Amafjk language

Amafjk (pronunciation: /æṽæɸiᵑkˣ/; or sataxjx Jmefjk, pronunciation: /r̝̊ætˣæx̪͆ix̪͆ iṽeɸiᵑkˣ/) is the de facto lingua franca of Matkha and the official language of Tantj Tasfemjx Province. It is spoken natively by 92% of Tantj Tasfemjx Province and 65% of the Scattered Islands Census Area, and the overwhelming majority of Matkhans are either conversational or fluent in the language.

Amafjk is generally considered to be a language isolate, or otherwise part of a tentative microfamily known as East Matkhan containing itself and (PLACEHOLDER), the latter of which is only attested in toponyms, anthroponyms, and a transcription of a song found in (BOOK PLACEHOLDER). However, recent scholarship has attempted to link the language to the Ngyoic languages under the Macro-Matkhan phylum, though this theory remains highly contested.

Phonology

Amafjk is typically analyzed as having 11 phonemes, giving it the second smallest phoneme inventory of any attested natural language, solely surpassed by the Seŋoŋ language spoken in Xjetjeŋ. These phonemes are divided into 7 consonants and 4 vowels.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar
Nasal	m /ṽ/	n /ɾ̃/
Plosive		t /tˣ/	k /ᵑkˣ/
Fricative	f /ɸ/	s /r̝̊/	x /x̪͆/

Vowels

Amafjk has a vertical vowel system.

Close	j /i/
Near-close	i /ɪ/
Mid	e /e̞/
Near-open	a /æ/

In many analyses, Amafjk vowels are said to have secondary phonemic status due to the fact that the vast majority of roots in the language are vowelless before the application of transfixes, as well as the fact that sentences can have the vowels of their transfixes freely exchanged without changing the meaning, so long as the relations between transfix vowels (i.e. which ones do and do not match) remain unchanged. However, some vowels do appear in roots and have semantically meaningful minimal pairs, such as fjm–kx– (sp. of fish) and fam–kx– (promontory).