todentaa

Todentaa is a constructed language created for the fictional archipelago of Todenta in a world-building setting. It is presented as the native tongue of the Todentan people and a vehicle for cultural expression in literature and media. The name combines roots related to connection and speech.

Classification and features: Todentaa is an agglutinative, predominantly SOV language. Nouns inflect for number and case with suffixes; verbs mark tense, aspect, mood, and evidentiality through suffix sequences. Pronouns distinguish inclusive and exclusive first-person plural, and a politeness axis is expressed through verb morphology. The language relies on explicit case marking to allow flexible word order.

Phonology and orthography: The sound system includes consonants p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, s, l, r and a glottal stop; vowels a, e, i, o, u with length distinction in careful speech. Stress is generally on the penultimate syllable. The canonical script is Todentaar, a syllabary-inspired writing system; Latin transliteration is common in modern texts.

Dialects: Three regional varieties are recognized—Northern Todentaa, Central Todentaa, and Southern Todentaa—differing mainly in vowel quality, minor consonant realizations, and lexicon.

Usage and status: In the fictional setting, Todentaa is taught in schools, used in official ceremonies, literature, and media, and preserved through community efforts and language clubs.

Sample: A simple greeting in Todentaa is “Nita varo todenta,” meaning “Welcome to Todenta.”

See also: Constructed languages, Worldbuilding.