Zacundu (zækuŋɖu)
The native tongue of the Cunga-Mali and the official language of Zazamanc, Zacundu is the most well-known Ktavaman language on the neighboring continent of Kadagard.
Writing System
Zacundu is natively written in a calligraphic style, known locally as TBD, and is generally written on papyrus with a very thin brush. This results in stylized, fanciful letters, which can be differentiated by brush direction and pressure. This is complicated, as the writing system uses a boustrophedon style, where the writer starts on the left to the right, then goes from right to left, and repeats until the space is filled.
Geographical Distribution
Zazundu is endemic to the mouth of the Lingala river, the eastern river of the Nbundo River Basin. It is the native tongue of the Cunga-Mali and is spoken amongst many of the other ethnic groups of the basin. Due to the control of the Zazamanci Empire, the language has spread all they all over the basin, from the middle grassland regions to both ends of the border rivers. There has even been some spread into the regions bordering the basin.
Morphology
Nouns in Zacundu have two genders, masculine and feminine, with neuter loan words having two variants for both genders.
Phonetics
Consonants
| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio-Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Labio-Velar | Velar | Uvelar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | ŋ | [ɴ]2 | |||||
| Plosive | p b | t | [ʈ]1 ɖ | k | ɢ | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | f | s z | ||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||
| Lateral Fricative | ɮ | |||||||
| Approximant | ɹ | w | ||||||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ |
1. allophone of /t/
2. allophone of /ŋ/
*Only found in loan words (with Lingala being the one exception).
Vowels
| Vowels | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Open-Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Near-Open | [æ]1 | |
| Open | a |
1. allophone of /a/
2. allophone of /ɛ/ In nouns and names, the first syllable is usually stressed, though exceptions do exist. In proper nouns, stressed syllables with /a/, /ɛ/, /t/, or /ŋ/ are pronounced with their allophones [æ], [ɛi], [ʈ], or [ɴ].
Spoken by
Common Phrases
Common Female Names
Secundille
Common Male Names
Feirefiz
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