TolsienS
Introduction
TolsienS is one of several versions of Tolsian,and at the time of its creation was meant as a definitive standard. According to documentation :
Tolsian is a Romance language, though it is not written with the Latin alphabet. However, the Tolsian script is largely derived from the Latin and Greek alphabets. Syntax and conjugation are very close to those of the French language. However, the phonology is quite different from other Romance languages. The lexicon is mostly of Latin origin, with influences from other European languages, especially English. Tolsian has been evolving for many years before getting to this current "standardized" stage. Its alphabet has been through two main graphical periods, and has had several different versions, that we will assume to be regional variations. The conjugation has also changed a lot over time, becoming more complex. However, just like this standardized Tolsian will leave behind many archaisms, so will it leave behind some grammatical innovations that are deemed unnecessarily complicated. Two main criteria are being considered in order to establish this standardized version of Tolsian : persistence over time of a given grammatical phenomenon, and how consistent it has been (this is meant to be a standardization of modern Tolsian). However, all other forms of Tolsian will stay a part of it.
Phonology
Consonants
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p b | t̚ t d | k g | ||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ β | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ ɧ̙ʷ | χ ʁ | h | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | ʀ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approx. | l | ||||||||||||||||||
| Prenasalised occlusives | ᵑg |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | u | |||||
| Close-mid | e ø | o | |||||
| Open-mid | ɛ (œ) ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | |||||
| Open | ä | ɑ̃ |
Orthography
Alphabet
TolsienS uses the Tolsian script, but it has a matching romanization :
Y y /jo/ /ɔj/
À à /aj/
à ã /ja/
A a /a/
B b /b/
Q q /ʃ/
D d /d/
E e /e/ ; Ê ê /ɛ/ ; Ë ë /ø/ (/œ/)
G g /g/ ; É é /ᵑg/ ; È è /ɲ/
H h /h/ or unpronounced
I i /i/
Ð ð /ð/ ; J j /ʒ/
K k /k/
L l /l/
M m /m/
N n /n/
O o /o/ or /ɔ/ ; Ô ô /o/
P p /p/p ; Æ æ /ɸ/
R r /ʁ/
C c /s/ ; S s /θ/
T t /t/ ; Þ þ /t̚/
U u /y/
V v /v/ ; F f /f/
W w /wi/
Z z /z/
Ä ä /ɑ̃/ ; Ï ï /ɛ̃/ ; Ö ö /ɔ̃/
Û û /u/
X x /χ/
Ü ü /bʁa/ or /bɾa/
Ñ ñ /ŋ/
Ç ç /ɧ̙ʷ/
Ù ù /β/
====Spelling rules====
Several diacritics are used in the original script, and the romanization tries to match it with the following rules :
- So-called diphtongs, better described as approximant + vowel or vowel + approximant, are written with the help of a tilde diacritic between and another vowel (to denote /j/) or <o> (or possibly <û>) and another vowel (to denote /w/). For example :
<poem>
i~e /je/
ê~i /ɛj/
o~a /wa/
a~o /aw/
- The tilde diacritic is also used after a vowel to indicate that it is a long vowel : a~ /a:/.
- The phoneme /ʀ/ is written r°.
- A so called "weakening accent" used in the original script to "weaken" a sound (usually making it unpronounced) is romanized with a ^ written after the letter.