Seratofian language

Seratofian (Seratofian: Sératofas Ënggje, IPA: [seːraˈtɔfas ˈəŋɟe]) is an Artemian language descended from proto-Seratofian. Seratofian is unique in which it is part of the broader Artemian language family, although it does not have any direct relatives as it forms its own branch of the Artemian language family. Seratofian is also the national language of the Seratofian people, as well as one of the two official languages of Seratof, where most of its speakers live, particularly in Seratofia. Seratofian is noted by many linguists to have retained many old features of the proto-Artemian languages, and is consequently more archaic in nature than other modern Artemian languages.

Consonants
Below is a table of consonant phonemes in the Seratofian language. As previously mentioned, the Seratofian language separates most of its consonants into hard consonants and soft consonants, with the hard consonant variant as its base variant of the phoneme. However, there are several phonemes that do not have a palatalized variant, mainly the dental fricatives [θ] and [ð], the velar fricative [x], as well as the velar stops [k] and [g]. The latter lost its soft variants as the phonemes [kʲ] and [gʲ] became realized as [c] and [ɟ] in the capital dialect, the base of the modern Seratofian language. The phoneme [nʲ] and [ɲ] both exist in the capital dialect. These two are orthographically written as , and only differ in word location. Whenever  fulfills its role as an onset consonant, the palatal nasal is used, and the soft variant of /n/ is used whenever  is required to fulfill the coda role.

Palatalization is an important factor in Seratofian, even though minimal pairs exist in the language. Palatalization was originally thought to have emerged from two separate causes. The gradual weakening of the phonemes [i] and [e] and its allophones after a consonant phoneme was the main cause of the abundant number of palatals in the Seratofian language (e.g te > tjë "person suffix"). Another cause of palatalization was said to have been the elision of coda consonants that caused the nucleus to lengthen and the onset to become palatalized (e.g lok > ljó "place"). Aside from these two main causes, some random mutations of plain consonants become palatalized could also be documented, however are much less common than the two mentioned above.

Some linguists doubt the existence of /h/ in Seratofian.  as a letter exists in the standard Seratofian language, but only in digraphs. In some older texts, the realization of /h/ has a variety of options, including omitting it completely or realizing it as [h], [x], [i] and even [ʔ], especially in intervocalic environments. The gradual loss of /h/ as a separate phoneme was evident as early as the late 1800s. /h/ in onsets were frequently omitted (e.g Heš, [heʃ] > [eʃ] "oak"), with some western dialects instead using the velar fricative [x] in exchange for [h]. This phenomenon was known as the Xeš-Heš merger, and affects roughly 90% of the words in a similar manner.

The voiced velar fricative [ɣ] has been lost in the capital dialect, however, could still be the realization of the phoneme /x/ when preceded by a voiced consonant in really careful pronunciation. The palatal variants of these forms have merged with [ʃ] and [ʒ] respectively, and in some older texts,  and are realized as such. In standard writing, however,  and have been replaced by <š> and <ž> respectively since 1971 to better reflect their pronunciation. Some Seratofian dialects retain the old spelling and could be realized as [x xʲ ʃ] or [x xʲ ʃ ɣ ɣʲ ʒ] respectively depending on dialect and even age of the speaker.

Consonant clusters which involve affricates such as  or  do occur in Seratofian, especially in the onset of syllables. The realization of these consonant clusters in the standard variety is to pronounce them with a short schwa in between, so that  and  become [kə̆t͡ʃ] and [pə̆t͡s] respectively. It is also possible to add a vowel preceding the cluster that matches with the vowel that comes after it, separating the cluster into two separate syllables, so that  and  become [k.t͡ʃ] and [p.t͡s] respectively (e.g Pcetju [ep.ˈt͡setʲu] "bag"). This type of realization is more common in the western dialects.

The dental fricatives in Seratofian arose in standard Seratofian approximately around the 17th century as aspirated forms of the plain consonants /t/ and /d/ shifted towards first a dental stop, then a fricative. This phenomenon is native to the capital dialect, and many Seratofian dialects do not exhibit this change, rather the aspirated variants of the plain stops merged with the unaspirated variant. Minimal pairs do exist between these two, and are not distinguished in most dialects.

/v/ is most often realized as [w] or [u̯], with the former being most commonly realized in onsets and the latter most commonly realized in codas.

Grammar
The Seratofian language is a highly inflecting language, with an extensive declension system.