Scellan: Difference between revisions

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Wordlist|Thematic word lists]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Phrasebook|Phrasebook]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Lexicon|{{PAGENAME}}-English lexicon]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Sketchbook|Sketchbook]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Swadesh list|Swadesh list]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Sample sentences|218 sample sentences]]<br/>

[[{{PAGENAME}}/Names|Names]]<br/>

[[Skellan/Skellan|Fia dlog dy Sgewlib (This page in Skellan)]]

|setting = [[Verse:Tricin]]

|nativename = a łynǿñ Eevo

|pronunciation={{small|Fyxoomian:}} /ə piˈrits ˈaivɔ/<br/>{{small|Skellan (Alcvean):}} /ˈə pɪˈrɪts ˈevɔ/

|nation=Skella, Fyxoom, ...

'''Skellan''' ''SKEL-ən'' (natively ''Sgewlib'' {{small|Fyxoomian:}} /ˈskœ̃ˁʟip/; {{small|Skellan (Alcvean):}} /ˈskɛːʟip/, [[Windermere]]: ''cduay Scela''), in-universe often called '''Eevo''' ''AY-voh'' ({{small|Fyxoomian:}} /ˈaivɔ/; {{small|Skellan (Alcvean):}} /ˈevɔ/;  from [[Tigol]] ''é-'' 'common' + ''bó'' 'language'), is a [[Talmic language]] belonging to the Tigolic branch. Skellan is modern [[Verse:Tricin|Tricin]]'s lingua franca, the third-most widely spoken language (after [[Hetomic]] and [[Clofabosin]]) and the most widely spoken Quame language. Its vocabulary has been influenced by many languages, most of all by [[Lakovic]] classical languages [[Windermere]] and [[Tseer]]. Typologically, Skellan is a mostly analytic, topic-prominent, head-initial, usually V2 language.

The genesis of the modern Skellan language, dated to ca. fT 1792, is often credited to the Skellan philosopher and poet Oovsari Vyhalv. The name ''Eevo'' refers to its origins as a Skellan koiné. Modern Skellan has been a living language for about 500 years, approximately fT 1792-2292.

Skellan is official in the [[Talma]]n nation of [[Verse:Tricin/Skella|Skella]] (''Sgewla'') ''SKEL-ə''. It is also de facto official in [[Verse:Tricin/Fyxoom|Fyxoom]] ''fə-SHOME'', [[Verse:Tricin/Þrwhas|Þrwhas]] ''THROO-həs'', and many other countries.

Skellan is inspired by Icelandic, Welsh, Hmong (orthography-wise; the word for 'people, folk' is ''hmoob'', in fact), English (especially Philadelphian and Scottish English), Khmer, and Gaelic.

*The "21 accents" of Skellan

**No, but use llt > lt and make ''-l'' more common in Windermere

*a > a

Many of the most drastic changes from Old Skellan are a result of rapid "creolization" as a result of second-language speakers learning the language.

*Old Skellan mutations were lost under the influence of Windermere.

*Smoothing of certain consonant clusters (e.g. -mn > -m, sñl- > sml-)

:''See also: [[Talmic languages]], [[Thensarian]], [[Tigol]], [[Middle Skellan]]''

Skellan has a slightly larger-than-average consonant inventory of about 27 consonants.

| '''n''' /n/

| '''d''' /t/

| '''t''' /tʰ/

|rowspan="2"|'''ts''' /ts/

*If not word-final, the unaspirated plosives /p t k/ are most likely to be fully voiced in the clusters /mp nt ŋk/, then after vowels, and never voiced after obstruents.

*/sj, tsj/ become /ʃ tʃ/ in standard Skellan: ''Slysjon'' /ˈsχəʃɔn/ 'April'.

The vowel inventory of Skellan is also fairly large, with 8 or 11 basic vowel qualities depending on the accent. Skellan also has many diphthongs, in addition to nasal vowels (in "nasal" accents such as Standard Fyxoomian; these vowels are written with ''l'' or ''ñ'' in the Skellan orthography).

The nasal vowels /ĩ ỹ ũ ẽ ø̃ ə̃ õ ɛ̃ ã ɔ̃/ arose from historical V + /l/ and V + /ŋ/ sequences. In many accents they are also pharyngealized or diphthongized. Most accents merge some nasal vowels with each other or with other vowels. "Non-nasal" accents, such as the Standard (Alcvean) Skellan accent, realize them as long vowels (with no nasalization) - these accents may have "linking" and "intrusive L" realized as [ʁ] or [ɴ̆] analogous to linking and intrusive R in non-rhotic English accents. A handful of remote dialects pronounce them as pharyngealized vowels or vowels followed by [ɫ].

Stress is not marked in the native orthography. Talmic words usually have initial stress, but prefixed verbs are usually not stressed on the prefix. Windermere loans have final stress.

{{SUBPAGENAME}} has a distinctive intonation paradigm. It originates from discursive uptalk in older stages of the language, which has since generalized to all declarative sentences. A few conservative accents in Skella do not use this pattern.

