Elodian

Elodian
ɂelodīru, (la) gulkā ɂelodīrā
Pronunciation	[ˈguɬkɑː ʔelɔˈdiːraː]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Jul 2022
Setting	Alt-Earth
Ethnicity	Elodians (ɂelodī)
Native speakers	12,000,000 (2021)
Language family	Indo-European Elodian
Official status
Official language in	ʔelodīhūto
Regulated by	National Language Academy of ʔelodīhūto Kalēmīa Mellī twā Gulkā twā ʔelodīhūto

Important note: Elodian is, fundamentally, a rethinking of Lifashian intended as a kind of drop-in replacement in its setting.

Elodian, natively referred to as ɂelodīru or (la) gulkā ɂelodīrā, is an Indo-European language, an isolate inside the family, spoken in an alternate timeline of Earth in the northeastern corner of Asia Minor, i.e. the historical region of Pontus and neighboring areas across the Pontic Alps into the Armenian highlands. It is the official language of the republic of ʔelodīhūto, spoken by the majority of its population. Elodian is the native language of about twelve million people in the world, the majority of which in ʔelodīhūto, with smaller communities in Eastern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Elodian developed on its own, distinctly from other Indo-European languages, although it is definitely closer to the Anatolian languages, particularly the Luwian subgroup, than to other languages in the family, despite sharing some traits with Armenian and Greek. It is particularly noteworthy due to its system of split ergativity, which makes it virtually an ergative-absolutive language (although not syntactically ergative) except with first- and second-person referents, which require a nominative-accusative alignment.

Its vocabulary has a substantial number of inherited roots, but through millennia the language absorbed many loanwords, especially from Persian and Arabic (through the former), and to smaller extents from its neighbours Armenian, the Kartvelian languages and Turkish, as well as from Greek and Russian. Long-term Genoese colonization and reciprocal contacts also introduced many Ligurian loans, as well as forming one of the main ethnic minorities in the country, Elodian Ligurians, which had a marked influence on the culture of coastal urban areas.

It is written in the Elodian alphabet, a bicameral script ultimately related to other ancient scripts of Asia Minor like the Lydian alphabet.

Miscellanea

(This section exists mostly as a placeholder for "interesting things" about the language to justify the existence of this page, until I write the full phonology, morphology, syntax sections.)

Proto-Elodian underwent a change similar to Grimm's Law in Proto-Germanic or even closer to the one in Proto-Armenian; however, it did not affect labiovelars. The most strikingly Elodian correspondence is PIE *t > Elodian l, through an intermediate *ð stage.

The endonym ɂelodi is from PIE *h₁léwdʰis.

Most letters have their IPA values, except c /tʃ/ j /dʒ/ ng /ŋ/, ǝ /ɛ/, ṛ /ɽ~ɻ/, š /ʃ/, o /ɔ/. Long vowels are marked with a macron.

Morphology

Nouns

Elodian nouns decline for six cases: nominative-absolutive, ergative, accusative, dative, equative and locative, with a seventh one, the genitive, still found in some relic uses. Nouns are categorized according to the ending of their citation form (nominative-absolutive singular) and the corresponding oblique form, i.e. the stem to which the case endings are added. The PIE inflection system, overall, has been simplified, although the stem/ending combinations maintain a certain degree of complexity.

Pattern	Nominative/Absolutive	Oblique	Notes
Masculine
I	-∅	-∅-
II	-a	-o-	No longer productive
III	-ē	-or-	Same as feminine pattern II
IV	-i	-i-	Moderately productive (borrowings ending in voiced obstruents)
V	-o	-u-	Not productive per se, limited to a few nouns (e.g. hūlo "son", šargo "lion") and the derivational suffix -aždo.
Feminine
I	-ā, -īa	-eh-V, -ā-C (-īeh-V, -īa-C)	-īa nouns are borrowings
I-b	-ā	-ǝt- or -at-	Arabic nouns in tāʾ marbūṭah. In contemporary Elodian these nouns generally follow pattern I, except in compounding.
II	-ē	-or-	Same as masculine pattern III
III	-ī	-ih-V, -ī-C
IV	-ū	-uh-V, -ū-C	No longer productive
Neuter
I	-e	-i-
II	-u	-o-
III	-o
IV	-mā	-mon-
V	-mo	-mot-	Greek nouns in -μα(τ-)
VI	-nē	-ni-	Mostly collectives

