Efenol

Efenol
Pronunciation	[/e.fe.ˈnol/]
Created by	–
Date	2010
Language family	Indo-European Efenol
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Latin Romance Spanish Old Efenol

Efenol /e.fe.ˈnol/ is an a posteriori constructed language descended from modern Spanish. Its phonology was inspired by Sindarin and Celtic languages and the language features consonant and vowel mutation in its morphology. It was created around the year 2010.

Efenol is a pluricentric language with a wide range of dialects. Southern Efenol, the earliest variety to split off, is distinct enough to be considered a different language and will not be covered in this article. The western variety, Western Efenol or Efenol del'Oth (/e.fe.ˈnol de.ˈloθ/) serves as the main standard language.

The name "Efenol" comes from "español", one of the Spanish names for the Spanish language itself.

About Efenol dialects

In addition to Western Efenol, the standard dialect where most examples in this article will be drawn from, Efenol features several dialectal varities. The main division affecting Efenol varieties is the split between Southern Efenol (which may be considered a separate language) and the so-called North-Central Efenol, which may also be referred as Efenol proper. This article will mostly deal with North-Central Efenol varieties.

The main dialects of the North-Central Efenol ar:

• Western Efenol, the standard variety and the largest Efenol proper dialect by number of speakers.
• Northern Efenol, a more conservative variety and the second largest North-Central dialect by number of speakers.
• Eastern Efenol, which features vowel reduction and palatalization of velars.
• North-Eastern Efenol, which can be seens as a transitional variety between Northern and Eastern Efenol.
• Central Efenol, often grouped together with Western Efenol.
• North-Western Efenol, closely related to Western Efenol but divergent in a number of ways.
• "Hunzad", a particularly divergent form of Northern Efenol which features vowel harmony.
• Several "mixed" dialects which combine Western and Central Efenol features with Southern Efenol features.

Extrafictionally, many of these dialects were originally planned as revisions of the Efenol language (whose original form most closely resembles Western Efenol) before being reworked as dialects.

Despite the fact that Western Efenol is the culturally-dominant form of the language and prevails in written material, each variety has its own dialectal orthography, many of which are fundamentally different from the standard orthography used for the Western dialect.

It should also be noted that there is some intradialectal variation as well. Particularly, there are some features which vary between Standard Efenol (based on the Western dialect) and other regional forms of Western Efenol.

Phonology

Note: Unless otherwise noted, the content of this section is based on the Western Efenol standard.

Consonants

Western Efenol	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Alv.-Pal.	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	m	n				ŋ
Plosives	p b	t d				k g
Fricatives	f v	θ ð	s z	(ʃ) (ʒ)	(ç)	x	h
Approximants					j	w
Flap			ɾ
Trills			r			ʀ
Laterals			l		ʎ	ɫ

Notes:

