an-paa’lung [áɲʔpàːː.lúŋ] in the ṭői-cimá [ʈóːːj.çíˈmàː] abjad; print form (left) and cursive form (right)

Ankuese Dictionary

"Ankuese" is a catch-all term for any ethnic language spoken by Anku, excluding Neptunian. almost all are put into the Ankuic branch of the Khingan macrofamily; some linguists argue this connection is geographic rather than genetic.

The Ankuic languages are a subgroup of languages spoken primarly by the Anku species of Pluto. All languages/dialects are highly synthetic with large phonotactic inventories. their ancestor, Old Ankuic, is believed to have over 100 consonants.

Common Ankuese is a Northern Ankuic languague¹ and the most common and widely understood variety of Ankuic, spoken natively by around 50% of the entire Anku population. the combined percentage of L1 and L2 speakers comes to about 75%. it is known for its rich set of consonants, including the Anku-exclusive branchial consonants, sounds made by pushing air through gills. it is highly synthetic and has a long list of evidentials, a few being "ṙukh" (i saw it happen but it was a long time ago), wğu (i've heard this is the case, but i know it not to be true), and jji (i have inferred this from personal experience). it has a shocking 93 consonants. as to why the Ankuic languages have such large phonological inventories is unclear, however it may be due to the Anku's exceptional hearing.
pharyngealization of consonants and vowels is common, particularly next to branchial consonants, however they aren't contrastive with non-pharyngealized sounds.

Anku throats are very different anatomically from humans. Common Ankuese has voiced ejective consonants, which are not possible in human speech. the voicing in these ejective consonants is different from standard voicing: the vocal cords vibrate, however the glottis must be open too, which renders voiced ejective consonants theoretically impossible. in Ankuese, however, only the very top part of the glottis closes, air from the lungs vibrate the vocal chords, and that sound is released through the gills. Anku have much better control over all the muscles in their throats, so this isn't at all difficult; voiced ejectives are very common in Ankuic languages.
this phenomenon, which has been described as a "voiced ejective" may be alternatively called an "ejective with branchial release" or something similar.
while common, not all Ankuic languages have them. certain subdialects of Common Ankuese are noted for their strong/weak ejective distinction, in which voiced ejectives become strong and unvoiced become weak.
standard - p'aq "mind" b'aq "to shove" ~ variant - p'aq, p''aq
the strong p'' is like a very forceful p'. it is much louder and more air is blown out.

Common Ankuese exhibits a very extreme degree of holophrasis. all words in a "sentence" must be affixed together. it is OVS by default ("Fish eats he"), but with extensive marking, word order can theoretically be free:
SVO x̌'ögyiağa̋'hngx'ayuuph'i̋
SOV x̌'ögyiyuuph'i̋'ağa̋'hngx'a
VSO ağa̋'hngx'ax̌'ögyiyuuph'i̋'
VOS ağa̋'hngx'ayuuph'i̋'x̌'ögyi
OVS yuuph'i̋'ağa̋'hngx'a'x̌'ögyi
OSV yuuph'i̋'x̌'ögyi'ağa̋'hngx'a

in Ankuese grammar, the helping verb yi is always attached to the agent.
while the subjective prefix x̌'- and the objective prefix y(u)- are used in the example sentence, it is not required in standard speech and is mostly a literary standard. uph'i̋'ağa̋'hngx'a'ögyi is correct as well.

Common Ankuese has a four-way vowel length distinction: short [a], half-long [aˑ], long [aː], and overlong [aːː]. Rarer lengths include extra short [ă] (mostly dropped), over-overlong [aːːː], hyperlong [aːːːː], over-hyperlong [aːːːːː] and ultralong [aːːːːːː]. The latter four are extraordinarily rare, with an ultralong vowel existing in only one word, Wa̋-a̋-a̋ [wəːːːːːː], the name of the sixth of the Six Gods in traditional Anku animistic beliefs. their name is meant to be pronounced as long as six syllables. (More narrowly transcribed: [ɥəːːːːːː˥˥˧˥˥˩].) occasionally, specific religious words will be extended to ultralong, though this is uncommon and mostly appears in conservative pronunciation of ancient texts.

words can take the prefix ny(i)- to become interrogative. the prefix can be added to either the agent, object, or verb. the particle nyup may be used instead, depending on the context.
yuuph'i̋'ağa̋'hngx'a'ögyi. -> yuuph'i̋nyağa̋'hngx'a'ögyi? / nyuuph'i̋'ağa̋'hngx'a'ögyi? ~ He eats fish. -> Does he eat fish? / Does he eat fish?
theoretically, the sentence "nyuuph'i̋'nyağa̋'hngx'a'nyögyi nyup?" (Does he eat fish?) is possible as well. however, Anku typically go for one or the other.
the suffix -éje exists as well, however it is only used in the lower register and seen as a bit vulgar in standard speech.

there are four formality registers: lower, standard, high, and highest. the highest register is not used outside of prayers and speaking to priests and the theocrat. while they aren't formality registers, there are multiple avoidance registers, such as one Anku use toward their partner's families prior to marriage.

less common but still widely recognized is Natlel Ankuese, spoken in the Plutonian capital Natlel. it has had a very noticeable amount of influence from Neptunian. Neptunian has a very high number of bilabial sounds (since the dominant species on Neptune, ngMoww.wuf [ŋʘɒɔuʬ˥˥˩˩˧.wɨÿf˩˨˩], does not have tongues), including a phonemic bilabial percussive, [ʬ], also known as a lip smack; Natlel Ankuese has gained some unusual phonemes from this: it differentiates between the voiceless and voiced bilabial trill, [ʙ̥] and [ʙ], and also has the voiced labiodental flap [ⱱ] and voiceless and voiced bilabial fricatives [ɸ] and [β]. it only has around 60 consonants, which is still a large amount, but significantly less than Common.

Natlel Ankuese has a noticeable lack of branchial consonants. Since Anku conversing in a way Neptunians cannot understand is seen as a hazard, Anku in Natlel are required to wear neckpieces restricting their gills to prevent them from using Gillspeech, a language "spoken" by air pushed exclusively through the gills. this inhumane practice is disallowed in every non-Neptunian area. because of this, many native Anku words have been replaced with Neptunian loanwords, due to how prevalent branchial consonants are in every other dialect.

an Anku language whose place in the Khingan macrofamily has been subjected to numerous heated debates is Tenzing Montes Ankuese. spoken in the Tenzing Montes mountain range, it is "absurdly" tonal, with anywhere between 8 and 24 tones with up to six pitch registers, depending on where in the range it is spoken. there is almost zero mutual intelligibility between TM-Ankuese and any other dialect. the history of the language is further obscured by the fact it was unwritten until relatively recently. a common name for it is Mountain Ankuese, East, to differentiate it from Mountain Ankuese, West, also known as Hillary Montes Ankuese, which is much closer (albeit still quite distant) to Common and Natlel.

Hillary Montes Ankuese is an Eastern Ankuic language. unlike Common Ankuese, it has contrastive pharyngealization. it is also much more conservative than Common Ankuese, as it retains the large consonant clusters Common has started to drop. it has no tone or pitch accent.