The following table shows the case endings. The ergative and accusative singular forms vary depending on whether the stem ends in a consonant or a vowel (feminine patterns I, III and IV use the prevocalic form here); the locative singular is generally -hu, with -šu depending on the preceding sound (historical RUKI law). In the nominative-absolutive plural -i is for masculine and feminine nouns, while -ā for neuters; -ī is exclusively used for masculine pattern IV. The equative, a distinctive trait of Elodian, is likely an influence from Hurrian or a lost Hurro-Urartian language.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative-absolutive	--	-i (-ī) / -ā
Ergative	-š, -eš	-ex
Accusative	-w, -o	-ā
Dative	-ē	-(o)bo
Equative	-(e)ɂār	-(o)bīṛ
Locative	-hu / -šu	-ēšu
Genitive (relic)	-ay (masculine) -ē (feminine) -i (neuter)	-ow

The predominant use of the genitive today is not syntactical, but merely as a derivational element forming nominal compounds. Its use in marking possession has been completely taken by the particle twe, which declines according to the gender of the possessed noun: twe is the masculine singular form; twā the feminine singular; tō the neuter singular; twī masculine and feminine plural and tā neuter plural.

Articles

The articles in Elodian are lu, la, ot for the singular (m/f/n) and li, lē, lā for the plural. Despite the similarities, the Elodian articles are false cognates of the common Romance ones; on the other hand, they are cognates with the accusative forms of the Ancient Greek article. All inflected forms (except for nominative-absolutive and accusative) are new formations in Elodian, not inherited from PIE.

Elodian definite articles

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	lu, l'	la, leh'	ot, t'	li	lē	lā
Ergative	luš	lāš	loš	lūx	layx	lōx
Accusative	lu, l'	la, leh'	ot, t'	li	lē	lā
Dative	luē	lehē	loē	lubo	lābo	lobo
Equative	luɂār	lehār	loɂār	lubīṛ	lābīṛ	lobīṛ
Locative	lušu	lāhu	lohu	lūšu	layšu	lōšu
Genitive (relic)	lūy	lehē	lōy	lūw	lāw	lōw

Demonstratives

The two demonstratives used in contemporary Elodian are proximal sī, sīa, sīt and distal nū, nūa, nūt. Except for the nominative-absolutive and accusative forms in both the singular and plural, the others are synchronically formed from the articles and a prefix:

Elodian proximal demonstratives

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	sī	sīa	sīt	sēli	sīhe	sīa
Ergative	seluš	selāš	seloš	selūx	selayx	selōx
Accusative	sī	sīa	sīt	sēli	sīhe	sīa
Dative	seluē	selehē	seloē	selubo	selābo	selobo
Equative	seluɂār	selehār	seloɂār	selubīṛ	selābīṛ	selobīṛ
Locative	selušu	selāhu	selohu	selūšu	selayšu	selōšu
Genitive (relic)	selūy	selehē	selōy	selūw	selāw	selōw

Elodian distal demonstratives

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	nū	nūa	nūt	nōli	nūhe	nūa
Ergative	noluš	nolāš	nološ	nolūx	nolayx	nolōx
Accusative	nū	nūa	nūt	nōli	nūhe	nūa
Dative	noluē	nolehē	noloē	nolubo	nolābo	nolobo
Equative	noluɂār	nolehār	noloɂār	nolubīṛ	nolābīṛ	nolobīṛ
Locative	nolušu	nolāhu	nolohu	nolūšu	nolayšu	nolōšu
Genitive (relic)	nolūy	nolehē	nolōy	nolūw	nolāw	nolōw

