Ivetsian

From FrathWiki

Ivetsian is the official language of the Kasshi Empire. It is descended from Classical Kasshian and is largely an inflectional language.

Genders

Ivetsian has six or eight genders, depending on how you count. Ivetsian's genders are descended from those of Classical Kasshian, and are numbered according to the common system in Kasshian languages of using the numbers of the classical tongue. In Modern Ivetsian, gender agreement is found in verbs, demonstratives, articles, adjectives, and pronouns. Unlike the classical language, there is no correlation between initial consonants and gender.

• I. Animals with cultural significance, except males of sex-differentiable animals
• IIa. Male humans
• IIb. Males of culturally-significant sex-differentiable animals, some animals seen as "masculine"
• IV. Most other higher animals
• V. Insects, invertebrates, some plants, microscopic organisms
• VIa. Female humans, epicine human
• VIb. Most inanimates
• VII. A few inanimate objects

IIa and IIb, as well as VIa and VIb are commonly considered subdivisions of the same gender, and are less distinguished then other genders. In addition, gender I has been gradually absorbing gender IIb, and a few animals can be found in both. Urban dialects often blur the distinction between I and IV as well, and frequently retain gender IIb only for a few pet animals, if that. Plants are currently in the process of moving to gender V.

History of Ivetsian Gender

It will be noted from a comparison with the Classical gender system that significant changes have occured. These changes had their initial origin as far back as the Anarchic Era, when gender III began to weaken, with gender I taking over the epicine function. Gender III was already dead in many dialects in Chinrasta's time, though it remained strong in her dialect, which provided the dialect of the learned classes. The distinction between genders IV and V was also growing weak, and a few animals migrated between the two.

This relatively minor change was dwarfed during the middle Second Empire when some animals (mostly those in gender IV, but also some in gender V), frequently personified in folk tales, came to take gender I or II agreement even in ordinary speech, though they retained their original prefixes. At the same time, a practice existed in diplomatic writings of referring to heads of states by the name of their state, rather than by their own name, thus by gender VI nouns. Gender VI agreements came to be used even when using their actual names (helped by the fact that the gender-prefixes were no longer obligatory with foreign borrowings and foreign names). Gradually, the custom arose of referring to noblewomen within the Empire by the names of their territories and gender VI agreements. Gender VI came, therefore, to be seen as a mark of respect, and gradually came to extend to further groups of women. At the same time, an increasing number of animals were migrating into genders I and II. Gender I came to be dominated by animal nouns, accelerating the movement of humans out of it. Gender II remained more mixed.

Sound-changes had made the singular prefixes for gender 6 null in many cases, and, as a result, it became the favored gender for borrowings, eventually weakening the distinction between genders VI adn VII, to the point where many gender VI nouns moved to gender VII.

Some lower animals migrated from gender VI to gender V. In addition, carnivorous and other "active" plants moved from VI to V, and gradually other plants have begun to follow. Gender V is currently in the process of absorbing the remaining animats of gender VIb, while VIb in turn is in the process of absorbing VII.

The IIa/IIb and VIa/VIb distinctions are a result of the rational/non-rational distinction in verbal inflections. Gender VI nouns which referred to humans (or supernatural beings) took the rational suffixes, while those not referring to humans or supernatural beings took the non-rational suffixes. This difference in verbal suffixes is the sole distinction between VIa and VIb. While some humans remained in genders I, a similar distinction between Ia and Ib existed, but Ia has since died out.