Astrallic

The Astrallic language is the language spoken in several areas on the island of Rockall in the Seafaring Confederation. It is spoken by approximately 782,000 people, which makes it the least spoken language of Rockall.

Background

Astrallic is a language spoken in my conworld nation of Rockall, located in the Seafaring Confederation. It is meant to be a Celtic language, being a member of the Bryttonic branch in speech, but due to a largely etymological orthography often very Goidelic in written form.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n				ŋ
Plosive	p b		t d				c ɟ	k g				ʔ
Fricative		f v		s	ʃ		ç ʝ	x ɣ		ʕ		ɦ
Affricate				ts
Approximant				ɹ	ɻ	j
Trill				r					ʀ		ᴙ
Flap or tap				ɾ
Lateral fric.				ɬ
Lateral app.				l

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i		ʉ		ɯ u
Near-close				ʊ
Close-mid	e ø		ɘ ɵ		o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ œ		ɞ		ʌ ɔ
Near-open		æ
Open	a				ɑ

Orthography

The Astrallic orthography is highly etymological, to the point where words that have more than three syllables in writing have only one syllable in speech, or where letters that are written are not pronounced in spoken language. The orthography is largely Goidelic, whilst the actual pronunciation is more Bryttonic.

Traditional spelling

In official situations and by a majority of writers, the traditional spelling is the preferred spelling. This spelling is highly etymological and often represents aspects of the language that have not been present in spoken language for at least 300 years, e.g. the former tonal system and odd offglides. Other words have been shortened throughout the years, but are still written as they were 300 years ago.

Slwbhan spelling

This situation has called for spelling reforms, which has created the Slwbhan spelling system.

Letter Pronunciation b /b/ bh /w/ c [k] ch [x] d /d/ dh [ɣ] f [v] ff [f] fh none g /g/ gh [ɣ] h [ɦ] i [j] l /l/ ll [ɬ] m /m/ p /p/ r /r/ s /s/ si [ʃ] s' none t /t/ td /ð/ th [θ]

Letter Pronunciation a [ɑ] á [æ] â [a] e [ɛ] é [ɘ] ê [e] i [i] í [ɯ] î [i:] o [ɔ] ó [ɵ] ô [o] u [ø] ú [ɞ] û [œ] w /u/ ẃ [ʌ] ẇ [ʉ] y [ə]

Comparison

Traditional	Slwbhan	Pronunciation	English
Béauifhdheachde	Bawd	[bʲaʊ̯d]	"Life"
Póirfheaoir	Poar	[pɔɐ̯ɽ]	"Purple"
Dáidhcheauibheanseaochteachdheaillteachd	Dâchwsiyltwghd	[da:ˈxʊʃəltɤɣd]	"Unconstitutionality"
Le shliabheoigh	Lê llawbhych	[le ˈɬau̯wəç]	"There are mountains", litt. "with mountains"