Alhi language

Alhi, specifically Modern Alhi is an Alhic language that evolved from Classical Alhi. It is spoken primarily in Alloti and its overseas territories, with about 70 million native speakers, and about 100 million when including non-native speakers. Alhi was also once a language of high prestige in Cring, as in [placeholder date], Cring was controlled but not completely integrated into Alloti. Since then, Alhi slowly lost its presence in Cring.

Alhi is related to Kes, another Alhic language, spoken in central Alloti. Alhi's first texts can be traced back to [placeholder date], being written in Alhi's native script, Oulaj. Oulaj is still used to write Alhi today, and a variation of it is used to write Kes. Tova, another native language of Alloti (but unrelated to Alhi and Kes), was once written in Oulaj, but Tova's original script regained popular use and Oulaj's use to write Tova is purely historical.

As an Alhic language, around 95% of Alhi's modern vocabulary is derived from Classical Alhi, but the rest is from borrowings from Tova, Kes, Loremese, Cring, and other languages.

Name of the language and etymology

The only name that Alhi has is Alhi itself, but different pronunciations can be heard throughout Alloti. The etymology of the name is unknown but it is hypothesized to be related to the name of the country Alloti.

History of the language

Like other Alhic languages, Alhi evolved from Classical Alhi, originating in the north-west of Alloti. Due to expansion, Alhi eventually spread all across Alloti, before coming in contact with Tova. Many other native languages are hypothesized to have existed in the areas that were controlled by Alhi-speaking people, but no written records exist and their only remnants are loanwords with questionable etymologies.

The first documents written in Alhi can be traced back to [placeholder date], being an older form of Alhi.

Due to contact with speakers of Tova, much conflict had broken out between the two groups. The areas of conflict were subject to linguistic discrimination and many loanwords entered both languages. Still to this day, dialects of Alhi spoken near where Tova is the primary language have many Tova loanwords.

Alhi as a language did not phonologically change much from its predecessor as most of the changes were grammatical and semantic. An example of a sound shift is Classical Alhi's dental fricative set, /θ ð/ becoming stops, /t d/ ([t̪ d̪]).

Geographical distribution

Alhi is the primary language of Alloti and its overseas territories. It is estimated that Alhi has 70 million native speakers, making it the 2nd most spoken language by amount of native speakers. When including non-native speakers, Alhi has around 100 million, making it the 2nd most spoken language in the world. On the internet, Alhi is the [number]th most spoken language.

Alloti

Alhi is one of three official languages of Alloti, and it is the most spoken language in Alloti. It is taught in schools as a mandatory subject for the last three years of grade school, and is available in all colleges and universities in Alloti for learning and study. In the [century]s, Alhi was the only official language of Alloti, with usage of other languages being discouraged and often punished.