Atheinən language

Atheinən (Atheinən: [tɑɲ 'ɑθɛi.nən] tagn atheinən: Azkali: ['aθei.nun pa.'tua] atheinun patua) is a mixed Azkali and Mallian creole language spoken by approximately 1,200,000-1,400,000 people, mostly concentrated in northwestern Mallia and small communities elsewhere. Atheinən is one of the youngest languages globally, arising approximately 40 years ago by Azkali emigrees fleeing Azkali to Mallia. Due to the age of the language, there are many different dialects, or versions as described by some linguists, of Atheinən spoken by different [azkalis in mallia].

Atheinən originated by Azkali language speakers in Mallia as many pidgin languages. Over the next 40 years, these pidgin languages evolved into a creole language by the first generation of Azkalis in Mallia. Although approximately 90% of it's lexicon is derived from Mallian, its grammar is that of Azkali. The grammar of Atheinən, however, is taken largely from Azkali. Atheinən is not mutually intelligable to either of its parent languages, having developed it's own grammar. Atheinən is one of the world's most spoken creole languages, only being contested by [loremesian creols?]

Etymology

There are several names that Atheinən speakers call the Atheinən language; a majority use the term Atheinən. The name Atheinən is derived from tagn atheinən, meaning "the language of everyone", but literally tongue everyone. Atheinən is certainly derived from the Mallian

History

For approximately 200 years, Azkali to some degree was spoken across Mallia. With the onset of the 1978 Azkali Civil War, 1980 Azkali Plague, and subsequent conflicts that followed, some ten million Azkalis over the course of several years fled Azkali. Of that ten million, approximately one and a half million fled to Mallia. According to some surveys during the refugee crisis, up to 100,000 who fled to Mallia had some knowledge of Mallian, though little were fully fluent and essentially none were native speakers. The contact between Azkali speakers and Mallian speakers resulted gradually in the creation of hundreds of pidgin languages as Azkali speakers settled in Mallia, each spoken by seperate communities, and all mostly mutually intelligable. Over the next fourty years, the interaction between pidgin speakers, Mallian speakers, and Azkali speakers resulted in the simultaneous merging and evolution of these languages into Atheinən, developing a consistent character by around 2010.

During its evolution, Atheinən was the subject of widespread linguistic interest, being one of the only modern examples of an evolution of a creole between two languages.

Status as a mixed language or creole language

The official status of Atheinən is unclear by most linguists. According to Nakoi Riku, as contact between Azkali refugees and Mallians occured, Atheinən as it was know then was considered a number of pidgin languages, each being spoken by a distinct number of Azkalis. As it evolved, however, contact between speakers of the pidgin languages occured, simultaneously with Mallian speakers. As a result, the pidgin languages appeared to merged into several dialects of a distinct Atheinən language. However, this timeline is disputed by a number of linguists. Nakoi Riku classified Atheinən in her paper On the Atheinən Creole, its Grammar, Phonology, and Evolution as a creole language, with Mallian as the lexifier, but with heavy lexical influence by Azkali. In a rebuttal published by Redho Tsalirricha, Atheinən was classified as a mixed language. According to the author, "many Azkali refugees at that time were fluent to some degree in Mallian, and or subsequently learned, or attempted to learn that language. However, the differences grammatically speaking between Azkali and Mallian resulted in the mapping [sic] of Azkali grammar onto Mallian vocabulary." He goes on to note, " (...) a large amount of common vocabulary was loaned from Azkali, which they were fluent in, to the language that would become Atheinən. Due to the amount of people who would go on to have children who spoke Atheinən, who were also fluent in Mallian, it would be classified as [a] mixed language [sic]."

Phonology

Consonants		Labial	Alveolar	Coronal	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	gn /ɲ/
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/	ch /c/	k /k/
	voiced		d /d~tʰ/		g /g~kʰ/
Affricate			c /t͡s/	th /t̪θ/
Fricative			s /s/	th /θ~d/	gh /ɣ/	h /ɦ/
Liquid		w /ʍ/	l /l/	y /j/	r /ʁ~ʀ̥~ɹ~ɾ/

Vowels	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded		unrounded	rounded
Close	i /i/	ü /y/			u /u/
Mid	e /ɛ/		ə /ə/		o /ɔ/
Open	æ /æ/			a /ɑ/

Grammar

See main article: Atheinən grammar

Unlike both of its parents languages, Atheinən is highly analytical. In most dialects, with the exception of three verbs - to be, to be at, and to have, verbs are not conjugated at all. With the exception of pronouns, no nouns are overtly inflected for case, instead relying on word order and particles conveying case-like information. Atheinən's word order, like both of its parents languages, is subject-object-verb, however in some cases it can be shifted for context, emphasis, etc.

Unusual for a mixed or creole language, virtually all Atheinən dialects have developed a system of split ergativity. In the future and present tenses, the default morphological alignment is ergative; the morphological alignment is nominative in the future tense, however. The pronouns, which by default decline for the ergative and absolutive cases, instead decline for the nominative and accusative cases respectively in the future. The exact reason for the evolution of split ergativity in Atheinən is unknown.