Asyhloan

Asyhloan is the official language of Asyhlo AO. It is spoken by practically 100% of the island's population. It has an extremely simple sound structure and morphology, and is considered the simplest of the languages in Cerescapia. Due to its frequent use of sounds like /s/ and /h/, it has been described as sounding “snakelike” by Metalgol colonists, “like a babbling brook on a windy day” by famous Asyhloan author Olav Lilac, and “like a gas leak” by grouchy old folks everywhere.

Origins

Asyhloan's origins, like the origins of Asyhlo AO's native people, are shrouded in mystery, but competing theories place its origins in different areas. Syntax evidence seems to point towards a Pmace-related origin for the language (both are OSV languages and have adjectives before nouns), but this is not corroborated in vocabulary or sound structure. The sound structure seems to point towards an origin from the southeast, possibly related to Old Oxenian, but again, this is not corroborated through vocabulary, most of which is not seen anywhere else in the area.

Phonetics

There are four basic consonants in Asyhloan: S H L Y

Colloquially, SH is pronounced as in English, LH is an unvoiced lateral fricative as in Welsh “ll”, HH is pronounced as in German Bach, and YH is HH's voiced equivalent.

Additionally, there are three vowels, A, O, and Y. A and O are pronounced as in Spanish; Y is pronounced like the French “u”. For English speakers, this sound can be pronounced by shaping the inside of the mouth (mostly the tongue) as in the word “flee” but the lips as in “flu”. Most Asyhloans are understanding if foreigners pronounce Y like the Spanish i.

Morphology

Nouns and Adjectives

There is a simple gender system. Nouns ending in A, Y or L are feminine; those ending in O, S, or H are masculine. Adjectives accord with the noun they modify: they alternate their last letter based on the gender in question. For example, an adjective whose feminine form ends in -y would replace that -y with an -h when describing a masculine noun, etc.

Verbs

The only verbal affix is a subjunctive form which also acts as the conditional or imperative and is marked by adding -s to the stem. (Verbs whose roots already end in -s do not add anything, and thus have no separate subjunctive form.)

Additionally, there is a set of “Verb Assistants” which can be placed at the end of a sentence to modify the meaning of that sentence. The most significant of these are the tense markers, as (past) and sotoya (future). (See Vocabulary Origins and Borrowings below for an explanation of the origin of these markers.) Other assistanst include hal, “able to”, and ay, “possibly”. The negation marker los is normally used as an adverb (see Syntax below) but can also be placed at the end of a sentence for emphasis.

Other Parts of Speech

Adverbs, postpositions, and conjunctions are not declined.

Syntax

Special Significance of Cases and Transitivity

Asyhloan is an OSV language. It is ergative-absolutive, meaning the subject of an intransitive sentence acts like the object of a transitive sentence. In many cases, this means nothing; the difference is only visible when adverbs are present in the sentence. Therefore, some linguists have classified Asyhloan as “caseless”, with no inherent difference between subject and object. Most linguists counter, however, that indirect objects always come after the verb, and are thus inherently a separate case.

Indirect objects are also an interesting part of speech in Asyhloan. If the sentence is transitive, then the indirect object normally benefits or is affected by the action taking place in the sentence, as in English. But in intransitive sentences, indirect objects hold an inherent meaning of causing the action to take place; thus, in “I sang a song for John”, John benefits from the singing, while in “I sang for John”, John must have somehow caused the singing, for example by asking for it or forcing it to be done.

Upper-Level Syntax

Word-order is as follows:

• Direct Object (transitive sentences), Subject (intransitive sentences)
• Any adverbs
• Subject (transitive sentences)
• Main Verb
• Indirect Object (where applicable)
• Any verb assistants

So, for example,

English: I sent my mother a letter yesterday.

Asyhloan: Lassay yassaylay o sell a oshay (as).”

Literal translation: Letter yesterday I send my mother (past).”

The past marker (equivalent to a helping verb) is in parenthesis because “yesterday” makes it clear that the sentence takes place in the past; therefore, the marker is normally dropped in this situation.

Noun Phrase Syntax

Adjectives always come before the nouns they modify, and postpositions come afterwards. In nearly every case, when a noun is modified both by a freestanding adjective and a prepositional phrase, the prepositional phrase comes first. This is not grammatically required, but generally reduces ambiguity.

