Item #: SCP-1068-JP
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: All SCP-1068-JP speakers in Foundation custody are to be isolated in containment chambers in Site-8141. The door of each containment chamber is to be locked from the outside so that it cannot be opened from the outside. Entry to the containment chambers is prohibited unless instructed otherwise by personnel with Security Clearance Level 3/1068-JP.
Description: SCP-1068-JP is a language possessing isolating and fusional characteristics. As no relation has been confirmed with any other language, the language family to which it belongs is unknown. Nouns in SCP-1068-JP have ██ different declensions, inflecting for gender, number and case, while verbs and adjectives have ███ different conjugations/declensions and inflect for gender, number, person, tense and mood. The language has SOV word order with postmodifiers. It has been determined that the script used to write SCP-1068-JP is an alphabet consisting of ██ consonant letters and █ vowel letters.
SCP-1068-JP's anomalous properties manifest when a person learns of its grammar, pronunciation and writing system. Speakers of SCP-1068-JP (SCP-1068-JP-A) will go through a series of stages in which they will lose their ability to speak all other languages, including their native language. This process typically completes after 2 to 3 days.
Stage I: SCP-1068-JP-A fully acquires knowledge of SCP-1068-JP's grammar, pronunciation and writing system. At this stage, the anomalous properties are not readily apparent.
Stage II: 12 hours after entering Stage I, SCP-1068-JP-A will show a reduction in vocabulary when speaking in other languages, increasingly using demonstratives and words with extremely general meanings. It is thought that the lost vocabulary is converted to knowledge of SCP-1068-JP vocabulary.
Stage III: 36 hours after the beginning of Stage II, SCP-1068-JP becomes the primary and only language of the SCP-1068-JP-A instance. At this stage, the subject completely loses their ability to learn or use any other languages.
While administering Class B amnestics to SCP-1068-JP-A in Stage I proves effective at first, the memories affected return upon entering Stage II. It is thought that Stage III is permanent, and will continue until SCP-1068-JP-A dies. Subjects do not appear to be distressed by this progression, and by Stage III believe that SCP-1068-JP has always been their native language. SCP-1068-JP appears to activate after one hour or more of direct contact with SCP-1068-JP-A instances; however, the progression of these cases will be particularly slow.
In the case of Japanese, during Stage II, SCP-1068-JP-A will have their vocabulary converted to SCP-1068-JP in the order of interjections, adverbs, adjectives, verbs and nouns. The word prior to conversion is slowly lost, along with knowledge of its pronunciation and meaning, until it is eventually forgotten. In addition, as the Japanese bound auxiliary forms and particles are absent in SCP-1068-JP, they appear to be combined with the conjugations and declensions of verbs and nouns. Word order is also converted, causing subjects to use SCP-1068-JP's word order even in Japanese.
Autopsy of Stage III SCP-1068-JP-A instances show that the Wernicke's area and Broca's area have significantly shrunk, which appears to be the reason for the loss of all other languages. The reason why SCP-1068-JP is unaffected by this phenomenon is currently being researched.
When multiple SCP-1068-JP-A are located in the same space, they will begin a conversation (SCP-1068-JP-B). SCP-1068-JP-B is stated to "sound like the ██████ language", and it has been confirmed that it possesses an effect that causes human test subjects exposed for extended periods of time to desire to interact with SCP-1068-JP-A. Due to the effects of SCP-1068-JP-B, SCP-1068-JP is though to be slowly spreading over time.
Subject: One Stage II SCP-1068-JP-A
Interviewer: Dr. ███████
<Begin Recording>
Dr. ███████: Good afternoon, ████. I'd like to ask you a few questions about yourself.
SCP-1068-JP-A: [DATA EXPUNGED]? Okay.
Dr. ███████ Let's start with something simple. Have you noticed anything strange lately?
SCP-1068-JP-A: Yes. I… I think I've been forgetting things more often.
Dr. ███████: More forgetful… Do you remember the [REDACTED] from yesterday?
SCP-1068-JP-A: No, not that… the names of things, like…
Dr. ███████: Get to the point.
SCP-1068-JP-A: Like, uh… I don't know.
Dr. ███████: You don't know? What don't you know?
SCP-1068-JP-A: It just started, but it won't come out.
Dr. ███████: Huh.
SCP-1068-JP-A: Actions, names of things, they won't come into my head.
Dr. ███████: Do you mean amnesia?
SCP-1068-JP-A: Yes, it's that, but not quite that.
Dr. ███████: What do you mean, not quite that?
SCP-1068-JP-A: The one just now was like that too, but it's not they won't come into my head, but things I don't know what they mean come into my head. Like that last one, [DATA EXPUNGED].
Dr. ███████: I see. Thank you for your cooperation; we'll end the interview here.
<End Recording>
The Foundation currently has 2█ instances of SCP-1068-JP-A in containment.
Addendum: SCP-1068-JP, similarly to natural languages, is changing in grammar. Currently, the number of declensions and conjugations, changes in word order, and [REDACTED] have been confirmed. However, no words borrowed from other natural languages have been confirmed to exist in SCP-1068-JP, nor have any other descendant languages been confirmed.
SCP-1068-JP is not a language of an unknown family.
About 20% of its vocabulary corresponds to vocabulary in the Niger-Congo languages, and 16% to vocabulary from the Austronesian languages. Other vocabulary comes from the Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European families.
This division corresponds to the relative variety and number of languages in these language families.
The word order is SOV, like in 45% of the world's languages.
It has noun classes and the dual number, which do not exist in Japanese.
SCP-1068-JP may very well be the world's proto-language.
I believe the reason people lose their original native languages upon learning SCP-1068-JP is something like the words desiring to return to their original form.
After learning SCP-1068-JP, the mother of all languages, the native language - its descendant - is consumed into it.
Does that make sense?