Woskami

Woskami is a fictional language family and ethnolinguistic designation used in worldbuilding and narrative settings. In the considered fictional world, Woskami comprises two closely related languages, Woskan and Kamish, spoken by the Woskami people who inhabit a coastal archipelago and neighboring mainland regions. The term also stands for the maritime culture associated with these communities, their social organization, and their traditional repertory of songs and stories.

Etymology and classification: The name Woskami is a constructed term, with autonyms varying among communities. Linguists in the setting typically treat Woskan and Kamish as a small language family that descended from a common ancestor, reconstructible as a proto-Wosk. The two languages diverged through island isolation and contact with neighboring speech groups, especially traders from the southern coast.

Phonology and grammar: Woskami languages have a phonemic inventory centered on five vowels and a modest consonant set that includes p, t, k, m, n, s, l, and h. Syllable structure is predominantly CV or CVC, with rare consonant clusters. The usual word order is subject–object–verb (SOV). Morphology is moderately agglutinative, using suffixes to mark case, number, aspect, and mood, with limited use of postposed definite markers; grammatical gender is not a feature.

Writing system and usage: In the fiction, Woskami is written using a patterned curved syllabary, sometimes transliterated into the Latin alphabet for external scholarship. Texts include maritime logs, navigational charts, folklore, and legal codes. Current status in the imagined world is endangered but subject to revival programs that emphasize oral transmission, education, and cultural preservation.