Ásademóku

Ásademòko (western Ásademòko:, "language from the sea") is one of the two languages used by the Zhandebasa. As such, it is mainly spoken on Chayazò and the northern islands of Dzòzò though there is some limited use on Sazzhezò aswell. It is a language isolate with no known relatives.

The language was introduced to Dzòzò through the Ásadebasa migration around the year 6677 MR (1080 BGS). The language spoken around that time by the Ásadebasa migrants, generally refered to as proto-Ásademòko, is the ancestor of all modern Ásademòko dialects.

Etymology
The name Ásademòko and the associated demonym Ásadebasa, while they are endonyms in a sense, were not used by the original Ásadebasa and only came about when they had already significantly integrated into the pre-existing Dzòzò society.

The words themselves derive from the root ása (from agasa "sea, ocean") + de "from" + mòko (from mawoko "speech, language") or basa "people" repectively and consequently can be translated as "language from (across) the sea" or "people from (across) the sea".

pre-migration
Ásademòko was originally spoken in southern Cadereu until the late 67th century MR when its speakers were either displaced or assimilated by the southward expanding Clōnnequi. By this time the language had adoped a decent number of loanwords from early Caderissa along with their writing system.

This early form of Ásademòko lacked several of the grammatical features of the modern language. Grammaticalised evidentiality and open class pronouns are completely absent and the case suffixes of the modern language were not as phonologically integrated instead acting as particles. However, many other features of the modern language can be traced back to this early stage like the extensive usage of SVCs and strongly head-final syntax.

Phonology
The variety described here is Plains Ásademòko, spoken in western Chayazò, unless otherwise noted.

Consonants
Ásademòko has 35 consonant phonemes shown in the table below along with two special phonemes /Q/ and /N/ whereas /Q/ induces gemination in the following consonant. /N/ is a nasal consonant that assimilates to the place of articulation of the consonant immediately following it including across word boundaries assuming there is no prosodic break. For example, /Np Nt Nk/ are realised as [mp nt ŋk]. If there is no such consonant it is realised as [ŋ].

Consonants can be classified as either "blunt" (plain) or "sharp" (palatalised).