Consecuan
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Consecuan
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| Spoken around: | 0 AD |
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| Spoken in: | Consecuar and other parts of Lastan |
| Number of speakers: | 4 million |
| Writing system: | Consecuan |
| Dictionary: | cns |
Consecuan (Cósecúrejen, IPA /kɔːsɛcuːɾɛjɛn/) is the language spoken in Consecuar around 0 AD, and around most of Lastan as a kind of Lingua franca.
Starting around 230 AD, Consecuar started to form an empire, ultimately covering Lastan, Freidlend, Torthnoth, and Txakopxal. For the most part, the local languages were displaced by Consecuan, and when the empire collapsed in around 740 AD, it started to diverge into several local languages.
This article is concerned with the variety of Consecuan spoken around Nilija around 200 BD. This is used in 0 AD as an auxiliary language, as the regional varieties have diverged enough such that they are not necessarily mutually intelligible. For a summary of changes during the following years, see Consecuan diachronics.
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Demographics
Classification
Consecuan is one of the East Lastanic languages, a branch of the Lastanic languages. It later becomes the ancestor of the Consecuan languages spoken around the empire.
Geographic distribution
Consecuan is spoken natively by around four million speakers around 0 AD. Around 3.7 million of these are within Consecuar, and most of the rest in Ancherta, where it is spoken by the upper classes. As a second language, it is spoken by most of the educated élite in Lastan, and almost all speakers of another langauge in Consecuar have at least some proficiency in Consecuan.
Multilingualism
The vast majority of native Consecuan speakers at 200 BD were monolingual, though many of those in Ancherta were also familiar with Anchertan. Inside Consecuar, a fair number of people spoke the local languages firstly with Consecuan as a second language, but native speakers of Consecuan didn't often bother to learn the regional language.
By 0 AD, the regional dialects of Consecuan have diverged into separate languages. Typically, these are spoken natively with 200 BD Consecuan as a second language.
True multilingualism is rare; those who speak more than one language only speak a single one natively, and are rarely very fluent in the others.
The speakers of Consecuan as a second language rarely use it when it can be avoided; it is usually reserved for official purposes, or as an auxiliary language to someone from another region where it is the only common language between both parties.
Diglossia
All of Consecuar around 0 AD know their native language and, with varying proficiency, the fossilised form of Nilijan described here. The latter is almost always used in formal written documents, so it is necessary to be at least passingly familiar with it. The majority of churches conduct their services in this form of Consecuan.
Typology
Consecuan is a moderately synthetic language with some amount of fusion. It has a tendency to use blending for compound or derived words, for example hwaicőmai 'weight' from hwainei + cőlesta + -mai.
An example of fusion in Consecuan would be the plural morpheme for nouns, which changes the first syllable: ceren 'day' → géren 'days'.
Morphological processes
Being agglutinative, Consecuan uses a great deal of affixes in word construction. Primarily, these are suffixes, or infixes near the end of the root:
- naüföla /ˈnayfœla/ 'break' (transitive) → naüfölasa /ˈnayfœlˌasa/ 'break' (intransitive)
- cansui /ˈkansui̯/ 'brother' → cansisi /ˈkansisi/ 'brother.COM, with [my] brother'
As shown by these examples, inflectional suffixes are often fused slightly to the word.
Infixation
Some affixes, such as the diminutive -eþ-, are infixes; that is, they are inserted inside the root. Infixes are placed before the final vowel of a word.
Stem modification
As noted above, a few morphemes are signified only by a change to the stem.
Phonology
Phonemic Inventory
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | c ɟ | k g |
| Nasal | m̥ m | n̥ n | ɲ̥ ɲ | ŋ̥ ŋ |
| Fricative | f | θ ð | x | |
| s | ||||
| Lateral | ɬ l | ɬʲ lʲ | ||
| Tap | ɾ | |||
| Approximant | ʍ w | ç j | ||
| ʋ |
Vowels
