Sani language
The Sani language, formerly called Lakhesian by the colonial power Shireroth, is a Cosimo-Benacian language spoken by approximately 32-35 million people in Sanama and Talenore. It is closely related to Ama with which it has limited mutual intelligability. Around 25 million speakers can be found in Sanama, and 7.5 million in Talenore. It is an official language in Talenore and the main official language in Sanama. Sani is a mildly agglutinative language, it also has a number of particles.
Official status
Distribution and usage
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | k | q | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||
| Trill | r̥ r | ||||||||
| Fricative | f | θ | s | ʃ | x | h | |||
| Approximant | ʍ w | j | |||||||
| Lateral approximant | l̥ l | ||||||||
| Affricate | ts | tʃ |
Where consonants appear in pairs, the left is unvoiced and the right is voiced.
Vowels
Sani has six vowel phonemes. They do not contrast for length or nasality. The Sani schwa vowel is transliterated as Ë, while the E vowel varies between /e/ and /ɛ/ depending on environment.
Phonotactics
Orthography
| Orthography | A | C | E | Ë | F | Ff | H | I | K | L | Ll | M | N | Ng | O | P | Q | R | Rr | S | T | U | W | Wh | X | Y | Z | Sc |
| Phonology | a | tʃ | ɛ-e | ə | f | θ | h | i | k | l | l̥ | m | n | ŋ | ɔ | p | q | r | r̥ | s | t | u | w | ʍ | x | j | ts | ʃ |
Grammar
Syntax
Sani is a subject-object-verb language, but due to case marking, the order is somewhat fluid.
Sani vocabulary
Most of the Sani vocabulary is Cosimo-Benacian in origin, but the language has also borrowed words, mostly from Cisamarrese, Ama and more recently Istvanistani, Praeta and Babkhi.
| Semantic Domain | Word | Etymology | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| body | xonu | noun: head, main | |
| government | xonuti | noun: king, leader, chieftain | |
| grammar | -ti | suffix: abstraction of noun to refer to a person | |
| grammar | -lla | suffix: area belonging to the modified noun | |
| zawa | adjective: free, unchained, not in servitude, independent | ||
| government | rrumë | noun: state, independent entity | |
| grammar | na | conjunction: and | |
| government | kosos | Pr. Koïsoß, "Empire or a significant State, realm, domain, sphere" | noun: empire |
| interjection | oyá | interj.: hello, hi | |
| color | lunti | noun, adjective: green | |
| structure | ffaman | noun: garden, fenced or otherwise delimited area with controlled greenery | |
| direction | esa | noun, adjective: east | |
| suffix | -s/es | suffix: plural | |
| geology | paharr | noun: spring, source of running water | |
| direction | ate | noun, adjective: west | |
| geography | haruffa | noun: island | |
| geography | hareffina | Sa. haruffa, word derived from the Sani word for island | noun: peninsula |
| colloquialism | tata | noun: filth, dirt | |
| profanity | tati | Sa. tata, filth, dirt | noun: formerly a derogatory term for Sanis used by Istvani-speakers in and around Niyi |
