User:Ceige/LandOnePopTongue

Dialects

There are three main dialect groupings. These are informally split between two dubious branches, "North" and "South", due to the increasing influence of the southern speakers vs the traditional North-Eastern homeland. Northern speakers are generally happier with just saying "East", "West", and "Novel", with "Novel" including both the obscure nomadic dialects and the Southern trade dialects.

• North-East (Traditional)

The North-East dialects are reknown for their more rigid vowel-breaking and almost mandatory final vowel epenthesis which is generally subject to vowel harmony.

• North-West (Quirky)

The North-West dialects have less rigid vowel-breaking, often happy with monophthongs coming from vowel combinations instead, and also tend to lack vowel epenthesis when the last consonant is voiceless.

• Southern (Common)

The Southern dialects are far less traditional and source vocabulary and phonology from both other branches and from other language families too. Vowel epenthesis is rather haphazard and vowel harmony is happily ignored, such as in "yrga".

In any case, speakers from all branches borrow from each other colloquially and in attempts to sound worldy and sophisticated, but the NE and NW branches are more likely to calque or "traditionalise" vocabulary from the South.

The fourth and already briefly mentioned grouping is the "Arctic" grouping. This is the most controversial grouping, as speakers are not entirely sure if it's a new dialect group (often considered to be descended from the North-East dialect) or an ancient one, or equal to both East and West groupings in age.

• Arctic (???)

The Arctic dialects are seemingly related to the North-East dialects based on vowel breaking. The extend and range of this grouping is uncertain.

Sound Changes

Vowels

Initial Vowel Shifts

• /a/ and /o/ merge into /a/

Vowel Mutations

• /[a~ɔ]+i/ yields /ɛ/ ⟨ä⟩
• /a+u/ yields /ɔ/ ⟨å⟩
• /e+i/ yields /i/ (?)
• /[e~ɛ]+u/ yields /jø/
• /[e~i?]+a/ yields /jɛ/
  • /ja/ > /jɛ/ despite technically being /ĭa/ in some analyses is dialectal, and a very late shift in those dialects.
• /o+i/ yields /œ/ ⟨ö⟩ (?) (does o even come up now?)
• /ɔ+i/ yields /jœ/
• /u+i/ yields /ü/ (?) ⟨y⟩? (or ju?)
• /u+a/ yields /o/ (< /wɔ/)

Secondary Vowel Shifts

In some cases short /i/ > /e/ ⟨é⟩ and /u/ > /o/ ⟨ó⟩. In other cases, open /a/ > /å/ and in others open /a/ > /ä/.

Consonants

Palatalisation

• Voiced consonants including nasals and fricatives+ j > j
  • Montānea > Montä(ja)
  • Snaigu > Njö > Jö
  • Tria > T[rja] > T[jä] > Tjä (this word evolved irregularly though)
• Unvoiced consonants + j > tj
  • Tri/Trai > Tjä

Voicing

• Before palatalisation, all fricatives undergo voicing. Afterwards, they either devoice again or collapse into a plosive, like with /ð/ > /d/.

Dialectal Variations

ARCTIC:

• All three major dialects lengthen stressed open syllables, and merge ⟨tj⟩ and ⟨j⟩
• Dialects #2 and #3 have a 5 vowel system with ä and e merging, and ö and o merging
• Dialect #3 makes intervocalic plosives in open syllables voiced fricatives, and makes geminated plosives into geminated voiceless fricatives.

WEST:

• /iu/ > /y/, not /ju/

Word List

E = East, W = West, S = South, A = Arctic #1, Q = Arctic #2, Z = Arctic #3 (there's more than #2 and #3 they're pretty much combinations of the two (or not) with 3 vowel systems (or not0 - in particular, there's also a sort of 2.5 where plosives are either unvoiced or voiced fricatives, e.g. jorga > jokka or jooga)

Southern dialect choices are generally only shown when there is a clear preference.

