Thrichian
PREFACE
Thrichian is a fictional language developed by myself, intended to be spoken by the race of people in the province of Thrichia, Lizge. Thrichian is a priori language, meaning that it is not connected in vocabulary or grammar to any living language. This does not mean, however, that there have not been real-world influences on the sounds and tendencies of the language. To name a few, the rhythm and consonant clusters were influenced by Northern Sami, while the stress-timed nature of syllables and reduced high schwa vowel are derived from European Portuguese. Finally, the slender-broad distinction in consonant pronunciations, as well as the consequent velarization of plosives and use of switch vowels, is inspired by Irish Gaelic. Despite many real-world inspirations having guided the language, all the words used in Thrichian have etymologies within the fictional world of Eytha. Although in modern Eytha, technologies such as the telephone, motor vehicles and computers exist, the names of these things are not derived from English, as many real-world languages tend to do. This book is a guide for learning and understanding the complexities of the phonology, orthography, syntax and morphology of the language, in a way that is comprehensible to someone who is familiar with linguistic terms. Prior general linguistic knowledge is necessary to understanding the resources within this book. However, concepts which are not present in English or commonly studied real-world languages are explained. Thrichian’s status throughout Antannuon extends only within the province of Thrichia itself. Outside of it, the language is regarded as vulgar or uncouth by the Lizgese of other provinces and by the peoples of Ifyria and Vemvor to the North and East. Thrichian natives are subject to prejudice and marginalization. They are disliked by Ifyrians and Vemvic for their association with the Lizgese whose conquest has been to wage war against the Isiat Alliance for traditional lands. The former range of Thrichian extended much further than its current geography. Before the unification of Imperial Lizge and its totalitarian regime, Thrichia was a sovereign state which traded often with the West Vemvic state of Wællor. This book details the modern Thrichian language as it is spoken by the characters in Antannuon.
Welcome!
Damhá!
PHONOLOGY
The Thrichian Alphabet contains 30 letters. Accented vowels count separately from their unaccented counterparts. The acute accent in Thrichian represents stress and is sometimes used to distinguish between to homonyms such as nu [nʊ] also and nú [nuː] word.
VOWELS
Aa /a/
Áá /a/
Ee /ɛ/ or /j/ between vowels or between consonant and stressed vowel
Éé /e/
Ėė /ɜ/ or silent
Ëë /æ/ or /e/ for some speakers
Ii /i/ or /ɪ/ unstressed
Íí /i/
Oo /ɒ/ or /ɞ/ unstressed
Óó /ɒ/
Uu /u/ or /ʊ/ unstressed
Úú /u/
1. Accented vowels are used to distinguish between diphthongs and switch vowels. They indicate stress as well as length. All vowels except for /ɞ, ʊ, ɪ, ɜ/ can be long or geminal when their orthographic representation is an accented vowel in a syllable which would already receive stress in the word. For example, páhtta has a long /ˈpaːʰtːa/ while pahttá does not /pahˈtːa/. Some nouns when pluralized will gain stress for this reason: alíg /aˈlig/ while alígas /aˈliːgaʃ/. Though the spelling doesn‘t change, lengthening occurs because in the second word, the extra syllable means the stress will fall on the penultimate li.
2. Accented vowels are counted as separate because they distinguish words like icastan (unrelenting) and icastán (disrespectful) or a critical distinction heloban (beautiful) and héloban (disastrous). The latter of these examples is a difference in pronunciation indicated, not in stress, as the pattern stays the same but the vowel is raised.
icastan /ɪˈkaʃtan/ icastán /ɪkaʃˈtan/ heloban /ˈhɛlɞban/ héloban /ˈhelɞban/
3. Switch vowels e, a are used to change the pronunciation of a consonant from slender to broad and vice versa.
4. Every vowel has an innate triggering quality, meaning that they trigger a preceding vowel to be pronounced either slender or broad. Vowels i, e, í, é, ë trigger slender pronunciations, while a, á, o, ó, u, ú, ė trigger broad.
