Cabot Creole: Difference between revisions
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*Plain stops and affricates are voiced intervocalically, including across word boundaries; /t/ is voiced as [ɾ]. | *Plain stops and affricates are voiced intervocalically, including across word boundaries; /t/ is voiced as [ɾ]. | ||
*Sibilants are realized as postalveolar before /j/ and front vowels, including across word boundaries. | *Sibilants are realized as postalveolar before /j/ and front vowels, including across word boundaries. | ||
*Some speakers insert [ʔ] between vowels on word boundaries and before utterance-initial vowels. | |||
===Vowels=== | ===Vowels=== | ||
Latest revision as of 15:15, 10 May 2026
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| Cabot Creole | |
|---|---|
| Khąmu:tnų̀ | |
| Pronunciation | [kʰãmə̃ːtnə̃̀] |
| Created by | Dillon Hartwig |
| Date | 2026 |
| Setting | Cabot Island, United Kingdom |
Iroquoian
| |
Cabot Creole /ˈkæbət/ (Cabot Creole: Khąmu:tnų̀ [kʰãmə̃ːtnə̃̀]) is a North Iroquoian language (heavily lexified by English and French but not a proper creole despite its name) spoken on the Cabot Island, a fictional island approximately 200 miles east-southeast from the coast of Newfoundland.
Etymology
Cabot Creole is named after Cabot Island, which is named after navigator John Cabot.
Orthography
Cabot Creole is written with the Latin script.
| A a | Ą ą | E e | Ę ę | H h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /ã/ | /e/ | /ẽ/ | /h/ |
| I i | Į į | K k | Kh kh | L l |
| /i/ | /ĩ/ | /k/ | /kʰ/ | /l/ |
| M m | N n | O o | Ǫ ǫ | Qu qu |
| [m] | [n,ŋ] | /o/ | /õ/ | /kʷ/ |
| Quh quh | R r | S s | T t | Th th |
| /kʷʰ/ | /ɹ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /tʰ/ |
| Ts ts | Tsh tsh | U u | Ų ų | W w |
| /t͡s/ | /t͡sʰ/ | /ə/ | /ə̃/ | [w] |
| Y y | ’ | á | à | : |
| /j/ | /ʔ/ | /à/ | /á/ | /ː/ |
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Voiceless | kʷ | t t͡s | (t͡ʃ) | k | ʔ |
| Aspirated | kʷʰ | tʰ t͡sʰ | (t͡ʃʰ) | kʰ | ||
| Voiced | (gʷ) | (ɾ d͡z) | (d͡ʒ) | (g) | ||
| Fricative | s | (ʃ) | h | |||
| Approximant | w (m) | ɹ l (n) | j | (ŋ) | ||
- /l w/ are realized as [n m] adjacent to nasal vowels or other [n m].
- [n] assimilates in place to following velar consonants, including across word boundaries.
- Plain stops and affricates are voiced intervocalically, including across word boundaries; /t/ is voiced as [ɾ].
- Sibilants are realized as postalveolar before /j/ and front vowels, including across word boundaries.
- Some speakers insert [ʔ] between vowels on word boundaries and before utterance-initial vowels.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ə | u~o |
| Low | e | a |
- [u o] are in free variation, but [o] is more common when short and [uː] is more common when long.
All vowels may be long and/or nasalized.
Pitch accent
| High | Low | |
|---|---|---|
| Short | á | à |
| Long | âː | ǎː |
Accent is always final.
Phonotactics
Cabot Creole maximal syllables are CCVCC; /kʷ kʷʰ ʔ h/ are disallowed in coda, and only /sk skʷ/ clusters may be word-intial.
Morphology
Nouns
Non-predicate nouns have no inflectional marking, but possessive marking is mandatory on inalienable nouns. Possessed nouns are treated as verbs, with animate agent and patient agreement marking alienable and inalienable possession respectively by the other argument, except masculine alienable possessives are marked as if both arguments are animate.
Incorporated nouns lose their accent, and some nouns have suppletive incorporated forms.
Pronouns and Determiners
Reflexive yusél is generally treated as an inalienable noun, and relative/interrogative proform ǫtą̀: which also has non-pronominal uses. Aquát "near" and i:lù "far" are also often used as proximal and distal demonstratives respectively.
Verbs
Negation
Negation is marked by a verb prefix te- (realized as te’- before vowels).
Numerals
Cabot Creole uses base-10 numerals, and numbers 1-10 have separate forms for human referents.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 100 | 1,000 | 1,000,000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonhuman | si:rò: | mų́n | thó: | thurí: | ho:rù | háy | síks | semų̀n | é:t | ną́:y | thę́n | hųrèt | thawsų̀n | mįyų̀n |
| Human | lu:tsì:k | tekhì: | a:są̀ | ke:rì | quhìsk | tshatarę́ | tshatàk | tekhų́ | mąthų́ | wa:tshą̀: |
- Billions and above are borrowed ad hoc from English.
Ordinal numerals are derived with -wa:, except for "first" this suffix is directly attached to the head noun.
Syntax
Constituent order
Cabot Creole word order is strictly SVO, not including incorporated objects.
Noun and verb phrases
Numerators precede their head, and adjectives and possessives follow. Verb modifiers follow their head, except numerators when used as adverbs.
Dependent clauses
Dependent clauses follow their phrase, generally directly, but may be disjointed if verb agreement provides enough context.
Example texts
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1
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