78H ;; ALISIKŪMA

TAITKUUUP

A L I S I K Ū M A

T H E S O U TH E R N B R A N C H O F 7 8 H

Thank you for being interested in learning more about O'eaiā, the most widely spoken language of Dimension 78H!

We're still doing research on this dimension, and while we have plans to open it to public tours in the future, it is unfortunately unfit for visits at the moment. But thanks to the overwhelmingly positive interest, we've decided to open this page early for those looking to learn the language!

uu pa ta za le na

L E A R N T H E L A N G U A G E

Local residents of the Southern Branch read and write in a language called O'eaiā /oʔɛajaː/ PUIATTAQ, the largest language on the continent Akau'ēma. The Southern Branch holds Ogema, the capital city and hub of the Anizaukō people. At the moment it is required that travelers fervently study their language if they wish to explore this highly militaristic region. But in doing so, they'll certainly immerse themselves in the formalized culture of these cybernetic palm trees.

PUIATTAQQUAIPKAK

If you haven't seen this video, we highly recommend you watch it before going further to familiarize yourself with the Anizaukō language and culture!

O'eaiā is, by default, Object-Verb-Subject, and adjectives come after nouns. It has a moderate-to-high degree of synthesis, attaching affixes and adjectives onto nouns, subjects onto verbs, and sometimes objects onto verbs too.

C H A P T E R S

Click a section to skip to it.

a po ma

P H O N O L O G Y

Our research has deemed this consonant inventory as decent approximations that are intelligible to the Anizaukō when conversing, and easy to use in the IPA. Some notes ;;

Phonotactic structure is strictly (C)V. There are no coda consonants, ever.

KH can only appear at the beginning of words.

GH and R can never appear in the beginning of words.

P is P at the beginning of words, and ' everywhere else.

Vowels have overlong variants, which are not listed in the chart.

Ø is very rare to find, and is always a variation of Y (which is already quite uncommon).

This inventory, however, is potentially closer to what the Anizaukō are actually speaking. There's some strange quirks in here that would be unheard of in a language in Dimension 11A, our home world ; and while these may not be exactly the right phonemes, it's closer than the approximations above.

Note that Anizaukō seem incapable of fully voicing sounds, so instead do an equivalent of "nasalizing"* voiceless consonants and vowels to make an effectively similar distinction.

* they don't exactly have noses per se, but the action they perform and the sound that is produced seems similar to how nasalization works.

All of the allophonic notes described in the above chart apply here too!

O'eaiā does not have phonemic stress, pitch accent, or tone.

a ee nga ma

F O R M A L I T Y

It's impossible to talk about O'eaiā without first bringing up its formality system, which permeates nearly every aspect of the grammar and writing. This is best explained by first splitting the language into its two registers, Ū'aragaikausunga and Ū'arāezama. While some words are the same or similar in both registers, often one word in the informal will have a different meaning in the formal, and vice versa. Due to grammar constructions, specific etymologies, and situational contexts, it is very common to see or hear code-switching between these two registers in the middle of sentences.

uu pa ta ga i ka u su nga

Ū ' A R A G A I K A U S U N G A

The informal register of O'eaiā is known as Ū'aragaikausunga, and is the language used by higher classes talking to lower classes. It is also often heard in casual conversation between those of a similar class.

Writing in the informal is done using a relatively simple syllabary, with very little spelling quirks.

uu pa taa e za ma

Ū ' A R Ā E Z A M A

The formal register of O'eaiā is known as Ū'arāezama, and is the language used by lower classes talking to higher classes. It is also often seen used in publications, maps, and other informational media.

Unlike the informal, Ū'arāezama requires the speaker to arrange all elements in a sentence in order of highest to lowest class. Sentences in a paragraph must also be ordered correctly, as well as paragraphs on a page.*

*especially since a vast majority of written work is done digitally, the definition of a "page" is rather vague, and can vary depending on context and taste.

While both registers incorporate subjects into verbs, the formal also incorporates objects into verbs too ; word order permitting, at least.

Writing in the formal is done using a complex logography.

pu ku ma

C L A S S E S

In order to understand whether you should be using Ū'aragaikausunga or Ū'arāezama, speakers must determine where they are on a particular class hierarchy. Broad distinctions are shown using the yellow-red scale on the given table, and there are several subclasses within them at the hierarchy shown. If the person you are speaking to is lower than you on this ranking, you should be using Ū'aragaikausunga (informal) ; if they are higher, you should be using Ū'arāezama (formal).

Every name inflects to this class hierarchy, usually with different forms in the informal and formal. Speakers are expected to refer to someone using the form of that person's name reflecting what role the person has to them. If a role isn't known, it is accepted to use the generic high, similar, and low class markers.

