Asiul [ˈa.θi.ul~ˈa.θi̯ul] is a language of the Kono language family, sibling to Nyirvón. It is one of the two official languages of the Asiulvesacam, the other one being (Capital) Ryka. Asiul was the only official language of the Islands for a long time and is still more widely used for official purposes and in scientific contexts than Ryka. It is also still the dominant native language of the population on the Black Island and the northern parts of the White Island, while the west and south of the White Island hosts mostly Ryka native speakers.

History

Asiul’s ancestor Kono, like all symbolic languages on the Llof, was an invented language, although it is not entirely clear who created it. A popular story is that it was conceived by a group of Yelluam who spread it among both Asiuluiam and Dakiuzuiam in order to bring them closer together, although this is likely, at least partly, an urban legend that arose from Asiulen xenophobia against Yelluam. Fact is that once it was there, it quickly gained popularity among Asiuluiam due to its simple grammar which led many to believe that it was somehow superior to Ryka. It was especially popular among scientists and soon became the language of science. From there, it spread to the political elite which established it as the official language of the Asiuluiam and then passed it as the one language to be taught in schools. Due to this, it then replaces Ryka as the primary native language within a generation, although its influenced faded farther from the capital, especially in the west and south of the White Island, where Ryka continued to be ore prominent.

When the Asiuluiam later learned that Kono had also spread to the Cloud Palace, where it had evolved into Nyirvón, a language different from, but still related to Asiul, a new movement formed that wished to replace Asiul by Ryka again. Ryka was then declared the second official language and taught alongside Asiul in schools, so that the two languages now coexist with equal status on the Asiulvesacam, although the east still favors Asiul.

Conlanging background

Asiul is the modern child of my very first conlang, whose German name was Kabukanisch. I originally created Kabukanisch in high school for the fantasy world my friends and I had invented and roleplayed in. Kabukanisch was a typical first conlang, mostly a relex of German grammar-wise, with pronunciation and orthography being a mix of Latin, German, and the average fancy fantasy language. I first created some religious texts for our fantasy religion and then continued to work on a text book to teach the language to my friends. We did have actual lessons during school breaks and I gave them homework and grades (yes, we were nerdy outsiders). Needless to say, neither of us got really far in our efforts to actually speak Kabukanisch, but I had a lot of fun with it (and I hope they did too).

After I had graduated from high school, I started studying linguistics and thought that this would be a good opportunity to rework Kabukanisch. I quickly had so many new ideas for the language that I instead decided to create an entirely new one, Ryka. To this day, I have not really settled on a new Kabukanisch, which I nowadays only refer to by its endonym Asiul. I did have a lot of ideas and several sketches which were later discarded. I find it hard to be faithful to the original Kabukanisch while erasing its relex character.

Phonology

No idea yet!

Grammar

Neither here…

Language sample

Doesn’t exist.

Resources

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