Xapìkhsi

[Daedolon]

The <Xapìkhsi> /xa.pʼiː.kʰsi/ language was spoken nearly 3000 years ago, in the city states of the archipelago of <Bodrotoro> /po.tro.tʼo.ro/. Today, the tribes of Bodrotoro speak languages descended from Xapìkhsi.

The Xapìkhsi language was spoken since the first arrival of the <Xapâsìkhsi> /xa.pʼaː˥.siː.kʰsi/ people into the western islands of the archipelago 3000 years ago, until the fall of the city state of <Papsitìbáid> /pʼa.pʼsi.tʼiː.pai˥t/ which marks the collapse of the Xapâsìkhsi civilisation roughly 1600 years ago.

Xapìkhsi was written with a logosyllabary invented by the Xapâsìkhsi people in the archipelago approximately 2500 years ago. It was mostly used by priests for writing religious literature and scribes to record administrative, legal, and commercial texts.

/xa.pʼiː.kʰsi/ <Xapìkhsi>

/m n/ <m n>
/p pʼ pʰ t tʼ tʰ c cʼ cʰ k kʼ kʰ/ <b p ph d t th j c ch g k kh>
/s ʃ x/ <s ś x>
/r l j w/ <r l y v>

/i u e o a/ <i u e o a>
/iː uː eː oː aː/ <ì ù è ò à>
/í ú é ó á/ <í ú é ó á>
/íː úː éː óː áː/ <î û ê ô â>

Phonotactics

(C)(C)V(C)(C)

Geminated consonants are not allowed.

Allophony

Not much allophony existed, but vowel hiatus were strictly banned. When it would occur an epenthetic /ʔ/ was usually inserted.

Now lets make some daughterlangs, I thought of 4 big branches with 3-5 daughterlangs each.

From Xapìkhsi to Common Xapìkhsi

i > ij/_V
u > uw/_V
V > Vʔ/_V

ij uw > uj/_{C #}
ij > uj/_i
uw > uj/_u
a > ja/#_

o ó > a á/_ NOT _{j w}
óː oː > ó aː/_ NOT _{j w}
éw ew > ó o
ow ów > o ó
óːw oːw > óː oː
eːw éːw > io ío
ej éj > e é
eːj éːj > eː éː
aj aːj > e eː
áːj > áj
oj oːj > i iː
ój óːj > é éː
aw aːw > o ō

From Common Xapìkhsi to Northern Xapìkhsi

ʔ > k

pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ > pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ

kʰ k cʰ c tʰ t pʰ p > ŋ ŋ ɲ ɲ n n m m/_{m n ɲ ŋ}
sn > n/#_
mr nr > br dr/#_
ml > bl

tʰs ts > ss

ʃ > ʂ
cʰ c > tʃ
sj > ʃ
s > ʃ/_{e i}
tʃ > tʂ
t > tʃ
r > t

ttʰ tt > stʰ st

From Northern Xapìkhsi to Mesgera

p t k > b d g
pʰ tʰ kʰ > p t k

l > r/#C*_
l > r/V_V
m > ŋ/_#
d > r/_#

áː aː > ɔ́ ɔ
ó > ɔ́
óː > ó
oː > u
u > o
uː > u
iː > i
í > é //only in closed syllables
éː > é
eː > i
é > ɛ́

Changes from pitch accent to a stress accent

[LongVowel] > [ShortVowel]

Some words

I (first person singular pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /mé.cʰi.e/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /mé.cʰi.je/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /mé.tʂi.je/ > (Mesgera) /'mɛ.tʂi.je/

You (Second person singular pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /tʼé.pʼtʼe/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /tʼé.pʼtʼe/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /tʰé.pʰtʰe/ > (Mesgera) /'tɛ.pte/

He/She/It (Third person singular pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /tʼós.ma.at/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /tʼás.ma.ʔat/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /tʰás.ma.katʃ/ > (Mesgera) /'tas.ma.gatʃ/

We (first person plural pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /es.mé/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /es.mé/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /es.mé/ > (Mesgera) /es.'mɛ/

Y'all (Second person plural pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /uː.a.pé/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /uː.wa.pé/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /uː.wa.pé/ > (Mesgera) /u.wa.'bɛ/

They (Third person plural pronoun)

(Xapìkhsi) /tʼáː.soːm/ > (Common Xapìkhsi) /tʼáː.saːm/ > (Northern Xapìkhsi) /tʰáː.saːm/ > (Mesgera) /'tɔ.sɔŋ/

/mɛs.gɛ.ra/ <Mesgera> Phoneme Inventory

/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ň ñ>
/p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
/tʃ tʂ/ <tś tš>
/s ʃ ʂ x/ <s ś š x>
/j w r l/ <y v r l>

/i u ɛ~e ɔ~o a/ <i u e o a>

Well that's it for now.

