Absolutive	ac framoc	ac framoc cya	ac framoc acha
Genitive	sa framoc	sa framoc am	sa framoc am
Dative	cri framoc	cri framoc acha	cri framoc acha

Proper nouns

Case	Singular/Mass	Plural
Ergative	Casi	Casi am
Absolutive	cai Casi	uc Casi acha
Genitive	sa Casi	sa Casi am
Dative	cra Casi	cori Casi cya

Particle combination

Where two particles would be adjacent, they are typically combined.

*Churog cya ac sweri acha panameri.

→ Churog cyac sweri acha panameri.

"The churgs eat some mushrooms"

Pronouns

Caseic has the following pronouns:

Pronouns

Person	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative
First person singular	jari	jae	jawe	jai
First person plural/mass excluding listener	jafo	jac	jafu	japa
First person plural/mass including listener	jari	jaec	jawu	jabri
Second person singular	bric	brec	bruc	prac
Second person plural	amai	amec	amu	ama
Third person singular	gra	grac	gruj	graj
Third person plural	fo	fec	fuj	faj
Third person mass	po	pec	puj	paj

Unlike genitive nouns, genitive pronouns appear before the noun they modify.

Necsa sa nagraj am

"The horses' struggle"

Jafu necsa

"Our struggle [not including you]"

Some pronouns have clitic forms: absolutive clitics attach to verbs, genitive clitics attach to nouns.

Clitic pronouns

Person	Absolutive	Genitive
First person singular	ji'	ja'
Second person singular		pra'
Second person plural/mass		a'
Third person singular	gra'	gru'
Third person plural	fe'	fu'
Third person mass	pe'	pu'

These clitic forms are used when there is no word between the pronoun and the word it would attach to.

*Nerjai sa jawe nagraj ac yibuwec gefroc ipen it eyana.

→ Nerjai sa ji'nagraj ac yibuwec gefroc ipen it eyana.

"My horse's goose had an excuse to leave the building."