Grekelin
| Grekelin | |
|---|---|
| Γρεκελένικην, Ά γνύjα Γρεκελένικην | |
| Pronunciation | ['ɣnʊd͡zə ɣr̥ɛkɛ'lɛnikin] |
| Created by | Aggelos Tselios |
| Date | 2023 |
| Native to | Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia |
| Ethnicity | Greeks |
| Native speakers | approx. 50-100 thousand (2023) ({{{date}}}) |
Early forms | |
Standard form | Standard Grekelin (Βαsκή Γρεκελένικην)
|
Dialects |
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| Official status | |
Official language in | Csongrád-Csanád |
| Regulated by | Grekelin Language Administration |
Grekelin (Autoglossonym: Ά γνύjα Γρεκελένικην, pronounced: /ɑ 'ɣnʊd͡zɑ ɣr̥ɛkɛ'lɛnikin/, lit. "The Grekelin language") is a Hellenic language with strong Hungarian influence. Grekelin split from Medieval Greek around the 12th century with the mass settlement of Hungary by Greek refugees, and has since then split for more than 9 centuries from Greek.
As a related language to Greek, Grekelin shares with Greek multiple features although it remains more conservative than Standard Greek. However the language has become an SOV one (As opposed to most Indo-European languages which are SVO) due to extensive Hungarian influence. It's vocabulary has almost mostly remained Greek however Hungarian words can be found often in the language. Grekelin is the most isolated Hellenic language currently in the entire world, with about 1200 kilometers of language seperation.
Etymology
Grekelin comes from the Urlogrok word *Groko, which means Greek. The suffix -lin comes from Proto-Grekelin "Ελλήν" which is the ethnonym for the Greeks. Another legend says that Grekelin was a very old Slavic word to describe the Greeks of the Black Sea, during the Kievan Rus times. It appears that the surname Grekelin exists in Ukrainian and Belarusian (Грекелін).
Alphabet and Orthography
The Grekelin alphabet consists of 28 letters, six of which are vowels and 22 are consonants.
| Letters of the Grekelin alphabet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Αα (/ə/) | Ββ (/v/) | Бб (/b/) | Γγ (/ɣ/) | Δδ (/ð) | Дд (/d/) | Εε (/ɛ/) | Ζζ (/zʲ) | Θθ (/tʰ/) | Ιι (/j/) | Ηη (/i/) | Κκ (/k/) | Λλ (/l/) | Μμ (/m/) | Νν (/n/) | Ξξ (/ks/) | Οο (/ɵ/) | Ππ (/p/) | Ρρ (/r̥/) | Σς (/s/) | Ss (/ʃ/) | Jj (/d͡z/) | Ττ (/t/) | Υυ (/ʊ/) | Φφ (/pʰ/) | Χχ (/kʰ/) | Ψψ (/ps/) | Ωω (/ɔː/) |
The letters correspond always to their pronunciation. The Grekelin orthography is considered a phonetic, as opposed to deep orthographies like French's.
In addition, the following digraphs are used within the language:
| Digraphs in Grekelin orthography | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ει (When behind a consonant or ο, it makes the /ji/ sound) | Κχ (Makes the /ɟkʰ/ sound) | Γγ (Makes the /ɡ/ sound) | αυ (Makes the /ɔ/ sound) | ζζ (Makes the /ʐ/ sound) | |
Vowels are split into long and short vowels. Longer vowels are always stressed, whereas short vowels may or may not be stressed. One exception is (ι) which can never be stressed. The short vowels are ι, υ, ο and the long vowels are ω, ε, α, αύ and η.
The Grekelin orthography was reformed recently, as part of a larger reform within the conlang. As a result, some texts that preexisted on the internet may not comply with the modern form of the language.
Grammar
The grammar of Grekelin is generally very simple and consistent. It is very conservative compared to Greek (Or dialects of it).
- Grekelin has two articles, ά and έγυ. ά becomes έ (Remnant of Greek genders) if the subject or object ends with -ή.