Provided is a table from our researchers for the given name Kema. While the Servant and Foreigner class forms of this name are currently unknown, research suggests they are most likely Akeanazha and Ashisunga, respectively.

This class system is also how verbs are conjugated for tense, aspect, and mood. Many of these are not present in the informal due to their etymology, and therefore require speakers to code-switch to Ū'arāezama to specify those meanings.

When speaking formally, these verb forms are treated on the class hierarchy like any other word, and therefore are subject to shift position in sentences based on their apparent class.*

*if the verb is marked for a first or second person subject, generally the class of that subject takes priority over the class of the verb when structuring a sentence.

A couple are instead reserved for subject marking, and one is completely absent ; if a meaning exists for conjugating a verb as a younger sibling, it is very rare and unknown to our researchers.

Provided is a table from our researchers for the verb Kha, to Move.

Many verb tenses, aspects, and moods combine with each other to further specify meanings. If there's one form in the box, it requires code-switching to formal ; if there's two, the top one is the informal version, and the bottom is the formal version.

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Adjectives are also inflected into the class system, modifying it with qualifiers. Many of these are not present in the informal due to their etymology, and therefore require speakers to code-switch to Ū'arāezama to specify those meanings.

When speaking formally, these adjectives are treated on the class hierarchy like any other word, and therefore are subject to shift position in sentences based on their apparent class.*

*if the adjective is attached to a noun, it generally overwrites the class of the noun it is modifying. Depending on the context, however, this may not occur and instead respect the class of the original noun.

Some are completely absent ; if a meaning exists for inflecting an adjective as any of those relationships, it is very rare and unknown to our researchers.

Provided is a table from our researchers for the adjective U'ui, Scared.

There are a number of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that, even in their base form, are treated as a particular class. This most likely stems from their etymology, and some also require code-switching. This is specified appropriately in the Dictionary.

TUPIAA

Tō'a, to Become

Doctor, Always formal

kupupo

Ku'u'o, to Practice

High class, Formal

zhuma

Zhuma, Late

High class, Always informal

QUQKAAAKQUA

Hugāiāngau, Reality

Servant, Always formal

pi saa i o ma

C A S E S

O'eaiā has 8 grammatical cases, with 2 of those only present in formal speech. Below is a table for Mi / Su, which means "House" or "Hotel".

As is immediately obvious, this language is very fusional. Though many inflection tables are riddled with suppletion, we've specifically chosen an example without that for ease of communication. Some notes:

The nominative and accusative cases are transparent to formality. They have different endings here in the singular only because Mi and Su are of different declensions.
- This means the dative, instrumental, genitive, and inessive cases have different endings based on both declension and formality.
The vocative and ablative cases require code switching to formal in order to use.
In informal imperative constructions, direct objects take the dative case.
In formal imperative constructions, direct objects take the ablative case.
Thanks to the synthetic nature of this language, any number could technically get attached to the end, so including the dual here is slightly arbitrary. But it's generally included for historical reasons, as the dual was present before the language became more synthetic.
- Thanks to the historic use, some nouns have different case endings in the dual than what the normal declensions describe. These are rare, however, and mostly being phased out of use.

pi soo i o ma

D E C L E N S I O N S

While O'eaiā technically has 20 declensions, it's useful to think of them as intersections of 4 declensions for prefixes, and 5 declensions for suffixes. EVERY word is classified under one prefix declension and one suffix declension.

The prefix declensions are far more regular and much less complex, so let's focus on the suffix declensions. Below, green boxes correspond to easy suffixes, yellow boxes change vowels in predictable ways, and red boxes change vowels in unpredictable ways. Purple boxes sometimes change consonants as well. We've also included a quick guide to how these words interact before the 4 prefix declensions.

These endings aren't a hard-and-fast list, and also don't account for suppletion on top of it. And keep in mind, they're endings ; they often have different forms when incorporated before other words, depending on the declension of the case ending!

As mentioned above, a word will change its declension if an ending is attached to it. Below are the declensions a word will change to ;;

This looks like a weather report

This language, is of course, synthetic ; a result of this is words changing in sound when fused together in various ways. The declensions give us some insight on what to expect, but this is far from the end of the story! There are some other common patterns to spot.

