Arjufi Languages

The Arjufi languages are the family of languages on the majority of the Southern Coast, including the city of Arjuf and the surrounding countryside. The family covers both shores of the Caracal River, most of the Plains of Rusted Iron, and skirts the Tarpan Wastes.

The Arjufi languages are epitomized by Arjufi, the language of the city of Arjuf. They are prominent in the holdings of the historical Triumphate of Arjuf, and of all language families on the Isle, they are the most deliberately focused on ensuring their perpetuation. They even have a shared writing system, unique to the family, which defies House Ledaal’s attempts at standardization under the High Realm script.

Characteristics of the Arjufi Languages

The Arjufi languages have a simple voiced/unvoiced separation, instead of the aspirated/unaspirated distinction of their cousins the Northern and Southern Wànzi languages. They are the only major family of the Isle that sometimes have two rhotics: a tapped r and a rolled rr, which, in City Arjufi, only distinguish three pairs of words and are thus only weakly distinct.

In almost all studied Arjufi languages, the sound p is entirely absent; it is always voiced to a b or transformed to an f. In City Arjufi, this is taken even further, since most speakers of that language pronounce b and v identically. Arjufi languages also sometimes feature the th sound, which is not found except in the Arjufi and Daoshin language families. Most use a guttural growly h instead of the smooth h of High Realm.

Arjufi languages are not tonal, but do feature an accent tone, where the stressed syllable is pronounced with a different tone than the rest of the word. Most Arjuf languages do not use an e, although City Arjufi does. Unstressed a and e are always reduced to a schwa sound.

Grammatically, the Arjufi languages are some of the most simple languages on the Isle. They generally have no tense and only two aspects, complete or incomplete. They have no plural markers, no articles, no clitics, and rely entirely on word order to convey meaning. They are topic-prominent and pro-drop wherever possible.

Status of the Arjufi Languages

Arjuf is famous for its independent nature and glorious heritage, which the people of the Arjufi-speaking lands proudly perpetuate. Next to High Realm, Arjufi has perhaps the most poetry, novels, and plays written and performed natively. Speakers of the Arjufi languages are generally regarded as independent, stubborn, and brave. In many parts of the Isle, an Arjufi accent is a slightly sexy, exotic accent, reminiscent of the hot lands of the South.

Accent Features of the Arjufi Langauges

If you want your character to have an Arjufi family accent, you might mention some of the following vocal habits:

• Pronouncing your h like a Hebrew or German ch, very guttural instead of smooth;
• Rolling your r sounds but tapping them between vowels;
• In High Realm, Arjufi accents often reduce a short a and e to a schwa;
• Unaspirated stops are fully voiced instead of just soft.

Many, many scions of House Ledaal have Arjufi accents, and for a lot of people in the Dynasty, it might as well be a Ledaal accent. Of course, scions of other Houses can have such an accent as well, but the accent and House Ledaal are strongly associated with one another.

The Bijak Script

The bijak or ‘wise men’ were traditionally an important element of life in the city of Arjuf, spirit-speakers, poetic warriors, and temple guardians who had prominent roles as bodyguards and advisors. The bijak developed their own writing system independently of the rest of the Isle, which most Arjufi languages have adapted and continue to use today.

Unlike the flowing syllabic calligraphy of High Realm, the bijak script was originally written on banana leaves, which tear easily when struck in straight lines. As a result, the bijak script is very swoopy and circular. It is an abugida, which means that each character consists of a base consonant and a modifying vowel mark. In calligraphy, the swooping forms are often transformed into waves, leaves, smoke, or other elemental displays evoked by their shape.

Making an Arjufi Name

Arjufi names are usually pretty straightforward and gratefully easy to spell.

The Sounds

For an Arjufi name, you should use the following consonants: b, t, d, k, g, ch, dj, m, n, ñ, v, th, s, z, sh, j, h, r, l, w, and y. The j is like in French, dj like J in English. If you want an r to be rolled between two vowels, write it as rr.

For vowels, use i, a, u, o. If you’re from the city of Arjuf, you can also use e, but that’s very much a City Thing.

The Shape

Pick a consonant and a vowel, there’s your syllable. If you want to stick a single consonant on the end, that’s cool, too. Use b instead of v at the end of a syllable; at the start, pick whichever one looks and sounds cooler.

You can end a syllable with ñ if you want, but generally that’s hard for English people to pronounce; I’d just use a plain n if I were you.

Some Example Names

Pathal, Sobuk, Verath, Karro, Djaza, Miñash, Wuyu, Javi, Dugar, Shim.