Scellan: Difference between revisions

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===Pronouns===
===Pronouns===
*''naw'' /law/ = I
*''naw'' /law/ = I
*''fiar, 'r'' /fiər/ = you
*''fiar, iar, 'r'' /fiər/ = you
*''hav'' /hav/ = he
*''hav'' /hav/ = he
*''ee'' /ei/ = she
*''ee'' /ei/ = she

Revision as of 04:02, 14 August 2017

Scellan-English lexicon
Swadesh list
Names
Phrasebook

Scellan
bris Eevom
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|bris ɛivɔm]]
Created byIlL
SettingVerse:Tricin
Quihum
Language codes
ISO 639-3qee
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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

  • Goal: Duolingo course
  • Old Eevo prefixes remain productive.
  • -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
  • adjectives might be verbs
  • Dyrring va bunym armi dy ynang = the living fish swims in water

Diachronics

-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

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

Diaphonology

Peninsular

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

Early Modern Eevo

Middle Eevo

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, iar, '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

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
-o (origin)
-ín (Netagin)
-i
-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.

Eevo is split-ergative, the split being conditioned by tense.

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.

Predicates are fronted

Eevo has no copula. Instead, the "predicate" or the focused constituent is fronted.

D'iant va duvwŋym.
The teacher is sleeping.
Oos te dy dysg ha to matto.
even NEG PROG eat 3sg.m TO anything
He's not even eating anything.

TAM marking

Verbs have little inflection, and the bulk of verbs are completely regular.

Eevo is split-ergative, with imperfective tenses using accusative morphosyntax and perfective tenses using ergative morphosyntax.

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

The preterite forces ergative morphosyntax.

  • Iantin naw. = I slept.
  • Vesin rw naw va attynem. = I painted the pictures.

Perfect

Perfect: Yv iant naw. = I have slept.

Future imperfective

The future imperfective uses the -t affix inherited from Old Eevo.

Future perfective

The future perfective tense is formed with ly + VERB. It is ergative.

Relative clauses

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

Complement clause

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 (including Tamil) or other Talmic labguages.