Scellan

Scellan-English lexicon
Swadesh list
Names

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 (/'ɛivɔ/; English: AY-voh; from the word ébhó for "common, shared") is a Talmic language belonging to the Eevoic branch; it descends from Old Eevo, originally spoken in the Smewlan Peninsula. As its name suggests, Eevo is the most dominant modern language in Tricin.

It's inspired by Icelandic, Welsh and (literally read) Hmong.

Todo

• -n > -m (at least after w)
• a > a
• á > aw
• ae > ai
• ai > e
• aei, ái > ee
• ao, aoi > øø
• e > y /ə/
• é > ee
• éi > oi > wa
• eó, éu > ew
• ei, i > e
• i > i
• iu > y
• iú > iw
• o > o
• oi > y
• ó > oo
• ói, ua > wa
• u, io > w
• ui > y
• ú > u /y/
• úi > wi
• Old Eevo prefixes remain productive.
• D'eell naw'r /tɛɪχ laur/ = I love you
• -att = forms adjectives
• tus = to wish
• Formal Eevo has possessive suffixes
• silent leniting prefix
• Toiréir Grughaid > Tører Grwid
• Note to self: nd != nn in Eevo!!!
• Need more Netagin
• zyxwv "pleasant" < Koine Netagin zëxâbh
• Møli naw/møli cawv = thank you
• adjectives might be verbs
• 'living' can be clofabic
• Dyrring va bunym moxtil dy ynang = the living fish swims in water

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/hl rr/hr)

ph th kh (p t c)

hp ht hk (pp tt cc)

p t k (b d g)

f θ s ʃ ç h (f þ s x ch h)

ts tʃ (ts tx)

v ð z j (v ð z j)

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

l r can be syllabic.

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

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

Vowels in pausa are breathy-voiced or followed by a final [h] in many doalects.

Stress

Non-initial stress is marked with an acute accent in the romanized orthography.

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 Eevo 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.

Diaphonology

Rrend Ew

• ee øø oo ia wa are all monophthongs: [e: ø: o: i: u:]
• i u w are lowered and lax.
• /x/ = [š]

Cdam Sre

• /χ/ = pharyngeal h

Orthography

In-universe, Eevo uses the Clofabic script, unlike other Talmic languages (except Roshterian).

Morphology

Eevo morphology tends to be simpler than most other Talmic languages; for example, it has no grammatical gender and no construct state.

Nouns

The plural is usually marked by -e (< Old Eevo -ae) for nouns ending in consonants and -r for nouns ending in vowels. Nouns of Netagin origin in -y may use an -ov plural.

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 /law/ = I
• fiar, 'r /fiər/ = you
• hav /hav/ = he
• ee /ei/ = she
• he /hɛ/ = it
• cawv /kʰauv/ = we (exc.)
• gwad /kuəd/ = we (inc.)
• swad /suəd/ = youse
• hawr /haur/ = they

Prepositions

Some prepositions inflect.

Adjectives

Adjectives are essentially verbs that can take degree inflection.

Adjectives usually follow nouns; they may precede nouns in poetry.

Degree: -te = comparative; -ws = superlative

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. 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

Derivational morphology

		From...
		Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
To...	Noun	-wŋ (agentive) -os (instrument) -i (diminutive) -wr (augmentative) -emb (female suffix) ni- (non-) ir- (un-)	-ach (verbal noun) -ev (verbal noun) -wŋ (agentive) -os (instrument)	-e (abstract noun) -ev (abstract noun) -íry(abstract noun)
	Verb	(verbing?)	ar- (applicative) as- (telic) ee- (co-, with) for- (causative) fw- (back, re-) gol- (up) oc- (from, out) ro- (down) so- (towards) sen- (well) mi- (mis-)
	Adjective	-att -on -i -o (origin) -ín (Netagin) -in (-ee) -gon (-able, but ergative)		ni- (non-) ir- (un-)
	Adverb				-

Syntax

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

Noun phrase

va and to are used as specified and unspecified determiners before the noun phrase (like Lushootseed ti and kʷi). 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?

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

Verb phrase

Oos te dy dysg ha to matto.

even NEG PROG eat 3sg.m TO anything

He's not even eating anything.

Relative clauses

• no relativizer is used when the head is the subject in the relative clause
• re is used otherwise

Modal expressions

• Byð naw va... = I have to (lit. it is my part to)
• Cwllin len va... = I can (lit. it is open for me to)

Vocabulary

A large portion of Eevo vocabulary (comparable to English) is borrowed, for example from Netagin, Clofabic languages or other Talmic labguages.