Patoḱsku language

Patoḱsku (Slowok: Пáтокьскъ) is a semi-naturalistic auxiliary Slowok language spoken in Patok, where it has the official status, Pogoria, Seilurok, and other countries east of the Ostrovian Rift. It is the native language of the Patokians that was created in the 17th century Council of Masta with the goal of aiding communication between the Slowoks in the Cispogorian plain following their independence from Alarian yoke. It is taught as an optional language in most Ostrovian countries east of the Rift and is mandatory in parts of Alaria and Skorozheroda. It has remarkably low mutual intelligibility with other Slowok languages as it belongs to a different branch in the Slowok language family.

Patoḱsku has over 104 million total speakers in Ostrovia, with approximately 114 million counting for Patokian diaspora. It is the most spoken Slowok language. It is the standard language for international Slowok communication and is one of the official languages of the YTP and the Ostrovian Council.

Patoḱsku was primarily based on the Taskabian language, but has adopted many features from surrounding Slowok and Alaric languages. It has since become the most commonly used language in the area with many local Slowok languages going extinct or becoming vulnerable because of its influence. In the time since the creation of the standard, it has diversified into multiple dialects and attained naturalistic features like irregularity. Is is primarily written using the Slowok alphabet with an optional Foretanic variant being studied in foreign schools and the diaspora. The alphabet distinguishes between palatalised and unpalatalised consonants with either an acute accent (◌́, mostly used in the Foretanic script) or the letter Ik (ь). Unlike other Slowok languages, it does not reduce unstressed vowels.

Classification
Patoḱsku is one of the few remaining South Slowok languages together with the remaining Taskabian and Nadleze languages. Its vocabulary and grammar were primarily based on Taskabian, which was dominating as the language of the elite around the time of liberation of the Cispogorian plain from Alars, but other Slowok languages, like the North Slowok Narecz, laid the foundation for mutual intelligibility. In some cases, cognates of a single word took on different meanings depending on their origin: Taskabian zojęnḱi and Narecz zajec, while both meaning 'hare', came to mean different species of hare when loaned into Patoḱsku as "zojenḱi" (Cispogorian hare) and "zaic" (Mountain hare).