Verse:Irta/English

English
Inglish
Pronunciation	[/ˈɪŋglɪʃ/]
Created by	–
Setting	Verse:Lõis
Language family	Indo-European Azalic L-Middle English English

English in the Lõis timeline is Indo-European and pretty much has exactly the same vocabulary and grammar as our English, but with a very different history and orthography. In particular, it is an Azalic language, not a Germanic one. (Also missing are some loans from German and Modern Scandinavian such as schadenfreude and smörgåsbord.)

It is part of a sprachbund with Togarmite, Modern An Bhlaoighne and L-Persian.

Orthography

English in Lõis has three writing systems: the Togarmite abugida, the Hebrew abjad (always with vowel pointing) and the Latin alphabet.

Hebrew

Consonants:

• /m n ŋ/ = מ נ נג
• /p t ts tʃ k Ø/ = פ ט צ צש ק א
• /b d dʒ g/ = ב ד דש ג
• /f θ s ʃ h/ = ף ת ס ש ה
• /v ð z ʒ/ = ב' ד' ז זש
• /w r l j/ = ו ר ל י

Vowels: Since English has more vowels than Tiberian Hebrew, some extra diacritics are used to distinguish vowels that are similar.

• null vowel = none
• commA = shva
• TRAP = BATH = PALM = patach (טְרַפ = trap)
• DRESS = segol (דרֶס = dress)
• FACE = tsere (ףֵס = face)
• KIT = hiriq
• FLEECE = happY = hiriq + meteg
• FOOT = STRUT = qubutz
• GOOSE = shuruq
• GOAT = cholam
• LOT = qamatz
• THOUGHT = qamatz + meteg
• PRICE = patach + yud
• MOUTH = patah + vav
• CHOICE = qamatz + yud
• NURSE = letteR = shva + resh
• NEAR = hiriq + resh
• SQUARE = tsere + resh
• START = patach + resh
• NORTH = qamatz + resh
• FORCE = cholam + resh
• POOR = qubutz + resh
• CURE = yud + qubutz + resh

Latin

uon, tô, thrê, phuor, phaiv, six, sevn, aiht, nyn, ten

O Captin! My Captin! ûr phiêrphul trip is dôn;
Ðe ship has weđrd evrih rac, đe prise uê suht is wun;
Ðe port is niêr, đe bels ih hiêr, đe pơpul al exsulting,
Huîl pholo eihs đe stedih kêl, đe vessl grim and dâring;
But O hart! hart! hart!
O đe blêding drops of red,
Huer on đe dec my captin lihs,
Phalen cold and diêd.

pelth₂óm > PPTA pheldă > phêld "field"

Accents

The "Sephardi-Estuary-Ashkenazi" continuum

The Lõisian standard English accent belongs in a continuum of accents, with a quasi-Sephardi Hebrew accent on one end and a quasi-Ashkenazi Hebrew accent on the other end. However, it's been influenced significantly by the nearby Philadelphian accent (spoken in the ancient city of Philadelphia).