While it would be impossible to list them all, here are a few general tendencies ;;

Words that start with a vowel, then a consonant, then the same vowel (for example Aka-, E'e-, etc.) often become that consonant and a long vowel when put between other roots (for example -kā-, -'ē-, etc.).
- If that consonant is L, it will sometimes turn to R. (so Ala- to -rā-)
- If that consonant is H, the H is dropped entirely. (so Aha to -ā-)
When the common accusative case ending -za attaches before a subject or verb in the formal, it usually becomes -so-, or less frequently -sa-.
A word with final -a usually drops it when attaching before another word.
- It is common to see the consonant before it change quality as well ; M may turn to ', N may turn to S, and NG may turn to K.
Moon words usually voice the consonant coming after it, with P/' turning to M (since there's no B)
Nearly every word starting with H or L interacts unpredictably when fused after another word, almost always having neither an H or an L in the end result.
When words with Y or W are attached before another word, they generally turn to U and I, respectively.
Words that end in a vowel, a consonant, then A (for example -onga, -ema, etc.), if that vowel is O or E, it will likely shift to a different vowel or vowels when fused before another word.

Thanks to all these tendencies (and many more that aren't listed above), most words have four similar pronunciations depending on whether they're alone, at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word, or at the end. Generally one of these forms is identical to the base dictionary form, but it's often not clear which one it's going to be.

kema

Kema, Water

Base dictionary form

aki,

Aki-, Water

Common initial form

,kai,

-kai-, Water

Common medial form

,kema

-kema, Water

Common final form

langa

Langa, Good

Base dictionary form

langa,

Langa-, Good

Common initial form

,ngaa,

-ngā-, Good

Common medial form

,nga

-nga, Good

Common final form

a la ma ww ma

I D I O M S

Daily O'eaiā conversation is heavily idiomatic, with frequent use of nested idioms. Some idioms are the same in both registers, many are different, and many more are only present in one or the other and require code-switching. Below are just some examples of common idioms.

a pii pa

S Y L L A B A R Y

The O'eaiā syllabary is used for informal speech, loanwords, and anything else that must be written phonetically. While there are characters that don't match the pattern, for the most part long vowels are written with a horizontal line above (similar to a macron!), "voicedness" is indicated by a horizonal line below, and vertical lines to the left of the character indicate a change in vowel quality.

Some characters have merged with these diacritics ; for example, see KA and GA, or ZHA and ZHĀ. There are also plenty of characters that don't match the pattern at all (see SŌ or TĪ), which have generally stuck around for historic reasons.

Though there are a small number of minimal pairs, this syllabary makes no distinction between T and R. "Ata" and "Ara" are both written ata! There is also no specific character for Ø, instead using y.

Overlong vowels are written by adding the long vowel character after the long vowel syllabic character ; so SĀĀ is written saaaa. Some characters that have unique long forms (such as Ū uu) have versions with the line above them for overlongs (uuu), but many do not and instead resort to the former strategy for marking overlongs.

Writing is left to right, top to bottom, with spaces between words ; just like the Roman alphabet!

There is one special character, which looks like a colon in the Roman alphabet. In the past, this was placed after characters in the -A series to mark coda consonants. tana was Tana, and tana: was Tan. This has phased out for codas at the end of a word, but in the middle of words, they have remained and instead are pronounced like the vowel that came before it. Some speakers in quick, casual speech still keep the codas. This is also how the consonants SH and V are spelled, by adding TA: and PA: respectively before an L syllable, which indicates the vowel.

kumale

"Kumale"

kuma:le

"Kumule"

kimale

"Kimale"

kima:le

"Kimile"

tali

"Tali"

pala

"Pala"

ta:li

"Shi"

pa:la

"Va"

Punctuation, though holding similar functions to our own, is indicated before and after the final word in the phrase. Because of this, with two punctuation marks, they can (theoretically) indicate double the amount of meanings.

.khanga.

"Khanga."

,khanga,

"Khanga,"

.khanga,

"Khanga?"

,khanga.

"Khanga..."

(this one is mostly used in literature, and is no longer very common to see in casual text. Writers generally merge it with ,khanga,)

la i gha po

L O G O G R A P H Y

Words in Ū'arāezama use a complex logography, which originated and was standardized from ancient calligraphic practices. No one seems to know the exact number, but it is estimated that there are around 750 building block characters that combine to create more complex meanings. Below are a few radicals, some of which still survive in the modern-day syllabary ;;

La, Body

Mi, House / Hotel

QAIK

Hei, Root

TIUI

Ini, Soft

KAAUP

Agama, Fruit

PAUUP

Ama, What

Pa, Need

O, Mouth

Thanks to this system coming about after the cases and classes had been established, logographs inflect for case and the relationship hierarchy, as well as including any adjectives that have been synthetically attached to a noun.

