Monvesia Culture: Rakasta Language

In the process of drafting a post on ceremonial weapons from years-old notes, I took the time to explore the rakasta language.  I pulled in two location names of supposed rakasta origin--Zyrndy and Tamyya--and incorporated them into a standardized "transliteration."  From there, I was able to identify what sounds would be used in a rakasta alphabet (instead of using elfish runes as previously suggested).

Outlined below are the letters I have used to write rakasta words with [the basic sounds they represent] and (the Turkish letters they replace).  While the sounds do not exactly correspond to the sounds of Turkish, these correspondences are useful when transforming a Turkish root to a rakasta word.

• Vowels:  A [ah] (a); E [ay] (e); I [ee] (ı, i); O [oh] (o, ö); U [oo] (u); Y [i~u] (ü).
• Plosives:   C [t~k] (k, t); D [d~g] (d, g); P [p~f] (f, p); Q [gutteral k~g] (k, g); V [b~v] (b, v); ' [glottal stop] (ğ).
• Nasals:   M [m] (m); Mj [mi, my] (n/a); N [n] (n); Nj [ni, ny] (n/a). (mj and nj are unique rakasta sounds that can be used in place if Turkish y)
• Fricatives:   Cj [ch] (ç); Dj [j, soft g] (c); S [s] (s); Sj [sh] (ş); X [x, ch] (h); Z [z] (z); Zj [zh] (j).
• Rhotics: R [flap or trill r] (l); Rr [gutteral r] (r).

Languages of Monvesia

Common Script [Gothic alphabet] in the Honderreich

Standard Languages

The following are the equivalents of the "Standard Languages" outlined in the Player's Handbook.

• Common Languages of Prace - There are six (6) common [ie. human] languages, one for each human culture; all Common languages share the same basic script (though each may have a few alternate letters of its own).
• Human characters, (but not including genasi or otherworldly humans) should select two common languages at first level--one representing their culture of origin, and one other.
• Other characters should select one common language, generally representing the nearest human population; for genasi and otherworldly humans, this represents their culture of origin.
• All player characters in a single party should share at least one language (though this does not have to be a common language).
• Cuorrian ("Central Common") - spoken by Romance/Latinate people of the central river region, many elves, some halflings, some goliaths [aka. “Herzlander”]
• Galtish ("Western Common") - spoken by Celtic people of the northwest region, some gnomes, some rakasta [aka. “Galtannian” or “Galtlander”]
• Honderreicher ("Northern Common") - spoken by Germanic people of the northern region, some dwarves, some halflings, some rakasta, some gnomes [aka. “Ondrian”]
• Notopolitan ("Southern Common") - spoken by Hellenic people of the southern region, some goliaths [aka. “Notopian”]
• Veldi ("Desert Common") -  spoken by Persian people of the western region, some rakasta [aka. “Baldian”]
• Voztokny ("Eastern Common") - spoken by Slavonic people east of the river region, some dwarves , some goliaths, [aka. “Tsarish” or “Tsarian” or “Tzarlander”]