Gan Language Family

Members

• North Ganic
  • Soskra
    • Gìdago
    • Má
  • Zira
    • Gí-giân
• South Ganic
  • Kozu
    • Ginhtköl
  • Skā
    • Kjelī
    • Itāk
      • Kjā
• Western
  • Ulwi
    • Qon
    • Īqaqa
  • Ninakata
    • Melita
      • Ume

Characteristics

Each branch of the family has different "style." We are going to go through these here.

North Ganic

Every member of the North Ganic family is tonal. Every member of the family's syllable structure is CV. None of them have long vowels. This language family, spoken in the north (hence the name!) This area of the language family is very slow growing and slow changing. Gìdago is the only lively language in this family, it's spoken the farthest south. Má is moribund and Gí-giân endangered. Most younger speakers of these languages have moved farther south, there are few opportunities in the north.

South Ganic

This family is the biggest as far as speakers go. For the last ~1000 years, Ginhtköl was used as the lingua franca of the south, and is now used as a trade language all around. Because of its prosperity, it strangled out all the languages of the region. The Skā language family is spoken in the southern islands. Kjelī is spoken on a handful of islands, but is declining in the face of Ginhtköl and Itak.

Itak has a creole language named Kjā. In response to the slave trade from the south, the slaves mixed Yoruba grammar with Itak words. Many words have a Yoruba and a Itak word, in those cases the Itak word is more prestigious.

In general most of these languages have many sonorants. The languages are usually considered melodious. The Skā family all have simple pitch accent, and Kjā has two tones.

Western Ganic

There are four languages in this group. These languages simplified Proto-Ganic's consonant clusters to clicks, each language has three clicks. They are all spoken on the half of the southern islands not taken up by the Skā languages. This language prospers further, because there were many foreign colonies, in Africa founded by these people. Qon's foreign colonies fell threw quickly and soon switched to English, but Melita is thriving really well in Africa.

Melita's creole, Ume, is used only in Africa. It was created due to apartheid, the natives speaking Bantu languages, and the whites speaking Melita.