Scellan/Sketchbook

Scellan/Sketchbook (English: /bɪˈneɪkiən/) is a southern Talmic language descended from Thensarian. The phonology is inspired by Ashkenazi Hebrew and Portuguese.

Historical phonology

• p t c > b d g (like Spanish)
• -φ- vanishes
• b d g often lenites to v z Ø
• str > sr
• Stress shift: non-initial stressed vowels are marked with acute accent
• How does Benocian borrow Windermere words?
• 1: cêƞ /kɛ̃/
• 2: têxôr‚ têx /tes/
• 3: nâge
• 4: lov
• 5: orv
• 6: cuv
• 7: xol
• 8: zic
• 9: ad
• 10: gar
• 11: vem
• 12: clut
• nis = not
• a = and

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n~l/		n [ŋ]
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/ tx /ts/	ŧ /t͡ʃ/	c /k/		(ȝ /ʔ/)1
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/		g /g/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	x, ss /s/	s /ʃ/	ch /x/
	voiced	v /v/	z /z/	j /ʒ/		l, ħ /ʁ~h/
Approximant			r /r/

¹ Silent in everyday speech.

In addition, the letter h is used as a silent letter.

Borrowing Windermere consonants

• m n ng → m n n
• b d g → b d g
• p t c ' → p t c ȝ
• ts tł → tx ŧ
• f th ch → f~v x~z ch
• s ł ș h → x s s ħ
• w r y l → v r j l

Vowels

Bênôcian has 7 basic vowels: /i u e ø o ɛ a/.

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (oral)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i /i/			u /u/
Near-close	[ɪ]	[ʏ]	[ə]
Mid	ê /e/	ô /ø/		â, o /o/
Open	e /ɛ/	[ɞ]	a /a/

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (nasal)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close
Near-close	iƞ /ɪ̃/			uƞ /ʊ̃/
Mid	êƞ /ɛ̃/	ôƞ /œ̃/	[ə̃]	âƞ, oƞ /ɔ̃/
Open			aƞ, eƞ /ɐ̃/

Vowel reduction

Vowels are reduced in unstressed syllables.

Phoneme	Reduced
/i/	[ɪ]
/u/	[ʊ]
/e/	[ɪ]
/ø/	[ʏ]
/a/	[ə]
/ɔ/	[ə]
/ɐ̃/, /œ̃/	[ə̃]
/ɛ̃/	[ɪ̃]

Borrowing Windermere vowels

Windermere vowels

a e i o u y 〈a e i o u ü〉 → a e i o u i

iə eə uə oə yə 〈ie ea ua oa üe〉 → ia ea ua oa ia

ə 〈ă〉 (in unstressed syllables → a

Stress

In this article, stress is marked with an acute accent; stress marking follows the same rules as in Portuguese.

Orthography

Scellan/Sketchbook orthography is fairly conservative compared to its pronunciation.

Morphology

Nouns

The masculine and feminine genders in Thensarian has collapsed into the common gender.

The definite article is eƞ.

Declension paradigms

A common noun:

mâro 'tree'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	mâro	mấrois
Construct	mâroz	mấrous

i-stem neuter

veles 'name'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	veles	veliƞ
Construct	velez	velius

Consonant-stem neuter

stus 'fire'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	stus	stuƞ
Construct	stuz	stuus

Neuter: stus, stur = fire

Neuter: teŧas, teŧar = child

Gender of borrowed nouns

Foreign nouns are usually assigned gender according to animacy: animates become common nouns, and inanimates become neuter nouns.

Declension of borrowed nouns

Loans ending in unstressed vowels

ilsa 'eagle' (common)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	ilsa	ílsais
Construct	ilsaz	ílsaus

acla 'sugar' (common)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	acla	aclaη
Construct	aclaz	áclaus

Loans ending in stressed vowels

amré 'demon' (common)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	amré	amréis
Construct	amréz	amréus

xra 'chord' (neuter)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	xrá	xrais
Construct	xraz	xraus

Loans ending in consonants

nuxíad 'doctorate' (common)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	nuxíad	nuxíadis
Construct	nuxíadiz	nuxíadius

tarxíad 'school' (neuter)
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	tarxíad	tarxíadiƞ
Construct	tarxíadiz	tarxíadius

Verbs

Bênôcian verbs are significantly simpler than Thensarian verbs, though the multiple infinitives of Thensarian have survived.

Present indicative

Person	tôssânâ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenâ "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	elinâ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssânâ	torenâ	elinâ
2SG	tôssâr	torer	elir
3SG	tôssâ	tore	el
1PL	tôssáƞs	toréƞs	elíƞs
2PL	tôssấc	toréc	elíc
3PL	tôssâ	tore	el

Past indicative

Person	tôssânâ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenâ "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	elinâ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssâz	torez	eliz
2SG	tôssâi	torei	elii
3SG	tôssâso	toreso	eliso
1PL	tôssáƞr	toréƞr	elíƞr
2PL	tôssâcer	torecer	elicer
3PL	tôssâso	toreso	eliso

Present subjunctive

Person	tôssânâ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenâ "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	elinâ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaj	torej	elij
2SG	tôssare	torere	elire
3SG	tôssor	torior	elior
1PL	tôssante	torente	elinte
2PL	tôssace	torece	elice
3PL	tôssor	torior	elior

Past subjunctive

Person	tôssânâ "I invoke" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	elinâ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssấzoƞ	tórezoƞ	elizoƞ
2SG	tôssấzor	tórezor	elizor
3SG	tôssấzo	tórezo	elizo
1PL	tôssâzóƞs	torezóƞs	elizóƞs
2PL	tôssâzóc	torezóc	elizóc
3PL	tôssấzo	tórezo	elizo

Future

The future tense is ergative; it is derived from Thensarian lē + present participle (cf. German, where zu + active participle is the gerundive).

Li harai haη de tarsíad.

He will go to school.

Li cassis eη glexanos tri nâ.

I will eat the potato.

Future participle of cassiη 'eat'
	Singulative	Plurative
Common	li cassi	li cassiƞ
Neuter	li cassis	li cassir
Construct	li cassiz	li cassius

Infinitives

The Thensarian -s infinitive has been lost; the present subjunctive is used instead, as in Arabic or Greek.

• Jozanâ rê êstiaj slâma. = "I want to feel good."
• Nis joza haη rê haror de tarsuz cresiη. = "He doesn't want to go to school today."

An infinitive: tôssâgos (used in nominalized clauses)

• Carsais tôssâgos. = "It is exhausting to cast spells./Invocation is exhausting."

Another infinitive: tôssav (used with prepositions such as gil and de)

• drếvior haη gil cássiviz haη = "He avoided eating it."

Derivational morphology

		From...
		Noun	Verb	Adjective or Determiner	Adverb
To...	Noun	-veη, -veniη (agentive)	-veη, -veniη (agentive)
	Verb
	Adjective or Determiner
	Adverb				-

Syntax

Bênôcian syntax is VSO.