• Affecting all dialects::
  • As usual, nasal codae assimilate to neighbouring consonants. For instance, all instances of /nf/ become /ɱf/.
  • The stops /t/ and /d/ are usually dental although alveolar realizations can also be found. Most Efenol speakers fail to notice any difference between these two pronunciations.
  • Other than in Eastern Efenol, voiced stops are truly plosives in all contexts. This contrasts with Spanish where the phonemes often transcribed as /b/, /d/ and /g/ are typically realized as voiced approximants.
  • As it was also the case in Spanish, the flap /ɾ/ does not occur in word-initial position.
• About Western Efenol:
  • A glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears as a lenited form of /g/ for some speakers. Most speakers drop it altogether.
  • The phoneme /ʃ/ is only found as a palatalized /s/ and may alternate with /sj/. Its voiced version /ʒ/ is marginal and is equivalent to the rare /zj/ sequence.
  • In Western and North-Western Efenol word-final /v/ are often realized as [β].
  • The phoneme /ç/ may only arise as a rare lenited form of /ʃ/ (where it would corresponds to a /hj/) or as an allophone of a word-final /g/, particularly after an /i/. In the latter case, some Western Efenol speakers may also use [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
  • In Western Efenol, the phoneme /r/ only occurs at the beginning of a lexeme (it may appear in non-word-initial position in compounds or if preclitics or prefixes are involved). Most Western Efenol speakeres fully merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into /ʀ/, regardless of the context. This common merger, however, is not reflected in Standard Efenol.
  • All instances of word-final /l/ with a preceding /i/ are palatalized to /ʎ/. This is also true for North-Western Efenol but not for any other Efenol variety. This pronunciation isn't reflected in writing.
  • The velarized lateral /ɫ/ is in free variation with the lateral fricatives /ɬ/ and /ɮ/.
• About other dialects:
  • Central Efenol is the only major variety to preserve /ɲ/ (Spanish <Ñ>) as a distinct phoneme. The sound may still be found in other dialects as an allophone of /n/.
  • Northern Efenol does not allow any instances of word-initial /ŋ/. Many speakers will also pronounce word-final /ŋ/ as /ŋg/ (which may also be analyzed as /ng/) or simply /n/ and thus lack [ŋ] as a distinct phoneme. This may also be found for some North-Eastern and Central Efenol speakers.
  • Dialects other than Western and North-Western Efenol lack the glottal stop /ʔ/ phoneme.
  • In Eastern Efenol voiced stops and voiced fricatives are merged into a single voiced approximant series. Thus, [b] and [v] in other varieties correspond to Eastern Efenol [β̞].
  • Eastern Efenol merges the phonemes /s/ and /z/ into /s/. This is also the case for most Central Efenol speakers and a small minority of Western Efenol speakers.
  • The phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are only found as such in the Western and North-Western dialects.
  • The phoneme /ç/ is found in North-Eastern Efenol as a lenited form of /g/ and in Northern and North-Western Efenol as a word-final allophone of /g/ (as in Standard Efenol).
  • Eastern Efenol features the phoneme /ʝ/.
  • Central Efenol features the phoneme /ɣ/.
  • Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol merge /x/ and /h/ into /x/. Meanwhile, some forms of Northern Efenol (most notably Hunzad) merge both phonemes to /h/, although most Northern Efenol speakers keep the distinction.
  • A minority of Northern Efenol speakers feature a pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ as a phoneme arising from a lenited /g/ (typically expressed as /x/ in Northern Efenol). This subdialectal feature, once also found in North-Western and some forms of Western Efenol, is sharply falling out of use.
  • Eastern, North-Western and most forms of North-Eastern Efenol feature alveolo-palatal affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.
  • Northern and North-Eastern Efenol feature an alveolar affricate /ts/.
  • Unlike Western (and North-Western) Efenol, the alveolar trill /r/ may occur word-medially in other dialects. Only Northern and Central Efenol allow a word-final trill.
  • Northern Efenol merges the trills /r/ and /ʀ/ into /r/. This is also found in some forms of Central and North-Eastern Efenol.
  • In Northern and Eastern Efenol /ʎ/ is in free variation with /lj/.
  • The phoneme /ɫ/ is merged with /l/ in Eastern, North-Eastern and Central Efenol and replaced with /ɬ/ or /ɮ/ (in free variation) in most forms of North-Western Efenol. Northern, some North-Western and a small amount of Central speakers keep the phoneme /ɫ/ unchanged. The Hunzad Northern Efenol variety replaces /ɫ/ with /gl/, a curious development as Spanish /gl/ is a common source for Efenol /ɫ/.

Vowels

While the vowel inventories vary from dialect to dialect, all varieties expand on the pentavocalic Spanish inventory, ranging from 6 to 15 different vowel qualities.

Standard Efenol, based on the most common Western Efenol varieties, distinguishes 8 different vowels:

• A central low vowel, [ä]. For the sake of convenience (and due to the lack of a contrasting front low vowel), this phoneme is usually transcribed as /a/.
• Mid-high phonemes /e/ and /o/. Notices that unlike Spanish <e> and <o> which are actually true mid vowels [e̞] and [o̞], Standard Efenol /e/ and /o/ are true mid-high [e] and [o].
• High /i/ and /u/ as in Spanish.
• The rounded front-vowel /y/.
• Mid-low /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.

Some Western speakers may merge /e/ and /ɛ/ to /e̞/, /o/ and /ɔ/ to /o̞/ or both; yielding the minimal vowel inventory for any Efenol variety: /a e̞ o̞ i y u/ in comparison to Standard /a ɛ ɔ e o i y u/. Some speakers which preserve the /e/ vs /ɛ/ distinction may realize the latter as /ɜ/.

The Central dialect merges /o/ and /ɔ/ into /o̞/ and is otherwise identical to the Standard language: /a ɛ e o̞ i y u/.

The North-Western dialect also merges /o/ and /ɔ/ (although the result is typically still realized as a mid-high [o]) but replaces the vowel /ɛ/ with /ə/ (which also arise from a reduced vowel but may still appear in stressed position). This results in the inventory /a ə e o i y u/.

Northern Efenol merges Standard Efenol /o/ and /ɔ/ into /o̞/ and has the rounded vowel /ø/ (actually also a mid-vowel [ø̞]) instead of Standard /ɛ/. Thus the Northern vowel inventory is comprised of /a e̞ ø̞ o̞ i y u/.