- Grekelin has also lost it's grammatical genders, although traces of it still remain in the language. The loss of articles was seen during the shift to Proto-Grekelin, which did not distinguish inflections as much as Greek, leading to gender endings merging together.
- Fusional verb inflection for person, number and tense.
- Grekelin has 4 cases: Nominative, genitive, accusative and vocative. In the Slavic dialect, another case persists from Proto-Grekelin, the dative case:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | (Ά) γνύjα | (Ά) κεγνύjεκ |
| Genitive | Γνυjηή | Κεγνυjηήκ |
| Accusative | Έξ γνύjα | Έξ κεγνύjηηκ |
| Dative | Γνυjαδύ | Κεγνυjαδύ |
| Vocative | Ώ γνύjαε | Ώ κεγνύjεκ |
Geographic Distribution and Demographics
Grekelin today has about 50 thousand speakers, spread out all across Central Europe. Out of them, 28.000 lived in Hungary, another 16.500 live in Serbia or Greece, and 15.500 live in Slovakia or Ukraine (Carpathia). It forms the majority language in villages of North Banat and some spread out parts of Slovakia and Ukraine. It forms a significant language in Hungary and is also spoken in Greece, primarily from learners. Generally, its speakers are considered of Greek descent or natives of the land they live in, adopting Grekelin as their language. The populations of Serbia and Slovakia speak the Slavic dialect whereas the Hungarian and Greek populations speak the Standard dialect.
Stress
Grekelin does not have any rules on the stress placement. The stress may go on any position unless the final vowel is doubled, where the stress is automatically passed there. The stress may be indicated with an accute accent ('), except for longer vowels which have to use a circumflex. Grekelin has a stress accent, although some users of the Slavic dialect use a pitch accent.
The standard Grekelin dialect makes stressed syllables have longer length, a remnant of the Classical Greek vowel length feature. Slavic Grekelin instead makes all the phonemes have the same length.
Words
Conversation
| English (Εκχλέζεκην) | Grekelin (Γρεκελένικην) | Pronunciation (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Νέ | /nɛː/ |
| No | Ού / ύ | /ʊː/ |
| Of course! | Φιjή! | /pʰj'd͡ʒiː/ |
| Hello! | Jόβορζζο (Formal) / Γειά! (Informal) | /'d͡ʒoːβor̩ʐo/ /ɣjɑː/ |
| How are you? | Χτέ έςτε? | /pɛ 'ɛːstɛ/ |
| Good morning! | Jό ρεκχέτι! | /d͡zoː r̩ɛ'ɟkʰɛːti/ |
| Good night! | Jό νικτρά! | /d͡zoː njk'tr̩ɑː/ |
| Have a nice day! | Είς jόδιλα σεί! | /jis 'd͡ʒoːðjlɑ sjɪ/ |
| Goodbye! | Βιςοντλατάsρα! | /visontɭa'tɑːʃr̩a/ |
| I love you | Αγαπό σεί | /aɣa'poː sjiː/ |
| Please | Κερμό σεί | /kɛr̩'moː sjiː/ |
| Thank you! | Κέsενμε! | /'κɐːʃɐnme!/ |
| Who? | Πκιός? | /pkjoːs/ |
| What? | Τί? | /tiː/ |
| When? | Πόθε? | /ˈpoːθɛ/ |
| Where? | Χτέ? | /ˈkʰteː/ |
| How? | Πώς? | /ˈpoːs/ |
| Why | Jατιέ? | /'d͡ʒjaːʈɛ/ |
| Again | υγρά | /ʊɣˈrɑː/ |
| What is your name? | Τί έςτα ά νόμα σεί? / Πώς έςτα νόμα ςεί? (Informal) | |
| My name is... | Νόμα μεί εςτά ...' | |
| This is... | Δάβτο έςτα... | /ˈðaːβto ˈɛːstɑ/ |
| Yes, I understand. | Νέ, μέκχερτο. | |
| I do not understand. | Ού μεκχέρτο. | |
