Low Coscivian
| Low Coscivian | |
|---|---|
| Ulikässaŗna | |
| Native to | Kiravian Federacy, others |
| Region | Ixnay, various |
Native speakers | unknown Estimates from 2 to 20 million |
Cosco-Adratic
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | none |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Low Coscivian (Saroholden Low Coscivian: Ulikässaŗna, Kiravic: Yanxikoskirona), also known as Plebian Coscivian, is a language variety, characterised by different linguists as either a sociolect of Kiravic Coscivian, an independent variety within the Kiravic macrolanguage, or even a language in its own right. Associated most closely with the Trash Coscivians, Low Coscivian is spoken by a number of different social groups among the Kiravian lower classes, mostly in urban and periurban areas of Great Kirav such as slums, trailer parks, and transient camps.
The best-documented and most extensively studied subdialects of Low Coscivian are those spoken in the Tonic Vineyards slum in Linthika, Valēka and Saroholden Trailer Park in County Steve, Kiorgia.
Characteristics
Low Coscivian has a number of features that differentiate it from proper Kiravic varieties, including
- Syllabic consonants (ķ, ļ, m̧, ņ, ŗ, ş, x̧ ), most of which represent the collapse of Kiravic syllables.
- Complete loss of the vowels ē and ū and the conflation of ó and á with o.
- Consolidation of certaion uvular and velar consonants, with ɣ absent from all dialects. In Tonic Vineyards, ɣ is conflated with x, while in most Korlēdan favelas it is conflated with h. In Bleach River Estates, Niyaska, ɣ, x, and h are all conflated with g.
- General replacement of the Kiravic noun case system with various particles, many of which are derived from Kiravic adpositions or case suffixes, such as the particle ul, derived from the Kiravic first declension genitive suffix -ul, with the meaning "of" in Low Coscivian.
- Extensive verbalisation of nouns and noun incorporation, which are strictly prohibited in Kiravic grammar. Usually achieved by adding the suffix -mi.
- A large number of foreign loanwords in urban dialects, especially from languages of Continental Ixnay, Punth, and Audonia, reflecting the immigrant background of manys peakers.
- An even larger number of words of uncertain etymology, many of which may originate from gang and hobo cants, ad hoc coinages, proper names, slang, and minor Punthite languages.
Lexicon
Documented Low Coscivian terms include:
- orykie - Meaning unknown, possibly refers to a strain of tea or someone from the Çyr.
- huke - A wealthy urbanite
- ärhŗn - Interjection, usually used as a greeting.
- unudi-
- csmsoda-
- clipd-
- Yeqa-
- fyk ysh -
- usuyrggrey - Untranslatable term describing the effect of miserable Kiravian weather on the psyche of foreign visitors and returnees.
- kiteranl' - urban village, with the "kiteranl retard" as analogue to the proverbial "village idiot".
Speaker profile
Although it is difficult to determine where "bad Kiravic" ends and Low Coscivian begins, most experts on Low Coscivian agree that it is spoken mainly by two types of communities: Trash Coscivians and residents of ethnically heterogeneous urban slums. The latter group include both native-born Kiravians and many immigrants from Continental Ixnay, Audonia, Punth, and the Holy Sakatian Empire, and are contrasted with residents of working-class ethnic neighbourhoods, who tend to speak their ethnic language in daily life.
The Isvɚ̯x Road Albino Tribe of the central Niyaska pine barrens is reported to speak Low Coscivian