Etzeá
| Etzeá | |
|---|---|
| etzeà | |
| Pronunciation | [ed͡zeɑ] |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2023 |
| Native to | Etzeán Island |
| Ethnicity | Etzeás |
| Native speakers | 4,015,000 (400 BH) |
Yeldhic
| |
Early form | |
Standard form | Etzeá Standard
|
Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | Moshurian Empire |
 Etzeán Island. Most Etzeá speakers live on the western side of the island, past the Tûzogyâud Range. | |
Etzeá(etzeà; [ed͡zeɑ]) is the secondary language spoken on the island of Etzeán primarily by the Etzeá people, who primarily live in rural areas; however, it has also become a common second language of the indigenous Myshon and the various Tuzak peoples.
Due to its early geographic isolation from mainland Yeldhic languages, Etzeá became the closest modern living relative to Proto-Yeldhic in the Yeldhic language family, making the language a key contributor in modern reconstructions of Early Proto-Yeldhic.
History
Etymology
The name etzeà's etymology is heavily debated, though one theory is that it developed agglutinatively by the combination of one word and a case marker: Proto-Yeldhic *eðu, "land" and ablative case marker *-ē, or in other words, *eðʷē, "away from the mainland". However, this theory has been criticised, as the actual Etzeá descendant of *eðu is edyu "earth, land", so the reconstructed descendant form of *eðʷē should be *edyê, not etzeà or Etzeàn.
Formation
The first Etzeic peoples were a Proto-Yeldhic people who probably inhabited Kokiso Point, the closest coastal landmark on Talkoch to Etzeán Island. They probably arrived on Etzeán Island around 2400 UH, just in time before the development of the Paleoyeldhic languages on the mainland in 2370 UH. On Etzeán Island, the Etzeic peoples spread all the way to the Tûzogyâud Range(Etzeá: [tuːzoɡjaːud]) by 1750 UH. The areas around Mount Ogoñi(Etzeá: Ogoñigyed) was settled later, around 1600 UH.
Arrival of the Néekh
Around 880 UH, the Taskaric Néekh people first arrived by boat on the eastern side of the Tûzogyâud Range(Néekh: tzêgoz Tîkhgudd), rapidly settling much of the Tûznam Basin. According to Etzeá legend, the first contact between the two peoples occurred in 700 UH, when the king of the Gòtyaz(Etzeá: [ɡɔcaz]) people decided to follow the Sunyr(Etzeá and Néekh: sunîr) river to its source, crossing the treacherous Tûzogyâud for the first time in doing so. Soon after finally reaching flatter land on the other side of the mountains, he saw pastures of a "strange crop" across the landscape,[1] indicating the existence of a "strange people" that would be able to cultivate this crop.[2][3]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
| Plosive | p /p/ · b /b/ | t /t/ · d /d/ | ty /c/ · dy, (gy) /ɟ/ | k /k/ · g /ɡ/ | ||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ñ /ɲ/ | ng /ŋ/ | ||
| Tap/trill | r /ɾ/, /r/ | |||||
| Lateral approximants | l /l/ | ll /ʎ/ | ||||
| Fricatives | pulmonic | s /s/ · z /z/ | c /ʃ/ · j /ʒ/ | ch /ç/ | h /x/ | |
| palatalised | ss /sʲ/ · zz /zʲ/ | |||||
| Affricates | ŵ /p̪f~p̪fʷ/ | ts /t͡s/ · tz /d͡z/ | /t͡ɕ/ · /d͡ʑ/ | |||
| Semivowel | /w/ | y /j/ | ||||
⟨th⟩ is a digraph that was once used to represent Moshurian /ð/. Modern speakers pronounce ⟨th⟩ as /s/.
/t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/ are allophones of /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ before /i iː/.
The consonant cluster /kw/ is written ⟨qu⟩, and /gw/ is written ⟨gu⟩.
/ɟ/ is generally written as ⟨dy⟩ and is traditionally contrastive with /gj/, written ⟨gy⟩; however, this distinction does not occur in many non-standard dialects and colloquial speech. The distinction, called gyâdyol (With distinction: [gjaːɟol]; Without distinction: [ɟaːɟol]), can also inadvertently redevelop through hypercorrection; some speakers in Turñma, traditionally known for a lack of gyâdyol, have shown to pronounce /gj/ as affricate /ɟʝ/, especially in initial positions, so gyâdyol may be pronounced [ɟʝaːɟol].
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i /i/ | î /iː/ | u /u/ | û /uː/ | ||
| Close-mid | e /e/ | ê /eː/ | o /o/ | ô /oː/ | ||
| Open-mid | è, ea /ɛ/ | ò /ɔ/ | ||||
| Open | a /a/ | â /aː/ | à /ɑ/ | |||
All Proto-Yeldhic vowels, including long vowels, are preserved in Etzeá, except *é *ḗ which merged with /e eː/.
