Thrichian

PREFACE

Thrichian is a fictional language developed by myself, intended to be spoken by the race of people in the province of Thrichia, Lizge. Thrichian is a priori language, meaning that it is not connected in vocabulary or grammar to any living language. This does not mean, however, that there have not been real-world influences on the sounds and tendencies of the language. To name a few, the rhythm and consonant clusters were influenced by Northern Sami, while the stress-timed nature of syllables and reduced high schwa vowel are derived from European Portuguese. Finally, the slender-broad distinction in consonant pronunciations, as well as the consequent velarization of plosives and use of switch vowels, is inspired by Irish Gaelic. Despite many real-world inspirations having guided the language, all the words used in Thrichian have etymologies within the fictional world of Eytha. Although in modern Eytha, technologies such as the telephone, motor vehicles and computers exist, the names of these things are not derived from English, as many real-world languages tend to do. This book is a guide for learning and understanding the complexities of the phonology, orthography, syntax and morphology of the language, in a way that is comprehensible to someone who is familiar with linguistic terms. Prior general linguistic knowledge is necessary to understanding the resources within this book. However, concepts which are not present in English or commonly studied real-world languages are explained. Thrichian’s status throughout Antannuon extends only within the province of Thrichia itself. Outside of it, the language is regarded as vulgar or uncouth by the Lizgese of other provinces and by the peoples of Ifyria and Vemvor to the North and East. Thrichian natives are subject to prejudice and marginalization. They are disliked by Ifyrians and Vemvic for their association with the Lizgese whose conquest has been to wage war against the Isiat Alliance for traditional lands. The former range of Thrichian extended much further than its current geography. Before the unification of Imperial Lizge and its totalitarian regime, Thrichia was a sovereign state which traded often with the West Vemvic state of Wællor. This book details the modern Thrichian language as it is spoken by the characters in Antannuon.

Welcome!

Damhá!

PHONOLOGY

The Thrichian Alphabet contains 30 letters. Accented vowels count separately from their unaccented counterparts. The acute accent in Thrichian represents stress and is sometimes used to distinguish between to homonyms such as nu [nʊ] also and nú [nuː] word.

VOWELS

Aa /a/

Áá /a/

Ee /ɛ/ or /j/ between vowels or between consonant and stressed vowel

Éé /e/

Ėė /ɜ/ or silent

Ëë /æ/ or /e/ for some speakers

Ii /i/ or /ɪ/ unstressed

Íí /i/

Oo /ɒ/ or /ɞ/ unstressed

Óó /ɒ/

Uu /u/ or /ʊ/ unstressed

Úú /u/

1. Accented vowels are used to distinguish between diphthongs and switch vowels. They indicate stress as well as length. All vowels except for /ɞ, ʊ, ɪ, ɜ/ can be long or geminal when their orthographic representation is an accented vowel in a syllable which would already receive stress in the word. For example, páhtta has a long /ˈpaːʰtːa/ while pahttá does not /pahˈtːa/. Some nouns when pluralized will gain stress for this reason: alíg /aˈlig/ while alígas /aˈliːgaʃ/. Though the spelling doesn‘t change, lengthening occurs because in the second word, the extra syllable means the stress will fall on the penultimate li.

2. Accented vowels are counted as separate because they distinguish words like icastan (unrelenting) and icastán (disrespectful) or a critical distinction heloban (beautiful) and héloban (disastrous). The latter of these examples is a difference in pronunciation indicated, not in stress, as the pattern stays the same but the vowel is raised.

icastan /ɪˈkaʃtan/ icastán /ɪkaʃˈtan/ heloban /ˈhɛlɞban/ héloban /ˈhelɞban/

3. Switch vowels e, a are used to change the pronunciation of a consonant from slender to broad and vice versa.

4. Every vowel has an innate triggering quality, meaning that they trigger a preceding vowel to be pronounced either slender or broad. Vowels i, e, í, é, ë trigger slender pronunciations, while a, á, o, ó, u, ú, ė trigger broad.

5. Letter ė is only pronounced between three or more consonants which are difficult to pronounce together, it is mostly reduced to silent or a very short schwa /ɜ/

6. Diphthongs and triphthongs are always smooth and syllabic.

7. /a/ and /ɒ/ become /aʊ̆/ and /ɒʊ̆/ before /v/ or /f/ + consonant such as in davcig /ˈd̥aʊ̆v̥t͡siɣ/

8. /iɜ/ in stressed position becomes a lengthened vowel /ɪ:/ for some speakers, especially in the word Thriehčču.