Scellan

Scellan-English lexicon
Swadesh list

Scellan
bris Eevom
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|bris ɛivɔm]]
Created by	IlL
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Extinct	220 v.T.
Language family	Quihum Talmic Thensaric Scellan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qee

Scellan is the dominant modern Talmic language; it descends from Old Eevo. It's inspired by Icelandic, Welsh and Hmong.

Todo

• determiner
  • va < mhadh "like"
• in reócht > rewtt /rɛwht/
• in már > mawr /mawr/ "tree"
• á > aw
• ae > ai
• ai > e
• aei, ái > ee
• e > y /ə/
• éi > oi > ua
• ó > oo
• u > w
• ú > u /y/
• Old Eevo prefixes remain productive.
• D'eell naw'r /tɛɪχ laur/ = I love you
• -att = forms adjectives
• Byð naw ly... = I have to (lit. it is my part to...)

Background

See also: Proto-Talmic.

Phonology

Consonants

m n~l ŋ tn̥~tɬ kŋ m̥ n̥~l̥~ɬ ŋ̊ (m n ŋ nn ŋŋ hm hn hŋ)

ʁ r χ r̥ (l r ll rr)

ph th kh (p t c)

hp ht hk (pp tt cc)

p t k (b d g)

f θ s x h (f þ s ch h)

v ð z j (v ð z j)

/n n̥ tn/ are pronounced [l ɬ tl~tɬ] before vowels.

Vowels

/a ɛ i ɔ u œ y ə ai au eu iu ei øy ou iə uə ui/

a e i o w ø u y ai aw ew iw ee øø oo ia wa wi

Allowed unstressed vowels: ?

Diaereses (ä ë ï ö ø̈ ẅ) can be used on stressed vowels to distinguish them from diphthongs.

Intonation

Eevo has a distinctive intonation paradigm. Within said paradigm, some accents can sound like Irish accents, while some accents sound more like Valspeak.

• In declarative sentences, the stressed syllable of the focus word (if there is no focused constituent, the last word) has a lower pitch than the immediately preceding syllable. ("...mid ꜜ LOW mid...") This originates from discursive uptalk in older forms of Tíogall, which has since generalized to all declarative sentences. A few accents, such as Tumacan accents, do not use this pattern.
• In interrogative sentences, the stressed syllable of the focus word has a higher pitch than the syllable immediately before. ("... mid ꜛ HIGH mid ... ?")
• In exclamations, the pattern is "... mid ꜜ LOW-HIGH mid ... !", possibly with a gradual drop to low pitch in the end. Angry or indignant questions also use an exclamatory intonation.

Morphology

Eevo morphology tends to be simpler than most other Talmic languages; it has no grammatical gender and no mutation.

Nouns

The plural is usually marked by -e (< Old Eevo -ae) for nouns ending in consonants and -r for nouns ending in vowels. There is no marking for possessors or possessed nouns.

• bris "language" > brise "languages"
• chamna "woman" > chamnar "women"

Definite marker = -m or -ym at end of NP

• va bris = a language
• va brisym = the language; va brisem = the languages
• va chamna = a woman
• va chamnam = the woman; va chamnarym = the women
• va swarym = the house
• va swar inym = the blue house

Pronouns

• naw = I
• fiar, 'r = you
• ha = he
• hi = she
• he = it
• cawv = we (exc.)
• gwad = we (inc.)
• swad = youse
• hawr = they

Adjectives

Adjectives do not inflect at all.

Copula

Eevo has no copula. Instead, the "predicate" or the focused constituent is fronted.

D'iant va duvwŋym. = The teacher is sleeping.

TAM marking

Verbs have little inflection, and the bulk of verbs are completely regular. Eevo TAM marking tends to emphasize aspect more than tense, unusually for Talmic languages.

Imperfect

The imperfect uses the unmarked form of the verb followed by the subject. For example, Mol naw va duvwŋym means "I thank the teacher" or "I used to thank the teacher".

Progressive/Stative

To form the progressive, the particle dy is used before the verb.

Verbs referring to emotional states, as well as adjectives referring to states commonly use the progressive as well. For example, D'eell naw'r means "I love you."

Preterite

Preterite (ergative): Iantin naw. = I slept.

Perfect

Perfect: Yv iant naw. = I have slept.

Future

The future tense is derived from the Old Eevo future tense.

• mol "thank" > molt
• iant "sleep" > iantyt

Syntax

Eevo is strongly head-initial (with exceptions in poetry). It usually uses VSO word order; the focused constituent is fronted.

Noun phrase

va and to are used as specified and unspecified determiners before the noun phrase (like Lushootseed ti and kʷwi). Determiners are not used with prepositions.

to is used with questions and negated statements. Example:

Es to bris mi?

Q TO language this

Is this a language?

Dai to lennos mi. (< lenn 'smoke' + *-ás (?) 'instrument') - this is often contracted to Dait lennos mi

NEG TO smoking_pipe this

This is not a pipe.

Compare:

Va lennos mi.

VA smoking_pipe this

This is a pipe.

Determiners can be omitted in elevated language.

Relative clauses

• en is used when the head is the subject in the relative clause
• re is used otherwise