Ihhai
Ihhai is a nation to the north of Paba that survived for around 21000 years. Today it is part of the Moonshine Crown, which itself part of Pusapom but is self-gvoerning. Thus ity could be said that even today Ihhai is independent. However, the peak of Ihhai's power was around the year 2700 AD.
Language
Phonology
Phonology is similar to Babakiam at its classical stage. In some ways, it could be said that Ihhai made Babakiam what it was. That is, Ihhai is a toneless language that killed the tones of the Gold language and its descendnats in a graident from east to west. Only Khulls remaind tonal. Ihhai resembles Thaoa all in all.
Consonants
/p b m t s n l r č š ž k ŋ x q ħ ʔ h/
Note that /b/ and /ž/ persist, as the only voiced non-sonorants, as in both Thaoa (except Palli dialect) and early Babakiam. However, these can be explained as being simply more forcefully pronounced variants of /w/ and /j/, since those sounds are both missing in Thaoa (but reappeared in Baba).
Vowels
/a e i o u/ No diphthongs, which is common for this area. Thaoa actually has diphthongs, meaning it resisted the pressure of Ihhai and its neigfhbors. the diphonthons of Ihhai and Baba are better analyzed as vowel sequences, whereas those of Thaoa cannot be. [1]
Doubled consonants are common, as are clusters of nasal+stop, but there are few consonant clusters other than that. Thus Ihhai could be said to sound a lot like modern Japanese, except that it lacks eve nthe pitch accentof Japanese and has simply word-initial stress unconditionally.
The phonology is thus almoset exactly that of Thaoa, except that Thaoa has phonemic aspiration and allows more consonant clutsrers. Also, Ihhai has /r/ whereas Thaoa retained its parent language's /r/-lessness, borrowing in all Ihhai words with /r/ as being with /l/.
Culture
Paba began as a fishing colony in Tamusur Bay in the year 633 AD and worked its way northward, killing many aboriigns as they went. They stopped at Ihhai and did not try to advance into Ihhai territory. The Ihhai people did not threaten Paba, and at the same time, Ihhai people seemed to be much more powerful than the aboriginal coimmunities that Paba had dealth with in the past. Paba thus admired Ihhai and wanted to form an alliance. Thaoa did likewise.
noptes
- ↑ This is a working idea. In particular, habing a 5 vowel systyem and not /a i u ə/. i may be mixing two different eras here, with the consonants from the old setup and the vowels from the new setup