**Cl: bl, vl, fl, dl, ðl, tl, þl, gl, cl, ml, sl, sgl, sml, hml

**Cr: br, vr, fr, dr, ðr, tr, þr, gr, cr, mr, ñr, sr, sgr, smr, hmr

**sC: sb, sd, sg, sm, sn, sñ, sgl, sgr, sml, smr

**hC: hm, hn, hñ, hml, hmr

:''Main article: [[Skellan/Accents]]''

===Pronouncing Skellan words in English===

*An epenthetic schwa may be inserted for Skellan clusters that English lacks.

[[File:Skellan script.png|thumbnail|500px|Skellan alphabet]]

Skellan is written in the version of the Talmic alphabet, which is related to the Talman Windermere script. The Skellan alphabet has 30 letters.

The sequences ''çm, çn, çl, çr'' are pronounced identically to ''hm, hn, ll, rr'' in most modern Skellan accents, except that ''çm, çn, çr'' are [xm, xn, xr] in accents that have [x] for ''ç''. ''çł'' is also usually pronounced [hw].

Skellan uses a base-10 positional numeral system. The digits are as follows:

Skellan inflectional morphology tends to be simpler than most other Talmic languages; for example, it has no grammatical gender, no case, and no number inflection on nouns.

Skellan preserves the [[Tigol]] tense system very well, but most of the forms have been replaced with analytic forms and particles. The following table roughly organizes the tense system of Modern Skellan as well as the regular forms for each in terms of principal parts (PRES = present stem; INF = infinitive; PST = past participle); These are not all of the possible tenses as different constructions can be combined, e.g. ''Tynd fa dy desg naw lly nee rree.'' 'I have been eating for three days.'  

|+Skellan tense system

|future I<br/>''PRES-t''

|imperative I<br/>''PRES-t!''

| future II<br/>''so VN''

| imperative II<br/>''PRES!''

Archaic Skellan (still used in some historical fiction) uses the following personal endings in the present tense:

|''-an''||''-ir''||''-ab''||''-e''||''-0''||''-em''||''-ad''||''-ag''||''-að''||''-ag''||''-av''

The conditional uses the suffix ''-ð''. It continues the Old Skellan past subjunctive.  

Example: ''Tynd iant naw sdawb pug.'' = I have slept for 6 [Trician] hours. (sdawb pug = 6 hours continuously?)

The future imperfective uses the ''-t'' affix inherited from Old Skellan. It is used for:

The copula is the most irregular verb in Skellan. In the present tense, zero copula is used.

Skellan nouns do not inflect, even for number. For specific nouns, number is marked using articles and combined forms of determiners and possessive pronouns.

|''naw, no''||''iar, ir, 'r''||''ob, o''||''ee''||''ñe, e''||''awb''||''gwad''||''swad''||''awr''||''car''

|''nawña''||''iarña''||''obña''||''eeña''||''ñeña''||''awbña''||''gwadña''||''swadña''||''awrña''||''-''

|''cy''||''ho''||''ið''||''ih''||''ið''||''oo''||''of''||''os''||''id''

|''llyn''||''lles''||''lleb''||''llee''||''llyñ''||''llib''||''lleg''||''lled''||''ller''||''lly çar''

|''llynña''||''llesña''||''llebña''||''lleeña''||''llyña''||''llibña''||''llegña''||''lledña''||''llerña''||''-''

Skellan has a 4-way contrast in demonstratives:

|

|

|  

|''-''

|''-''

|''niltua''

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

|  

|

|

|''tin''

A few adjectives have suppletive comparative and superlative forms:

*''slawb'' 'good': ''cølly'' 'better', ''cøllws'' 'best'

*''dum'' 'far': ''ytñí'' 'farther', ''ytñít'' or ''snuab ytñí'' 'farthest' (from [[Windermere/Classical|Classical Windermere]] ''ătngi'' 'having surpassed, farther')

:''Main article: [[Skellan/Syntax]]''

Skellan's basic vocabulary is largely Talmic. However, a large portion of Skellan vocabulary (comparable to English) is borrowed, for example from [[Windermere]], [[Tseer]], or other languages (especially [[Naquian]], [[Swuntsim]], [[Ciètian]], [[Anbirese]],  [[Häskä]], [[Hlou]]). This gives Skellan a rich array of synonyms.

* Classical and Middle Windermere loans

| ''-wñ'' (agentive)<br/>''-os'' (instrument)<br/>''-ið'' (diminutive)<br/>''-óm'' (augmentative; Tseer)<br/>''-emb'' (female suffix)<br/>''ni-'' (non-)<br/>''ir-'' (un-)<br/>''bah-'' (sub-)<br/>''ñal-'' 'before'<br/>''tynd-'' 'after'<br/>''-arn'' (collective)

*''-ló'' is a Windermere augmentative suffix.

*''nw-'' is a Windermere agentive suffix.

*''-ad'' is a common noun suffix, from Thensarian ''-sdos''.