5. Letter ė is only pronounced between three or more consonants which are difficult to pronounce together, it is mostly reduced to silent or a very short schwa /ɜ/
6. Diphthongs and triphthongs are always smooth and syllabic.
7. /a/ and /ɒ/ become /aʊ̆/ and /ɒʊ̆/ before /v/ or /f/ + consonant such as in davcig /ˈd̥aʊ̆v̥t͡siɣ/
8. /iɜ/ in stressed position becomes a lengthened vowel /ɪ:/ for some speakers, especially in the word Thriehčču.
| VOWELS | Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | i | u | |||
| near-close | e | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| mid | ɛ | ɜ | ɞ | ||
| near-open | æ | ɒ | |||
| open | a |
| CONSONANTS | broad | slender | word-final |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bb | /b/ | /pɣ/ | - |
| Cc | /k/ | /ts/ | /k/ |
| Čč | /tʃ/ | /tʃ/ | /tʃ/ |
| Dd | /d/ | /tɣ/ | /d/ |
| Ff | /f/ | /f/ | - |
| Gg | /g/ | /kɣ/ | /g,k/ |
| Hh | /h/ | /h/ | - |
| Kk | /k/ | /k/ | /k/ |
| Ll | /l/ | /ʎ/ | /l/ |
| Mm | /m/ | /m/ | /m/ |
| Nn | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /n/ |
| Ŋŋ | /ŋ/ | /ŋ/ | /ŋ/ |
| Pp | /p/ | /p/ | /p/ |
| Rr | /ʀ/ | /ʀ/ | /ʀ/ |
| Ss | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /s,z,ʃ,ʒ/a. |
| Tt | /t/ | /ts/ | /t/ |
| Vv | /β/ or /w/ | /v,f/ | /v,f/ |
| Zz | /z/ | /ʒ/ | /z,ʃ,ʒ/ |
a. the second of the word-final pronunciation is for when the following word begins with a voiceless consonant.
b. /s/ before broad vowel /z/ before slender vowel /ʃ/ before voiceless consonant /ʒ/ before voiced consonant.
c. the consonants l and n only take on their slender forms when it is indicated with a switch vowel. Thus, the verb ni is phonetically /ni/ while alinneani is /aˈliɲːanɪ/.
d. /v/ is pronounced /f/ when before voiceless consonants in clusters such as vč /ftʃ/ it is pronounced with rounded lips in these scenarios when it appears after /u/ as in luvthu /ˈlufwθʊ/
1. The fricative /h/ is labialized as /hʷ/ when adjacent to the vowel /u/ such as in seúhkki /ʃuːhʷkːɪ/. It is palatalized /hj/ when adjacent to the vowel /i/ such as in nihtna /nihjtna/.
2. The allophones /w/ and /β/ usually appear depending on speaker. Some speakers will say /win/ for mhain, while some will say /βin/. However, in cases where it follows /u/ it will always be /w/ such as in lámhėn /lauːn/ (also realized as /laːw(ɜ)n/).
3. Voiced plosives in Thrichian are often semi-voiced or voiceless, while their ‘voiceless’ equivalents are often aspirated. Thus, bes (mast) and pes (five) are realized as /pɛʃ/ or /b̥ɛʃ/ and /phɛʃ/.
4. /kɣ tɣ pɣ/ are realized with brief velarization of the release. This is done by drawing the bridge of the tongue towards the back palate. This is not done in unstressed syllables.
5. nasal consonants /n, m, ŋ/ cause the vowel /ɪ/ to be raised /i/ as in dálin /daːlin/.
6. Geminate consonants are only distinct intervocalically. Word-finally, though they are represented orthographically, they do not register, making tavvė and tavė homophones /tav/
Notice that throughout this grammar the pronunciations for b, d, g appear as /b d k/ broad and /pɣ tɣ kɣ/ slender. However, this may be realized as /p t k/ OR /b̥ d̥ g̥/ unaspirated broad and /pɣ tɣ kɣ/ velarized slender, while p, t, k spellings have aspirated voiceless plosives /ph th kh/. This aspiration is most prominent in Hiannása, the Northern Dialect. In the South, most speakers voice b, d, g and do not aspirate p, t, k. For this reason, the grammar sometimes displays Northern pronunciations and sometimes South. There is no standard and variations differ only slightly between /b > b̥ > p > ph/. The two in the middle are used interchangeably. The chart below helps illustrate the uses and pronunciations of each.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| graded | β | iriguban | ð | míreada | ɣ | balagí |
| voiced | b | buor | d | dú | g | guohcea |
| half-voiced | b̥ | bisavdu | d̥ | dalgi | g̥ | gahíru |
| velarized | pɣ | bírea | tɣ | díu | kɣ | gími |
| voiceless | p | puonen | t | tazga | k | coahppa |
| aspirated | ph | páhtta | th | tárėhpi | kh | kien |
This table shows all the plosives in every Thrichian dialect. The Northern Dialect uses the half-voiced, velarized and aspirated ones, as well as the graded when they follow an unstressed vowel. The Southern Dialect uses the voiced, velarized and voiceless sets. Now, the same set of example words from the table are shown below in their dialectal pronunciations:
Thrichian word - Hiannása - Kuhtása
iriguban [ɪˈɾig̥ʊβan] [ɪˈɾigʊban]
buor [b̥ʊɞɾ] [bʊɞɾ]
bisavdu [b̥ɪˈsɒăvd̥ʊ] [bɪˈsaʊ̆vdʊ]
bírea [pɣiːɾʲa] [pɣiːɾʲa]
puonen [pʰʊɞnɛn] [pʊɞnɛn]
páhtta [pʰɒăʰtːa] [paːʰtːa]
This shows that in Hiannása, b, d, g have each 3 allophones and p, t, k have each 1 pronunciation. In Kuhtása, b, d, g have each 2 allophones and p, t, k have each 1 as well.
