Czecklish

Czecklish
Czěcklíš
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|ʈʂeːˈkɫiːɕ]]
Created by	–
Native to	Saxony
Native speakers	52,724 ()
Language family	Czecklish
Official status
Regulated by	Czecklish Revitalization Project
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ck
ISO 639-2	czk
ISO 639-3	czk

Czecklish Czěcklíš
Progress: 37%
Type
Fusional, Agglutinative
Alignment
Tripartite
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Verb-object-subject
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
n/a
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

History

Czěcklíš is originally spoken by the Dźhrajåinia [ɖ̥ʐr̊ə̤ˈxɒːi̯ɲə] extraterrestrial species. The Dźhrajåinia brought their language and beliefs to Earth circa 4000-3200 BCE. It is an astounding revelation that Czěcklíš is the native language of the Dźhrajåiña. Naturally, the Czěcklíš that the Dźhrajåiña speak is different from the Human variety. Czěcklíš is a vulnerable language isolate spoken in Saxony, Germany and Moravia, Czechia. Šäkkelíš, a very closely related language, is spoken solely within Prešov, Slovakia. Cigríş is spoken solely within the counties of Hunedoara and Caraş-Severin. Both Šäkkelíš and Cigríş are considered by UNESCO to be definitely endangered.

Before this project began, there were only a handful of mentions of Czěcklíš by Germans and Bohemians. The German linguist Friedrich Sauber created The Traveler’s Language Handbook for Czěcklíš in 1871 for those travelling through Czeckland. It is however, sadly outdated and contains gross misinformation regarding Czěcklíš grammar. It will be dismissed as a reference for this paper due to its innumerable grammatical inaccuracies. Before Sauber’s handbook, a Franciscan friar of the Grosse Brüdergasse Friary, named Göthe recorded some notes “on the strange, local tongue of Czeckland” circa 1506 CE. The original notes have since been lost since World War II. However, a record of an attempted translation by a local priest uses Göthe’s Czěcklíš alphabet, which is heavily inspired by the Polish orthography of that time.

During the Cold War, Czeckland was occupied by the Communists, and placed under a Communist regime. The Soviet Union changed the traditionally monarchist, feudal Czeckland into a industrialized Democratic Republic of Czeckland. President Ģaiň also developed a Cyrillic alphabet for Czěcklíš use during the Communist regime. His regime plunged Czeckland into an economic depression, resulting in widespread poverty and the migration of many Czěcklíš speakers to Erzgebirge District. Later in the 1970s, a mixed Latin-Cyrillic alphabet was used and developed by President Abhrahą Jozef. It was in use for only a decade, before most Czěcklíš reverted to the Cyrillic alphabet. To this day both Ģaiň’s Cyrillic Alphabet and Jozef’s Alphabet are not in active use. Because they have a communist stigma attached to them, their use can lead to most Czěcklíš thinking that you are a Communist, and cannot be trusted.

The Czěcklíš Revitalization Project (CRP) has recently began, with the aim of revitalizing Czěcklíš, Šäkkelíš and Cigríş language family. Alongside this project, a Czěcklíš Language Course for German Speakers will eventually be taught in the University of Leipzig; a Duolingo course and Memrise course will be developed for supplemental material. Additionally, a German-Czěcklíš and Czěcklíš-German translation website and online dictionary is in the process of being made.

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

Oral Monophthongs

22 total

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː yː	ɨ	ɯː uː
Near-Close	ɪ ʏ		ɯ ʊ
Close-Mid	eː øː		ɤː oː
Mid		ə
Open-Mid	ɛ ɔ
Near-Open	æː	ɐ
Open			ɑː ɒː

Nasal Monophthongs

5 total

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩː		ũː
Mid	ẽː		õː
Open		ɑ̃ː

Diphthongs

Oral Diphthongs

	i̯-	u̯-	-i̯	-u̯	Open
i		u̯i		iu̯
u	i̯u		ui̯
e		u̯e	ei̯	eu̯	ey̯
o	i̯o		oi̯
ɑ	i̯ɑ	u̯ɑ	ɑi̯	ɑu̯
ɒ	i̯ɒ	u̯ɒ	ɒi̯	ɒu̯
ɯ	i̯ɯ		ɯi̯
ɤ	i̯ɤ	u̯ɤ	ɤi̯	ɤu̯
y	i̯y		yi̯		yø̯
ø	i̯ø	u̯ø	øi̯	øu̯	øy̯
æ	i̯æ	u̯æ	æi̯	æu̯	æø

