Sähsch

Revision as of 06:52, 26 July 2015 by Ceige (talk | contribs) (Added "Phonological History of Sähsch" under grammar and above Example Texts)


Sähsch is a Germanic-based constructed language. Made by Ceige, it has previously been know by various names before, with various orthographies. Sähsch in its current incarnation is an attempt to consolidate previous versions of the language with a new and better balanced phonology, and discard features outside its scope. In-universe, it's speakers are largely European, and one could interpret the language and its culture as a reflection, parody, or idealisation of Northern continental Europe from the eyes of a descendent of its emigrants.

Introduction

Real world History

Phonology

Orthography

The Sessian orthography uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics such as the diaresis, popularly known as the umlaut.

Consonants

Labial Dento-Alveolar Post-Alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosives & Affricates p d t d tʃ (dʒ) k g
Fricatives f v s z ʃ (ʒ) h
Nasals m n ŋ
Liquids l r

Vowels

Phonemic Monophthongs

Front Central Back
High i i: ü ü: u u:
Mid e e: ö ö: o o:
Open ä ä: a a: å å:

Diphthongs

Some dialects have /ai/ and /au/ instead of /i:/ and /u:/, or in addition to them. Other dialects produce diphthongs from /e:/ and /o:/.

Phonetic Realisations

The underlying phonemic symmetry is often broken by the dialects of the language, including the standard language. Several popular processes underway which cause this include:

  • "Vowel Breaking" (diphthongisation)
  • U-Fronting / U-Ü Merger (/u:/ and new diphthongs containing /u/ have this element centralised to /ü/)
  • New diphthongs include /ou/ from /o:/, as opposed to the older /au/ from /u:/
  • L-Vocalisation (sequences of a vowel followed by L result in a velarisation of the vowel)

In the Lowlands dialect, the following broadly described phones in the table below are generally produced by the underlying phonology of the language. The split between realisations reveals the presence of sub-dialects within the Lowlands dialect.

The Highlands dialect is affected less by diphthongisation but has very consistent U-Fronting in /u:/ and has completed the /i:/ and /u:/ diphthongisation process, unlike the Lowlands dialect where speakers still have a very old split on the issue.

Lowlands

Underlying Phoneme Realisation
a ɑ̈
a: ɑ̈:
ä [e̞ ~ ɛ]
ä: [e̞ɪ ~ ɛɪ] or [ɛ:]
å [o̞ ~ ɒ]
å [o̞:], or [o̞ü]
e [e̞ ~ ɛ]
e: [e̞ɪ ~ ɛɪ], or [ɪi ~ i: ~ e̞]
i [ɪ]
i: [äɪ], or [ɪi: ~ i:]
o [o̞]
o: [o̞ü ~ ɔü], or [ɔʊ ~ u: ~ o̞:]
ö [ə]
ö: [ə:]
u [u ~ ʊ ~ ü]
u: [äʊ ~ äu] or [ʊ̈ü ~ ü: ~ u:]
ü [ü ~ ʊ]
ü: [ʊ̈ü ~ ü: ~ y:]

Highlands

Underlying Phoneme Realisation
a ɑ̈
a: ɑ̈:
ä [e̞ ~ ɛ]
ä: [e̞:]
å [o̞]
å [o̞:]
e [e̞ ~ ɛ]
e: [e̞:]
i [ɪ]
i: [äɪ]
o [o̞]
o: [o̞:]
ö [ə]
ö: [ə:]
u [u ~ ü]
u: [äʊ]
ü [ü ~ ʊ]
ü: [ü:~ y:]


Prosody

Sähsch uses stress to identify words rather than pitch or tone, which are instead used suprasegmentally in intonation (although stress can also be used for intonation too at the sentence level).

Stress

Stress is almost always on the first syllable of a root. Prefixes are generally unstressed except for emphasis. The main exception to this rule is where long vowels are involved, as they are almost always stressed (primary, secondary, tertiary etc). This resulted from unstressed long vowels first being eliminated, and then being repropagated throughout the language again with compounding and loanwords.

Romance and Latinate loanwords are renown for having final or penultimate stress in the language.

Intonation

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Phonological History of Sähsch

Example texts

Other resources