Ásademóku

Ásademòko (western Ásademóko:, "language from the sea") is one of the two languages used by the Zhandebasa. As such, it is mainly spoken on Chayazó and the northern islands of Dzózó though there is some limited use on Sazzhezó 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 old Ásademóko, is the ancestor of all modern Ásademòko dialects.

Etymology
The name Ásademóko only came into use after their migration to Dzózó.

The words themselves derive from the root ása (from agasa "sea, ocean") + de "from" + móko (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
Ásademóko 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. During this period the language first started to be written down in an early form of Clorō. The script changed significantly from its initial adoption in large part because of adaptions to the significantly different phonology. The characters themselves were also simplified and the logographic characters largly falling out of use by the time of the migration.

Dialects
There are two main varieties of Ásademóko, plains Ásademóko spoken in western Chayazó and northern Ásademóko spoken on Zhutsavazó

Phonology
The variety described here is plains Ásademóko, spoken in western Chayazó, 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).