Rhinevalian Creole: Difference between revisions
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The creole distinguishes vowels in length, with vowels always being long in stressed syllables without a final consonant (i.e. open syllables) and are unmarked (single vowel letter) unless the entire word is monosyllabic. In syllables that end with a consonant (i.e. closed syllables), short vowels are the default while long vowels are to be marked by doubling the vowel, except in the case of ⟨æ⟩ which | The creole distinguishes vowels in length, with vowels always being long in stressed syllables without a final consonant (i.e. open syllables) and are unmarked (single vowel letter) unless the entire word is monosyllabic. In syllables that end with a consonant (i.e. closed syllables), short vowels are the default while long vowels are to be marked by doubling the vowel, except in the case of ⟨æ⟩ which becomes ⟨ae⟩, and ⟨i⟩ which becomes ⟨ie⟩ in such cases. Open syllables that are unstressed have short vowels by default as well. | ||
Most consonant letters are fairly predictable, though some letters may pose a challenge due to high degrees of allophony. Those letters, ''for a given syllable'', are: | Most consonant letters are fairly predictable, though some letters may pose a challenge due to high degrees of allophony. Those letters, ''for a given syllable'', are: | ||
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As Standard German devoices all final obstruents, which are in this language characterized as there being a voiced/unvoiced pair may be pronounced either voiced (often called soft) or unvoiced (often called hard), while their unvoiced counterpart remains unvoiced and unchanged at the end of a syllable or word. The sound /h/ is a special case, as its historic appearance after a vowel in the end of a syllable has moved to /x/ (after back and central vowels, or all vowels depending on preference) or /ç/ (only after front vowels). | |||
While the sonorants /m/ and /l/ do not change, no matter where they are in a word or syllable, many other sonorants behave very differently depending on their context; Before a /k/ sound, /n/ turns into /ŋ/ while a word-final /ŋ/ may alternatively be pronounced /ŋk/ and an intervocalic /ŋ/ be pronounced /ŋ.ɡ/. Rheinwellisch Kreol makes use of extensive free variation in rhotic sounds: [r], [ɹ], [ʀ] or [ʁ] are all valid pronunciations of intervocalic and initial /r/ sounds. The final /r/ sound may be the same, though a vocalic form of /r/ exists for after vowels in a syllable, with similar pronunciations to Standard German and RP English. The approximants /w/ and /j/ are analyzed as vocalic in syllable final positions, only allowed after the short vowels /a/, /ɛ/ and in some cases after /ɔ/, /w/ does not become /v/ under any circumstances here. | |||
===Vowels=== | ===Vowels=== | ||
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| colspan="2" | || [[w:open central unrouded vowel|a]] || [[w:open central unrounded vowel|aː]] || colspan="2" | | | colspan="2" | || [[w:open central unrouded vowel|a]] || [[w:open central unrounded vowel|aː]] || colspan="2" | | ||
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If a syllable ends with a voiced obstruent, e.g. /b/, /d/, /v/, ⟨a⟩ may be pronounced /aː/. After a final voiced obstruent, an epenthetic [ᵊ] may be added, if this helps keep it voiced. So, "had" may be pronounced [haːd], [haːdᵊ], [hadᵊ], [had], [hat] and [haːt]. In unstressed open syllables /ɛ/ shifts to /ə/. | |||
==Grammar== | ==Grammar== | ||
A | A blend of grammatical features familiar to both English and German speakers, Rhinevalian Creole uses the common denominator between languages in its grammar, omitting some features from each side, leading to very regular and fairly simple conjugations and declensions, save for Latin loans. Nouns decline for number and definiteness with verbs conjugating for voice and tense. For nouns there is a vestigial genitive form similar to that in English, which is marked by -s. | ||
===Personal pronouns=== | ===Pronouns=== | ||
Personal pronouns in Rheinwallian creole are divided into subject, object and possessive pronouns. The third | ====Personal pronouns==== | ||
Personal pronouns in Rheinwallian creole are divided into subject, object and possessive pronouns. The third singular is divided into three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Reflexive pronouns may be created by suffixing -self to any object personal pronoun. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+ Pronouns | |+ Pronouns | ||
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===Demonstrative pronouns=== | ====Demonstrative pronouns==== | ||
There are two demonstrative pronouns: "dis" and "dat", used in both singular and plural. | There are two demonstrative pronouns: "dis" and "dat", used in both singular and plural. | ||
===Nouns=== | |||
====Articles==== | |||
There are two sets of articles, indefinite and definite. The indefinite articles are "a" and "an", the former being used before consonants and the latter before vowels. The definite article "de" may be used for both, but depending on style "d'" before a vowel is permissible as well. | |||
====Plurals==== | |||
After nouns, generally an -s is added to mark the plural. In cases where this is not possible due to being hard or impossible to pronounce -es is added instead. A singular word ending with -s is suffixed -sses in the plural form. Some irregular forms exist but are not very common, such as words ending with -ix being -ices in the plural. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|+ Overview over all plural classes | |||
|- | |||
! Singular !! Plural | |||
|- | |||
| -x || -ces | |||
|- | |||
| -um || -a | |||
|- | |||
| -us || -i | |||
|- | |||
| -s || -sses | |||
|- | |||
| etc. || -(e)s | |||
|} | |||
The vestigial genitive remains -s in all cases. Affixed as ' to plurals already ending in an -s otherwise suffixed as -s. Example: de Bakteriums (the bacterium's) -> de Bakterias (the bacteria's). | |||
===Verbs=== | ===Verbs=== | ||
All verbs in the language end with either -en or -n. There are two irregular verbs "sen" and "haven". Verbs conjugate for tense, of which there are four, two of which periphrastic and one default (present) and for voice. | All verbs in the language end with either -en or -n. There are two irregular verbs "sen" and "haven". Verbs conjugate for tense, of which there are four, two of which periphrastic and one default (present) and for voice. There are no strong verbs in this language, meaning all but the two irregular verbs hold their pattern universally. | ||
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=== Vocabulary ==== | |||