History and vocabulary

Elodian is an isolate among the broader Indo-European family, although many Elodian linguists, in line with common nationalist claims, propose the existence of an Elodian-Anatolian grouping. While this hypothesis is generally refused due to phonetics, non-Elodian linguists still point out that Elodian and the Anatolian languages, particularly the Luwian subgroup, have a set of so-called "shared archaisms" not found in other IE languages: the consonantal reflexes of laryngeals are one (even though Elodian preserves all three laryngeals as consonants in the onset - more consonantal reflexes than all Anatolian languaes), but often cited are the lexical ones, with Elodian roots often having meanings closer to Anatolian than to languages elsewhere in the Indo-European world (e.g. manim "I see, I watch" (< *men(h₂)-mi), cf. Luwian manā-ti), or shared lexical items, particularly with Luwic (e.g. hūrgmā "wheel" < *h₂wérg-mṇ, cf. Hittite ḫūrkis; ɂodwāha "person" < *h₁ṇdʰwéh₂ōs, cf. Hitt. antuwaḫḫaš; siw "and" < *ḱe-?, cf. Lycian B sebe, Carian sb; hūlām "I live", cf. Luwian ḫuit-, Lycian B qid-, Carian qt-; fun "all", cf. Luwian pūna-, Lycian B puna-, Carian pñ-). Many shared lexical items with Anatolian languages are, though, probably borrowings.

While the IE origin of Elodian is today undisputed, it is to be noted that Hurro-Urartian and languages of the Caucasus definitely had a marked influence over Elodian, as shown by the development of split ergativity.

The history of Elodians has had a major impact on the vocabulary of their language, having lived for millennia at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and having been subjects of multiple foreign powers. A sizable amount of the Elodian lexicon is composed of foreign loans, sometimes integrating borrowed morphemes in the morphology (as with certain Arabic and Greek nouns), nevertheless, the vast majority of loanwords is considered to be fully integrated in the language, as all of them are fully transcribed into the Elodian script and, with the exception of a few proper nouns, all of them are transcribed as pronounced in Elodian and adapted to fit native morphology.

The share of loanwords is not uniform: the vast majority of them, in all stages of the language, are nouns, with a smaller number of borrowed adjectives with no corresponding noun. Borrowed verbs are few and rare, as Elodian has only two suffixes that form verbs from other parts of speech (-ez-ām and -haz-ēm, originally two contextual variants of the same PIE root), already attested in the very first Elodian attestations in the 6th century CE; even those suffixes generally stopped being productive by the 15th century, replaced in productivity by compound verbs, with new compound verbs sometimes even replacing full verbs; the verbal part of compound verbs, which contributes little meaning of its own, is nearly always a native root. Verbal roots loaned from other languages are even rarer and all of them date to the prehistory of the Elodian language, being generally of Hurro-Urartian, Akkadian or Kartvelian origin. Moreover, loanwords are not evenly distributed in terms of frequency; all function words are native, inherited from Proto-Indo-European, as are many of the most commonly used words, so that the most basic forms of the language contain mostly native roots. However, very basic words are not always native, sometimes due to semantic drift that has caused loanwords to fit into the other meaning. Almost as a counterpoint to basic words being mostly inherited roots, words such as those for "man" and "woman" are borrowings (from Hurrian and Byzantine Greek respectively - but see below for the latter) and nearly all Elodians carry given names that are borrowed: most of them from Middle Persian, Armenian or Kartvelian languages, while Western names are typically borrowed through Medieval Greek or through Ligurian; Islamic theophoric names are borrowed from Arabic.

The most ancient layer of loanwords dates back to Elodian prehistory, and it is probably the most represented layer of loanwords in non-technical speech. Such words date back from the arrival of Elodians in eastern Anatolia up to the first few centuries AD (roughly up until the influx of Christianity shown by Aramaic loanwords and the Parthian period); prehistoric loanwords generally include words of multiple origin: Akkadian, Hurro-Urartian, Anatolian, Proto-Iranian, Hattic, Kartvelian or from other Caucasian languages. Nearly all of the proposed etymologies attributed to these languages belong to (or originally entered the language in) the semantic fields of animals, plants, agriculture and early technology; see e.g. šorōn "cat", lešp "honey", notwāx "knife", osmon "oil" (all from Akkadian), neht "bed", norāt "pomegranate", waṛā "countryside" (from Hurrian), hēr "road", ebēnā "country" (from Urartian), zižǝn "smile", ğuygā "juniper", šewnī "beautiful", somlart "medlar", toğoy "mouse" (all with proposed Kartvelian cognates), žūto "owl", božāmā "wasp", xafrōšā "butterfly", loncā "maple", yǝyjā "ash" (all of likely Northwest Caucasian origin, especially with cognates in Ubykh and Abkhaz), as well as toponyms (the name Fulahmīwā of the capital city of ʔelodīhūto has been traced back to Hattic goddess Furušemu) and other proper nouns (as with the names of the first six planets, excluding Earth, also found in the names of the days of the week due to interpretatio Elodica, which are likely Akkadian-mediated loans of ancient Mesopotamian words). A few dozen words are categorized as unspecified Iranian loans, either early loans from Proto-Iranian or mediated by other unidentified languages, cf. gōbām "I read", calīr "splendour" (likely from *ćriHrás and therefore cognate with Sanskrit śrī), xašrā "world", sūftā "milk", possibly mirǝ̄jē "rice". As shown by gōbām, prehistoric loanwords include loaned verbal roots, something not found at any other stage of the language.

