Serronan languages

The Serronan languages are a language family native to the vast majority of Serrona. Despite originating from Serrona in its entirety, members of the family are found across all of Eastern Eldham from Leifmyrr to Valresh.

It is the single largest language family in all of Stoneworks, having eight independent languages including Lo'Oi, Mari, Vula, Batu, Maharian, Eldurlac, Kolsson, and Xinerian. The languages all come from a common ancestry and as a consequence tend to have very similar vocabularies, grammar, and phonologies; though as different languages in their own right, they can come up with some drastic differences when compared to any one of its relatives.

Prior to 290 TE, it was typically called the Lausan language family, as it was falsely believed all the languages originated from Lausa; the region of Eastern Serrona.

Origins and Proto-Serronan
It is believed that the origin of the the Serronan languages may come from Eastern Serrona as far back as 40,000 years ago. What the language(s) may have looked like at this time is near impossible to estimate as a consequence of no functional writing system existing for a majority of the languages in its family at the time. What is known however, is that by around 3,500 years ago a language today known as 'Proto-Serronan' was being spoken all across Serrona, possibly in numerous dialects.

When the first modern human settlers came to Serrona, only a few hundred years prior, they would have encountered people like the Lo'Oix and Eternyri, both of which would've spoken their own unique tongues. While it is possible that they may have clung onto their native languages at first, eventually these first modern human settlers - retroactively called the Syrokonso - would have eventually integrated into much of these societies and soon creoles, patois, and eventually entire languages would be born. These humans likely arrived from Onthukhan, but no native languages survive today in Onthukhan that can be tied as an ancestor to the Serronan languages. This is ultimately how the Proto-Serronan was first formed as a language; the integration of the Syrokonso into the already native inhabitant's lifestyles and the mixing of cultures.

In some cases, people entirely unrelated to the Syrokonso had begun to speak Proto-Serronan as a primary language, such as the Vulpur of this time and the Lo'Oix.

Creation of modern languages
Not along after this point, the languages began to quickly diverge on a largely ethnic and geographic basis. The Syrokonso people themselves also began to develop into various ethnic groups. Today, all native Homo sapiens ethnic groups are derived from the original Syrokonso 3,500+ years ago. These include the modern likes of the Kolsson, the various Mari people, Eldurians, Batu, and more. At this point, a few divisions began to be formed and these first differences between the Proto-Serronan tongue formed into Proto-Lo'Oi, Proto-Mari, Proto-Batu, and Proto-Vula. These would give way to the languages of the corresponding name; and also give birth to more.

By around 2,000 years ago the proto languages had developed into fully independent languages; no longer just dialects or creoles of Proto-Serronan. Proto-Lo'Oi would only give way to one language, the Old Lo'Oi language; as did Mari, giving forth only the Old Mari language. Proto-Batu however would further divide and multiply and gave way to Old Batu, Kolsson, Maharian, and Eldurlac languages. Proto-Vula similarly to Proto-Lo'Oi and Proto-Mari would only give way to the modern Vula language.

The geographical separation that these different people groups had cemented the divisions between the languages and gave way for their modern differences.

Only around -450 TE did these early versions of the languages begin to make their slow transformation into their modern tongues; but this change happened faster than others. Old Lo'Oi wouldn't fully changed into Middle Lo'Oi until around 90 TE, and did not become contemporary Lo'Oi until around 150 TE. Other languages, like Maharian for instance have been relatively the same for hundreds and hundreds of years in the grand scheme of things. However, because the Lo'Oi language had already spread beyond Serrona by that point, many dialects outside of Serrona today retain numerous traces from Old Lo'Oi and some even interpret the 'Northern dialects' of Lo'Oi to be an entirely separate language from the 'Southern dialects'.

Expansion
While most of these languages were geographically retained to their individual nation states, we saw the first expansion of one of these languages - Lo'Oi - starting around 25 TE. A nation known as the Sérotat Kingdom began to brutally enforce usage of the language on various peoples, though this nation would be overthrown and become the modern day United Socialist States of Eldham. Lo'Oi, at this time Old Lo'Oi was the most popular language in the nation still as a consequence of the Sérotoix leadership.

The early USSE found itself involved in numerous conflicts overseas whereby settlers and emigrants would settle in new regions. This ended up expanding the reach of Lo'Oi across much of Eastern Eldham. Today it is spoken, at least in part, in Serrona, Leifmyrr, and even Valresh with significant pockets. At this time, other languages like Old Mari began to condense across the various Mari peoples into a more standardized form that today we simply know as the Mari language. Similar processes happened with Eldurlac at this time as Notos was formed. Kolsson was already largely homogeneous as a language among the Kolsson people at this time and had developed into its contemporary form earlier than the other languages.