Logographic writing is written left to right, and does not put spaces between words. It also does not include the double punctuation system, meaning only a period and a comma are used.

ki ma ww ma

V O C A B U L A R Y

GO TO DICTIONARY

pu kw po

N U M B E R S

The default base used by the Anizaukō is Base 8, which means they count in groups of 8, not 10. Their numerals are specific logographs, which are often used even in informal speech for brevity. These numbers are also the names of the notes in the 7-TET tonal system.

KAUA

Anga, 1

Hi, 2

PAAU

A'au / Siani, 3

TIIT

Tina, 4

KUUA

Ukua, 5

TIAAP

Halāma, 6

PIK

Zhima, 7

Some numbers are always formal, indicated in green, and some are always informal, indicated in blue. Note that 24-31 and 3 have different forms in the two registers!

Siani is an interesting case, and one worth noting. This number is a loanword from the Sjã language family, spoken by captured servants taken from the northeast. They were forced to speak formally, and a couple common words of Sjã origin have snuck into the standard formal speech of O'eaiā as a result.

Some numbers are low class, indicated in red, and some are high class, indicated in yellow. This indicates where they are placed in a sentence in relation to other elements of a phrase.

These, along with the formality split in the numbers, are not random, but instead a result of their etymologies!

We have noticed a mistake made by one of our researchers... Helēēnin should most likely be Helēēnina. We're working with the team to get this confirmed and and fixed as soon as possible!

Though there used to be a specific logograph for each number 0-63, with the advent of technology this has streamlined to simply listing the digits in order. The character QAIK (meaning Root) now stands in for a null value in that place, just like we would use the "0" in "10" to mean the same thing! QAIK, however, wouldn't be used for the number 0 itself ; that is instead ha.

0-7 ;;

KAUA

PAAU

TIIT

KUUA

TIAAP

PIK

8-15 ;;

KAUAQAIK

KAUAKAUA

KAUAhi

KAUAPAAU

KAUATIIT

KAUAKUUA

KAUATIAAP

KAUAPIK

16-23 ;;

hiQAIK

hiKAUA

hihi

hiPAAU

hiTIIT

hiKUUA

hiTIAAP

hiPIK

24-31 ;;

PAAUQAIK

PAAUKAUA

PAAUhi

PAAUPAAU

PAAUTIIT

PAAUKUUA

PAAUTIAAP

PAAUPIK

32-39 ;;

TIITQAIK

TIITKAUA

TIIThi

TIITPAAU

TIITTIIT

TIITKUUA

TIITTIAAP

TIITPIK

40-47 ;;

KUUAQAIK

KUUAKAUA

KUUAhi

KUUAPAAU

KUUATIIT

KUUAKUUA

KUUATIAAP

KUUAPIK

48-55 ;;

TIAAPQAIK

TIAAPKAUA

TIAAPhi

TIAAPPAAU

TIAAPTIIT

TIAAPKUUA

TIAAPTIAAP

TIAAPPIK

56-63 ;;

PIKQAIK

PIKKAUA

PIKhi

PIKPAAU

PIKTIIT

PIKKUUA

PIKTIAAP

PIKPIK

64 and above, however, is where the notation gets less similar to our home dimension. Instead of continuing along to add another QAIK after, it is instead put before.

64-71 ;;

QAIK

QAIKKAUA

QAIKhi

QAIKPAAU

QAIKTIIT

QAIKKUUA

QAIKTIAAP

QAIKPIK

72-79 ;;

QAIKKAUAQAIK

QAIKKAUAKAUA

QAIKKAUAhi

QAIKKAUAPAAU

QAIKKAUATIIT

QAIKKAUAKUUA

QAIKKAUATIAAP

QAIKKAUAPIK

80-87 ;;

QAIKhiQAIK

QAIKhiKAUA

QAIKhihi

QAIKhiPAAU

QAIKhiTIIT

QAIKhiKUUA

QAIKhiTIAAP

QAIKhiPIK

88-95 ;;

QAIKPAAUQAIK

QAIKPAAUKAUA

QAIKPAAUhi

QAIKPAAUPAAU

QAIKPAAUTIIT

QAIKPAAUKUUA

QAIKPAAUTIAAP

QAIKPAAUPIK

96-103 ;;

QAIKTIITQAIK

QAIKTIITKAUA

QAIKTIIThi

QAIKTIITPAAU

QAIKTIITTIIT

QAIKTIITKUUA

QAIKTIITTIAAP

QAIKTIITPIK

104-111 ;;

QAIKKUUAQAIK

QAIKKUUAKAUA

QAIKKUUAhi

QAIKKUUAPAAU

QAIKKUUATIIT

QAIKKUUAKUUA

QAIKKUUATIAAP

QAIKKUUAPIK

112-119 ;;

