’Aṣækikk language

The ’Aṣækikk language (IPA: /ʔɒsˤækikː/ that which is spoken) is the principal language spoken within X!aǹækikk U. It is a [name of family] language, descended from Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk, and is spoken in its territory, which lies within the confines of the Northern Sprachbund. It is related to the [Viraayon language].

In the following tables and sections of this article, V̈ represents an umlauted vowel, V̌ a u-controlled vowel, and V̂ an ɒ-controlled vowel. C̃ represents a consonant altered by historical */ɴ/ wherein the consonant becomes a geminate nasal at the same place of articulation as the original consonant.

Phonology
/i y ɯ u/ are realized as /e ø ɤ o/ when around a uvular.

Romanization
In addition, there are certain roots which feature plosives that undergo alternation between homorganic plosives and fricatives. Such phones are transcribed as the appropriate plosive or fricative, as the case may be, followed by ‹h›.

Vowel Transformations
Certain synchronic and diachronic processes have resulted in the phonological conditioning of certain vowels. These processes are indicated below.

Word Order
’Aṣækikk word order is OVS. This object-initial word order is one of the inherent features of the Northern Sprachbund.

Verbs
Nasals in the interobstruental C₂ position syllabify. /wː ʕː/ become /wu ʕɒ/ word-finally. Where /l w/ (which have become /w ʕ/ in Modern ’Aṣækikk) were C₂ in a PVQ root and they occur in between two consonants, they become /i u/.

Nouns
Nouns in ’Aṣækikk are formed by applying more transformations to the roots. In Proto-Viraayon-’Aṣækikk, these were highly regular infixes. Nouns can be formed from both the perfective and imperfective forms of the verb; compare y‘‘newiwu "freeman" from ‘unewwi "former slave".

Nasals in the interobstruental C₂ position syllabify. /wː ʕː/ become /wu ʕɒ/ word-finally. Where /l w/ (which have become /w ʕ/ in Modern ’Aṣækikk) were C₂ in a [protolang] root and they occur in between two consonants, they become /i u/.

Determiners
’Aṣækikk has two deictic determiners and two articles, the latter of which are never obligatory. Number marking only ocurrs using these markers and is not inflected or derived onto the noun.

Pronouns
Pronouns in ’Aṣækikk are an interesting case. The informal forms are thought to have been entirely borrowed from Proto-Boreal and mark for number. The formal forms have preserved the lack of number distinction from the original proto-language.