Tergol Creole (ter-GOAL)
The Tergol Creole, or just Tergol, is the official lingua franca of humans and the Menrvan Imperium, and the official language of the Menrvan Imperium in its own right.
However, it's actually a very young language, only appearing in the past 200 years after humans where housed in Menrva while the Imperium established land on the western coast of the Iapetus Ocean and the southern parts of Haratchnil while getting more into the Imperium from Uwe-Rana and other regions.
Its beginning as a language started when humans and Menrvan cituzens, unable to communicate efficiently, formed a pidgin called the Menrva-Human Pidgin, soon shortened to Tergish.
A decade later, the children of these adults did not learn the language. Instead they grew up forming and speaking a creole named the Tergol Creole. This first generation of Tergol speakers still had a simple grammar system and limited vocabulary compared to other languages, but it was certainly more advanced than Tergish.
Over the next few generations, its grammar and vocab became more and more complex as Damarians of all species, including humans, grew intertwinned, to the point many species in Menrva and human nations started referring to humans when they spoke of people instead of adding humans at the end.
In the contemporary era, Tergol is the first language a person will use when communicating to a stranger, especially if they look like a foreigner.
Writing System
Tergol is written in wheels with spokemarks for letters: Each spokemark is a letter and a sound, and each wheel is a single syllable. A word is a chain of wheels chained together and spoken fluidly betwen each.
Geographical Distribution
Almost exclusive to Menrva, where it is the official language. Used as a lingua franca for humans.
Phonology
Inherited from Japanese:
5 vowel sounds: (/a, e, i, o, u/)
Inherited from English:
tsə/, sk/, /tʃ, /f/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ʃn, /z, /t, /d/, /l/, /r/
Inherited Elsewhere:
/ʘ, /ǀ, /ǂ, /ǃ, /ǁ
Morphology
Morpheme-Based: All words are made by piecing together syllables together.
Syntax
Similar to English: Sentences are made of an independent clause and possibly one or more dependent clauses.
However, they inherit the most frequent form of Romance language style in subject-verb-object.
Phonetics
All Phonetic Symbols In Tergol:
/ʘ/, /ǀ/, /ǂ/, /ǃ/, /ǁ/, /ts/, /sk/, /tʃ/, /f/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /ʃn/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /l/, /r/, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /v/
Every single one has a spokemark assigned to it (See Writing). This is also their order in the alphabet.
Adjective Order
size-color-age-title-speed-direction-distance-noun
Example: Big Blue Old King Fast Northeast Far Whale.
Sounds weird to English speakers, totally fine for a Tergol speaker.
Dictionary
Relationship Pronouns
Pronouns in Tergol are determined by one's relationship to a person, not by gender.
- Ka (Similar to she/he/they) and Kawi (Her/woman).
- Aquaintances have the pronouns Ko/Komi.
- Friends are Ra/Rawi
- Lover (Unmarried): Ki/Kisu. Kisumisu is also used as an analogue to ooey gooey.
- Spouse: Ma/Marak
- Child: Mi/Mini.
- Parent: Ma/Mapos.
- Sibling: Si/Sitsi.
- Cousin: Ku/Kuti
- Aunt/Uncle: Me/Melu
- Enemy: Kil/Kiltsil.
- Mortal Enemy: Mor/Mordor.
- Coworker: Kon/Konarta
Common Phrases
/tʃaekʘ/: Chaekx! (English Translation: Fuck!/Shit!). General word used to express displeasure.
/enmuʘiki/: Enmuxiki (Spear Swallower). Word for someone who often performs oral sex involving a penis.
/aktsǁeʘoko/: Aktsxexoko: Canyon Sweeper. Word for someone who performs oral sex involving a vagina or anus.
Common Female Names
/kaθren/: Kathryn (Common Menrvan spelling of Catherine)
/kurara/: Kurara
/ʘilǂon/: xIlxon (Clicked name common with a trend for clicks in baby girl names in the 2540s; In English writing, clicks are written as x)/
/kisanami/: Kisanami (Pronounced like in Japanese)
Common Male Names
/ǂosoǂ/: xOsox
/akitseǂ/: Akitsex
/unisetʃ/: Unisex
/tʃono/: Chono
Common Unisex Names
/ǂtotʃanel/: xTochanel
/ʘtʃents/: xChents