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.

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

Consonants

Drakine Consonants	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-Alveolar		Alveo-Palatal		Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
	Unvoiced	Voiced	Bidental	Unvoiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Variable	Variable
Nasal	ɱ (m)				n (n)							ŋ (ng)
Plosive					t (t)	d (d)						k (k)	g (g)		ʔ (-)
Sibilant					s (s)	z (z)			ɕ (sh)	ʑ (zh)
Fricative	f (f)	v (v)	h̪͆ (x)	θ (th)											h (h)
Approximant											j (y)		w (w)
Affricate					t͡s (ts)		t͡ʃ (ch)	d͡ʒ (j)
Lateral						l (l)
Rhotic					r (r)									ʀ (r)
Percussive			ʭ (ç)

Vowels

		Front		Central	Back
		Unrounded	Rounded	Variable	Unrounded	Rounded
Close		i (i)				u (u)
Near-close						ʊ (u)
Close-mid		e (e)				o (o)
Mid
Open-mid		ɛ (e)			ʌ (ú)
Near-open		æ (é, áe)
Open					ɑ (a)

Diphthongs

Diphthong	ai	ei	eí	ou	au	je
Pronunciation	/ai/	/ei/	/ei/	/oʊ/	/aʊ/	/je/

• The following C-V clusters (all involving eí) are pronounced as such:
  • reí: /ʀei/
  • eíl: /eiɫ/
  • deí: /dʰei/
• ie pronounced as /je/ appears only after /n/ /ŋ/ /t/ /d/ /d͡ʒ/ and /r/.

Alphabet

[Note to kuda: put the script here]

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

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

1. Turns /r/ into /ʀ/, velarizes /l/, aspirates /d/