Cadasan language

The Cadasan language (Cadasan: bahasa Cadasa) is an Austronesian language officially spoken in Cadasa, and is also commonly spoken in, , Baraltamuri, , , and parts of Daidieu, Valenzuela, the , and. It shares 60-65% of its vocabulary with.

History
Ancient Cadasan started out as a dialect of Malay. Starting in the 10-11th centuries, Classical Cadasan was used, and it started to diverge from Malay after it started to absorb Jazalic loanwords. Classical Cadasan was gradually abandoned in the 13-14th centuries, however it was used as a literacy language until the fall of the Cahaya dynasty in 1920. From the 14th centuries to the 17th, Middle Cadasan was used, after which it started to shape into Modern Cadasan, the language used today.

However, even though Cadasan was made the official language of Cadasa in 1920, it was reserved for the elite and government officials, and education of Cadasan in schools were poor. Most Cadasans spoke their own languages, like Malay, Tamil, or Mandarin. It wasn't until the 1960s that then-president Aarush Chiu vigorously promoted Cadasan as the lingua franca.

Syntax and word order
Cadasan uses the SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) word order. Adjectives come after the verb, except when talking about size or number:

Pronouns
As a descendant of Malay, Cadasan inherits most Makay personal pronouns. There are also some Jazalic influences, as in the familiar 2nd person pronoun kanu (from proto-Jazalic ŋū). Personal pronouns can also be possessive pronouns (as in mine, yours, etc)

In Cadasan, possessive pronouns are enclitic. The suffix is the last two letters of the pronoun, except for the 3rd person pronoun, which is the same. There are four demonstrative pronouns in Cadasan: ini (this), inin (these), itu (that), itua (those).

Examples
Object pronouns, direct or indirect, are the same as personal pronouns. They come before the verb and after the subject. The exception is when names are introduced, then the name is after the verb.
 * Ini kachiaya (This is my car)
 * Itu rukainu (That is your home)
 * Inin pano-panoda (These are your children)
 * Itua kamitia (Those are ours)

Examples

 * Saya tei yangdeyah (I give it to him)
 * Te ta taramayano (He married her)
 * Anda saya ajano pendelek (You were going to push me)
 * Kamitia perjane Yahya (We're meeting Yahya)

Plurality
Plurality may be indicated in Cadasan with the suffix -n (for vowels) or -en (for consonants). There are also words that can either be plural or singular, and must be determined by context. For example, most words that end in -n/-en, like acsun (reference), so the words pepara (some), sekala (all), or a number must be used. This rule generally doesn't spread to formal written Cadasan, as it wastes time, so acsunen would be accepted.

Reduplication is also used, but far less than Malay or Indonesian. It is mainly used when one doesn't want to use number/pepara/sekala and/or if the plural form is hard to pronounce (in speech). For example, the plural form of tangan (word for hand) would be tanganen (hands), but instead, tangan-tangan is used.

When added with 1st and 2nd person possessive pronouns, the -n/en suffix goes after the enclitic (ex. kosatun (your shoes)). However, if a person's name is involved, then it goes after the noun and before the name. (ex. tangan-tangan Fatima; Fatima's hands)

Examples

 * Saya akar sepuluh kitapen (I have ten books)
 * Ta mahas pepara oren (She wants some oranges)
 * Kanu lijat tekseten (You're looking at his texts)

Verbs
Cadasan is an agglutinative language. Unlike Malaysian/Indonesian however, Cadasa uses gender, due to Jazalic influence. Most verbs in Cadasan are gender-neutral, like English. For gendered verbs, here is a table of endings: Many new verbs can be made by adding affixes. They include the prefixes:

Suffixes:
 * per-
 * sen-
 * aka-
 * ja-
 * ter-


 * -al
 * -ng
 * -ang

Tenses
Another notable difference between Cadasan and other Austronesian languages is the inclusion of tenses. The inclusion of tenses began when the Cahaya dynasty defeated the Alyatak Kingdom in the 1710/20s. The Alyatak language had tenses, so over time, via borrowing, it became part of Cadasan. Cadasan has 2 aspects in the language, which are the simple tense and the perfect tense. There are 3 tenses in the language, which are the past tense, the present tense, and the future tense. For the simple past, an -o/-ro suffix is inserted (ex. Anda kerjaro; You worked). For the simple future, an -a/-ra suffix is inserted (ex. Kamitia marana; We will eat). The perfect tense has the same rules, but with the word akar (have) between the subject and the verb.

Tenses aren't necessary in Cadasan; sometimes a person can use the simple present tense only. They just have to say the time or date.

Examples:

 * Saya jhang (I go/I am going)
 * Saya akar jhang (I have gone)
 * Saya jhango (I went/I was going)
 * Saya akar jhango (I had gone)
 * Saya jhanga (I will go/I will be going)
 * Saya akar jhanga (I will have gone)
 * Saya jhang skolah hari ini (I go to school today)
 * Saya jhang skolah jemasan (I went to school yesterday)
 * Saya jhang skolah ejos (I will go to school tomorrow)

The word "yang"
Yang is one of the most common words in Cadasan. It usually means a relative pronoun (which, that), a quantity of something (eg. 'one', 'some' or 'of them'), or it can be a prefix (yang-) meaning "it", an unspecified object. Yang can also be an intensifier, meaning "so much".

Negation
Negation in Cadasa can be expressed using five words, tidak, nadrihon (commonly shortened to nadri), behe, chagar, and pelan.


 * Tidak (not) is used for the negation of verbs and adjectives. Ti, the short form of tidak, is the Cadasan word for a general "no".
 * Nadrihon is used for the negation of nouns.
 * Behe is used for an event that will or has not happen(ed).
 * Chagar is used for negating imperatives or advising against certain actions.
 * Pelan is used when something has not yet been accomplished or experienced. As an answer, pelan is used negatively.

Writing system

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; table-layout:fixed"

!Uppercase Latin alphabet !Lowercase Latin alphabet ! IPA phonemes
 * + Cadasan alphabet
 * A||B||C||D||E||Ê||F||G||H||I||J||K||L||M||N||Ñ||Ŋ||O||P||Q||R||S||Š||T||U||V||W||X||Y||Z||'
 * a||b||c||d||e||ê||f||g||h||i||j||k||l||m||n||ñ||ŋ||o||p||q||r||s||š||t||u||v||w||x||y||z||'
 * a
 * b
 * tʃ
 * d
 * ə
 * e
 * f
 * g
 * h
 * i
 * dʒ
 * k
 * l
 * m
 * n
 * ɲ
 * ŋ
 * o
 * p
 * q
 * r
 * s
 * ʃ
 * t
 * u
 * v
 * w
 * x
 * j
 * z
 * ʔ
 * }

Vocabulary
"See also: List of loanwords in Cadasan"The vast majority of Cadasan vocabulary is borrowed from Malay. About 20-25% are borrowed from other languages like Tamil, Hokkien/Chinese, English, Nantungese, and various native languages. 15% are distincly Cadasan words.

Status and variaties
Cadasan is natively spoken and the official language in Cadasa. The Cadasan spoken around Selamat is considered to be the "standard variety" in Cadasan. There are also other varieties and dialects in Jazali, Camatanam/Nan Tung, Lang Cit, Krunghom, and the outerlying islands of Haql and the Cendang Islands.

In Baraltamuri, Cadasan is a recognized minority language, along with 103 indigenous languages. Before the 2010 constitutional amendments, Cadasan was one of three official languages of Baraltamuri, the others being Tufur, and Alyatak.