Introduction

Sorkish (endonym: Sórazver [ˈsoræzβɛr]) is a language of the Sori language family, spoken by the entire population of Sorka and small groups and solitary persons in exile outside of Sorka, mostly in continental southern Kélas.

Sorkish is agglutinative with fusional elements, using mostly suffixes. It has rich verbal morphology with polypersonal agreement and so called "subordinating moods" that are used instead of most conjunctions. It is written in the Sorkish script, also called Me̋pfët according to its first four letters in alphabetical order. Due to Sorka's cultural and geographical isolation, the language itself is largely isolated from outside influences, having modern loan words only from the Chytari language.

Dialects and varieties

Sorkish is spoken in a large area spanning hundreds of miles of the Sori desert, resulting in rich dialectal variation and being referred to as dialect continuum. Therefore, dialects cannot be clearly defined. Three basic dialects are recognized: Far West, Seqhanzat and Far East. Nuqalur dialect is often recognized as a transitional variety between the Seqhanzat and Far East dialects. Each variety differs mainly in phonology; morphology and syntax are more uniform. Mutual intelligibility is quite high on average, though speakers of Far East dialects may have troubles understand speakers of Far West (and vice versa). Additionally, the speech of nomadic Sorkans tends to combine features from more varieties than the one of non-nomadic Sorkans.

The superior dialect is the so called Seqhanzat Standard variety spoken by the residents of Seqhanzat and the surroundings. The literary language (i.e. the written form) is based on an older form of the Seqhanzat dialect – as a result, the written language features historical spelling and enables all Sorkish speakers to communicate in a common written tongue with ease. However, it is not rare that informal letters and local inscriptions are written phonetically, especially in the more divergent varieties.

For clarity, this article describes the Seqhanzat Standard variety (unless stated otherwise).

Phonology

Seqhanzat Standard Sorkish has a large consonant inventory, featuring voicing distinction, pharyngeals, distinction between velar and uvular fricatives and syllabic consonants. There are six vowels and no diphthongs.

Syllable structure of Sorkish is (C)V(C)(C) where C is a consonant and V is a vowel or a syllabic consonant. In some dialects, initial clusters are possible due to schwa dropping. Other clusters do not have any limitations unless /j/ or /ɰ/ are present: /Cj/ cluster in a root is usually a sign of a loan word from an unknown ancient substrate language while /Cɰ/ is rare; likewise, /jC/ and /ɰC/ are quite rare as well. Most dialects reduce clusters consisting of two or more consonants of the same manner of articulation through assimilation – in case of Seqhanzat Standard, it is a progressive assimilation that leaves only one consonant (with exceptions).

Examples:

• qaghdqúl /qɑɣdˈqul/ [q͡χɐɣˈdul] "vowel"
• ğattíra /ʁɑtˈtirɑ/ [ʁɐˈtiræ] "pinnacle (geology)"
• değzígham /deʁˈziɣɑm/ [dɜˈʁiɣæm] "reincarnation"
• kipkivrá /kipkiβˈrɑ/ [cɪpɪβˈrɑ] "exciting"
• yalpdérkhem /jɑlpˈderxem/ [jɐlˈberɣɛm] "trousers" (also showing the voicing of voiceless consonants following a voiced consonant)
• sazhárek /sɑzˈhɑrek/ [sɐˈzɑrɛk] "kitty, cat (diminutive)"
• but: qáhsum /ˈqɑhsum/ [ˈq͡χɑhsʊm] "today (noun)", not *[ˈq͡χɑhʊm]
• but: lágburban /ˈlɑgburbɑn/ [ˈlɑg͡bʊrbæn] "shop" (here, [g͡b] is an allophone that formed at a syllable boundary with compounding; compare gbét /ˈg͡bet/ [ˈg͡bet] "away" where it is a phonemic /g͡b/)

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d		k g	k͡p g͡b	q		ʔ
Fricative	ɸ β	s z		x ɣ		χ ʁ	ħ ʕ	h
Approximant		l	j	ɰ
Trill		r

