Azmaar
Origin Planet
Orthis
Year
3124
Speakers
~ 120,000
Azmari developed among highland river-valley communities on Orthis. It evolved from a branch of early Orthisian trade jargon and stabilized into a full language as valley communities formed densely-networked polities over a millennium.
Speakers (the Azmaar) are semi-sedentary hill-farmers and rivercraft traders known for oral genealogies and a ritual calendar tied to seasonal floods. Language use emphasizes evidential marking and respect for elders.
Primarily Azmaar people in the central Orthis highlands; used regionally for ritual and trade.
Primary stress is typically on the penultimate syllable. Long vowels and affixes can shift stress; enclitics do not attract stress.
Azmaar script (called Azmari script) is a mixed alphabetic-logographic system developed from river-marker tallies. Basic characters represent CV units; a set of logograms denotes common natural and social concepts (water, sun, elder). Glyphs are curved and flowing to mimic river paths and are usually carved on wood or painted.
Noun system
Nominative–accusative alignment. Nouns are marked for accusative (-ta) and genitive (-in); the nominative (subject) is usually unmarked. Plural is marked with -en (general) and -an (for animate emphasis). No grammatical gender. Possession is expressed by genitive suffix on possessor preceding the possessed noun.
Verb system
Agglutinative: verbs are composed of root + TAM (tense/aspect/mood) suffixes + evidential/person clitics. Basic tenses: present -no, past -ra, future -su. Aspects: habitual -ha, perfective -k. Evidential markers follow tense: -li (direct witnessed), -re (reported/hearsay), -ma (inference). Person marking is clitic on the subject pronoun rather than heavy inflection on verbs.
Adjective rules
Adjectives follow the noun and agree in number with the noun by taking plural suffix -en when the noun is plural. Adjectives do not take case marking.
Number rules
Decimal base. Singular unmarked; plural marked with -en (regular). Small-number forms (dual) are expressed lexically (e.g., 'bu' for two) or with reduplication for collective small groups.
| Phrase | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Sela ma'zel | good morning (literally 'river blessing') | ˈse.la maˈzɛl |
| Haza vela | thank you (lit. 'good give') | ˈha.za ˈve.la |
| Raki soli | respectful greeting to elders (lit. 'elder-sun') | ˈra.ki ˈso.li |
| Azi bulan | farewell / be well | ˈa.zi ˈbu.lan |
| Kesa upa | safe journey (lit. 'boat-protect') | ˈke.sa ˈu.pa |
| Question | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Tiki? | what? | ˈti.ki |
| Hura? | who? | ˈhu.ra |
| Mana? | where? | ˈma.na |
| Kanta? | when? | ˈkan.ta |
| Lima? | why? | ˈli.ma |
| Sera? | how? | ˈse.ra |
| English | Translation | Literal meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| I see the river. | Za sela kala-no-li. | I river see-PRES-DIRECT | za ˈse.la ˈka.la.no.li |
| They gave food (and I witnessed it). | Zir senu vela-ra-li. | They food give-PAST-DIRECT | zir ˈse.nu ˈve.la.ra.li |
| The elder went to the mountain. | Raki vora loma-ra-re. | Elder mountain go-PAST-REPORTED | ˈra.ki ˈvo.ra ˈlo.ma.ra.re |
| Are you well? | Zu haza maru-no-li? | You good be-PRES-DIRECT? | zu ˈha.za ˈma.ru.no.li |
Evidentiality as social memory
Azmari speakers obligately mark evidence for statements (direct witness, reported, inferred). Marking evidentiality encodes social trust and responsibility: a report marked 're' may require the speaker to indicate their source.
A farmer telling the council, 'The flood rose at night (reported)' will use the reported evidential -re to indicate they heard it from another.
River-naming and identity
Rivers are central to Azmaar identity; people often identify themselves by the river of their birth, and river names enter kin-poetic genealogies. The script's flowing glyphs reflect this importance.
A greeting might include a river reference: 'Sela ma'zel' (river blessing) when meeting someone from a neighboring valley.
Elder councils and orality
Oral genealogies and law are preserved through elders' recitation. Respectful forms and honorific vocabulary are used in council speech, and failing to use correct evidential marking in testimony is socially sanctioned.
Younger speakers will preface statements with 'Raki…' (honorific invocation) when addressing elders and use direct evidential markers when recounting events they personally witnessed.
Unstressed /a/ reduces slightly toward [ɐ] in fast speech, but full /a/ is used in careful or ritual speech.
Example: hatu (house) careful: ˈha.tu; casual: hɐˈtu
Glottal stop ʔ appears between adjacent vowels when clarity is needed (often in emphatic or ritual contexts).
Example: zaʼa (emphatic 'I myself') pronounced [zaʔa] in ceremony.
Consonant clusters across syllable boundaries are resolved by inserting a slight epenthetic /ɨ/ (written 'y') in rapid speech.
Example: sela kala (river see) can surface as [se.la ka.la] or with epenthesis [se.la kɨ.la] in rapid speech.
The trill /r/ may be realized as a flap [ɾ] in casual dialects, especially between vowels.
Example: raki (elder) careful: [ˈra.ki]; casual: [ˈɾa.ki]
Long vowels (held for emphasis or in ritual songs) attract stress and can override penultimate stress.
Example: Hono (to bless; lengthened o: hoːno) becomes hoːˈno with stress on the long vowel.