The defining feature of the Hunzad variety of Northern Efenol is that it features two vowel harmony classes: 'light' (with front vowels) and 'dark' words (with back vowels). Most vowel phonemes are split into a light and a dark equivalent: Northern /a/~[ä] becomes light [a] or dark [ɒ], /e/ becomes [e] or [ɘ], /ø/ becomes [ɘ] or [ø], /o/ becomes [ʌ] (or [ɘ]) or [o], /i/ becomes [i] or [ɨ]~[ʉ] (in free variation), /y/ becomes [ɨ]~[ʉ] or [y] and /u/ becomes [y] or [u]. This results in a 11-vowel inventory comprised of /a ɒ ʌ e ø ɘ o i y ɨ~ʉ u/.

Eastern Efenol, however, features the largest vowel inventory as it features lax and tense vowel pairs due to vowel reduction. Tense vowels include /ä e ø o i y u/ while their lax equivalents can be /a ɛ œ ɔ ɪ ʏ ʊ/ although nearly all Eastern Efenol varieties merge unstressed /ɛ/ and /œ/ into /ɛ/ while some varieties also merge stressed /e/ and /ø/ into /e/. In addition to those vowels, Eastern Efenol features a schwa /ə/ as an epenthetic vowel. Thus, the vowel inventory is /a ä ɛ (œ) ɔ ə e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/ with /œ/ being absent from most forms of Eastern Efenol. North-Eastern Efenol features the same vowel inventory (and largely with the same variations) but usually omitting the schwa /ə/ except perhaps as a reduced /ä/ in free variation with [a]: /a~ə ä ɛ (œ) ɔ e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/.

In all dialects vowel length is phonemic and independent from stress. In Eastern and North-Eastern dialects long vowels have tense vowel qualities. Thus, a long /iː/ in Standard Efenol would always correspond to an Eastern /iː/ (rather than */ɪː/) even the stress lied elsewhere.

Clusters of short vowels are typically realized as diphthongs.

Prosody

Efenol features phonemic lexical stress. Stress typically falls on the last syllable but it is not predictable. Stress is completely independent from vowel length.

A rising intonation is associated to questions (which may be formed by intonation alone, as it is also the case in standard Spanish).

Orthography

Despite the fact that Standard Efenol (based on Western Efenol) dominates the written language, each dialect has an orthography of its own.

There are two main families of dialectal orthographies: western-like (based on the Standard, Western orthography) and northern-like (an alternative originally formulated for Northern Efenol). There are major differences between the two: western-like orthographies use a large number of digraphs and for the most part have only one pronunciation for each letter while northernlike orthographies use a reduced number of digraphs but have letters whose pronunciation vary depending on their position within a word.

It should be noted that voiced fricatives like /ð/ are more common in word-medial or word-final position than matching voiced plosives like /d/ while the opposite takes place word-initially: words beginning with /ð/ are near non-existing while words beginning with /d/ are common. Northern-like orthographies take advantage of this fact by re-using one letter representations for initial voiced stops (such as <d> for /d/) and for non-initial fricatives (<d> for non-initial /ð/). For example, the Efenol word for 'decided', decendeded from Spanish "decidido", becomes the 10-letter long Western Efenol word "dethidhidh" in a western-like orthography but is mereley 7 letters long in Northern Efenol: "dezidid" despite the word having identical pronunciation in both varieties: /de.θi.ˈðið/. It should be noted that northern-like orthographies often look closer to Spanish while western-like orthographies typically have a more ideosyncratic look.

Both kinds of orthographies are intended to be unambiguous to read although stress isn't marked realiably in all cases. On the other hand, spelling is not fully predictable from pronunciation in either orthography family since some sounds are written differently depending on whether the phoneme is the result of lenition (or another form of consonant mutation) or not. For instance, the words ban ('they go', from Spanish "van") and pban ('(made) of bread', from Spanish "de pan") are spelled differently despite both being pronounced /ban/ since the /b/ in the latter is a lenited form of the /p/ in pan ('bread', from Spanish "pan").

In addition to western-like and northern-like orthographies, Hunzad, a variety of Northern Efenol, has distinct orthography (with little commonalities to either group) devised by linguists who studied the dialect. However that orthography never caught on with Hunzad speakers themselves who'd typically use the usual Northern Efenol orthography instead.