• /ɸ β/ are in free variation with labio-dental /f v/.
• Plosives in word-initial position are pronounced with a varying level of affrication depending on the speaker – they can range from weak aspirated (or breathy voice) consonants to true affricates. E.g. word-initial /p/ may be described as [pʰ] or [p͡ɸ]; word-initial /b/ may be described as [bʱ] or [b͡β]. This is the most prominent in velars and uvulars.
• /k g/ are pronounced [c ɟ] before front vowels; as well as the rest of plosives, they tend to be affricated word-initially. Likewise, /x ɣ/ are pronounced [ç ʝ] before front vowels.
• /q/ is pronounced [ɢ~ʁ] following a voiced consonant.
• /ɰ/ may be rarely pronounced /w/.
• /m n l r/ may be syllabic.
• /n/ is pronounced [ŋ] before velars, [ɴ] before uvulars, pharyngeals and glottals and [m] before labials.
• /ts tz/ are pronounced [t͡s] and /dz ds/ are pronounced [d͡z]; occurs on syllable boundaries.
• /h/ may be pronounced [ɦ] next to voiced consonants; for many speakers, it assimilates to [x χ] and their voiced counterparts if next to a velar or uvular consonant, respectively. Rarely, word-final /h/ is not pronounced and the preceding vowel is instead pronounced with a breathy voice.
• Glottal stop is rare and appears only in compound words such as san’árimven [sɐɴˈʔɑrɪmβɛn] "aftermath"; however, outside of careful speech, it tends to be dropped unless between vowels.
• Voiceless consonants are voiced if following a voiced consonant; voiced consonants and devoiced if following a voiceless consonant. E.g. ézta /ˈeztɑ/ [ˈezdæ] "without".

Vowels

Vowels in Sorkish display considerable allophony due stress and the presence of uvular, pharyngeal and glottal consonants, in the context of Sorkish called the "hard consonants". Bear in mind that the value of allophones can change drastically from dialect to dialect.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open			ɑ

• /i/ is pronounced [i] when stressed, [ɨ] when stressed and preceding a hard consonant, [ɪ] when unstressed and [ɪ̈] when unstressed and preceding a hard consonant.
• /e/ is pronounced [e] when stressed, [ɘ] when stressed and preceding a hard consonant, [ɛ] when unstressed and [ɜ] when unstressed and preceding a hard consonant.
• /u/ is pronounced [u] when stressed, [o̝] when stressed and preceding a hard consonant, [ʊ] when unstressed and [ɵ] when unstressed and preceding a hard consonant.
• /o/ is pronounced [o] when stressed, [ɒ] when stressed and preceding a hard consonant, [ɔ] when unstressed, [ɞ] when unstressed and preceding a stressed syllable and [ʌ] when unstressed and preceding a hard consonant.
• /ɑ/ is pronounced [ɑ] when stressed, [ɑ] when stressed and preceding a hard consonant, [æ~a] when unstressed, [ɐ] when unstressed and preceding a stressed syllable and [ɐ] when unstressed and preceding a hard consonant.
• The schwa does not show any allophony. If unstressed, it may be dropped by some speakers; the dropping of stressed schwa is rare but not non-existent.

Grammar

Sorkish grammar is agglutinative, with some fusional features, especially in declension. Word order is free, though the basic one is SVO. Morphosyntactic alignment is split ergative in perfective past tense.

Sorkish words display a feature called the "Sorkish syncope" which deletes the last vowel in a word if the word is being declined or used in derivation. For example, ázar "night" has a stem of ázr- that takes the case endings (ázray "night (ergative)") or derivational suffixes (azrá "nocturnal"). There are some exceptions to this. The syncope never takes effect in conjugation.

Nouns

Sorkish nouns inflect for number and case and they also take possessive and demonstrative suffixes.

There are two numbers: singular and plural. Some nouns show fossilized dual: Bornáq "The Two Gods", mayáq "two eyes". Historically, there were also collective and singulative derivational suffixes that are no longer productive (e.g. yástakh "family" from yást- "born" and -dakh "collective, group (of)"; qérigh "grain of sand" from qér "sand" + -igh "singulative"). Plural has several endings depending on the noun's final phoneme: mayá > mayé "eyes", fághaz > fághar "foreigners", túriq > túrqri "hands", kázë > kázi "moves".

Sorkish has 7 cases: nominative/absolutive, ergative, accusative, dative, genitive, adverbial and vocative. Genitive is not used for possession but rather to express origin (Sórar Seqhanzátuq "people of Seqhanzat") and composition, including numerals (yeğáhban suyáfuq "world map", zúr súrqqur "two people"). Adverbial is a special case that can determine time (qáhver "during the day"; as opposed to the adverb qáhev "daily"), means (yálpver "by foot"), state of being (ziḥínver "as a child") or manner (Sórazver "like a Sorkan (also name of the language)"). Vocative is slowly falling out of use, especially among young speakers who can view the case as "old fashioned".

Possessive suffixes are attached directly to the noun's stem: mayím "my eye", mayimé "my eyes". They can be considered infixes as case and number suffixes are not affected by them at all.

