Enqutsi language

Énqutsa is a language spoken by the Énqutsa people and others of coastal regions south of the Vinca canal in Énqusqó, a peninsula in south Vidina. Linguistically, Énqutsa is a south Énqusqan language of which there is only one other extant language spoken in Énqusqó. It is part of the wider Kidal-Énqusqan language family. It is the most widely spoken language of its family with an estimated 20 million speakers worldwide.

Older forms of the language were used as a lingua franca across the Kidal and the coastal communities of south Vidina and north Tiridinia for a span of 700 years, only being displaced by the languages brought in by rise of the Empire of Tar-dinuu and subsequent Alutran colonialism.

Most dialects of Énqutsa have four tones, although some dialects, particularly amongst younger speakers have begun to switch to length and creaky-voicing distinctions in vowels in favour of tone. The dialects in the east retain the palatal fricatives which have collapsed into the post-alveolar sibilants in other dialects.

Classification
Énqutsa is a Kidal-Énqusqan language and belongs to the South Énqusqan branch of the Énqusqan languages. It is one of two extant South Énqusqan languages, with Vincatli being the other. Due to the cultural pressure of the Second Kingdom of Énqusqó, other South Énqusqan languages were driven into obscurity and eventual extinction. Classical Énqutsa evolved into High Énqutsa which in turn evolved into Modern Énqutsa. Particular dialects of High Énqutsa spoken in the north of the Énqusqan peninsula evolved into Vincatli, under heavy influence from Myrish.

The various dialects of Modern Énqutsa also diverged under influence from outside imperial or colonial pressures, although to a lesser extent than Vincatli.

Énqutsa is classified as an Énqusqan language because it shares innovations with other Énqusqan languages such as Vincatli, [LANG], [LANG] and [LANG]. These shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor called Proto-Énqusqan. Some shared features of the Énqusqan languages are the prevalence of periphrastic verbal constructions and sound changes affecting the consonants of Proto-Kidal-Énqusqan.

History
The exact location where Early Énqutsa was spoken is a controversial topic in amongst linguists. The most widely accepted theory is that the language was spoken in the Naríca peninsula around 900 BCE. Recently, scholars have suggested links to the Cípatli culture, which is accepted to have spread across much of the Énqusqan peninsula between 1000 and 200 BCE. There is poor evidence on the earliest forms of the language due to the late adoption of writing by people on the peninsula.

Classical Énqutsa
Classical Énqutsa is the oldest attested form of the language that exists in the literary records.

High Énqutsa
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Modern Énqutsa
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Geographic distribution
The region where Énqutsa is spoken has varied in size over the centuries. The early boundaries of this region before the interregnum are unknown due to poor textual and archaeological evidence.

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Dialects
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Pluricentric regulation
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Phonology
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Consonants
The following table provides a broad outline of the consonantal phonemes of Énqutsa. The exact realisation of these phonemes varies between dialects.

Vowels
The Énqutsa language features five vowels: /a/, /ɛ/, /i/, /ɔ/ and /u/. Vowels must take one of four tones: high, low, rising and falling. These vowels have a phonemic contrast with nasal counterparts bringing the total number of phonemic vowels up to 40. The rising and falling tones are combined with greater length and the falling and low tones also are realised with creaky voice. In some dialects, particularly the north-eastern dialect, and generally amongst younger speakers, tone has largely disappeared and been replaced with phonemic length and creaky voicing distinctions.

Regional variation
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Grammar
Énqutsa is a nominative-accusative language. The subject of both transitive and intransitive phrases is in the nominative case, which is unmarked.

Basic syntactic construction in Énqutsa is subject-object-verb. The order of phrases within a sentence can be changed, however, for thematic purposes. Words within a phrase must follow specific a specific order and cannot be rearranged. It is perhaps more accurate to describe Énqutsa word order as topic-comment. This means that in neutral sentences that merely convey information, the topic must always be stated before a comment with a verbal construction coming in final position. This is occasionally obfuscated by pronoun dropping as no nominative forms of the pronouns exist.

Verbs
The auxiliary verb, which accompanies most verbs, must agree with the subject in both person and number. Énqutsa is typical of Énqusqan languages through a TAM system that is heavily dependant on aspect and mood. Énqutsa has a unique system of verbs where-in tense can only be expressed through a combination of the aspects of a lexical periphrastic verb and auxiliary verbs.

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Modern Énqutsa allows for the conjugation of four verbs, although there is a greater number that are conjugated in literary contexts. These verbs are called synthetic verbs. The synthetic verbs can conjugate for aspect (perfective or imperfective) according to person, animacy and number. These verbs appear exceedingly irregular within the context of Énqutsa, however, in the wider Énqusqan language family, they appear to follow predictable patterns.

The remaining verbs in Énqutsa are known as defective or periphrastic, behaving similarly to participles. There are several forms that these verbs take according to aspect, mood and negation. There are also periphrastic forms of the synthetic verbs which are used to express specific tense or mood paradigms.

Within a verb phrase, the periphrastic verb proceeds the auxiliary, which handles agreement.

Nouns
An Énqutsa noun can decline by 23 forms according to case and number. Énqutsa mass nouns exhibit inverse number, wherein the standard plural morphology behaves as a singulative. Mass nouns are usually inanimate, however, body parts that come in pairs are almost always mass nouns. Due to this, number in Énqutsa nouns is often described as inherent and atypical instead of singular and plural. Énqutsa nouns also have animacy, divided into three levels: human, animate and inanimate. The three main declension groups (groups of nouns with similar patterns of declension) are subdivided into variations due to slight morphological differences in the stems of nouns of different animacy.

Pronouns
Very few of the pronouns can exist independently in Énqutsa and are often only able to exist as suffixes. All nominative pronouns behave like this and act as pseudo-genitive suffixes in possessive constructions.

Adjectives
Adjectives must agree with their head in animacy. This is achieved through suffixation of the nominative 3rd person pronouns to the bare stem of the adjective.

Writing system
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