Consonants in Thrichian can have several different pronunciations depending on their location and environment within a word. Broad pronunciations occur before a/o/u and slender pronunciations occur before e/i/ë and they can be either before ė. If the letter ė appears as a result of conjugation or noun declension, it assumes the slenderness or broadness of the vowel it was replacing. For verbs, that is usually a slender vowel; for nouns, that is usually a broad vowel.
Slender pronunciations of consonants tend to follow one of two rules: either they are palatalized or velarized. When the consonants b, d, g are slender in stressed syllables, they become velarized, meaning the lips are pursed upon release and the tongue is drawn back to make a velar approximant. It is important to make the distinction between velarization, involving the back of the tongue and the lips, and labialization, involving only the lips. When n, l, s, z are slender, their place of articulation gets drawn backward in the mouth and becomes postalveolar (s > ʃ, z > ʒ) or palatal (n > ɲ, l > ʎ). Generally, slender consonants move backward in the mouth from their broad equivalents, due to the shape of the mouth when producing the close-front vowels ë, i and e.
The slender/broad distinction extends beyond the boundaries of words. For example, most often the digraph mh can appear at the end of a word where it is usually pronounced [u] however, when the following word begins with i/e/ë it can be pronounced as [v] and before a voiceless consonant it can be [f / v̥]. Another example of environments extending beyond word boundaries is të mhė máhtė ná / tu máhtė ná? meaning do you love me? The IPA transcription for this phrase is [tu.ma:ht.na] The silent letter ė stands between the digraph mh and the consonant m, meaning they are treated as though they were together. Mh in mhė is pronounced [v] most of the time but since, phonetically, it appears before a consonant, its broad pronunciation is used. Switch Vowels, used to change the pronunciation of a consonant, appear in words like geahta [‘kɣahta]. We know the g is slender because an e comes after it to signify that it is. The e here is silent. Sometimes what can appear to be a switch vowel is indeed pronounced, such as in caiman [‘kai.man]. Slender pronunciations of b, d and g appear only in stressed syllables. However, if it is indicated with a switch vowel, an unstressed syllable can be slender. Thus, mandea [‘mantɣa] but gedin [‘kɣedin]. In the second instance, we see the d which, before i, would normally be slender, is broad. While the g in gedin is in the stressed syllable and so it is slender.
Sometimes, spelling of words includes two switch vowels, one to signify the slenderness or broadness of the original word, then a second which becomes silent because it was maintained as part of the suffix. For instance, seain [ʃin] is the allative form of si whose stem is sea-. The first e is a switch vowel, indicating that the s should be pronounced in its slender form [ʃ] while the a is pronounced in the root. Once the suffix -ain is added, it preserves the root, instead of removing the a since the vowel i triggers the slender pronunciation, thereby making the s [ʃ] rendering the spelling sin. Thus, seain has two switch vowels, which appear redundant, in that they switch twice between slender and broad.
