View source for Poccasin English

{{construction}}
{{Infobox language
| name=Poccasin English
| altname = Cassinglish
| nativename = 
| ethnicity = Poccasins
| state = Poccasin Archipelago
| creator = User:Jukethatbox
| created = 2025
| setting = ''Adventures in the Poccasins''
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = [[w:Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3 = [[w:West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4 = [[w:North Sea Germanic|North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5 = [[w:Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]
| fam6 = [[w:Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| fam7 = [[English language|English]]
| ancestor1 = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2 = [[w:Proto-Germanic|Proto-Germanic]]
| ancestor3 = [[w:Proto-West Germanic|Proto-West Germanic]]
| ancestor4 = [[w:Proto-English|Proto-English]]
| ancestor5 = [[w:Old English|Old English]]
| ancestor6 = [[w:Middle English|Middle English]]
| ancestor7 = [[w:Early Modern English|Early Modern English]]
| ancestor8 = [[w:Modern English|Modern English]]
| script1 = Latn
}}
{{English language}}
'''Poccasin English''' or '''Cassinglish''' is a variety of the [[English language]] native to the Poccasin Archipelago and [[Poccasin Federation]]. Today, it is primarily spoken by upper-class urbanites in Cassim Po, the capital of the Poccasin Federation, and is commonly considered the international [[w:Trade language|trade language]] of the Federation alongside the [[w:English-based creole languages|English creole language]] [[Bemé]].

Poccasin English is typically considered the most [[w:Creole continuum|prestigious]] or [[Bemé#Tak vs kriyal|mesolectal]] language in the Poccasins, as it is commonly associated with the upper classes in the Federation. As such, although stable, there are actually very few monolingual speakers of Poccasin English; most speakers of Poccasin English are usually bilingual with [[Bemé]] and incorporate a [[w:Creole continuum|creole continuum]] in their speech that goes beyond the traditional [[Bemé#Tak vs kriyal|''tak'' and ''kriyal'']] distinction in Bemé.<ref>cf. the distinction between [[w:Jamaican English|Jamaican Standard English]] and [[w:Jamaican Patois|Jamaican Patois]].</ref>

Poccasin English generally follows [[w:American and British English spelling differences|British spelling conventions]], though more recent loanwords from [[w:American English|American English]] may retain their American spelling, so "[[wikt:color#English|colour/color]]" is spelt as in British English, ''colour'', but "[[wikt:of color|person of color/person of colour]]" is spelt as in American English, ''person of color'', because the term is chiefly used in the [[w:United States of America|US]]. However, various degrees of [[w:Eye dialect|eye dialect]] spellings are also common.

Poccasin English also features a rather unique phonology, such as a full [[w:Trap-strut merger|{{sc|trap}}-{{sc|strut}} merger]] as well as the loss of a /[[w:Voiced labiodental fricative|v]]/ phoneme (merging into /b/), and unique vocabulary derived primarily from Bemé and other indigenous language of the Poccasin Archipelago.

==Phonology==
===Consonants===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! !! Bilabial !! Labiodental !! Alveolar !! Post-alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !! Glottal
|-
! Stop
| p b || || t d || || || k g || (ʔ)
|-
! Nasal
| m ||  || n || || ɲ || (ŋ) ||
|-
! Affricate
| || || || tʃ dʒ || || ||
|-
! Fricative
| colspan=2 | f || s || ʃ || || || h
|-
! Approximant
| w || || l || r || j || ||
|}
Poccasin English has significantly less phonemic consonants than other standard varieties of English.
* [[w:Th-stopping|Th-stopping]]: /θ ð/ are realized as [[w:Alveolar stop|alveolar stops]] /t d/, so ''day'' and ''they'' become homophones.
** This is a common feature of many other standard varieties of English, such as [[w:Nigerian English|Nigerian]], [[w:Indian English|Indian]] and [[w:Caribbean English|Caribbean English]].
* Lack of aspiration: Although not phonemic in English, plosives are usually still aspirated at the beginning of words in most varieties of English. This is however altogether absent in Poccasin English apart from in very high-class dialects. 
** A Poccasin English speaker who strongly aspirates their initial plosives in order to deliberately sound high class or distinguish themselves from working class speakers is called a ''puffer''.
* V-stopping: /v/ is realized as /b/ in all positions, so ''bat'' and ''vat'' become homophones.
* Variability of /f/: /f/ is fairly unstable in even standard Poccasin English; the most common realizations vary from the [[w:Bilabial fricative|bilabial]] /ɸ/ to true [[w:Labiodental fricative|labiodental]] /f/, but it has also been recorded to range as far back as a [[w:Voiceless glottal fricative|glottal]] /h/ or may be omitted entirely, especially in casual, colloquial speech.
Another notable phonological feature of Poccasin English is, similarly to [[Bemé]], the lack of phonemic [[w:Voiced fricative|voiced fricatives]] such as the /z/ or /ʒ/ in ''zoo'' and ''vision''.
* Devoicing of /z/: /z/ is devoiced to /s/, so ''zoo'' and ''Sue'' become homophones.
* Affricatisation of /ʒ/: /ʒ/ is [[w:Voiced postalveolar affricate|affricatised]] to /dʒ/, so ''ager'' and ''Asia'' can become homophones.
The [[w:Rhoticity in English|rhoticity]] of Poccasin English is variable; see the [[#Rhoticity|corresponding section]] for more.
===Vowels===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Monophthongs (short)
|-
! !! Front !! Central !! Back
|-
! Close
| i || || u
|-
! Mid
| ɛ || ə || ɔ
|-
! Open
| || a ||
|}

Short /i/ is raised to a close front /i/, and not the more typical near-front near-close /ɪ/ found in other dialects of English such as [[w:General American English|General American]] or [[w:Received Pronunciation|Received Pronunciation]].

Another distinctive feature of Poccasin English is the [[w:Trap-strut merger|{{sc|trap}}-{{sc|strut}} merger]], where the typically distinct {{sc|trap}} vowel /æ/, as seen in words like ''c'''a'''t'', ''r'''a'''t'' and ''th'''a'''t'', and the {{sc|strut}} vowel /ʌ/, as seen in ''c'''u'''t'', ''m'''u'''tt'' and ''r'''u'''t'', merge into the [[w:Open unrounded central vowel|open central vowel]] /ä/, which is more often written simply as /a/. This means that words like ''cat'' and ''cut'' are homophones.

{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Monophthongs (long)
|-
! !! Front !! Central !! Back
|-
! Close
| (iː) || || uː
|-
! Mid
| ɛː || || oː
|-
! Open
| aː || ||
|}
The status of long /iː/ as a phoneme is debated; although traditionally considered distinct from short /i/ by linguists, modern scholars have found that a growing number of primarily younger, working-class speakers have begun incorporating a {{sc|kit}}-{{sc|fleece}} merger, so that {{l|en|fit}} and {{l|en|feet}} are pronounced the same. However, a lack of such a merger is still generally considered the standard pronunciation.
===Rhoticity===
==References==
<references />

[[Category:Conlangs]] [[Category:Dialects]]