Ibrhmic

Ibrhmic is a fictional language family used in worldbuilding and speculative linguistics to illustrate typological variation. It is described as descending from Proto-Ibrhmic, a hypothetical ancestor spoken in the fictional region of Ibrhm in antiquity. In many worldbuilding frameworks, Ibrhmic languages form a small branch within a broader hypothetical macrofamily of Ibrhoid languages.

Phonology and grammar: Proto-Ibrhmic is said to have a modest consonant inventory (p, t, k, m, n, s, l, r, h) and a five-vowel system (i, e, a, o, u). Stress is typically lexical; vowel length contrasts are variably preserved in daughter languages. The core morphosyntax is described as fusional-to-agglutinative, with noun phrases marked for case and number, and verbs with person- and tense-based affixes. Most commonly they are described as using subject–object–verb order, with postpositions.

Writing and usage: There is no canonical Ibrhmic script; in fiction, some communities are imagined to use an abugida-like script in early periods and a syllabary in later eras. Ibrhmic is sometimes used in discussions of typology and language contact in fictional histories, serving as a test case for theories about language change and diversification.