Difference between revisions of "Syokaji"

Latest revision as of 19:55, 30 October 2007

쇼카지 (Syokaji) was the primary language spoken in Sokojito and Sokojiwa before the fall of the United Siokaji Consortium. The language continued to be spoken in the regions inhabited by the Syokaji people, which became part of the nations of Bedistan, Commerce Heights, and Lontorica. The Syokaji language has thrived recently in the Unified Capitalizt States, but it was primarily replaced by English and Noterelenda in Bedistan after the evacuation to Calania and is mostly used there in personal names.

The Syokaji language is very similar to the Korean language spoken in some other nations, but has evolved some important differences, both in the writing system and the sounds used. Many Syokaji words can be understood by Korean speakers, leading some to believe that Syokaji is not a distinct language.

Writing system

Like Korean, Syokaji uses the Hangul alphabet. The thirty-five jamo (자모), which function like letters, are formed into syllable blocks, which are then clustered to form words. The jamo used in Syokaji are listed below, along with their names, pronunciation, and common transliterations:

* The jamo ㅇ is not pronounced at the beginning of a syllable. It is transliterated (Polignino–Mize) as ʼ at the beginning of the syllable, and as ŋ at the end of a syllable.
** These are transliterated as g, d, r, and b, respectively, when followed by a vowel and as k, t, l, and p otherwise.

Transliteration

There are two primary methods for transliteration of Syokaji. The Polignino–Mize Romanization, which uses a single letter for each jamo (with the exception of some vowel diphtongs, represented as w or y followed by another letter), is the method most commonly used in the Unified Capitalizt States. While it provides a lossless transliteration, some of its features are misinterpreted by English speakers with no knowledge of the system. According to a recent study, the most problematic letters are ç and the vowels with macrons. A variant of the Polignino–Mize system transliterates ㅊ as ch and uses macrons for ㅏ, ㅣ, and ㅜ instead of the macrons used in Polignino–Mize.

The Revised Romanization of Korean was the first common transliteration method for Syokaji. After falling out of favor for several decades, it is making a resurgence in Bedistan and is now used frequently there.