INHERENCY
All Thrichian consonants have an inherent form which appears before another consonant. For many, this is the broad form, but for Ss, its inherent form is the slender /ʃ/. The same thing is true to Vv and Zz whose inherent forms are /v/ and /ʒ/. The inherent forms of consonants are often used to determine which pronunciation will be used before the letter ė as it can evoke either broad or slender. If the ė is present as a result of conjugation or noun declension, it will follow the pattern of the former vowel. Sometimes, it is used to correct a slender pronunciation of s, v or z before another consonant, or to make a compound. In these cases, it triggers a broad pronunciation, as it is silent. For example, the word issėti is pronounced /is:tsi/ and not /*iʃ:tsi/ in this case the vowel is used to distinguish from the inherent tendency of the s to be pronounced /ʃ/.
The letters k, c, t create a continuum among themselves, where any can represent a sound made by the one to their immediate left or right. K can represent /k/ while c can represent /k/ or /ts/ and t can represent /ts/ or /t/. Their inherent broad pronunciations remain distinguishable k > /k/ c > /k/ t > /t/. It is not too dissimilar to the pronunciations in English of the letters s, c, k, q. The reasoning for the existence of two consonants representing the sound /k/ is that, in Old Thrichian, an affricate consonant /kx/ existed, represented by the character c. This later merged with /k/ but was maintained in writing for distinction and ease of transcribing dialects where the merger had not yet occurred. Now, however, the affricate /kx/ is completely lost.
DIGRAPHS
| broad | slender | word-final | |
|---|---|---|---|
| zg | /ʒ/ | /ʒ/ | - |
| gz | word-initial form of zg. | - | - |
| mh | /β/ or /w/ | /v/ | /u/ or /v/ |
| th | /ð,θ/ | /ð,θ / | /ð,θ/ |
| hv | /hw/ or /xw/ | /hv/ or /xf/ | - |
| ht | /ht/ or /xt/ | /hts/ or /xts/ | - |
| ėmh | /u/ | /uv/ | /u/ |
| rr | /ʀ/ | /ʀ/ | - |
Thrichian allows for trigraphs involving preaspiration (h-) before voiceless plosives. Nasal consonants can also come after these digraphs, assimilating in place of articulation with the plosive. These consonant clusters are as follows.
| single | geminal | with nasal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| p | hp | hpp | hpm |
| t | ht | htt | htn |
| c | hc | hcc | hkŋ |
| k | hk | hkk | hkŋ |
| č | hč | hčč | - |
When these clusters go through the consonant gradation process, the preaspiration changes to /v/. The nasal clusters change to (hpm > vvm, htn > vvn, hkŋ > vvŋ) The vv in these clusters is geminal. Preaspitation can also occur word-initially, such as in htán, meaning young. When this occurs, the word is only aspirated if the preceding word ends in a vowel. In isolation, many speakers would say /ta:n/ for htán.
STRUCTURE OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS
In Thrichian, rules exist as to which consonants can follow, or be adjacent to, which others in clusters. Clusters can contain up to three consonants: an onset, core, and release. Thrichian sorts consonants into three categories: level-1 2 and 3. L1 consonants are nasals /n, m, ŋ/ while L2 consonants are glides and fricatives /h, s, z, ʃ, β, ʒ, f, v, w, j, r/ and L3 consonants are plosives and affricates /p, t, k, ts, tʃ/ Of these, L3 and /v/ can be geminal in clusters.
a. Onsets can be of an equal or lower level than their core. For example, fricative-plosive is permitted, while plosive-fricative is not.
b. The core must be the highest-level consonant in the cluster. These are usually plosives, but not always.
c. The release can be a semivowel or a nasal. There does not always have to be a release. They usually appear at the end of the stressed syllable of a root word like gëhkŋi. This word is an example of one which contains an onset h – L2, a core k – L3, and a release ŋ – L1. The pattern for triphthong structure can be memorized as 2-3-1
Sometimes consonant clusters are broken up with the schwa vowel ė. Of course, in colloquial language, this letter is not pronounced, allowing for pronunciations like /ɪˈgʊɞ̆hrtsa/ for iguohėrtea, which is counted as three syllables, not four. In the northern dialect, the presence of h can cause the adjacent consonant to become voiceless. Thus, lihtėli becomes /lihtl̥i/. This means that /r/ and /l/ have voiceless allophones, which also appear next to any voiceless consonant, such as in Thriehčču /θr̥iɜ̆htʃu/ or arcėrkámin /ar̥tsr̥ˈka:min/
Because of the schwa, it would appear that clusters consisting of more than 3 consonants are permissible, but this is not the case. These clusters are treated as separate syllables, the coda being a syllabic consonant. In the afforementioned example arcėrkámin, the second r acts as the coda for the second syllable. The word is still broken up into its syllables ar+cėr+ká+min but the second syllable, cėr, only consists of voiceless consonants /tsr/.
