The Gao-Indralan languages (also called the Gao-Showan languages) are a controversial proposed language family that includes the Kyo language, the Kunikata language, the Sekowan language and the Xsampan-Yingdalan languages. In modern linguistics, the hypothetical language family is rejected by the vast majority of mainstream academics. In the academic context, it is often referred to as the "Gao-Indralan Language Family Theory" (GILFT).
During the height of it's common acceptance and relevance, the proposed family would have spanned 3 continents. However, the theory today has, upon review, gaping holes that compromise itself. Today the theory has been near-universally rejected by mainstream academia in favor of either the concept of a Gao-Indralan Linguistic Union, or the complete abandonment of a shared linguistic sphere in itself. Many scholars have theorized that western imperialism had a major influence on the proponents of the theory; as although the languages included were thoroughly different beyond any possible genetic relation, to western eyes they might have been similar enough to incompetently classify them as a family. In spite of its possible origins, the theory was wholeheartedly embraced and promoted by pan-Gao-Showa nationalists as justification for political and cultural unity of the Gao-Showa peoples against Hulstro-Luthorian imperialism.
The theory consisted of four language groups: Cental, Northern, Southern, and Western. The supposed speakers of the hypothetical Proto-Gao-Indralan language, the Proto-Gao-Showans, were originally thought to have originated with the 1st millennium BCE cultures of North Dovani. Their expansion towards the South of the continent was theorized to have occurred around the 1st century CE in order to explain the diversity of the alleged family. In the 39th century the so-called "Martin Divergence" was proposed by Indrala, according to which the urheimat of the Proto-Gao-Showans was believed to be located in Seleya rather than Dovani. Although the Gao-Indralan Language Family Theory has been completely discredited, the possible origin of some or even all Gao-Showan peoples in Seleya is widely accepted in academia.
Proposed Branches[]
- South Gao-Indralan Languages
- Central Gao-Indralan Languages
- Classical Kunikata (extinct)
- Modern Kunikata
- Kyo
- North Gao-Indralan Languages
Characteristics[]
Although the languages of the former Gao-Indralan Family Theory are generally not considered related anymore by modern linguists, they nonetheless share certain strong characteristics that original proponents of the theory once used to justify the theory's credibility. For instance, most of the languages theorized to be Gao-Indralan were their similar syllable structures involving monosyllabic morphemes; phonemic tone; a fairly large inventory of consonants, including phonemic aspiration; few or no clusters at the beginning of a syllable, other than clusters ending in a glide consonant; and a small number of possible distinctions at the end of a syllable, including no clusters, no voice distinction and unreleased stops. Phonemic tone was one of the most well-known of Gao-Indralan language characteristics - but many of the supposed cadet branches of the proposed family lacked these.
Gao-Indralan languages were also noted to be highly analytic. Often, member languages of the theoretical family have words that are not obligatorily marked or inflected for gender, number, person, case, tense, or mood. Instead, these properties can optionally be indicated by adding independent, invariant modifier words and particles that are sometimes not even bound morphemes. Languages once thought to belong to the Central Gao-Indralan language sub-family do have suffixes for properties of the verb itself like aspect, mood, and tense, but, like prospective members of the theoretical South Gao-Indralan language sub-family, do not mark gender, number, or any other properties of the verb arguments on the verb itself.
Personal pronouns in most languages formerly classified as Gao-Indralan are open class words rather than closed class words: they are not stable over time, not few in number, and not clitics whose use is obligatory in grammatical constructs. New personal pronouns or forms of reference or address can and often do evolve from nouns as fresh ways of expressing respect or social status. Another way of viewing this phenomenon is that these languages do not have personal pronouns in the Western sense. This derives from the complex politeness system typical for most of the languages once thought to belong to the discredited family. Linguistic systems of politeness, including frequent use of honorifics, with varying levels of politeness or respect, are well-developed in these languages. Speakers of languages once covered under the theory may use different words with the same meaning, but with varying degrees of politeness, in different contexts. For example, bác, chú, dượng, and cậu are all Đinh terms that all refer to different statuses of "uncle".
Writing systems[]
With the adoption of Classical Gao-Showan as a literary language, the areas that were under the cultural influence of the Empire of Gao-Soto, which include most speakers of languages previously thought to belong to the Gao-Indralan family, adopted the Gao script to write their own languages, thus influencing the development of a national written language based on the previously unwritten local language. Whilst originally adapting these characters, the Kyo subsequently created their own (phonetic) writing system called Kyogul. Starting with the 16th century, when Gao-Showans first entered contact with the West, the Selucian script has been adapted for writing various languages once considered Gao-Indralan. Today, Đinh is entirely written in Selucian script. Kunikata also uses two syllabary scripts called karina.
Debunking[]
The GIFLT has been subsequently debunked by modern linguists, who note that there are far too many fundamental differences in the languages (ex: sentence order) to classify them consistently as a family. Generally, today linguists consider Indralan and related languages a separate family from that of "Kunikata" (itself a contested term), which is in turn a separate family from Kyo, a language isolate.