Drakine
Drakine (natively Drákirou) is a language spoken as the native tongue of all Euthoran dragons and is derived slightly from early Acaranian. While it can be taught to and understood by humans and other non-dragon races, its harsh sounds are tailored to a dragon's throat and vocal cords and thus some words are often unpronounceable by anyone other than a dragon. Archaic Drakine is an early form of Drakine, no longer used in conversation, and is far more similar to Acaranian orthography than modern Drakine is.
Contents
General Information
Drakine consists of twenty-three consonants, eight vowels, five diphthongs, two miscellaneous sounds, and six variants of other letters. The language is characterized by heavy use of vowels and sibilants in many words, as well as a distinct growling or hissing accent due to the structure of a dragon's mouth. Its vocabulary works with a "root sound" system, in which certain sounds have certain connotations and may be put together to make words.
Language History
The first instance of archaic Drakine can be pinpointed to the first few generations of dragons after that of Skyking Shyr's offspring. As Shyr himself was raised speaking early Acaranian, he taught the language to his offspring, and natural corruption of the language occurred due to inability to properly articulate certain words, or even simply because it was easier to use some sounds than others. At some point during the mid-Radiant Era, written Drakine was finalized in cooperation between Skyking Ausurath, Skyqueen Sahiri, and a handful of scholarly humans. This created a more formalized way of spelling most words; previously, humans had written Drakine according to Acaranian orthography, but the presence and absence of certain sounds made this impractical.
Phonology
Alphabet
Consonants
| Drakine Consonants | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Alveo-Palatal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unvoiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Unvoiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Voiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Voiced | Variable | Variable | |
| Nasal | ɱ | n | ŋ | |||||||||||
| Plosive | t | d | k | g | ʔ | |||||||||
| Sibilant | s | z | ɕ | ʑ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | h | ||||||||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | ts | t∫ | dʒ | |||||||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||||||||
| Rhotic | r | ʀ | ||||||||||||
- Additionally, Drakine uses the consonant /h̪͆/, which cannot be placed on the above chart.
Vowels
Diphthongs
Miscellaneous Sounds
Drakine makes use of the bidental percussive /ʭ/ (romanized as ç) and the glottal stop /ʔ/ (romanized as a hyphen).
Letter Variants
These letters can, under certain circumstances, change sound slightly. They do not use different characters or romanizations, with the exception of the eí variant of /ei/.
- eí --- /ei/ (turns /r/ into /ʀ/, velarizes /l/, aspirates /d/)
- r --- /ʀ/ (Only in tandem with eí variant of /ei/)
- l --- /ɫ/ (Only in tandem with eí variant of /ei/)
- d --- /dʰ/ (Only in tandem with eí variant of /ei/)
- u --- /ʊ/ (Only appears in diphthongs)
- ie --- /je/ (Only occurs after the consonants: /n/ /ŋ/ /t/ /d/ /dʒ/ and /r/)
Alphabetical Order
m n ng t d ts s z sh zh k g f v th ch j r h w y l x e é ei eí i a ai au o u ú ou - ç
Phonotactics
Grammar
Orthography
Romanization
| Romanization | m | n | ng | t | d | k | g | s | z | sh | zh | f | v | th | h | y | w | ts | ch | j | l | r | x | i | u | e | o | é | ú | á | a | - | ç | ai | ei | eí | ou | au |
| IPA | /ɱ/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /k/ | /g/ | /s/ | /z/ | /ɕ/ | /ʑ/ | /f̺/ | /v̺/ | /θ/ | /h/ | /j/ | /w/ | /ts/ | /t∫/ | /dʒ/ | /l/ | /r/ | /h̪͆/ | /i/ | /u/ | /e/ | /o/ | /ɛ/ | /ʌ/ | /æ/ | /ɑ/ | /ʔ/ | /ʭ/ | /ai/ | /ei/ | /ei/ <ref name="eí footnote">[1], turns /r/ into /ʀ/, velarizes /l/, aspirates /d/</ref> | /oʊ/ | /aʊ/ |
Vocabulary
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Drakine's vocabulary works with a "root phoneme" system, in which sounds are assigned connotations and merged together to create words. In most cases the roots themselves are not words, though there are exceptions.
Example Texts
| Drakine | IPA | English |
|---|---|---|
| Akor en kuu, teílosr-ta ziel | /ˈɑk.or en kuː tei.ˈɫo.sːrʔtɑ ˈzi.el/ | Power of water, wind, and earth |
| Siir ait miir sta tia asa féravel | /sːiːr ait miːr sːtɑ ˈti.ɑ ˈɑ.sːɑ ˈfɛr.ɑ.vel/ | Turn the fire back to its birth |
| Áfru ait riat ti isol ait miara | /ˈæf.ru ait ˈri.ɑt ti ˈi.sːol ait mi.ˈɑ.rɑ/ | Raise the spell to seal the flame |
| Arás ait akor relt karu seiára | /ɑr.ˈæsː ait ˈɑk.or relt kɑ.ˈru sːei.ˈæ.rɑ/ | By the power we have tamed |
Footnotes
- Turns /r/ into /ʀ/, velarizes /l/, aspirates /d/