| Do you speak English? | Ρελαλίτε είς Εκχλέζεκιν? | |
| I do not understand Grekelin. | Ού μεκχέρτο γνύjα Γρεκελένικην | |
| Help me! | Βοήθια! | |
| You are right/wrong! | Έςτε σωστάν/λαθκάν! | /ɛsˈtɛː sosˈtɑːɲ/ or /ɛsˈtɛː lɑtʰ/ |
| What time is it? | Τί κρόνι έςτα τώρα? | /ʈi 'kr̩oːni 'eːsta toːr̩a/ |
| How much is it? | Τίμη? | /ti'mɪː/ |
| The study of Grekelin sharpens the mind. | Μάθκηση Γρεκελενικηή πειά ά νύ κοβτόερτα. | /'maːθkisi ɣr̩ɛkɛlɛːni'kjiː pjɑː α nʊː koβʈoˈɛːr̩ta/ |
| Where are you from? | Χτέ έςτε έξ? | /pɛː ɛːstɛ ɛːks/ |
| I like ... | Αρέςκομο είς ά ... /ɑr̩'ɛːskomo jiːs aː/ |
Dialects
Grekelin has two dialects, depending on where each is spoken. These are the Slavic and Urlogrockae dialects.
Slavic
The Slavic ("Διαλέκτα Σλαβήν", "/ðʝa'lɛkta sla'vin/" or "/ðʝa'lʲekta slaviŋ/") dialect can be distinguished by some certain features that aren't present in Standard Grekelin:
- Skipping of the verb "to be" (έςτ') in the present tense (Τάν έςτα' εγύ βλεμινή -> Τάν' έγυ βλεμινή), if the subject can be assumed.
- The letter "υ" represents the "ɨ" sound instead of the "u" one, when stressed.
- Borrow of Slavic words instead of using Grekelin ones (Ά κάρκα -> Ά στύλα).
- Preserving the dative case (Είς ά μήρα -> Μηραηδύ) (NOTE: The dative case fixes the stress on the last syllable, which must be an ύ).
The Slavic dialect is spoken fluently in the Vojvodina region of Serbia, where it is flourishing as a local language. It is also spoken by a tiny community living in Slovakia (Jέρνα).
Urlogrockae
The Urlogrockae ("Υρλoγρέκελην", /urle'ɣrɛkelin/ dialect is the one used as the standard language. It's closer to Hungarian when it comes to phonetics but closer to Greek when it comes to orthography. Key features of this dialect, compared to the Slavic one and mainly to other languages like Hungarian and Greek are:
- Skipping the final vowel in pronounciation, if it's a short one (υ or ι).
- "E" does not use the Proto-Grekelin "/e/" sound but the Urlogrok "/ε/".
- /k/ instead of /s/ as the final letter in the plural.
- Higher effect of soft and hard Tsitakismos (/j/ becomes /d͡ʒ/, /k/ becomes /t͡s/, etc), similar to multiple Greek dialects.
- Many voiceless consonants become voiced when unstressed
Western (Extinct)
A more archaic and richer dialect is Western Grekelin. While not as diversified as the Slavic dialect, it remains a very interesting dialect. Some features include:
- /o/ becomes /u/ when unstressed
- Softening of /s/ and /k/ into /ʃ/ and /x/ respectively
- Preservation of the final /s/ (Which was lost in the other dialects) as a softer /ʃ/, except for the plural: Standard /oˈr̩ɑˑnɑ/ (αυράνα) and Western /oˈr̩ɑˑɳoʃ/ (αυράνοs)
- Preservation of the dative case (Different from the one in Slavic Grekelin). The dative case of this dialect remains from Attic Greek whereas Slavic Grekelin invented it due to excessive Slavic influence.
This dialect went extinct in the 18th century, being replaced by Standard Grekelin.
Example texts
Basic sentence
English
I would like a coffee and biscuits, thank you.
Grekelin
(Γρώ) θήλκω εγύ καφέ κιά κέбισκότηκ, jόμο.
Lord's prayer
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