The largest share of loanwords into Elodian comes from Persian, including words borrowed from Parthian and Middle (Sasanian) Persian, Classical Persian, and a very small number of words from contemporary Iranian Persian. Persian words are found in every semantic field, including everyday words (cǝtor "umbrella", obēl "necessary", pahrest "list, menu"); words related to general urban life (šahr "city", bandar "port", doftar "office", moydān "square"), knowledge and literature (nāmē "book", lānešn "knowledge", cāmē "poetry"); agriculture and food (, bālong "wine"), as well as more abstract concepts (owlēn "doctrine", kārfron "hero", lēnā "religion"). More abstract concepts, ethnonyms, and Islam-related words come from Arabic, but in vast majority of cases they entered Elodian through Persian (with partially Persianized phonology), so that they are often considered among Persian loanwords; such words include e.g. farīk "group, unit, section", haylā "family", harzi "latitude, parallel" and tūl "longitude, meridian", nesf "hemisphere", ɂentefāzā "rebellion", sāhebi "companion, colleague", seyǝ̄sā "politics".

Dating back to the first millennium CE are also likely most Armenian loans, which also cover many semantic fields, but more everyday words than Persian loans (except a few Parthian- or Sasanian-era loans). Armenian loans include even common verbs such as gurēm "I write" and sirēm "I like", but also words such as ōrēn "law", tolay "boy", nošan "mark, token, code", oromp "javelin, bullet", parew "hello", daktex "bell pepper". Also dating back from those times (around the earliest attestations of Elodian) are the Aramaic loans, introduced alongside Syriac Christianity and generally limited to that semantic field (or originally from it, later extended to more broad usage), such as kodīš "saint", ināš "human", pošītā "Peshitta (more generally the Bible for any Christian denomination)", Išoh Mošiho "Jesus Christ", but there are also words not strictly related to Christianity such as lap "paper", tewfā "box" or sfentā "ship".

Greek loanwords belong to two layers: an earlier one with more varied semantic fields (falem "room", ninfā "woman", kal "jar", līlā "afternoon", kurfā "helmet", sotālo "stadion; (colloquially) two hundred meters") and a later one, generally used in scientific terms, but using a sound correspondence that hints to the original (ancient) loanwords (epatā "hallucination", linosawr "dinosaur", owtomot "ATM" (mediated from German)).
During the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, and - with few sporadic exceptions - up to 1971 the language of the ruling economical (and most recently political) élite was Ligurian, and many words entered Elodian from it, either from the more "rural" variety closer to Intemelio of most settlers, or from the more "refined" speech closer to Genoese of the élite. Many of these relate to administration or commerce (palāng "money", dyugangā "customs", awǝntaji "profit, gain", bitēgā "shop", mazanggīng "warehouse", purpuzisyung "bill (legislation proposal)"), nautical terms (bekezi "pitching"), but also quite a few general words (bunamang "tip (monetary)", cǝ̄w "OK", turna "again") and some foodstuffs (galetā "(salted) biscuit", pǝrbujūng "pasta- or dough filling from mostly spontaneous herbs, or a vegetable soup").

Words from other languages - mainly Turkish, Russian, French, more recently English - are rarer.

