Scellan/Sketchbook

Scellan/Sketchbook is a southern Talmic language descended from Thensarian. The phonology is inspired by Ashkenazi Hebrew and Portuguese.

Historical phonology

• p t c > b d g (like Spanish)
• -φ- vanishes
• b d g often lenites to v z Ø
• str > sr
• Stress shift: non-initial stressed vowels are marked with acute accent

• 1: cêƞ /kɛ̃/
• 2: têxôr‚ têx /tes/
• 3: nâge
• 4: lov
• 5: orv
• 6: cuv
• 7: xol
• 8: zic
• 9: ad
• 10: gar
• 11: vem
• 12: clut
• nis = not
• ax = and (Clofabic)

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n~l/		n [ŋ]
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/	ŧ /t͡ʃ/	c /k/		(ȝ /ʔ/)1
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/		g /g/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	x, ss /s/	s /ʃ/	ch /x/
	voiced	v /v/	z /z/			l, ħ /ʁ~h/
Approximant			r /r/	j /j/

¹ Silent in everyday speech.

In addition, the letter h is used as a silent letter.

Vowels

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (oral)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i, y /i/			u /u/
Near-close	[ɪ]	[ʏ]	[ə]
Mid	e /e/, ê /ei/	ô /oi/		â, o /o/
Open		[ɞ]	a /a/

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (nasal)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close
Near-close	iƞ, yƞ /ɪ̃/			uƞ /ʊ̃/
Mid	êƞ /ɛ̃i/	ôƞ /õi/	[ə̃]	âƞ, oƞ /ɔ̃u/
Open	eƞ /ɛ̃/		aƞ /ɐ̃/

Vowel reduction

Vowels are reduced in unstressed syllables.

Phoneme	Reduced
/i/	[ɪ]
/u/	[ʊ]
/e/	[ɪ]
/ø/	[ʏ]
/a/	[ə]
/ɔ/	[ə]
/ɐ̃/, /œ̃/	[ə̃]
/ɛ̃/	[ɪ̃]

Stress

Stress is marked with an acute accent.

Orthography

Scellan/Sketchbook orthography is fairly conservative compared to its pronunciation.

Morphology

Nouns

The masculine, feminine and neuter genders in Thensarian collapsed to common and neuter genders.

The definite article is eƞ.

A common noun:

mâro 'tree'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	mâro	mâriƞ
Construct	mâroz	mấrous

A neuter noun:

stus 'fire'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	stus	stur
Construct	stuz	stuus

Common: mâro, mâriƞ = trees

Neuter: tiƞs, tiƞr = hand

Neuter: stus, stur = fire

Neuter: teŧys, teŧyr = child

Verbs

Bênôcian verbs are significantly simpler than Thensarian verbs, though the multiple infinitives of Thensarian have servived.

Present indicative

Person	tôssaƞ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssanâ	torenâ	elinâ
2SG	tôssar	torer	elir
3SG	tôssa	tore	el
1PL	tôssáƞs	toréƞs	elíƞs
2PL	tôssác	toréc	elíc
3PL	tôssa	tore	el

Past indicative

Person	tôssaƞ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaniƞ	toreniƞ	eliniƞ
2SG	tôssai	torei	elii
3SG	tôssaso	toreso	eliso
1PL	tôssáƞr	toréƞr	elíƞr
2PL	tôssacer	torecer	elicer
3PL	tôssaso	toreso	eliso

Present subjunctive

Person	tôssaƞ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaj	torej	elij
2SG	tôssare	torere	elire
3SG	tôssor	torjor	eljor
1PL	tôssánte	torénte	elínte
2PL	tôssace	torece	elice
3PL	tôssor	torjor	eljor

Past subjunctive

Person	tôssaƞ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tốssazoƞ	tórezoƞ	elizoƞ
2SG	tốssazor	tórezor	elizor
3SG	tôssaz	torez	eliz
1PL	tôssazóƞs	torezóƞs	elizóƞs
2PL	tôssazóc	torezóc	elizóc
3PL	tôssaz	torez	eliz

Future

The future tense is ergative; it is derived from Thensarian lē + present participle (cf. German, where zu + active participle is the gerundive).

Li harai haη de tarsuz.

He will go to school.

Li cassis eη glexanos tri nâ.

I will eat the potato.

Future participle of cassiη 'eat'
	Singulative	Plurative
Common	li cassi	li cassiƞ
Neuter	li cassis	li cassir
Construct	li cassiz	li cassius

Infinitives

The Thensarian -s infinitive has been lost; the present subjunctive is used instead, as in Arabic or Greek.

• Jozanâ rê êstijaj sâma. = "I want to feel good."
• Nis joza haη rê haror de tarsuz cresiη. = "He doesn't want to go to school today."

An infinitive: tôssâgos (used in nominalized clauses)

• Carsajes tôssâgos. = "It is exhausting to cast spells./Invocation is exhausting."

Another infinitive: tôssav (used with prepositions such as gil and de)

• drếvjor haη gil cássiviz haη = "He avoided eating it."

Derivational morphology

		From...
		Noun	Verb	Adjective or Determiner	Adverb
To...	Noun	-veη, -veniη (agentive)	-veη, -veniη (agentive)
	Verb
	Adjective or Determiner
	Adverb				-

Syntax

Bênôcian syntax is VSO.