Overview

Vowels
Feature	Western ("Sephardi")	L-Philadelphian	L-Standard	Eastern ("Ashkenazi")
KIT	ɪ	ɪ~ɪ̈	ɪ~ɪ̈	i
DRESS	ɛ	ɛ	ɛ	e
TRAP	a	æ	a	a
BATH (the BATH lexical set is same as RP)	eː	eə	ɑː	a
LOT	ɔ	ɑ~ä	ɔ~ɒ	o
STRUT	ʊ	ʌ~ɤ	ɜ̟~ɐ	ɜ
FOOT	ʊ	ʊ	ʊ̈~ɘ	u
FLEECE	iː	iʝ + reinforcement before C; ɪj otherwise	ɪj	iː
FACE	eː~eɪ	ɪj + reinforcement before C; ɛɪ otherwise	ɛɪ	eɪ
PRICE	aɪ	əɪ~ʌɪ + reinforcement before C; ɑɪ~ɒɪ otherwise	ɑɪ	aɪ
CHOICE	oɪ	oɪ~ʊɪ + reinforcement before C; oɪ otherwise	oɪ	ɔʏ~ɔɪ~oɪ
MOUTH	aʊ	æʊ~ɛɔ	æʊ~æʏ	aʊ
GOAT	oː~oʊ	əʊ~ə̟ʊ~eʊ, oʊ before [ɫ]	ə̟ʊ~əʊ~əʏ~ʌʏ, ɔʊ~ɒʊ before [ɫ]	ɔʏ~ɔɪ~oɪ
GOOSE	uː	üw~yː, uː before [ɫ]	üː, uː before [ɫ]	uː
PALM	ɑː	ɑ~ä	ɑː	aː
THOUGHT	ɑː	oə(ɹ)~ʊə(ɹ)	oː	oː
NEAR	iːɹ	iə(ɹ)	iə~iɚ	iʀ
SQUARE	eːɹ	eə(ɹ)	ɛə~ɛɚ	eʀ
NURSE	əːɹ	əː(ɹ)	ɜː~ɚː	əʀ
START	ɑːɹ	ɒː(ɹ)	ɑː~ɑɚ	aʀ
NORTH	ɑːɹ	oə(ɹ)	oə~oɚ	oʀ
FORCE	oːɹ	oə(ɹ)	oə~oɚ (əʊə~əʊɚ for Jewish speakers)	ɔʏʀ~ɔɪʀ~oɪʀ
POOR	uːɹ	oə(ɹ)	uə~uɚ	uʀ
CURE	juːɹ	joə(ɹ)~jə(ɹ)	juə~juɚ~jɜː~jɚː	juʀ
commA	ə	ə(ɹ)	ə	ə
lettER	əɹ	ə(ɹ)	ə~ɚ	əʀ
happY	i	iː~ɪj	iː~ɪj	i
Other phenomena
Feature	Quasi-Sephardi Hebrew	L-Philadelphian	L-Standard	Quasi-Ashkenazi Hebrew
Rhoticity	Historical /r/ is always [ɹ]	Non-rhotic with intrusive R	Rhoticity in idiolectal or free variation	Historical /r/ is always [ʀ]
Dark L	Always	Always, often vocalizing	Only when non-prevocalic	Never
/θ ð/	Always [t̪ d̪]	Often [t̪ d̪]	[θ ð]	[s̠ d]
/w/	[v]	[w]	[w]	[v]
Aspiration of voiceless stops and t/d-tapping	As in AmE	As in AmE	As in AmE	Never

Western accent

This is the "Western English" accent. When Hebrew is read in this accent, it sounds like Israeli Hebrew with an American accent. It still has some non-Sephardi features, e.g. tsere = FACE = [eɪ~eː] is distinct from segol = DRESS = [ɛ].

L-Philadelphian

This accent is spoken in the city of Philadelphia in Turkey (or as locals call it, "Flulfia"). It's basically a non-rhotic version of our Philly accent; r-intrusion is used, as in the New York accent.

A characteristic feature is reinforcement for certain vowels or diphthongs before consonants, which changes the pronunciation of the vowel:

• The nucleus is shortened.
• When the consonant is voiced, the offglide is lengthened: fame [fɪiːm]
• When the consonant is voiceless, the consonant is lengthened: face [fɪjsː]

/θ ð/ are commonly [t̪ d̪].

L-Standard English

Often called the "Newton accent".

A kind of "Transatlantic accent", inspired by Californian + Philly + Modern RP/Estuary. Rhoticity in idiolectal or free variation.

Vowels

• orange = [ɒɹɪndʒ~ɔɹɪndʒ]
• Mary [mɛəɹi] ≈ merry [mɛɹi] ≠ marry [maɹi]
• Mirror-nearer distinction
• Hurry-furry distinction
• No mergers before /l/

Consonants

• L is light [l] before vowels and dark [ɫ] otherwise, as in RP.
  • wholly-holy split.
• No glottal reinforcement before stops.
• /p t k/ are unaspirated after stressed syllables as in AmE.
• /d t/ has a tapped [ɾ] allophone in similar environments as in American English.
• wine-whine merger optional.
• /r/ may be [ʋ] between vowels.

Eastern accent

When L-English Jews read Hebrew in this accent, it sounds just like the Ashkenazi accent. Source of "oy vey" (from oh woe /øɪ vøɪ/)

This is not a specifically Jewish accent, and not all L-English Jews (or even all Ultra-Orthodox Jews) speak it; however, a sizeable community of Ultra-Orthodox Jews speaks this accent.

