Languages of the archipelago
Jyokunic family tree
There are several language families spoken in the Jyokun archipelago. The most wide spread and most populous of these is the Jyokunic family, which is made up Jyokun proper, Dögö, and minor Jyokunic languages of the north island. Also found on the north island is the Orkhura, which is also found spread through the northern third of the peripheral island chain. Finally, there are the Jáa languages, which represent the oldest stock in the archipelago. These are found in the middle third of the peripheral chain.
Jyokunic[]
The Jyokunic family represents the most widely distributed language family on the archipelago. The family tree can be seen at right. The most divergent member of the family, Dögö is spoken on the chain of islands to the west of the southern most island of the main chain. The main language group, Jyokun, is an extensive dialect chain spoken on the three main islands of the archipelago. It can be divided into three main dialect groups, South, Central, and North, corresponding to the main islands. There are also a group of smaller languages spoken on the long north island. I have called this simply 'North Island' in the tree. The exact subgrouping of these languages is unclear, but they seem to correspond to a sister of the main Jyokun group, and are not mutually intelligible with the main Jyokun dialects.
A description of Central Jyokun can be found here .
Orkhura[]
[ɔɾχuɾə]