Common features of western and northern-like orthographies

Some common features found in both kinds of orthographies include:

• Being based on the Latin alphabet, avoiding (for the most part) unusual pronunciations.
• Marking long vowels with a circumflex accent, e.g. <â> for the long version of <a>.
• Using digraphs with the letter <h> as their second element.
• Using the letter <c> for the phoneme /k/ even before /e/ and /i/ (Eastern Efenol's orthography being an exception to this).
• Using <cg>, <pb> and to mark lenited <c>,

  and <t>.

• Marking stress position through the same strategy: an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel except when it's on the last syllable of a word or when the vowel already carries a diacritic.

The last point makes it possible to distinguish words like madher /ma.ˈðeɾ/ (wood) from mádher /ˈma.ðeɾ/ (mother) although it fails to determine whether a word like mîrchël (Wednesday) would be /miːɾ.ˈxɛl/ (as expected by a lack of acute accents) or /ˈmiːɾ.xɛl/ (with a missing acute accent over the <î> as it already carries a circumflex accent). Luckily, in the case of "mîrchel", both pronunciations are valid and synonymous.

Western-like orthographies

Western-like orthographies are used for the Western Efenol (the basis for Standard Efenol), North-Western Efenol and by some Central Efenol speakers (which may also choose to write in a northern-like orthography).

Key features of western-like orthographies include the usage of digraphs for most fricatives such as <ch> for /x/, for /θ/ and <dh> for /ð/. Except for <r>, which is pronounced /r/ word-initially or /ɾ/ otherwise, letters and digraphs retain the same pronunciation regardless of their position within a word.

The following table shows the sound correspondences for letters and digraphs in these orthographies:

