Demonae

The language spoken in the Demon Realm.

Writing System

The present-day demonae alphabet.

The first records of demonae logosyllabic writing were pressed into soft clay tablets, however, as the Demon Realm is rich in specifically metals, most writing soon moved to thin metal plates. As such, specifically shaped tools were developed to be hammered against these sheets. So while early engravings are logo-syllabic, by the time metal etching had been developed, a proto-alphabet had emerged - composed of letters made using five specific shapes.
At this time, demonae had no set writing direction. Over time, it became written boustrophedonically - that is, the directionality changes line by line. Because of this, most of the letters in the demonae alphabet remained either the same when read from either direction or very easy to reverse.

The demonae alphabet used for engraving/etching.

Demon King Lavven brought many advancements with him from the Human Realm - while most focus on his contribution to developing demon agriculture, papermaking was one of his other contributions. And with paper came hand writing - causing the change from the very stiff, structured alphabet used for engraving and etching into the rounder, more relaxed present-day alphabet.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar - Central	Alveolar - Lateral	Post-alveolar	Glottal
Stop	p, (b)	t,d		k,g
Fricative	f,v	s	ʃ		h
Affricate			dʒ
Nasal	m	n	ɲ
Liquid	w	r	l

Vowel

	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i, ɪ		ʊ
Mid	ɛ,e, æ	ɐ	ɔ, o
Open			a

Syntax

Basic word order

Default word order - VSO
Verb-like adjectives
Noun-adjective
Noun-like adpositions
Preposition-noun
Possessee - possessor
Auxiliary - verb

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Type	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st Person	anes	anaor	aniel	an
2nd Person	evis	evisaor	evisil	evi
3rd Person Fem.	cis	cisaor	cisiel	ci
3rd Person Masc.	dus	dusaor	dusiel	du
3rd Person Gen.	aes	aeaor	aeiel	ae
3rd Person Nbi. (ce/cer)	las	lasaor	laeial	la
3rd Person Nbi. (e/em)	nis	nisaor	nisiel	ni
3rd Person Nbi. (fae/faer)	klaes	klaor	klaesial	klae
3rd Person UNK	fos	-	-	-

Demons have a few pronouns regularly used by nonbinary individuals - these are the regional variants that gained the most popularity after the advent of the United Demon Realm caused more cross-regional trade, diplomacy, and general interaction among the population. This table represents the three most commonly used variants and the human equivalents one can map them to to distinguish the use of multiple pronouns, but there are still many regional variants not listed here. The pronoun <fos> is used when the speaker does not know the actual pronouns of the person being referred to - while plural versions of this pronoun technically exist, they have largely fallen out of use due to the plural 3rd person generic pronoun of <aes> already implying potentially mixed pronoun use. Likely this was another regional nonbinary variant that gained a more specific purpose over time. In more recent history, <fos> has gained popularity as the personal pronoun of agender individuals. Demonae also contains a "greater plural" denomination, however over time these became regular nouns - for example, <cievul>, the greater plural form of <cis>, translates better to the collective "women" in terms of use. In the same way, <dueval>, the greater plural of <dus>, translates best as the collective "men" than "a large group of men". Of note, the word for "people" is not <aesevul>, but rather <gasaevul> - the greater plural form of "person" which is <gaseas>, and more literally translated as "an individual that is them-ing". <Aesevul>is most commonly used as the collective term for nonbinary individuals, though this may vary with the dominant nonbinary pronoun in a given region; ie, <nievul>, <laevul>, and <klaevul> are also acceptable as collective terms for nonbinary individuals.

Phonetics

Romanized Letter/Syllable	Pronunciation	Notes
p	/p/ [p~b]	/p/ and /b/ are allophones in Demonae
f	/f/
v	/v/
m	/m/
w	/w/
t	/t/
d	/d/
s	/s/
z	/z/
n	/n/
r	/ɾ/
l	/l/
sc	/ʃ/
j	/dʒ/
gn	/ɲ/
k	/k/
c	/k/	used when /k/ begins a word
g	/g/
h	/h/
qu	/kw/
ex	/eks/
e	/ɛ/
ao	/ɑɔ̯/
u	/ʊ/
i	/ɪ/
i	/i/	used when "i" is at the end of a word
a	/æ/
a	/ɐ/	used when "a" is at the end of a word
o	/o/
ou	/oʊ̯/
oy	/ɔɪ̯/
ae	/eɪ/
ey	/eɪ̯/
ie	/aɪ̯/
eo	/eɔ/
sh	/ʃ/	used at the end of a word in place of "sc"

Whenever two consonants are set together, they are always geminated - ie, is /kː/.

Tenses

Singular - ends with <s>
Plural -unmarked
Ducal - suffix -aor
Paucal - suffix -iel
Greater plural - suffix -evul

Structural Markers

1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person	IUnkown
a°	e°	ae°	o°

Demonae possession is structured as [possesive]+[thing]+[owner]. For example, to say "my rock", it would be <a°cekus anes> or shortened to simply <a°cekus>. To say [person]'s rock, it would be <ae°cekus [person]>.