This article is about the language sometimes referred to as Corvidan. For the region where this language is spoken, also referred to as Corvidan, see Corvidan Archipelago.
The Corvidan language is the written, spoken, and signed language used by all inhabitants of the Corvidan Archipelago.
(Note: Corvidan script have been romanized throughout this wiki for simplicity. Corvidan words are indicated through the use of ALL-CAPS.)
The Corvidan language contains 26 distinct phonemes, 18 consonants and 8 vowels. In modern speech, the close-mid central vowel is universally dropped, and \ has become a silent letter.
Consonant phonemes in Corvidan
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | M | N | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | P | T | K | ' | |||
| voiced | B | D | G | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | F | θ | S | H | |||
| voiced | V | Z | J | |||||
| Rhotic | R | |||||||
| Lateral Approximant | L | |||||||
Vowel phonemes in Corvidan
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | I | U | |
| Near-Close | / | ||
| Close-Mid | \ | ||
| Mid | Ə | O | |
| Open-Mid | E | ||
| Open | A |
The written form of the Corvidan language is an alphabet with a total of 26 letters. Each letter corresponds to a single consonant or monophthong. The Corvidan script also includes numerals, with 6 characters for its base-6 number system, with additional characters for powers of 6 (36, 216, etc). These additional numeral characters are mainly used in handwriting or academic contexts.
The Corvidan script is unicameral, with no upper or lower case. It is read first from left to right, then from top to bottom.
Corvidan orthography is almost entirely phonetic; if the pronunciation of a given word changes, then that change will be reflected in the spelling. The sole exception is \, which Corvidans call "the silent vowel", which is most often found at the end of a word. As Corvidan evolved, this vowel was increasingly reduced, dropped or merged with similar vowels. However, many Corvidans from distinguished lineages were reluctant to alter their well-known secondary names. Because of this, the silent letter not only remained in use, but gained an archaic and aristocratic connotation.
In written Corvidan, spoken lexical stress is optionally indicated through reduplication of the first letter of a stressed syllable. This is traditionally done for names to indicate their preferred pronunciation, since most standard words have set stress patterns that do not need clarification. Doubled letters can also be used to indicate emphasis more generally, even in single-syllable words. In informal text communication, many young Corvidans will either drop "extra" letters, prioritizing speed over precision, or use a long string of repeated letters for additional emphasis.
There are two punctuation marks in frequent use in Corvidan writing, called the pausative mark and the interjective mark. The pausative indicates a break, ellipsis, or any division of a sentence. Longer pauses are indicated by more pausative marks, written consecutively. On magitech devices, when messages are being sent and received in real time, the pausative informs the recipient that the sender is done speaking and is waiting for a reply. The interjective indicates an aside, quote, or parenthetical statement without interrupting the flow of the sentence. Two interjective marks are used, one at the beginning and one at the end of an interjective statement. In most handwritten scripts, the second interjective is mirrored horizontally, but on magitech devices, only one form is used in both positions. Pausative marks and interjective marks can also be used more creatively to convey tone, prosody, and individual expression.
There are two special characters used as shorthand in Corvidan writing. The equative is used in mathematical contexts, as well as in place of the copula. The aureative is used as a currency symbol. Other characters have been infrequently used throughout Corvidan history, but especially since the advent of magitech devices, most of these marks have become obsolete. Question marks are unnecessary due to the grammatical structure of Corvidan, and reduplication eliminates the need for exclamation points. Bullet points are substituted with numerals or Ə ("and").
The basic unit of the Corvidan language is the free morpheme, a word which can be used by itself or combined with others to create compound words. The final morpheme is the "base", modified by preceeding morphemes. Because compound words in Corvidan can grow to an unwieldy length, Corvidans make frequent use of contractions and acronyms, especially in casual writing. These shortened word forms can become so common as to displace the full word in usage. Acronyms are pronounced using the initial syllables of each composite word, sometimes with glottal stops in between for phonetic clarity; for example, AIRINA'PERA'AISILUN is shortened to AI'PE'AI. Acronyms can be integrated into other compound words or new acronyms.
Corvidan lacks inflection, case, and/or conjugation. Corvidan strictly follows an VSO word order; a word's meaning is, in most cases, reliant on its position within the overarching structure of a sentence. Unmarked words are singular, but KAI ("one") can be used as an indefinite article. Phrases such as "them and me" or "thou and I" are used instead of plural pronouns.
Corvidan tense is indicated with temporal particles, which are always inserted at the beginning of a sentence or subordinate clause. There are seven tenses: present, recent past, distant past, recent future, distant future, habitual/continual, and uncertain tense. Unmarked sentences are assumed to be in present tense, but the present tense particle can be used as an imperative or for emphasis. Corvidan uses two optional modal particles to indicate confidence in the veracity of a given statement, one determinate and one indeterminate particle.
The Corvidan language has a variety of words used to indicate relative spatial relationships. These words are not grammatically mandatory, but are nevertheless used frequently, since pointing is impolite in Corvidan culture. Corvidans do not have words for "right" and "left"; they instead orient themselves using the cardinal directions and, when describing rotational motion, sunwise (counterclockwise) and countersunwise (clockwise). The Corvidan Archipelago is located in the Aequor Arcanus’ Southern Hemisphere, so clocks rotate in the "opposite" direction.
Corvidan does not have a direct equivalent to "to be"; its usage is split into two verbs, RAI ("to equal") and KOLKLEI ("to exist"). RAI is used both as a copula and in mathematical contexts.
Although spoken Corvidan is the default form of the language, a significant minority of Corvidans are unable to speak or are uncomfortable speaking for a variety of biological and personal reasons. A signed version of Corvidan has evolved alongside the dominant spoken and written forms for their entire history; as such, it closely follows the grammar and culture of non-signed forms. Signed Corvidan is taught to all primary school students, and is frequently also taught to babies before they are capable of communicating their needs through speech or writing. Corvidans who primarily use spoken language still use Signed Corvidan to communicate in loud places, when silence is necessary, and/or as an additional means of personal expression.