For example, “My room in the red house” could translate as either:

• “My red house in room”, in which it is unknown whether “my” and “red” describe the house or the room. The only thing known is that if “red” describes “room”, then “my” must also, so if the person being spoken to knows that the room is red, then this form is acceptable.
• “Red house in my room”, in which it is clear that “my” describes the room. “Red” is still not 100% clear, but since one adjective has been moved and the other unmoved, then the unmoved one is probably intended to describe “house”. This form is generally more accepted.

Subordinate Clause Syntax

Subordinate clauses are not frequently used, especially in speech or informal writing. Most Asyhloans have difficulty with these clauses, and normally will try to use prepositional phrases, multiple sentences, “if...then” constructions, or the like. Subordinate clauses describing verbs, or the main clause in general, can be placed in either an adverb or verb assistant position; speakers normally use the latter, since it can then be “pushed” to the end of the sentence and not placed confusingly in the middle. Clauses describing nouns always come before the noun, normally preceding any other description.

Clauses are always marked off with the word lhas, which can be placed at the beginning or end of the clause; speakers normally use it to separate it from as much of the main clause as possible, for example putting it at the beginning of a subordinate clause that comes at the end of the sentence. Colloquially, lhas is sometimes put at both the beginning and end of a clause if that clause comes in the middle of the sentence; however, this construction is frowned upon in polite or written contexts.

The Asyhloan hatred for the subordinate clause is evident in many common expressions: a haughty or overbearing person can be said to aly laosa ys, “use many clauses”, and things ranging from technical jargon to excessive red tape are normally referred to as laosa or laoso, “clause-y”. Even the word for a stitch in one's side is called a syl laosa, a “side clause”.

Orthography

The writing system is basic and based on the Latin alphabet. The letters are:

AHLOSY

The language was unwritten until Metalgolem colonisation. Even after colonisation, there were no lowercase letters up until the revolution. At that point, extensive education was introduced, and literacy spread, so lowercase letters were introduced, especially in works translated from other languages.

Pronouns

The pronoun system is declined for gender and person, but not number:

• Masculine Pronouns: 1st person o, 2nd person ho, 3rd person so
• Feminine Pronouns: 1st person a, 2nd person ya, 3rd person la

These pronouns are also used as possessive pronouns, but note that they accord in gender with what is possessed, not who is possessing. For example, “my mother” would be “a oshay” whether the person speaking is a man or a woman.

Questions

Yes/No questions are created using a rising tone of voice. Sometimes, the negative form (with adverb los) is used to make the attitude more clear. Questions where information is requested are constructed by replacing the unknown parts of sentences with a wide range of different particles. However, this huge system is now only used in writing, while in speech, merely a pause in the unknown part of the sentence in addition to a rising tone is good. Sometimes, to reinforce, has can be used instead of a pause.

Answers

Yes is yas (or yay if the subject of the question is feminine). No is lo (or la if the subject of the question is feminine).

When answering a request-for-information question, normally merely stating the word in response is all that is called for (e.g. “What do you want to eat” only needs “sushi” in response; if you respond “I want to eat sushi” is seen as condescending or derogatory) unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the question (“Why is the sky magenta?”).

Vocabulary Origins and Borrowings

Most Asyhloan vocabulary is native, but during the colonial period some words were borrowed from Metalgol. Probably the two most influential borrowings were the tense markers as (the past marker, as seen in the earlier example) and sotoya (the future marker). These were adapted from versions of the Metalgol verb toto, “to occur”: the past perfect tense is atoto-, and the future is totoga in the third person. These were adapted into the position of verb assistants. Before colonization, tense and time placement were unmarked, and the tense markers are still optional when clear from context (as in our earlier example sentence).

Another effect of Metalgol influence was the expansion of the subjunctive marker -s. This marker had previously marked only when the factuality or occurrence of the verb was in doubt, e.g. “fly” in “when pigs fly” would carry the -s marker due to the fact that pigs are not likely to fly. This marker was expanded to take on a more conditional sense (as in “if I eat, I will gain weight”, even if this weight gain is likely) and as an imperative. Previously, there was no such thing as a simple imperative sentence (“Eat!” was expressed as “I want you to eat”), a gap that the Metalgol colonists found needed to be filled.

In recent times, the rate of borrowing has subsided, with most new words coming from Pmace. However, due to the difference in sound structures, many of these words are changed beyond recognition. For example, the Pmace campace, “computer”, was changed into hosay in Asyhloan.

Use Outside of Asyhlo AO

Along with Pmace, Asyhloan is one of two official languages used at Cerescapia's UN office. Normally, UN documents are not translated into Asyhloan, although copies of all UN resolutions are translated.

A small community of Asyhloans lives in Pmace.