Nasal Diphthongs

	i̯-	u̯-	-i̯	-u̯
ĩ		u̯ĩ		ĩu̯
ũ	i̯ũ		ũi̯
ẽ		u̯ẽ	ẽi̯	ẽu̯
õ	i̯õ		õi̯
ɑ̃	i̯ɑ̃	u̯ɑ̃	ɑ̃i̯	ɑ̃u̯

Vowel Distribution

Close Vowels

• /iː/ ‹İ i› is only permitted when [V-] and before coronal consonants
  • /j/ ‹J j› is a permissible replacement between two single consonants, or when ‹İ i› is singular.
  • /iː/ ‹Y y› is only permitted before /g p b x ɣ v/
    • /i/ appears outside its usual positions in some foreign-derived words.
  • /ɨː/ ‹Ÿ ÿ› is only permitted when [-V] and where [C] is /k p x f/
    • Before /k/, ‹Ÿ ÿ› is written as ‹İ i›, where ‹İ i› is expected after ‹Qu qu›
    • /ɨː/ ‹Ÿ ÿ› contrasts with /iː/ ‹Y y› before /p x/
• /iː/ ‹İJ ij› is permitted when [V-] and before coronal consonants.
• The vowels /ɨː/ and /iː/ are considered to rhyme in poetry out of tradition, as in the past /ɨ/ was closer to [ɪ], which is acoustically more similar to [i].

Close-Mid vs. Open-Mid Vowels

• Close-Mid and Open-Mid vowels are usually in complementary distinction:
  • Open-Syllable é ő ó [eː øː oː]
  • Closed-Syllable ė ö o [ɛ œ ɔ]

However, they do form minimal pairs in certain environments:

• Word-Final
  • é [-eː] vs. ė [-ɛ]
  • ő [-øː] vs. ö [-œ]
  • ó [-oː] vs. o [-ɔ]
• Closed Monosyllables:
  • [CøːC] vs. [CœC]
  • [CoːC] vs. [CɔC]

Open Vowels

• á /ɑː/ and å /ɒː/
  • a /ɑː/ and å /ɒː/ appear in complementary distribution in stressed syllables
    • • In unstressed syllables, á /ɑː/ may be reduced to [ə]
  • å /ɒː/ appears where it was an Old á /ɑː/
• á /ɑː/ and a /ɐ/
  • á /ɑː/ appears in stressed syllables only
  • a /ɐ/ is a shortened /ɑː/ in unstressed syllables
• á /ɑː/ and a̋ /æː/
  • á /ɑː/ appears in morphemes with all back vowels
  • a̋ /æː/ appears as a fronted /ɑː/ in morphemes with all front vowels
• a̋ /æː/ and ä /ɛ/
  • a̋ /æː/ appears in stressed syllables only
  • ä /ɛ/ is a shortened a̋ /æː/ in unstressed syllables

Schwa

• The schwa /ə/ is a very unstable phoneme which tends to merge with other vowels or be elided entirely. The schwa merges with /ø/ in the following environments:
  • [əσe] or [əσi]
• In certain environments, it is elided entirely:
  • [σ-əC-σ]
• It is sometimes pronounced in these environments:
  • [-ə.C-]

Nasal Vowels

• Nasal [Ṽ] appears in stressed syllables only, in contrast with oral vowels.
• Nasal Contrast
  • Nasal vowels contrast with oral vowels only before fricatives and velar/glottal consonants.
• Nasal Metaphony
  • Nasalization is phonemic only in the vowel marked as nasal
• Nasal Metaphony is progressive (i.e. left to right), meaning that all vowels to the right of the nasal vowel are nasalized.
  • This nasalization of surrounding vowels is allophonic and non-phonemic.