[Jonlang]

/p pʼ pʰ t tʼ tʰ c cʼ cʰ k kʼ kʰ/ <b p ph d t th j c ch g k kh>
/r l j w/ <r l y v>

Using <j> for /c/ seems to be a bit odd, especially as /c'/ and /cʰ/ both use variants of <c> I'd probably have done something like /c c' cʰ/ <c c' ch> and then followed the same convention with the others. Also using <v> for /w/ is probably going to confuse people and they'll end up pronouncing it as /v/ (if this is intended to be read by some audience that is).

/i u e o a/ <i u e o a>
/iː uː eː oː aː/ <ì ù è ò à>
/í ú é ó á/ <í ú é ó á>
/íː úː éː óː áː/ <î û ê ô â>

You've not used IPA there so it's impossible to tell what your vowel sounds are.

[Daedolon]

/i u e o a/ <i u e o a>
/iː uː eː oː aː/ <ì ù è ò à>
/í ú é ó á/ <í ú é ó á>
/íː úː éː óː áː/ <î û ê ô â>

You've not used IPA there so it's impossible to tell what your vowel sounds are.

What are you talking about ? You can either use /á/ or /a˦/ in IPA to represent high tone. People tend to use tone letters because with it is easier to represent tone contours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_%28l ... c_notation

[Jonlang]

/i u e o a/ <i u e o a>
/iː uː eː oː aː/ <ì ù è ò à>
/í ú é ó á/ <í ú é ó á>
/íː úː éː óː áː/ <î û ê ô â>

You've not used IPA there so it's impossible to tell what your vowel sounds are.

What are you talking about ? You can either use /á/ or /a˦/ in IPA to represent high tone. People tend to use tone letters because with it is easier to represent tone contours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_%28l ... c_notation

Ah! That makes sense now. I knew there'd have been something I was missing.

[Travis B.]

/p pʼ pʰ t tʼ tʰ c cʼ cʰ k kʼ kʰ/ <b p ph d t th j c ch g k kh>
/r l j w/ <r l y v>

Using <j> for /c/ seems to be a bit odd, especially as /c'/ and /cʰ/ both use variants of <c> I'd probably have done something like /c c' cʰ/ <c c' ch> and then followed the same convention with the others.

Umm the convention being used here is that the tenuis stops are being treated as lenis and the ejective and aspirated stops are being treated as fortis, and this is why letters for lenis stops are being used for tenuis stops and letters for fortis stops are being used for ejective and aspirated stops...

(A good example of this kind of thing in action is Pinyin.)

[Chengjiang]

/p pʼ pʰ t tʼ tʰ c cʼ cʰ k kʼ kʰ/ <b p ph d t th j c ch g k kh>
/r l j w/ <r l y v>

Using <j> for /c/ seems to be a bit odd, especially as /c'/ and /cʰ/ both use variants of <c> I'd probably have done something like /c c' cʰ/ <c c' ch> and then followed the same convention with the others.

Umm the convention being used here is that the tenuis stops are being treated as lenis and the ejective and aspirated stops are being treated as fortis, and this is why letters for lenis stops are being used for tenuis stops and letters for fortis stops are being used for ejective and aspirated stops...

(A good example of this kind of thing in action is Pinyin.)

This is absolutely true and I approve of Daedolon's orthographic choice here.

[Daedolon]

Well, after last time I realized that I hadn't said how the Xapâsìkhsi civilization fell, so lets do that. Also Bodrotoro is both the name of the archipelago and the name of the greatest island of said archipelago. Bodrotoro is half the size of Greenland and is surrounded on its western side by quite a handful of far smaller islands.

Of the Xapâsìkhsi city states the greatest was <Inerèjośtûu> /i.ne.reː.coʃ.tʼúː.u/. Built on a fluvial island of the river <Erèjośtûu> /e.reː.coʃ.tʼúː.u/, through it Inerèjośtûu had quick access to most of the Xapâsìkhsi city states which led to great material prosperity. Inerèjośtûu was ruled by a aristocratic oligarchy, they traced their origin to one of the original 400 families that first settled on the island 2500 yeas ago. At its height 2100 years ago, Inerèjośtûu had 300,000 inhabitants, far, far above the other great city states of its time which had something around 100,000 to 125,000 inhabitants and the average size of a Xapâsìkhsi city state which was 10,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Inerèjośtûu was the leader of the Erèjośtûu League which was formed to fend off southern outsiders called <Bthorsii> /ptʰor.si.i/ that once in a while or so would come from the south and pillage them. Like the other Xapâsìkhsi city states, slavery was a common practice in Inerèjośtûu but again the size of how things were done was what really settled it apart from the other city states of its time. Usually only aristocrats, big land owners, could possess the wealth to have slaves and even then a family could only afford one or two which worked alongside the master and his family on the fields. The slave population in Inerèjośtûu was six to seven times greater than the aristocrat population, something like the North American's antebellum south.

On a specially hot and stormy year 1900 years ago, the river Erèjośtûu flooded and destroyed Inerèjośtûu completely. The remaining great Xapâsìkhsi city states fought amongst themselves for dominance over each other, the bthorsii attacked and then they finally took root in Bodrotoro. Not in a month nor in a year but over three centuries the bthorsii invaded Bodrotoro and eventually conquered the Xapâsìkhsi people.