Letter	Pronunciation	Notes
a	/a/ [a]	Also <á> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
â	/aː/ [äː]
b	/b/
bh	/v/	Represents a lenited < b > /b/.
	/v/	Word-finally, typically realized as [β] in Western and North-Western Efenol.
bw	/v/	Represents a lenited <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/). Not used in North-Western Efenol.
c	/k/	Always represents a /k/ sound (other than in digraphs), unlike English or Spanish <c>.
ch	/x/
chw	/xw/, /x/	Represents a mutated <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/). Not used in North-Western Efenol. The pronunciations /xw/ and /x/ are in free variation in Western and Central Efenol, with /xw/ being preferred in the former and /x/ in the latter.
cg	/g/	Represents a lenited <c> /k/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or possessive, in that case the /g/ sound is spelled as <g>.
d	/d/
dh	/ð/
dj	/dʒ/	Only found in North-Western Efenol.
e	/e/	Also <é> if stressed and not in the final syllable. Some Western Efenol speakers realize the phoneme as [e̞] and merge it with /ɛ/.
	/e̯/, /j/	Non-syllabic pronunciation when next to another vowel. Pronounced as a non-syllabic /e/ in North-Western Efenol and in some Western Efenol subdialects and as a /j/ or a non-syllabic /i/ in most Western Efenol varieties (including Standard Efenol) and in Central Efenol. May be written 'i' in Central Efenol.
ê	/eː/	Some Western Efenol speakers pronounce /eː/ as [e̞ː].
ë	/ɛ/, /ə/	/ɛ/ in Western and Central Efenol (may also be merged with /e/ into [e̞] in the former. /ə/ in North-Western Efenol.
f	/f/
g	/g/
	[ç]	Word-finally in Western and North-Western Efenol. Other pronunciations may also be found, including [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
gh	/ʔ/, Ø, /ɣ/	Represents a lenited, lexeme-initial <g> /g/. Pronounced as either a glottal stop or as a null phoneme (silent) in Western and North-Western Efenol and as a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in Central Efenol.
h	/h/
hb	/b/	Represents a word-final /b/ descended from a Spanish /mb/ that alternates with the digraph <mm> /m/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
hd	/d/	Represents a word-final /d/ descended from a Spanish /nd/ that alternates with the digraph <nn> /n/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
hg	/g/	Represents a word-final /g/ descended from a Spanish /ng/ that alternates with the digraph <ng> /ŋ/ (or <nn> /n/ in Central Efenol). Not used in North-Western Efenol
i	/i/	Also <í> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
	/j/	An alternative to non-syllabic <e> in Central Efenol.
î	/iː/
ij	/yː/	Orthographic equivalent to <ŷ>; preferred for long /y/ in Western and North-Western Efenol; <ŷ> is preferred in Central Efenol.
j	/ʒ/	Only found in North-Western Efenol.
l	/l/
	/ʎ/	In Western and North-Western Efenol when word-final and preceded by an /i/.
lh	/ʎ/
lw	/ɫ/, [ɬ], [ɮ]	All three realizations are found in free variation in Western and North-Western Efenol while the phoneme is absent from Central Efenol.
m	/m/
mh	/v/	Represents a lenited <m> /m/
mm	/m/	Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /mb/.
n	/n/	May assimilate to adjacent consonants.
nn	/n/	Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /nd/. Central Efenol speakers who merge /ŋ/ and /n/ may also use <nn> /n/ to represent a former Spanish /ng/.
ng	/ŋ/	Some Central Efenol speakers may merge it with /n/ or, more rarely, with /ɲ/.
ñ	/ɲ/	Only found in Central Efenol.
o	/o/	Also <ó> (not to be confused with <ò>) if stressed and not in the final syllable. Pronounced as a true mid-vowel [o̞] in Central Efenol and in regional varieties of Western Efenol which merge /o/ and /ɔ/ (it should be noted that, despite featuring such a merger, North-Western Efenol keeps the upper-mid pronunciation [o]).
ô	/oː/	Mid [o̞ː] in Central Efenol and in Western varieties that merge /o/ and /ɔ/.
ò	/ɔ/	Only found in Western Efenol.
p	/p/
pb	/b/	Represents a lenited /p/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, in that case the /b/ sound is spelled .
ph	/f/	Represents a mutated /p/.
pw	/p/	Represents a /p/ that descends from a Spanish /kw/. This distinction is relevant in Western and Central Efenol as <pw> behaves different than under consonant mutation. In North-Western Efenol /p/ behaves in the same way regardless of its origin and the digraph <pw> isn't used.
r	/r/	Word-initially. Most Western and North-Western Efenol speakers merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into the latter.
	/ɾ/	Non word-initially.
rh	/ʀ/	Some Central Efenol speakers merge /ʀ/ and /r/ into /r/. Those speakers may replace all instances of <rh> with <r> (if word-initial) or <rr> (otherwise).
rr	/r/	Only used in Central Efenol for non word-initial /r/.
s	/s/
sc	/ʃ/	Only used in North-Western Efenol.
se	/ʃ/, /sj/	Preceding a vowel. The phoneme /s/ palatalizes to /ʃ/ in North-Western Efenol and in most Western varieties while the sequence is just interpreted as /sj/ in Central Efenol or in other Western Efenol varieties.
sh	/h/	Represents a lenited /s/.
she	/ç/	Represents a lenited <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
ss	/z/	Represents a mutated /s/.
sse	/ʒ/	Represents a mutated <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
t	/t/
tc	/tʃ/, /ʃ/, /s/	Represents the phoneme /tʃ/ in North-Western Efenol. In Western Efenol, <tc> is used sparingly and may be pronounced as /ʃ/ or /s/. In Central Efenol the digraph is replaced with the letter /s/.
td	/d/	Represents a lenited <t> /d/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, then the /d/ sound is spelled <d>.
th	/θ/
u	/u/	Also <ú> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word.
û	/uː/
v	/v/	Replaced with <bh> in word-final position.
w	/w/
wh	/vw/, /v/	Represents a lenited <w> /w/. Read /vw/ in most forms of Western Efenol and as /v/ in Central Efenol, North-Western Efenol and in other Western Efenol varieties.
y	/y/	Also <ý> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word (although speakers are particularly likely not to write the acute accent if the affected vowel is an <y>).
ŷ	/yː/	In Western and North-Western Efenol <ŷ> is often replaced with the digraph <ij>.
z	/z/	Many Central Efenol speakers merge /s/ and /z/ into /s/. Those speakers may rewrite words with <z> in Standard Efenol with an .

With the exception of Central Efenol's <ñ> (considered a letter on its own, collated between <n> and <o>), letters with diacritics and digraphs aren't taken into account for collation purposes.

One noticeable feature of western-like orthographies and of Efenol as a whole is the usage of the interpunct or middle-dot <·>. This punctuation mark is used to separate articles from consonant-initial nouns: a (the, singular feminine definite article) + man (hand): a·mhan (the hand). North-Western Efenol also uses an interpunct for plural definite articles before vowel-initial nouns: ah (the, plural feminine definite article) + evich (bees): ah·evich. Otherwise, contractions where the second element beings with a vowel are indicated with apostrophes: l (singular definite article) + avech (bee): l'avech.

Apostrophes are also used to indicate the attributive/genitive case of nouns (typically expressed through lenition) when the initial consonant of the noun is invariable to lenition. For example, the attributive form of falth (silver) becomes 'falth (of silver, made of silver) despite keeping its pronunciation unchanged (compare cóver, 'copper' vs the lenited form cgóver, 'of copper, made of copper').

Morphology

W.I.P.

Other resources

[[Category:Template:Efenol]]