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Antarctican: Difference between revisions
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Antarctican | Antarctican is the most widely spoken language on the continent of Antarctica in the far future, at a time when | ||
is spoken on the continent of Antarctica in the far future, at a time when | |||
runaway global warming has melted the icecaps and rendered most of the rest of | runaway global warming has melted the icecaps and rendered most of the rest of | ||
the word uninhabitable. It has been influenced by a variety of modern-day | the word uninhabitable. It has been influenced by a variety of modern-day | ||
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Syllable structures are extremely limited, with only shapes being CV and CVɴ. | Syllable structures are extremely limited, with only shapes being CV and CVɴ. | ||
==Distribution and Dialects== | |||
Antarctican is spoken across a large continent, by a diversity of cultures. As would be expected, there is significant dialectical variation within the language. The differences are most pronounced in the vocabulary, less in the morphology, and even less in the syntax and phonology. | |||
Most speakers of Antarctican will also be bilingual in a second language that is only spoken in their local region. Typically, Antarctican will be used in more formal situations, and the local language used with family and friends. However, it is very common for regional varieties of Antarctican to borrow words from other local languages. | |||
===The Antarctican Sprachbund=== | |||
As mentioned before, it is much less common for regional varieties of Antarctican to differ in their syntax and phonology. This is because the local languages of Antarctica form a very strong Sprachbund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprachbund), which have converged to have very similar phonologies and syntactic systems. Some examples of these areal features are: | |||
====Phonology==== | |||
*A pitch register system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_(phonology)). | |||
*Consonant voicing only being phonemic under certain specific conditions. In particular, a total lack of phonemic voicing of non-coronal fricatives. | |||
*Some kind of fortis / lenis contrast in obstruents, which often interacts with the pitch register system in some way. This contrast may be glottalisation (ejective or implosive), gemination or aspiration. | |||
*Two sets of nasal consonants (this can be plain vs. prestopped, or involve a voicing contrast). | |||
*A very restricted range of syllable shapes. | |||
====Morphology==== | |||
*Ergative-absolutive cas marking on nouns (if any is present at all). | |||
*A complete lack of number agreement on verbs, and no comprehensive marking of plurality on nouns (only ever specific categories of nouns). | |||
*Tense and aspect are not consistently marked on verbs, if they are marked at all. | |||
*A lack of infinitive verb forms. Antarctican languages use a variety of ways to compensate for this. | |||
*Transitivity marked on verbs. | |||
====Syntax==== | |||
*Syntactic ergativity. | |||
*Topic-comment structure to sentences. | |||
*Inclusive and exclusive 'we', with no distinction made between exclusive 'we' and 'I'. | |||
*Head initial syntax. | |||
==Noun Morphology== | ==Noun Morphology== | ||