icatla

Icatla is a constructed language created for the fictional archipelago of Icatla in modern speculative fiction. It was developed by linguist Arin Voss (pseudonym) in 2012 as part of the worldbuilding for the novel series The Isles of Icatla. The language is presented as the native tongue of the Icatlan people and is used in official, ceremonial, and everyday contexts within the works. A community of fans has studied and documented Icatla, producing dictionaries, grammars, and learning materials.

Phonology and writing: Icatla comprises 24 consonants and 5 vowels. It uses a Latin-based alphabet with diacritics to mark vowel length and stress. Syllable structure is (C)(C)(V)(C). The language exhibits phonotactic rules such as rare clusters and avoidance of final consonant clusters.

Grammar: Icatla is primarily agglutinative and analytic, with SOV word order in basic clauses. Nouns inflect for number and case (nominative, accusative, instrumental) through suffixes. Verbs encode tense, aspect, and mood with suffixes; evidentiality is marked by a set of suffixes. Adjectives follow nouns and agree in number. There are independent pronouns and polite forms.

Lexicon and samples: Core vocabulary emphasizes kinship, nature, trade, and governance. New terms are often formed via compounding. The language features a modest degree of borrowing from neighboring languages within the fictional world.

Status and literature: In-world, Icatla underwent standardization in addition to regional dialects. In the real world, it has a small but active fan-driven community producing dictionaries, learning guides, and translation projects.