Ofruan

Ofruan is a constructed language created for fictional worlds and used in literature, games, and media. It is presented as the speech of the Ofruan people, a coastal, island-based civilization in the northern archipelago of Norda. In such settings, Ofruan is noted for a distinctive sound system and a rich morphological structure.

The name of the language is a neologism formed from imagined phonemes and morphemes. Autonyms for speakers refer to their language as ofru and their speech as ruani, with the term ofruan used by outsiders to designate the whole linguistic system. The term's origin is explained within in-world lore rather than in real-world linguistics.

Linguistically, Ofruan is primarily a subject–object–verb language with agglutinative morphology. It uses suffixes to encode case, number, aspect, and evidential mood. The language features vowel harmony across suffixes and a modest set of phonemes, including plosives, fricatives, nasals, and a limited series of lateral and uvular sounds.

Phonology and script: Its phoneme inventory includes p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, s, l, r and vowels a, e, i, o, u; stress tends to fall on the penultimate syllable. The traditional script, Tirn, evolved into a modern alphabet used in published texts; romanization is common for international learners.

History and usage: Proto-Ofruan is traced to a mythical migration and contact with neighboring language families. In-world, Ofruan is used in ceremonial poetry, shipboard records, and storytelling. In the real world, it appears in RPG manuals and fan fiction as an example of an agglutinative language.

Modern status: While entirely fictional, Ofruan has a small community of learners and authors who document its grammar and vocabulary. It is discussed in language-creation circles as an illustration of inflectional systems and script development.