• alp: kytmontä (W, S) [white + mountain]
• boss: jorgapäti (E), pätyrgi (W), pätyrga, yrgapät (S), jorgapeeti (A,Q) [< jorga + päti]
• cat: kätti (E,S,A), kätt (W), ketti (Q), keþþi (Z) [< *katti]
• (?) dark: mjörku > jörku
• dog: tjuppi, juppi (E,W,S,A,Q), juɸɸi (Z)
• God: jupå (E,W,S), juupåå (A), juupoo (Q), juu (Z) [< *diuspa]
• lord, master: päti (E), pät (W,S), pääti (A), peeti (Q), peeði (Z) [< *pati] (S uses päi colloquially)
• mountain: montäja, montä (E,W,S) [< *muntanja]
• sea: djö > jö (vétti~jatta) [< *deu-]
• see, know 1: jutti (E), ytti (W,S), jussi (A,Q,Z) [presumed to be < *widti, which also yielded vétta]
• see, know 2: vétta (E,S,A,Q), vétt (W), veþþa (Z)
• snow: jö (E,W,S), jöö (A), joo (Q,Z) [< *naigu]
• triangle: tjåna (E,W,S), jååna (A), joona (Q,Z) [< tjä+åna]
• water 1: jö (E,W,S), jöö (A), joo (Q,Z) [from sea/snow]
• water 2: åkko (E), åkk (W), åppa (S), okko (Q), oqqo (Z) [< *akwa]
• wet, liquid 1: vétti (E), vétt (W), viþþi (Z) [< vitti < *v_tt_]
• wet, liquid 2: jatta (E,A,Q), jatt (W) [< vjatta < *v_tt_]
• work: jorga (E), yrgi (W), yrga (S), jorga (A,Q), joova (Z) [< *jurg(a)-]

Colour

• black: jörku (E, A), jörk (W,S), jokku (Q), johhu (Z) [< *merku]
• white 1: tjuti (E), kyt (W,S), juuti (A,Q), juuði (Z) [< *kiut-]
• white 2: tjätta (E), tjätt (W), jätta (A), jetta (Q), jeþþa (Z) [< *pétt-]

Family

(In the Arctic dialects these get a bit more complicated)

• father: på, päja (-jä too)
• mother: må, mäja
• brother: rå, räja
• sister: sosto, söja

Verb Roots

• √amm- (amma, ämmi, åmmu)
• √da- (då, dä, då)
• √dast- (dasta, dästi, dåstu)
• √es- (jäsa, isa, jösu)
• √ger- (jära, gira, jöru)
• √pak- (påka, päki, påku)
• √pesk- (tjäska, piski, jösku)
• √jö- (jo, jö, jö) [< neu]
• √ku- (ko, tju, ku)
• √läg- (jaga, jägi, jögu)
• √lig- (jäga, ligi, jugu)
• √mal- (måla, mäli, målu)
• √mel- (jäla, mili, jölu)
• √rä- (jä/ja*, rä(i), jö)
• √so(d)- (soa, sö, sou)
• √sta-, √est- (stå, jästa; stä, isti; stå, jöstu)
• √

Numerals

• #1: jäti (E), jät (W,S), jääti (A), jeeti (Q), jeeði (Z)
• #2: vå (E,W,S), våå (A), voo (Q,Z)
• #3: tjä (E,W,S), jää (A), jee (Q,Z)
• #4: vottu (E), vott (W), jöötu (A), jootu (Q), jooðu (Z)
• #5: jöppi (E,A), jöpp (W), joppi (Q), joɸɸi (Z)
• #6: jöksi (E,A), soks (W), joksi (Q), jossi (Q,Z)
• #7: jäpta (E,A), jäpt (W), jetta (Q), jeþþa (Z)
• #8: åttå, attå (E,W,A), otto (Q), oþþo (Z)
• #9: jöa (E,W), jööa (A), jooa (Q,Z) [< njöa]