jzyki

Jzyki is a fictional language family created for a contemporary worldbuilding project. It is not spoken in the real world, and there are no native speakers outside the imagined setting. The name Jzyki is a constructed term chosen by the authors and has no direct relation to real-world languages.

Within the imagined world, Jzyki comprises several closely related languages spoken on the archipelago of Avalea. The family is described as agglutinative with rich affixal morphology, a subject–object–verb basic word order, and vowel harmony across morphemes. Nouns take case-like markers, while verbs encode tense, aspect, mood, and agreement through affixes. The languages show varying degrees of lexical borrowing from neighboring speech communities, reflecting historical contact and trade routes in the setting.

Phonology is described as relatively consonant-heavy, with a modest vowel inventory that interacts through harmony processes. The standard orthography uses an indigenous script called the Jzyk script, alongside a Latin transliteration employed for scholarly texts within the story world. Stress patterns and phonotactic constraints are noted as distinctive features that help differentiate dialects.

In-world usage and culture, Jzyki plays a central role in literature, ritual speech, and education among Avalean communities. It is studied by in-world scholars to reconstruct historical contact with neighboring language groups and to trace the development of regional varieties. The portrayal of Jzyki emphasizes language as a marker of identity, heritage, and social continuity within the fictional society.