Diom is an artificial language I created. It was originally created for a role-playing game which I game-mastered, but the language took on a life of its own after I was no longer affiliated with the game. Diom is an inflectional language with a free word order, like Latin or Greek. Inflectional affixes carry most gramatical information.
Diom is historically related to the languages of Northande spoken in the northwestern parts of Atenkemen, Hrothon spoken in the Earldom of Chamborg in northeastern Atenkemen, and Aranorom spoken by the people of the Anrasholm Hills to the south of the Anelez Mountains. Diom may also be related to the languages of Steorea, in the Estol Mountains to the east of Atenkemen. Diom is not related to the languages of Ridjek or Ranhyar, which are related to one another, and to most of the languages of the southwest coast. However, natives of some islands off the coast speak what appear to be languages related to Diom.
Early Diom refers to the dialect spoken before the foundation of the Empire. It underwent a major sound shift and lost the dual number shortly before Gestomaia's rise to world prominence. Classical Diom refers to the language of the Empire. Trade Diom or the Unified Tongue, Touten Zhang, is a simplified form of Classical Diom spoken in many parts of Terath today. It is used as the language of trade and is learned as a secondary language by the speakers of many languages. It is not as heavily inflected as Classical or Modern Diom and follows a regular VSO word order. Modern Diom is spoken by the current inhabitants of the Duchy of Gestomaya. It has undergone some minor sound changes and absorbed vocabulary from the languages of other parts of the Kingdom of Atenkemen, notably Northande. Speakers of Modern Diom usually understand Classical Diom and Trade Diom. They have a tendency to look down on Trade Diom, and its speakers, as simplistic.
In this text we will concentrate on Classical Diom, and mention the other dialects only as necessary to clarify certain features.
| labial | lab-dent | alveolar | post-alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | |
| plosives | p | t | c | ' | |||
| b | d | g | |||||
| fricatives | f | s | sh | h | |||
| v | z | zh | |||||
| affricates | ch | ||||||
| nasals | m | n | ñ | ng | |||
| lateral | l | ||||||
| trill or tap | r | ||||||
| approximant | j |
Most consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following clarifications:
| c | pronounced hard in all cases. Some transcriptions substitute k. | cat | /k/ |
| g | pronounced hard in all cases. | goose | /g/ |
| r | a single flap, or a slight trill in some dialects. Never the English r. | res (Latin) | /r/ or /4/ |
| t, d | a little more dental than in English. | ||
| ng | A single sound. | ring | /N/ |
| ñ | A palatalized n. Sometimes transcribed nj | canyon | /J/ |
| ch | A single sound. | chime | /tS/ |
| sh | A single sound. | shell | /S/ |
| zh | A single sound. | vision | /Z/ |
The following vowels are used in Diom:
| front tense |
front lax |
back tense |
||
| high | i | y | u | |
| mid | ae | e | o | |
| low | a |
| a | low, front, tense | father | /a/ |
| ae | mid, front, tense | snake | /e/ |
| i | high, front, tense | bead | /i/ |
| o | mid, back, tense | boat | /o/ |
| u | high, back, tense | boot | /u/ |
| e | mid, front, open | pet | /ε/ |
| y | high, front, lax | pit | /I/ |
| ai | low, back, with high, front off-glide | hide | /aι/ |
| iu | high, back, with introductory glide | few | |
| ou | low, back, with high, back off-glide | house |
All other sucessive vowels are pronounced seperately.
Stress follows the following rules:
| Stress goes on the stem, not the affixes, except in certain cases, such Vocative for nouns and Imperative for verbs where the stress shifts. This rule overides successive rules. | |
| Nouns | Stress on the first syllable if the word has 2 syllables. |
| Stress on the second syllable if the word has more than two syllables, and this does put the stress off the stem; otherwise stress on the last syllables of the stem. | |
| Verbs | Stress on the last syllable of the stem. |
| Stress on first syllable of stem if Perfective aspect. | |
| Adjectives | Stress like nouns if declined as adjective. Stress like verb if declined as verb. |
Words with a single syllable are mostly particles and unaccented.
Stress is not normally indicated in the orthagraphy (but I will include it here sometimes as a help to the reader).
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