• /w/ = [v]
• /l/ is always light
• /r/ = [ʀ~ʁ]
• /s/ = Basque z
• /θ/ = Basque s
• /ð/ = [d]
• Stops are unaspirated

[ol hu:mən bijənz əʀ boʀən fʀi: ən i:kwəl ɪn dɪgnɪti ən ʀɑɪts. ðɛɪ əʀ ɪndaʏd wið ʀi:zən ən konʃəns ən ʃʏd akt toʀds won ənʏðəʀ ɪn ə spɪʀɪt əv bʀʏðəχʏd]

A rhotic accent

Rhotic with R-colored vowels using uvular r

• KIT = [ɪ],
• DRESS = [ɛ] (but it gets raised before fricatives),
• TRAP = [a] usually, /ɔ:/ before nasals
• LOT merges with TRAP
• THOUGHT = [uə]
• GOAT = [oə]
• FOOT = STRUT = [ɨ]
• GOOSE = [y]
• PRICE = [ei] before fricatives, [ae] otherwise
• MOUTH = [ou] before fricatives, [ɑo] otherwise
• FLEECE = Viby-i
• FACE = [iɛ]
• PALM = [a]

A pre-Grimm accent

Inspiration: Korean accent, British accents, New York accent

• /f θ h hw/ = [pʰ tʰ h~x xw]
• /p t k/ = unaspirated stops, ejective or glottally reinforced when word-final except after fricatives
• /tʃ dʒ/ = [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ]
• /v/ = [b~β]
• /l/ = [l] (always clear L)
• /r/ = [ɾ~ɹ]
• /ð/ = [d~ð]
• /ʃ/ = [sx~sʰ]
• FLEECE = i:
• FACE = e:
• GOOSE = ü:
• GOAT = o:~o̝:
• PALM = BATH = a:
• THOUGHT = NORTH = FORCE = ʌ:
• CHOICE = oi
• PRICE = aɪ
• MOUTH = aʊ
• KIT = i
• DRESS = e
• TRAP = ɛ
• LOT = ʌ
• FOOT/STRUT = u
• NURSE = ɚ:
• START = a:(ɹ)
• SQUARE = e:ə(ɹ)
• NEAR = i:ə(ɹ)
• POOR = u:ə(ɹ)
• CURE = ju:ə(ɹ)
• lettER = commA = ə(ɹ)~ʌ̈(ɹ)

Yod-coalescence, with /tj dj θj sj/ = [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ɕʰ ɕ]

In broad accents: wu/wu:/wuə > u/u:/uə and ji/ji:/jiə > i/i:/iə; hence year/ear, yeast/east, swoon/soon are homophones

BATH [a:] occurs for L-Standard English /a/ usually where Korean commonly transcribes the English word as /a/. (The instances do not correspond to instances of BATH in RP.)

• chance [t͡ɕa:ns]; but dance [dɛns], answer [ɛnsʌ̈]
• plant [pla:ntʼ], Grant [gra:ntʼ]; but grant [grɛntʼ]
• glass [gla:s], gas [ga:s]; but pass [pɛs], class [klɛs]
• plastic [pla:stikʼ], last [la:st], master [ma:stʌ̈]
• mask [ma:sk], flask [fla:sk]; but ask [ɛsk], task [tɛsk]
• after [a:ftʌ̈], craft [kra:ft]
• half [ha:pʰ]; but graph [grɛpʰ]
• bath [ba:tʰ]; but math [mɛtʰ]

An "Old English" accent

• CHOICE = œɪ
• PRICE = ɑ:
• MOUTH = æ:ɑ
• PALM = æ:
• FACE = æɪ
• GOAT = e:o
• THOUGHT = ɔ:
• FLEECE = i:
• GOOSE = u:
  • /ju:/ = y:
• FERN = FIR = ør~yr (also MERRY and MIRROR)
• FUR = ʊr (also HURRY)
• NURSE, FORCE = e:or~ø:r
• NORTH = ɔ:r
• NEAR = CURE = iur~y:r
• POOR = u:r
• SQUARE = e:r
• TRAP = ɑ, æɑ before /l r/ (also START and MARRY)
• DRESS = ɛ, eo~œ before /l/
• KIT = ɪ, ɪʊ~ʏ before /l/
• LOT = ɔ
• FOOT = STRUT = ʊ