Demonstrative suffixes are attached to the very end of an inflected noun. They are considered clitics as they have full forms, e.g. súmem "this" and clitic -sum of the same meaning. The full forms are normally considered poetic or archaic, however they are commonly used as a topic marker even in casual speech.

Súmem gházir ḫáwares.
súmem gházir ḫáwa-r>es
this boy like-1S>3S
"As for the boy, I like him." (Topic marking.)

Verbs

Verbs are divided into 6 classes, each having its own suffixes based on the last phoneme in the stem (though usually, only the first and third person singular differ; compare kázd "I move", várz "I create", ábr "I read", rími "I fly"). There are three persons and two numbers. Verbs display polypersonal agreement and each verb has to agree with its subject and direct objects. There are also indirect object suffixes, however the verb is not required to agree with its indirect objects. There is a variety of modal, aspectual and other suffixes; at total, up to 9 morphemes can be stacked onto the verbal stem.

Sorkish has present, past and future tense and additionally several degrees of remoteness in both past and future tenses. There is recent past, medial past and remote past and immediate future and remote future.

There are converbs and several so called "subordinating moods" that can form sentences that would normally use conjunctions in English.

Adjectives are considered a special kind of verbs in Sorkish as they conjugate in the same way. However, in their basic form, also called the attributive form, they can be used to modify nouns without conjugation. In the past, adjectives required to be conjugated to be used in a sentence, however nowadays it is considered archaic.

Tánim ésemer.
tán-im ésem-er
sword-1S.POSS beautiful-3S
"My sword is beautiful." (Predicate.)

Árkhusug tánimi ésem.
árkh-u>s-ug tán-im-i ésem
see-2S>3S-IMP sword-1S.POSS-ACC beautiful
"Look at my beautiful sword." (Attributive.)

Árkhusug tánimi ésemer.
árkh-u>s-ug tán-im-i ésem-er
see-2S>3S-IMP sword-1S.POSS-ACC beautiful-3S
"Look at my beautiful sword." (Attributive; archaic/literary usage.)

Prepositions

Prepositions are inflected for all persons and numbers: ez "with", ézm "with me", ézhr "with you (singular)", éza "with us", ézd "with you (plural)", ézat "with it, with them".

Orthography and writing system

Romanization mostly corresponds to the IPA letters with a few exceptions: /ɸ/ ⟨f⟩, /β/ ⟨v⟩, /x/ ⟨kh⟩, /ɣ/ ⟨gh⟩, /χ/ ⟨qh⟩, /ʁ/ ⟨ğ⟩, /ħ/ ⟨ḫ⟩, /ʕ/ ⟨ḥ⟩, /ɰ/ ⟨w⟩, /j/ ⟨y⟩, /ə/ ⟨ë⟩, /ʔ/ ⟨’⟩. Stressed syllables are marked with an acute on the nucleus: ⟨á é í ó ú e̋ ŕ ĺ ń ḿ⟩. Monosyllabic words with the exception of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and numerals do not take the acute.

Sorkish is natively written in the Sorkish script, Me̋pfët [ˈməp͡ɸət] in Sorkish. It is a left to right alphabet that forms it's glyphs similarly to an abugida by attaching diacritics to the base letters (whose value however does not have any inherent vowel); both CV and VC syllable glyphs can be created this way. Some letters are unable to take the vowel diacritic due to their height – these are referred to as "high glyphs", while some letters cannot take vowel diacritics at all – the so called "ultra high glyphs". Though considered vowels in Sorkish linguistics, the syllabic consonants do not have a diacritic form.

Examples

Aghríldiğzilab ḥa álgazunudiğzilab akhalkapkázunmuralab.
aghrí-l-diğ-zil-ab ḥa álgaz=un-u-diğ-zil-ab akhal-kap~káz-u>n-mural-ab
grow_stronger-2S-DES-COND-REM.FUT and warrior=become-2S-DES-COND-REM.FUT HAB-INTS~move-2S>2S-OBLG-REM.FUT
"If you want to get stronger and become a warrior, you have to train hard."

Fúrarsaḥ ahnári kázonaḥerluktan ahnalrí.
fúra-r>saḥ ahnár-i kázon-aḥ>er-luk-tan ahnalár-i
kill-1S>3P heretic/PL-ACC spread-3P>3S-PUR-NEG heresy-ACC
"I kill the heretics so that they don’t spread the heresy."

Verét ésemergbadghet tírzburdrağghettan.
verét ésem-er-gbad-ghet tírzbur-dr>ağ-ghet-tan
rug beautiful-3S-CONC-MED.PST buy-1P>3S-MED.PST-NEG
"Even though the rug was beautiful, we didn’t buy it."