Ris
- πρανάσση, ἄι ουαθά πανἂννη!
- pranássē, hai ouathá panā́nnē!
- Remember: You walk with your feet!
Ris | |
---|---|
Rhánzi ris | |
Pronunciation | [/ˈr̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/] |
Created by | – |
Native to | Italy, Cyprus; Sicily |
Native speakers | 301,486 (2012) |
Menmer languages
| |
Early form | Proto-Men
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | ri |
ISO 639-2 | ri |
ISO 639-3 | qhr |
Ris is my attempt to unite the sketchy constructed languages of mine; those lost forever in incomprehensible grammar, unsatisfying aesthetics and cumbersome phonologies. They stand united by the one shared feature - their relationship to the Greek language; my greatest influence no matter the language.
The Ris language, ῤάνζι ρις /r̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/, is a language isolate, and is thus not known to be related to any extant language. Ris has a normal-sized inventory of consonants and a fair amount of allophony. It is a fusional language and is morphosyntactically active-stative and with a fluid subject. The morphology is evenly split between nominal and verbal inflections.
Background
The Ris language, ῤάνζι ρις /r̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/, is a constructed language, but does have a fictional background set in the real world. It is spoken on Sicily and on Cyprus and has about 300,000 native speakers. Or 1. Depends on how you count.
Phonology
Consonants
The following is the inventory of consonants in the Ris language. There are 18 contrastive consonants.
Consonants | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bilabial | Denti-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
plain | whispered | |||||||
Nasals | plain | m /m/ | n /n/ | [ŋ] | ||||
Plosives | aspirated | ph /pʰ/ | th /tʰ/ | kh /kʰ/ | [ʔ] | |||
unvoiced | p /p/ | t /t/ | k /k/ | |||||
voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | g /g/ | |||||
Fricatives | unvoiced | s /s͎/ | h /ç ~ x ~ h/ | |||||
voiced | z /d͡z ~ d͡z͎ ~ z ~ z͎/ | [ʝ] | ||||||
Trills | aspirated | r /r̥ʰ/ | ||||||
voiced | r /r/ | |||||||
Approximants | ou /w/ | |||||||
Laterals | l /l ~ ʎ/ |
Consonant allophony
Allophony is common to many consonants, and sandhi forces them to be realised different in different environments.
The glottal fricative
The phoneme /h/, the so called glottal fricative, is in free variation with the unvoiced palatal fricative /ç/ as well as the unvoiced velar fricative /x/.
ἒτροι | ||||
hétroi | ||||
/ˈhɛtrɔɪ̯/ | = | /ˈxɛtrɔɪ̯/ | = | /ˈçɛtrɔɪ̯/ |
---|---|---|---|---|
normal, okay |
The velar fricative is the most common one, but the phones are all affected by palatalisation from front vowels, producing the palatal fricative [ç].
ὒο | ἢστιμι | |||||
hýo | hḗstimi | |||||
/ˈhʉ̩.ɔ/ | = | [ˈhʉ̩.ɔ] | /ˈheːs͎tɪmɪ/ | → | [ˈçeːs͎tɪmɪ] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
to leave .ind.m. | pride .f |
Palatalisation
Palatalisation occurs due to two main factors:
- Internally: Front vowels tend to palatalise preceding consonants if the syllable is stressed.
- C[-pal, -rhotic, -appr] → C[+pal, -rhotic, -appr] /_V[+front, +stress]_
- Externally: A final near-close near-front vowel, /ɪ/, palatalises the initial consonant of the following word.
All consonants but the rhotic trills and the labio-velar semivowel are affected.
Plain | /m/ | /n/ | /p | /t/ | /k/ | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /kʰ/ | /s/ | /z/ | /h/ | /l/ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Palatalised | [mɲ] | [ɲ] | [pj] | [t͡ʃ] | [c] | [bj] | [ɟ] | [ʝ] | [p] | [t] | [k] | [ʃ] | [ʒ] | [ç] | [ʎ] |
ρἂκι | τή | ἢστιμι | τί κατεράσχοι | |||||||||||
rā́ki | tḗ | hḗstimi? | tí kateráskhoi? | |||||||||||
/ˈrakɪ/ | → | [ˈracɪ] | /ˈteː/ | → | [ˈt͡ʃeː] | /ˈheːs͎tɪmɪ/ | → | [ˈçeːs͎tɪmɪ] | /ˈtɪ katɛˈraskʰɔɪ̯/ | → | [ˈt͡ʃɪ catɛˈraskʰɔɪ̯] | |||
root .in.gen | how | pride. .f.pat | Where did I write it? |
Phonological processes
Vowels
There are 7 vowel phonemes in the Ris language. In Ris, the system of vowels are known as ptḗgna i rháki - 'the hollow triangle', due to their symmetrical places of articulation.
Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | short | y /ʉ/ | ||||
long | ȳ /ʉː/ | |||||
Near-close | short | i /ɪ/ | ou /ʊ/ | |||
long | ī /ɪː/ | ou /ʊː/ | ||||
Close-mid | ē /eː/ | ō /oː/ | ||||
Mid | ||||||
Open-mid | e /ɛ/ | o /ɔ/ | ||||
Near-open | ||||||
Open | short | a /ä/ | ||||
long | ā /äː/ |
Orthography
Ris is primarily written in the Latin alphabet, but the original alphabet was in fact Greek. In its classical and modern form, the alphabet has 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega; or ai mḗ otḗma in Ris. The below table shows the two alphabets and the Ris names for the letters, as well as the pronunciation in Standard Ris and the colloquial Ouis dialect.
Orthography | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greek | Latin | Pronunciation | |||
Ris | Ouis | ||||
Α α | άλπα | A a | ai | /a/ | |
Β β | βήτα | B b | bou | /b/ | /β/ |
Γ γ | γάμμα | G g | gou | /g/ | /ɣ/ |
Δ δ | δέλτα | D d | da | /d/ | /ð/ |
Ε ε | έψιλαν | E e | egnás | /ɛ/ | |
Ζ ζ | ζήτα | Z z | za | /d͡z ~ d͡z͎ ~ z ~ z͎/ | |
Η η | ήτα | Ē ē | etḗma | /eː/ | /eɪ̯/ |
Θ θ | θήτα | Th | tha | /tʰ/ | /θ/ |
Ι ι | ιότα | I i | iou | /ɪ/ | |
Κ κ | κάππα | K k | kau | /k/ | |
Λ λ | λάπτα | L l | la | /l/ | |
Μ μ | μύα | M m | ḗma | /m/ | |
Ν ν | νύα | N n | ḗna | /n/ | |
Ξ ξ | ξία | X x | ḗxa | /ks͎ ~ gz͎/ | |
Ο ο | ομίκραν | O o | ognás | /ɔ/ | |
Π π | πία | P p | pau | /p/ | |
Ρ ρ | ρὸ | R r | ría | /r/ | |
Σ σ ς | σίγμα | S s | sa | /s͎/ | |
Τ τ | τάυ | T t | tau | /t/ | |
Υ υ | ύψιλαν | Y y | hytḗma | /ʉ/ | |
Φ φ | φία | Ph | pha | /pʰ/ | /f/ |
Χ χ | χία | Kh | kha | /kʰ/ | /x/ |
Ψ ψ | ψία | Ps | ḗpsa | /ps͎/ | |
Ω ω | ώμεγα | Ō ō | otḗma | /oː/ | /oɪ̯/ |
Diacritics
The Ris alphabets, both the Latin and Greek one, use a few different diacritics to modify the pronunciation. There are five diacritics that mark the following:
- A stressed vowel in a syllable.
- A long vowel in a syllable.
- An aspirated vowel; preceded by /h/. Can also mark the phoneme /r̥ʰ/.
- A stressed, aspirated vowel.
- A long, aspirated vowel.
The use of aspiration here does not refer to the co-articulating process, but rather that the vowel is preceded by an /h/, a "glottal fricative".
Stressed vowels
Stressed vowels are marked with an acute accent, <´>, in the Latin script. In the Greek alphabet, the diacritic is the acute accent as well, only slightly different; <΄>. These mark that the syllable with the vowel is to be stressed, and thus articulated stronger, than other syllables.
File:Greek acute.png | File:Greek grave.png | File:Latin eta.png |
Acute | Grave | Eta |
File:Greek asper.png | File:Greek asper acute.png | File:Latin eta acute.png |
Spiritus asper | Asper acute | Eta acute |
Long vowels
Long vowels are vowels pronounced vowels articulated for a longer period of time. These get a grave accent in the Greek alphabet, <`>, and a macron in the Latin script, <¯>. Long vowels grave accent in the Greek script when stressed. In the Latin alphabet, however, the stressed long vowels get a second acute accent above the macron, < ̄́>.
As previously mentioned, all vowels can be long vowels, but there are two vowels that change their quality when elongated; the /ɛ/ and /ɔ/. These are raised to /eː/ and /oː/ respectively. In the Latin script these are marked as expected, <ē> and <ō>. However, in the Greek script, they are replaced by the letters eta <η> and omega <ω> respectively.
Aspiration
Aspiration, when a vowel is preceded by /h/, is marked by a so-called dasia in the Greek script, <῾>. In the Latin manner of style though, the letter <h> precedes the vowel, as it does phonetically.
In the Greek script, the dasia can be combined with the acute and grave accent, producing <῞> and <῝>.
Morphology
Nominal
Declension
Animate marked collective | |||
---|---|---|---|
ma.an | gýtē - fish | ||
singulative | dual-collective | plurative | |
Patientive | gýtē | gytḗn | gytḗr |
Agentive | gytḗr | gytḗrne | gytḗra |
Dative | gytḗs | gytḗnse | gytḗi |
Instrumental | gytḗn | gytḗnne | gytḗs |
Genitive | gýtēa | gýtēan | gytēái |
Locative | gýtēia | gýtēian | gýtēiar |
Vocative | gýta | gýtan | gytár |
Samples
- thýo hā́ katḗrrazas
- tḗ rhánzatha
- gytḗra ouārathí ērikí
- inḗ gýtē mna.
- Atḗ, inḗ gytḗn ~ Atḗ, inḗ gýtē ne!