Throughout the 20th century and particularly since the Emancipation - the ethnic riots of 1969-1971 which terminated the de facto hegemony of Pontic Ligurians over the country and led to the appointment of the first ethnically Elodian head of state in recorded history - newly coined Elodian words and particularly calques have been the predominant form of enriching the language's lexicon: over 90% of new entries in Elodian dictionaries since 1980 have been calques, either partial or complete. Some calques are new coinings (cf. xazi rasmok "comic", calque of Fr. bande dessinée, or suhitmā "committee, council", a calque of Greek συνέδριον), while some are meaning extensions of preexisting words (sometimes loans), e.g. moydān "square > forum" robbān "(ship) captain > Internet browser". There are also a few phonosemantic matches such as bǝndǝ̄dā "band-aid", the first part of which is from English band- while the matching part corresponds to the ending of zemǝ̄dā "bandage".

Colors

Colour	Noun	IPA	Prototypical example
Black	xǝršon	[xɛr’ʃɔn]
Blue	sōm, kownī	[so:m], [kɔw'ni:]
Light blue	fīrūzi	[fi:'ru:zi]
Brown	donew	[dɔ'new]
Gray	hafrā	[haf'ra:]
Green	jelf	[dʒelf]
Yellow	bītǝr	['bi:tɛr]
Orange	donul	['dɔnul]
Pink	bulbī	[buɮ'bi:]
Red	cǝtil	[tʃɛ’til]
Violet	orğoban	[ɔr’ɣɔban]
White	swīl	[swi:l]

Texts

Schleicher's Fable (La mewsā siw li ɂešuki)

ʔešuki omanyor 'mīš mewsāš ene mēnā hangolnā lāo. Hǝngeš 'mī orikā longgīkā elēgo; hǝngeš 'ng longt xoštār obǝro, siw hǝngeš 'ng turǝniš obǝro ɂelenge.

Olā lāš mewsāš lubo ɂešukobo: «Mǝk sǝrteɂuš momš felte gārohezām pota manim 'ngo turǝnišo ene tē ɂešukobo tūxin gāde.»

Olā lūx ɂešukex lehē mewsehē: «Herɂ, ō mewsā! Dī sǝrteɂux dongox felte gārohezāmo pota sī manmo: 'ng turǝniš, lu foli, lehē hangolnehē twā mewsā mey 'ngo raxto for hiwoē purin gāde. Siw la mewsā mēnā hangolnā lāo.»

Su hiwoē sī herɂā, la mewsā mey 't fetinino obūko.

/'ʔeʃuki ɔ'maɲɔr mi:ʃ 'mewsa:ʃ ene 'me:na: 'haŋɔlna: 'la:.ɔ/ /'hɛŋeʃ mi: ɔ'rika: lɔŋ'gi:ka: e'le:gɔ . 'hɛŋeʃ ɔŋ 'lɔŋt xɔʃ'ta:r ɔ'bɛrɔ . si(w) 'hɛŋeʃ ɔŋ tu'rɛniʃ ɔ'bɛrɔ 'ʔeleŋe/

/ɔ'la: la:ʃ 'mewsa:ʃ lubɔ 'ʔeʃukɔbɔ . mɛk 'sɛrteʔuʃ 'mɔmʃ 'felte ga:rɔhe'za:m 'pɔta 'manim ɔŋɔ tu'rɛniʃɔ ene 'te: 'ʔeʃukɔbɔ 'tu:xin 'ga:de/

/ɔ'la: lu:x 'ʔeʃukex lehe: 'mewsehe: . 'herʔ . o: 'mewsa: . di: 'sɛrteʔux 'dɔŋɔx 'felte ga:rɔhe'za:mɔ 'pɔta 'si: 'maŋmɔ . ɔŋ tu'rɛniʃ . lu 'fɔli . lehe: 'haŋɔlnehe: twa: 'mewsa: mej ŋɔ 'raxtɔ fɔr hi'wɔ.e: 'purin 'ga:de . si(w) la 'mewsa: 'me:na: 'haŋɔlna: 'la:.ɔ/

/su hi'wɔ.e: si: 'herʔa: . la 'mewsa: mejt feti'ninɔ ɔ'bu:kɔ/

See also

• Lifashian