QAIKTIAAPQAIK

QAIKTIAAPKAUA

QAIKTIAAPhi

QAIKTIAAPPAAU

QAIKTIAAPTIIT

QAIKTIAAPKUUA

QAIKTIAAPTIAAP

QAIKTIAAPPIK

120-127 ;;

QAIKPIKQAIK

QAIKPIKKAUA

QAIKPIKhi

QAIKPIKPAAU

QAIKPIKTIIT

QAIKPIKKUUA

QAIKPIKTIAAP

QAIKPIKPIK

Add hi in front of the initial QAIK to get... Hmm, that's already 16. Okay, just write QAIKQAIK for 128, and then use hiQAIK for the rest of them. So hiQAIKKAUA, hiQAIKhi, hiQAIKPAAU, and so on. This pattern continues until PIKQAIKPIKPIK, 511, and then at 512, the pattern at 64-511 repeats, but instead with the initial character o instead of QAIK. at 1024, the pattern repeats again, with KAAUP instead of o. This continues on until 4095!

512-519 ;;

oKAUA

ohi

oPAAU

oTIIT

oKUUA

oTIAAP

oPIK

1024-1031 ;;

KAAUP

KAAUPKAUA

KAAUPhi

KAAUPPAAU

KAAUPTIIT

KAAUPKUUA

KAAUPTIAAP

KAAUPPIK

1536-1542 ;;

laKAUA

lahi

laPAAU

laTIIT

laKUUA

laTIAAP

laPIK

2048-2055 ;;

liKAUA

lihi

liPAAU

liTIIT

liKUUA

liTIAAP

liPIK

2560-2567 ;;

miKAUA

mihi

miPAAU

miTIIT

miKUUA

miTIAAP

miPIK

3072-3079 ;;

TUUTUU

TUUTUUKAUA

TUUTUUhi

TUUTUUPAAU

TUUTUUTIIT

TUUTUUKUUA

TUUTUUTIAAP

TUUTUUPIK

3584-3592 ;;

peKAUA

pehi

pePAAU

peTIIT

peKUUA

peTIAAP

pePIK

4096 is written as ve, and is added before any number 1-4095 to continue the pattern up until 8192, which is hive, etc. So for example ;;

ohiQAIKPIKKUUAvehiQAIKTIITKUUA

3657893

This system is somewhat similar to Roman numerals. When making serial numbers for cyborgs and other products, this convention is largely ignored and instead lists off numerals 1-7 in a random permutation.

kha ma ma

P R O N O U N S

Pronouns in O'eaiā are notoriously complex. Instead of the normal 2-way formality split, there are an additional 3 registers for pronouns ; very informal, very formal, and incredibly (or, as our researchers coined it, ridiculously) formal. All pronouns have singular, dual, and plural forms, many with etymologies unrelated to each other. Below is a chart of the absolutive pronouns.

Accompanying the absolutive pronouns, there are also relative pronouns ; that is to say, pronouns that are used for relationships between the speaker, listener, or a 3rd party. Here are the pronouns relative to the speaker ;;

Here are the pronouns relative to the listener ;;

Please forgive us as we are still doing research on the pronouns relative to the third person! Though we have many documented, the full list is not yet complete.

It's important to remember that all of these pronouns also inflect for the cases of O'eaiā, including suppletion in many tables.

uu pa zee a ma

E N C R Y P T I O N

Cyborg Anizaukō have two main ways of encrypting messages so others cannot understand them. The first method is used for making cyborg speech unintelligible for non-cyborg listeners, and was originally devised as a way to speed up spoken conversation. This system uses a 7-tone scale that assigns consonants to certain pitches over two octaves, and vocalizes the vowel at that pitch. Long vowels are indicated by a slight vibrato, and the order of syllables in a word is indicated by a very small delay between them. Cyborgs have special audio processors that allow them to understand this and convert it to intelligible dialogue at rapid speed.

Though the actual pitch is probably not 440 hertz, since that unit is only a nice round number in our measurement system, we've used 440 here to better convey the 7 tone system.

Total encryption, however, is generally turned on for cyborgs by default and means that not even other cyborgs can understand conversation spoken by classes higher than they are. Higher classes can bypass this encryption with commands, or turn it on for specific lower classes if sensitive information from them is desired.

olwnga

Olwnga, "Run"

Starts commands

###

[Listener(s) class or serial number(s)]

Indicates who should listen

uupazaaaazusunga

Ū'azāāzusunga, "Decrypt"

The desired function

###

[Speaker(s) class or serial number(s)]

Indicates who is commanding

Ku, "Go"

Starts the function