Atlantean

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Atlantean
Dig Adlantisag
Pronunciation	[diɡ ɑdlɑntisɑɡ]
Created by	Marc Okrand
Date	1996–2001
Setting	2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and related media
Native speakers	none ({{{date}}})
Language family	constructed languages artistic languages fictional languages Atlantean
Sources	constructed languages  A posteriori languages
Language codes
ISO 639-3	none
Glottolog	none

The Atlantean language, (Dig Adlantisag) is a constructed language created by Marc Okrand for the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The language was intended by the script-writers to be a possible "mother language", and Okrand crafted it to include a vast Indo-European word stock with its very own grammar, which is at times described as highly agglutinative, inspired by Sumerian and proto-languages.

Introduction

The Atlantean language is a historically constructed, artistic language put together by Marc Okrand for Disney's 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media. The Atlantean language is therefore based both on historic reconstructions as well as on the elaborate fantasy/science fiction of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire mythos. The fictional principles upon which the Atlantean language was created are: Atlantean is the “Tower of Babel language”, the “root dialect” from which all languages descended; it has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., within the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present.

To accomplish this, Dr. Okrand looked for common characteristics from various world languages and was also heavily inspired by the Proto-Indo-European language. His main source of words (roots and stems) for the language is Proto-Indo-European, but Okrand combines this with Biblical Hebrew, later Indo-European languages such as Latin and Greek, and a variety of other known or reconstructed ancient languages.

Phonology

Orthography

Atlantean has its own script created expressly for the movie by John Emerson with the help of Marc Okrand, and inspired by ancient alphabetical scripts, most notably Semitic. There are, however, different kinds of transliteration into the w:Roman script.

thumb|The Atlantean script and numerals There is no punctuation or capitalization in the native Atlantean Writing System. Okrand based this on ancient writing systems. The Atlantean Script is normally in w:boustrophedon, that is to say it is written left to right for the first line, right to left the second, and left to right again the third, to continue the pattern. This order was also suggested by Okrand, based on ancient writing systems, and it was accepted because, as he explained, "It's a back-and-forth movement, like water, so that worked."

The Atlantean script includes more characters than are actually employed in the language itself. These letters being c, f, j, q, v, x, z, ch, or th, they were created so that Atlantean might be used as a simple cipher code in the media and for promotional purposes. They are all also based on diverse ancient characters, just like the rest of the alphabet.

Consonants

IPA chart of Atlantean consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar
Plosive	p   b	t   d			k   ɡ
Nasal	m	n
Fricative		s	ʃ <sh>		x <h/kh>
Approximant				j <y>		w
Trill		r
Lateral		l

Where symbols occur in pairs, the left represents the w:voiceless consonant and the right represents the w:voiced consonant.

Vowels

Atlantean's phonetic inventory includes a vowel system with five w:phonemes. Most vowels have two prominent allophonic realizations, depending on whether it occurs in a stressed or unstressed syllable.

IPA chart of Atlantean vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	Tense	Lax	Tense	Lax	Tense	Lax
High	i	ɪ			u	ʊ
Mid	e	ɛ			o	ɔ
Low			a	ə

Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, /i/ is realized as /i/ or /ɪ/ in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, /e/ is realized as /e/ or /ɛ/, and so on. There are three diphthongs, namely ay, ey, oy.

Aside from the stressed-syllable-based vowel system, the only other example of prominent phonological phenomenon seems to be a special kind of w:sandhi occurring in verbs, when the pronoun is combined with the aspect marker.

When the suffix for the first person singular -ik combines with tenses that employ -i, -o (Past and Future tenses), it becomes -mik.

bernot-o-ik → bernot-o-mik

But when combined with suffixes that feature -e (Present tenses), the same suffix becomes -kik.

bernot-e-ik → bernot-e-kik

Grammar

Atlantean has a very strict w:subject–object–verb word order, with no deviations from this pattern attested. Adjectives and nouns in the genitive case follow the nouns they modify, adpositions appear only in the form of w:postpositions, and modal verbs follow the verbs that they modify and subsequently take all personal and aspectual suffixes. However, adverbs precede verbs. The language includes the use of an interrogative particle to form questions with no variation in word order.

Some sentences appear to employ some kind of particles sometimes termed "sentence connectors". These particles are of obscure meaning but are theorized to relate two clauses in a logical yet idiomatic manner. The exact meaning and usage of these particles is not known, but without them sentences are difficult to reconcile with their translations.

