Láadan: Difference between revisions

|creator=[[Suzette Haden Elgin]]

|setting=experiment in [[feminism|feminist]] [[linguistics]], and featured in Elgin's [[novel]] ''Native Tongue''

Láadan is a [[tone (linguistics)|tonal language]]. It utilises two distinct tones:

Láadan has five [[vowel]]s:

* ''a''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/ɑ/}}, an [[open back unrounded vowel]] (as [[English language|English]] ''calm''),

* ''e''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/ɛ/}}, an [[open-mid front unrounded vowel]] (as English ''bell''),

* ''i''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/ɪ/}}, a [[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] (as English ''bit''),

* ''o''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/o/}}, a [[close-mid back rounded vowel]] (as English ''home''),

* ''u''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/u/}}, a [[close back rounded vowel]] (as English ''boon'').

! rowspan="2"| [[Labial consonant|Labial]]

! colspan="2"| [[Dental consonant|Dental]] /<br> [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]

! rowspan="2"| [[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]<br>/ [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]

! rowspan="2"| [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]

! [[Central consonant|Central]]

! [[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]

! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]

! colspan=2|[[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]

! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]

! colspan="2" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]

Láadan lacks the [[consonant]]s {{IPA|/p, t, k, ɡ, s, z, f, v/}}. However, it uses ''b'', ''d'', ''sh'' ({{IPA|/ʃ/}}), ''m'', ''n'', ''l'', ''r'', ''w'', ''y'' ({{IPA|/j/}}), ''h'' with the same phonetic value as English. In addition to these, three [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] require further explanation:

* ''th''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/θ/}}, a [[voiceless dental fricative]] (always as in English ''think'', never as ''then''),

* ''zh''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/ʒ/}}, a [[voiced postalveolar fricative]] (as English ''plea'''s'''ure''),

* ''lh''{{spaced ndash}}{{IPA|/ɬ/}}, a [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]] (as [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''llan'').

Most Láadan sentences contain three [[grammatical particle|particles]]:

* The ''speech-act'' particle{{spaced ndash}}this occurs at the beginning of the sentence and marks it as either a statement (''bíi''), a question (''báa''), ''et cetera''; in connected speech or writing, this particle is often omitted. They are:

* The [[grammatical tense]] particle{{spaced ndash}}this occurs second in the sentence and marks it as either [[present tense]] (''ril''), [[past tense]] (''eril''), [[future tense]] (''aril'') or hypothetical (''wil''); without the tense particle, the sentence is assumed to have the same tense as the previous sentence.

* The [[evidentiality|evidence]] particle{{spaced ndash}}this occurs at the end of statements and indicates the trustworthiness of the statement. They are:

[[Pronoun]]s in Láadan are built up from a number of constituent parts. The consonant ''l'' marks the [[grammatical person|first person]], ''n'' the second person and ''b'' the third person. Usually, these are followed by the vowel ''e''. However, the vowel ''a'' is used to designate someone who is loved (''lhe-'' is prefixed to describe someone who is despised). The suffix ''-zh'' is used to mark a plural pronoun for numbers up to four, and ''-n'' for numbers beyond that. Therefore, ''lazh'' means "we, several beloved", and ''lheben'' means "they, many despised".

*[[Language and gender]]

*Elgin, Suzette Haden, & Diane Martin. ''A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan''. Madison: [[WisCon|Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction]], 1988.

{{Constructed languages}}

 

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