Many words which have three syllables when properly enunciated, are reduced to two syllables in the colloquial. An example is čúrėmla which becomes /tʃu:rmla/. This syllable structure is very common in basic Thrichian words. The first is long, the second a schwa, and the final is short. Doarėhkku /ˈdɒăr̥hk:u/ is another example of this. Words tend to assimilate to this form, in that the first syllable is long and emphasized and the second or last is reduced, such as with dársa /ˈda:rsa/.
Consonant clusters ht, hc, hč can be realized by some speakers as /sts, sts, ʃtʃ/ when slender and at the beginning of a word, as in htímh /stsi:v/.
PHONOTACTICS
Thrichian is a stress-timed language. The maximum syllable capacity is shown below, where C = consonant, V = vowel, G = glide. In this model, a geminal consonant is counted as one, as well as digraphs like th, mh which represent one phoneme. (C)(G)V(V)(CC) ie.: hkuaippu – dinner /hkwaip:u/
1. digraphs count as single consonants in this model, making possible syllables such as mhainth /winθ/ – our (dual)
2. any consonant can be geminal (held for twice as long)
3. only voiceless plosives and /v/ can be preaspirated (h-)
Consonant clusters which are permitted:
1. s + plosive
2. l, r, v + plosive, nasal or fricative
3. h + plosive or v
4. h + plosive + nasal
5. n + alveolar plosives or k, f, v, l
6. m, ŋ + plosives or l
7. kt, pt, thr, rst
- ė is pronounced if any of these rules appears broken between or within words. Some speakers may insert this same schwa sound between consonants which are difficult to pronounce, even if there is no ė in the written form.
- the only clusters of more than two consonants that is permitted, not including h-clusters, is rst.
STRESS
Stress in Thrichian always falls on either…
1. the first syllable, then every other consequent syllable
TAguBUONac
PAImheaGÍ
2. a syllable with a digraph or accented vowel
HAmuSTÁN
paLÁS
3. stress always skips over the vowel ė
RUANlėSIÁN
NUOrėvDAIN
Each diphthong is treated as a single syllable. Even triphthongs such as uoi and uai. Stress is highly dependent on how much phonetic information is being conveyed per syllable. If one syllable contains more phonemes than another, it will be stressed. The above rules work for words which are ambiguous, either unaccented or do not have diphthongs to signal the stressed syllable. Distinguishable from stress in Thrichian is rhythm, which involves for how long one must hold a sound. This duration of articulation is important for consonants, as it distinguishes between words such as anuogí (vocabulary) and annuogi (to frighten). Vowel length is also discernable in monosyllabic words such as nu/nú. The vowel in the second nú is held twice as long as in nu. Stress must be taken into account when silent ė is written. In the spoken language, often a short time is elapsed to suggest the presence of ė even though it is inaudible. In the compound buolėmhaesta (folk song) the ė causes a very brief pause or extension in the pronunciation of the l to indicate itself. To non-native speakers, the pause is often indiscernable, thus it is used as a gauge for fluency. In pronunciation, opening diphthongs are simplified when they are no longer on a stressed syllable, due to conjugation or inflection. For example, the name of Thrichia, Thriehčču becomes Thriehččása, meaning Thrichian Language. In the second example, due to the accented á, the diphthong ie simplifies in pronunciation to i. [ˈθɾiɜhtːʃʊ > θɾihˈtːʃasa] This same process applies to uo>wo, oa>wa, ea>e.
DIPHTHONGS
Thrichian diphthongs are mostly opening, not closing, by frequency. This means they start with a close vowel and end on a more open vowel (i>e) Closing diphthongs are few. Only five naturally occur /au, ai, ei, oi, ui/ and of those six, only one is common and not a result of conjugation and declension: /au/. If two vowels appear next to each other creating a diphthong which has not been listed above, it is most likely that the first vowel is a switch vowel and not pronounced, or in instances of vowel+mh, the mh is pronounced [v] Naturally occurring opening diphthongs are /ie, ea, uo, oa, ia, ua, ue/ These can lead to triphthongs with the addition of -i or -u. Diphthongs commonly seen are /uai, iau, oai, uei/ Triphthongs beginning in u are considered to start with the semivowel /w/ as well as those beginning in i to be /j/.