Example:

Wiltem neb gamosetot deg duweren tirid.

city-acc dem see-pres-3rd.sg part outsider-pl all.

No outsiders may see the city and live. But more literally: "He sees the city particle all outsiders."

In the example above there is no actual mention of the consequences for outsiders, yet the subtitle in the movie translates it as a warning even without any mention of living or dying. A possibility exists that, in order to match the lip movement of the characters in the movie and the time of the dialogue, the language had to be shortened, often leaving out key parts of the sentence. It is known that the Atlantean lines in the movie were w:ad-libbed afterwards.

Another example:

Tab.top, lud.en neb.et kwam gesu bog.e.kem deg yasek.en gesu.go.ntoh.

father-voc, person-pl dem-pl neg help be.able-pres-1st.sg part noble-pl

Father, these people may be able to help us. But more literally: "Oh Father, we cannot help these people particle they will help the nobles."

In this example the sentences seem to be better connected, and the particle is rendered as almost "but, yet". It is difficult to reconcile the two, however.

Nouns

Atlantean has seven cases for nouns, five for pronouns and two for numbers.

Grammatical cases

Grammatical Cases

Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
Nominative	no suffix	yob	the crystal (subject).
Accusative	-tem	yobtem	the crystal (object).
Genitive	-ag	yobag	of the crystal
Vocative	-top	Yobtop	O Crystal!
Instrumental	-esh	yobesh	using crystal
Essive	-kup	yobkup	(as, composed of, being) crystal
Dative	-nuh	yobnuh	(for, to, on behalf of) crystal

Other suffixes

Other Noun Suffixes

Grammatical Function	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
Plural	-en	yoben	crystals
Augmentative	-mok	Yobmok	The Great Crystal

Nouns are marked as plural with the suffix -en. Case suffixes never precede the -en plural suffix. "-Mok" occurs after it.

Pronouns

Person/number suffixes

Person	Number	Familiarity	Independent Pronoun	Suffix	English Gloss
1st	Singular	–	kag	-ik	I
2nd	Singular	–	moh	-en	thou
3rd	Singular	–	tug tuh tok	-ot	he she it
1st	Plural	–	gwis	-kem	we
2nd	Plural	Unfamiliar	gebr	-eh	you (unfamiliar)
2nd	Plural	Familiar	gabr	-eh	you (familiar)
3rd	Plural	–	sob	-toh	they

There are five cases for pronouns.

Grammatical cases

Grammatical Cases

Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
w:Nominative	no suffix	kag	I
w:Accusative	-it	kagit	me, whom was (sent), etc.
w:Dative	-ib	kagib	(to) me
w:Genitive	-in	kagin	my (my heart, karod kagin)
w:Instrumental	-is	kagis	by my means, with (using) me, via me, etc. Template:R

Verbs

Verbs are inflected with two suffixes, one for tense/aspect and the next for person/number.

Tense/aspect suffixes

Tense/Aspect suffixes

Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss	Other Examples	English Gloss
Simple Present	-e	bernot.e.kik	I bring	sapoh.e.kik	I view
Present Perfect	-le	bernot.le.kik	I have brought
Present Obligatory	-se	bernot.se.kik	I am obliged to bring	kaber.se.kem	we are obliged to warn
Simple Past	-i	bernot.i.mik	I brought	es.i.mot, sapoh.i.mik	it was, I viewed
Immediate Past	-ib	bernot.ib.mik	I just brought
Past Perfect	-li	bernot.li.mik	I had brought
Simple Future	-o	bernot.o.mik	I will bring	komtib.o.nen	you will find
Future Possible	-go	bernot.go.mik	I may bring	gesu.go.ntoh	they may help
Future Perfect	-lo	bernot.lo.mik	I will have brought	komtib.lo.nen	you will have found
Future Obligatory	-so	bernot.so.mik	I will be obliged to bring	komtib.so.nen	you will be obliged to find

Mood and Voice suffixes

Mood suffixes

Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
Imperative Mood Singular	no suffix	bernot!, nageb!	bring!, enter!
Imperative Mood Plural	-yoh	bernot.yoh!, nageb.yoh!	(you all) bring!, (you all) enter!
Passive Voice	-esh	pag.esh.e.nen, bernot.esh.ib.mik	you are thanked (thank you), I was just brought
Infinitive	-e	bernot.e, wegen.e, gamos.e	to bring, to travel, to see