Other languages like Batu began to expand and became a dominant language in places like Azcoria and Shakumagu; with native tongues like Maharian being suppressed. Notably in another case, Vula was incredibly repressed by the first Valardom of Vulpinia which was an ethnostate and encouraged and bolstered the usage of an entirely unrelated language called Vulpin. It was only by the 250's TE that Vula began to see a rebirth in its public usage after at least a century and a half of suppression.

Member languages
*† indicates an extinct or critically endangered dialect or language.

*? indicates uncertain placement of a dialect.

Southern dialects

 * Losa Lo'Oi or Southern Lo'Oi or Standard Lo'Oi
 * Manz Lo'Oi/Manzoi
 * Axadi
 * Mizo'Oi †
 * Palomoix †
 * Polarisi †

Northern dialects

 * Vasa Lo'Oi or Northern Lo'Oi
 * Drikohigá †
 * Ko"Oi

Mari language

 * Vansharii
 * Xekai or Standard Mari
 * Kaladinii †
 * Adalori †

Kolsson language

 * Agseir or Standard Kolsson
 * Leirei †
 * Muspélli †

Eldurlac language

 * Eldejulá or Standard Eldurlac
 * Dejulá
 * Vespir ? †

Vula language

 * Standard Vula (no known living or extinct dialects)

Maharian language

 * Southern or Standard Maharian
 * Southern or Maharlikan

Xinerian language

 * Aurmi Lo'Oi or Standard Xinerian
 * Kurian

Syntax, grammar, and sentence structure

 * All Serronan languages today are SVO (subject-verb-object) languages when organizing word order. Some languages have diverse and strong grammatical case systems like Mari, while others like Lo'Oi have little to none at all. It is believed Proto-Serronan may have had a small case system and some languages may have dropped it entirely while others have 'improved' upon it.
 * Most members of the family use prepositions as opposed to postpositions.
 * The family widely utilizes a participle in the form of an independent word to indicate tense in verbs. In languages like Vula, this occurs before the verb in question, while in most others like Lo'Oi, Batu, Eldurlac, and Maharian, the participle is placed after the verb.
 * Adjectives are always placed before the noun it is describing in every single Serronan language.
 * Articles vary drastically between languages. Languages like Lo'Oi have merely one article, most have two, and some languages like Vula are considered to have incredibly unique grammar for its article; always using definite articles before formal and personal names when in third person phrasing.
 * Most of the Serronan languages are at least very partially agglutinative, with morphemes often being combined to make singular nouns. In Vula for instance, the word for a "Hoglin" is the longest word in any known Serronan languages, being ("Kugurasubusuna", /ku.gu.ɾɑ.su.bu.'su.nɑ/), it is a mixing of the words for "zombified" ("kugurasu") and "pig" ("busuna"). A similar situation can be seen across languages ranging from Batu to Lo'Oi. This is seldom done for anything thats not penultimately a noun though.

Example vocabulary
Because all the Serronan languages derive from a singular origin, they tend to share the same origin for the vast majority of their vocabulary. some examples of reconstructed Proto-Serronan words include the following:


 * Mar - ocean, sea
 * Gé - to be
 * Shalté - chicken
 * Fan - to want
 * Saud - to find
 * Thuk - block, brick
 * Shobi - tree
 * Gaiutai - tower, fort
 * Orth - origin, homeland
 * Shab - to go, to walk
 * Daiukedu - market, bazaar
 * Edo - to build, to construct
 * Voshata - wheat
 * Shudak - fish
 * Pujilai - rice
 * Mozar - city
 * Oto - land
 * Nét - night
 * Nor - day
 * Féjokiho - war
 * Vohba - red
 * Gagai - orange
 * Enga - yellow
 * Jebini - cyan
 * Nihé - blue
 * Sharai - purple
 * Laubai - pink
 * Kualu - brown
 * Kuhagi - gray
 * Lauavi - white
 * Soa - sky
 * Gotai - god
 * Ua - water
 * Woli - to look

There exists many (many) more root words and commonalities between the four Serronan languages.

Examples phrases
"The fish jumped from a river into a boat"


 * Mari: Se xedak ath ruidé regé sen usmar gan am airo
 * Lo'Oi: Dé'i kudak ráz láz gézáv dé'i adáro fenté dé'i usan
 * Batu: Ći chaida ra gueco h́a raińo vuku h́a ocan
 * Eldurlac: Di caduk uru goć geco dá dáćo cu di márun
 * Kolsson: Dei seda rru-le gesse dei musleirro ssu dei marry
 * Vula: Nu suda ra gusu na daru vuku na mura