*''peñ-'' = 'X-to-be'; from Windermere future tense particle ''peng''

Skellan also has phrasal nouns: these are noun-preposition combinations that are stressed on the preposition.

Old Skellan prefixes remain productive in Modern Skellan.  

*''fr(a)-'' (usually pronounced /frə-/) was formerly only found in some frozen "causative" verbs but is gaining productivity in modern Skellan.

Skellan has phrasal verbs like English does.

*''-flen'' /-fʟɛn/ is an adjectival suffix with the same meaning as Korean ''-tapta'' and Japanese ''-rashii'': it means 'like an X is supposed to be' or 'like a typical X'. The suffix comes from Old Skellan compound adjectives of the form ''X-fheileán'' (from ''feil'' 'name' + ''-án'' adjectivizer; i.e. 'like the name X' or 'worthy of the name X'). Some words with the suffix have undergone semantic shifts, e.g. carflen /ˈkʰarfʟɛn/ 'humane, moral, ethical' (from Old Skellan car "human" + -flen).

*''jy-'' (''jyn-'' before C) is a [[Windermere]] adjectival suffix.

*''-on'' is a Talmic adjectival suffix, from Old Skellan -án (itself from Thensarian ''-aħnam'', Proto-Talmic ''*-aʁnəm'').

*''-wid'' = from Tigol ''-óid'' via Windermere ''-oyd''

Juah gyl Snawhasewl,

Asgyrr awb, smogin nai sdu,

:<small>Skellan (Alcve):</small> [tʰiːɾ, æː bɔ ʁ̃‿am aˈθɛnə, ə tʰənt ar̥ˈkiəχ nə numəwˈʟe ɾən jə suːt, tʰum ˈkʰuχən χə okχəh]

:SALEM: ''Am – sñøøin ab gyl a Si – jo cleðn, øøvr, as esginað ñadl ab.''

:SALEM: ''Ah ab dy smøøh erlóhyn a jo sñøøin reb.''

:SALEM: ''Jo sñawrand min pirúaf, as dewhyn jo vriþ a maslan lly fwltáwm a hylhyþús ñai ryb Am llyð errah.''

:SALEM: ''Ñyv im simynd na nwfiþlóñ red, im dyfían plesit llia smøøh red ñi maint red, ah im broos fiah... dy lleed twm sobt swad a huv.''

:''Bo am sñøø awr rygéen as þur nai hyltsybás as zin. Awr lawr fyójin nai hylynbyþín as bintoçẃr, ceeda beð rer a tynsé hið velc dy heeb eeðagu.''

:''Depanjẃn, ry givolín pnaþafol tamyr tlaméni e, að øømt riav hreem.''

:''Twm øør bo bintxynóv tamẃx depanjẃn hnoh, as gøørws ñi bannẃts lly bisçǿð as efataþol að txynób car e.''

:''Bo slawb es dy bo hñyl mawr savísi, bo fehd øølyb, as bo jysn hwrðon a derþál ñe?''

:<small>Fyxoomian:</small> [pɔ sχaup əs tə bɔ ŋɔ̃ˁ mauɾ səˈvisi, pɔ fɛht œ̃ˁʁ̃əp, əs pɔ ˈjəsən ˈhuːɾəðɔn ə tɛɾˈθãˁ ŋɛ]

:<small>Skellan (Alcve):</small> [pɔ sχɑup əs tə bɔ ŋ̊ɔ mɑuɾ səˈvɪsɪ, pɔ fɛht ˈoːʁəp, əs pɔ ˈjəsən ˈhuɾəðɔn ə tɛɾˈθɑː ŋɛ]

:COL good Q in DET.COL trunk tree towering, DET.COL lake heaven and DET.COL mountain craggy DET reside 3PL

:''Ia, dy lwm hiar res a sdeevi ryñ.''

:<small>Fyxoomian:</small> [iə, tə ʁ̃uːm hiəɾ ɾɛs ə ˈstɛɪvi ɾɔ̃ˁ]

:<small>Skellan (Alcve):</small> [iː, tə ʁum hiːɾ ɾɛs ə ˈstevɪ ɾɔ]

:nay in interior 2SG GEN.2SG DET dwell GEN.it

I room llyð am cail as twm lly in srawol, as sgoð ab cail lly mi diraþ nai binsymrua emb beð mi lly behn as tymiseeþ ym hnawb ðav çawlþ, sec fahað ñe xyvehflen? Ter, hegn dyb tałswñg jytiþwn ry binzycþia ñe! Jahanor að am ñi nwþyvwr desranin nai boosws, nai taw arm ab ar as ambosg ab llyð øltu. Ñyv, sy mocynxin es rofeel ñe i geeb naw "glawð" dy zam "am"?

Rhyming poetry is often said to be from [[Windermere/Classical|Windermere]] and [[Tseer/Classical|Tseer]] influence, as poetry in these languages tend to use rhyme. This supplanted ___ used in Tigol poetry. Eevo uses stress-accentual meters like trochaic/iambic/dactylic meters: the iambic pentameter is common as in English.

[[Category:Tricin]]