Mokai Mai

The words

The young of our clan do not want to learn. And why would they? Why would anyone want to learn a language that some would kill you for?

— A Koushan Mai elder

Mokai Mai, translated as 'the words', is the native language of the Koushan Mai people. It is a purely oral language with no written form. With the colonisation of their homeland and continued persecution, Mokai Mai language is beginning to die out, with only the most isolated clans speaking it day to day. Whilst most Koushan Mai know at least a few words, it is slowly losing out to both Caillan or Seruic, depending on location.
Telling the oral histories are an integral part of Koushan Mai culture, to the point where each clan has a designated master of stories. This person has learnt all of the history and mythology of the Koushan Mai by rote, and will teach this to several apprentices. To the Koushan Mai, there is no need for a written record.

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Over the years, there have been attempts to transcribe Mokai Mai into the script most common across Caia. This has been relatively difficult as no one can seem to reach agreements on how certain phonemes should be spelt, or how different quirks of grammar should be notated. Some words, such as the name for the Koushan Mai themselves, have become relatively consistent in recent years, though some older texts have spellings such as 'koshanmai', 'ko shan mi', or 'koshun my'. Other words have no consistency, such as the word for the Koushan Mai tradition of tattooing. Depending on who is writing, this word can be spelt 'lelashan', 'lel'a shan', 'lel ah shan', or 'lela shan'. The apostrophe-a combination has been pushed by some scholars to denote possesion, but it has not yet caught on.
In Kaien, scholars at the University of Linguistics have been trying to preserve the language by standardising a written form. Amongst the scholars working on the endeavour are a few Koushan Mai, refugees from their former homeland. This project is still in its infancy, but the university is confident their work will prevent Mokai Mai from becoming completely extinct.