Morphology
Personal pronouns
| Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nom. | acc. | nom. | acc. | ||
| 1st | en | nea | so | mos | |
| 2nd | formal | tsus | itsûr | pella | pellêro |
| tsipella | tsipellêro | ||||
| informal | o | ôe | |||
| 3rd | o | òn | oyo | olo | |
When formally addressing people, most speakers use nominative pella and accusative pellêro, derived from Proto-Yeldhic *ble- "group of", making it cognate with Moshurian bzenë. Alternative forms of pella/pellêro exist, namely tsipella and tsipellêro, though these are considered archaic and are only generally seen in old literature.
T-V distinction
Etzeá employs a very specific T-V distinction, where the T(o and ôe) is only used among friends one knows very well, and in almost all other cases the V(tsus and pella) are used, including to one's own family. This has led to some linguists classifying the Etzeá T as a profanity, though this is a dubious claim, as there are no known harsh social consequences and the use of the T is not discouraged in the right contexts.[4]
Possession
Etzeá possessive pronouns are identical to the accusative forms of the personal pronouns, and they are placed before the noun in the same manner as adjectives. For example:
- Nea kuzao
- "My bottle"
However, unlike regular adjectives, it is not grammatically incorrect to place the possessive after the head. However, the semantics change: it can either be a copulative statement("The bottle is mine") or simply remain a clause("The bottle that is mine").
- Kuzao nea
- "The bottle that is mine/The bottle is mine."
- Kuzao nea satzan'ch.
- "The bottle that is mine, is blue.
Note that the structure of the second sentence, though grammatically correct, is generally uncommon. It is more likely to be formulated by a native speaker as Nea kuzao satzan'ch.
Numerals
Numbers from 1-5 are entirely derived from Proto-Yeldhic.
| Etzeá | Proto-Yeldhic | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ik | *ik | |
| 2 | byân | *bījan | |
| 3 | tich | *tiði | |
| 4 | quis | quise | *wiśen |
| 5 | guêm | *igoīm | |
Syntax
Constituent order
Etzeá has a SVO word order and adjective-noun order. However, if an adverb is modifying the head, it is always placed before. Examples:
- O tsia po jol ênez.
- [o t͡ɕia po ʒol eːnez]
- 3.sg.nom go.past.simple sbj.abl.art red.sg house
- "He went from his red house."
"He went quickly from his red house" would be:
- Tâcta o tsia po jol ênez.
- [taːʃta o t͡ɕia po ʒol eːnez]
- fast-adv 3.sg.nom go.past.simple sbj.abl.art red.sg house
Verbs
Conjugation
Etzeá verbs are only conjugated on tense and mood. There are four tenses(past, past continuous, present, present continuous and future) and four moods(indicative, conditional, imperative and interrogative). The following table is for verbs whose root ends in a vowel, such as tsyègo's tsi, "to go".
| Indicative | Conditional | Imperative | Interrogative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | tsyègo | ||||
| Present | Simple | tsi | tsiuc | tsidelle | tsidyà? |
| Continuous | tsidî | tsidyûs | |||
| Past | Simple | tsia | tsitya | tsidyèu? | |
| Continuous | tsiè | tsityè | tsiplea? | ||
| Future | tsiguà | tsiquèl | tsiquò? | ||
Verbs whose roots end in a consonant, such as prisgi's prîs, "to sit"
| Indicative | Conditional | Imperative | Interrogative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | prisgi | ||||
| Present | Simple | prîs | pricin | pritzon | priulè? |
| Continuous | priu | priudi | |||
| Past | Simple | pria | priga | prigeu? | |
| Continuous | prisi | prisè | prilla? | ||
| Future | priguà | priquèl | priquò? | ||
Copula
The Etzeá copula(llècho) is the only verb in Etzeá that is placed after the object. It is generally concatenated as 'ch after adjectives and nouns(when the subject is a noun), as in:
- Lems gòbal'ch.
- [lems gɔbalç]
- "The man is marooned."
However, if the subject is a pronoun like en, so, tsus or the informal second-person o, the copula is entirely omitted. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a vernacular feature, but a standard part of Etzeá grammar. However, this rule only officially applies to the specified pronouns; the rule does not apply to oyo, pella/tsipella or the third-person o, though the omission of the copula even in these contexts is fairly common in vernacular speech.
- En lam lo podig.
- "I am the rescuer." (Non-vernacular, Standard)
- O lam lo podig.
- "*He the rescuer." (Non-standard; Vernacular in some areas)
- O lam lo podig'ch.
- "He is the rescuer." (Non-vernacular, Standard)
Example texts
Other resources
- ^ Most historians now agree that the crop was probably corn, which in Radael is endemic to Birnu, specifically in the plains of Izhkutrëa, and was probably brought to Etzeán by the Néekh. Archaeological evidence supports this hypothesis.
- ^ This is also the origin of the Etzeá idiom gebac ssbûr, gebac tago [ɡebaʃ sʲbuːɾ ɡebaʃ tago] "strange people, strange crop", equivalent to "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" in a more general sense, such as for groups of people.
- ^ Archaeologically speaking, this legend, or rather the date it is supposed to have occurred is probably false. First, there is evidence of Etzeic settlement on the other side of the Tûzogyâud as early as 900 UH, a full two centuries before the legend supposedly happened, making intercultural contact much less likely to have begun so late.
- ^ Additionally, most of the linguists that support this claim are of Moshurian origin, which has no T-V distinction, hence the possible confusion.