Iqtumen
Iqtumen is a Turkic language spoken in Iqtumenia.
History[edit | edit source]
The earliest known data of the language is from 514. It started out as a “secret code” between people. It was a time where the influences of the Traditional Ashtalaic languages were not self-evidenced in the language. By the 8th century, sometime by the middle, it began to develop. The consonants q, r and ŋ were added to the consonant inventory while the vowels æ and ɯ also appeared. An estimated 2000 people were speaking it.
We’re now in the 10th century, more specifically around 950. This is the point where the saga of Arayob occured. At this point, Arayob was pronounced /arajɯp/. The new vowels were, at the time, attested as being transcribed as “e” and “o”, respectively. The lack of voiced consonants didn’t work when a traveling merman from an Ashtalaic tribe came in to transcribe the events witnessed in the saga, incluiding the defeating of Talakar and the conquering of Iqtumen territory from the Kholors.
In 1173, the Hayastelari language started to influence the Iqtumen language, back then frequently transcribed as “Oqtumin”. At a slow rate, the so-called “Hayastelari invasion” introduced by a tribe of merpeople (prior to the domination of the English language) began to expand the phonology to the current format, in 1420.
Currently Iqtumen is spoken by an estimated 12 million people, 10 million within the Iqtumen Republic and 2 million abroad, especially in neighboring countries.
For many years, Iqtumen was written in Traditional Ashtalaic characters, which was extremely rare for a non-Ashtalaic language. Muslim communities began to write it in the Arabic script, which has always been a minority. Given the connection between the irreligious Ashtalaics and the traditional religious Tengri groups, there has been a series of conflicts on whether which writing system should be used.
In the 1880s, the Cyrillic system arrived through Alavian influence. It is said that the Mongols took part, which introduced them to the new system years and years before the official adoption in the Mongolian language.
There have been various attempts since the 1940s to introduce Latin alphabets, but they are all official. Nevertheless, the Turkish-based system is considered “official” alongside the Traditional Ashtalaic script and the Cyrillic alphabet. Other romanization systems exist: one based on the Uniform Turkic Alphabet, disbanded in the mid-1940s, one based on the Turkmen alphabet, created by Turkmen scholars who were studying the language, two based on the Ashtalaic orthographies, one based on Uzbek and one that doesn’t use any diacritics at all.
Alphabet[edit | edit source]
The romanization used since 1991 is a secondary alphabet; Cyrillic is the most widely-used alphabet as it is as of 2021 the official way to write Iqtumen.
Letter | Latin | Name | IPA |
---|---|---|---|
А а | A a | a | [a] |
Ӑ ӑ | Ӑ ӑ | ӑ | [ɐ] |
Ә ә | Ä ä | ä | [æ] |
Б б | B b | be | [b] |
Г г | G g | ge | [g] |
Г г | Ғ ғ | ғe | [ɣ~ɢ] |
Д д | D d | de | [d] |
Е е | E e | e | [e~ɛ] |
Ж ж | J j | je | [ʒ] |
З з | Z z | ze | [z] |
Ѕ ѕ | DZ dz | dze | [dz] |
И и | İ i | i | [i] |
Й й | Y y | ye | [j] |
К к | K k | ke | [k] |
Қ қ | Q q | qe | [q] |
Л л | L l | el | [l] |
М м | M m | em | [m] |
Н н | N n | en | [n] |
О о | O o | o | [o~ɔ] |
Ө ө | Ö ö | ö | [œ] |
П п | P p | pe | [p] |
Р р | R r | er | [r] |
С с | S s | es | [s] |
Т т | T t | te | [t] |
У у | U u | u | [u] |
Ў ў | W w | we | [w] |
Ү ү | Ü u | ü | [y] |
Ф ф | F f | ef | [f] |
Х х | KH kh | khe | [χ] |
Һ һ | H h | he | [h] |
Ц ц | TS ts | ts | [ts] |
Ч ч | CH ch | che | [tʃ] |
Ҹ ҹ | C c | ce | [dʒ] |
Ш ш | SH sh | she | [ʃ] |
Collation order:
- Cyrillic: Аа, Әә, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ее, Жж, Зз, Ѕѕ, Ии, Йй, Кк, Ққ, Лл, Мм, Нн, Ңң, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Ўў, Үү, Фф, Хх, Ҳҳ, Цц, Чч, Ҹҹ, Шш, Ыы, Ээ, Юю, Яя.