Tjoc

Tjoc
Tjoc
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|'tjo:tʃ]]
Created by	–
Native to	Kingdom of Angelkinn
Native speakers	30 millions (2012)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Anglo-Saxon Tjoc
Official status
Official language in	Kingdom of Angelkinn
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tj
ISO 639-2	tjo
ISO 639-3	tjo
Kingdom of Angelkinn

General informations

Tjoc is a language spoken in the Ljoshare af Angelkinn (= Country of Angelkinn), a country that corresponds to Modern England on a parallel timeline, where the United Kingdom doesn't exist. This language has evolved from the Anglo-Saxon with a scarce influence of Latin, while one can appreciate a Scandinavian influence. Thus Tjoc is a Germanic language that is strongly linked to Modern English.

Phonology

Alphabet

Tjoc alphabet uses letters from Latin alphabet and contains 25 characters:

Letters	Pronunciation	Further informations
a	[a]	short 'a'
å	[ɑ:]	long 'a'
b	[b]	-
c	[tʃ]	-
d	[d]	it can be realized as both a dental and an alveolar
e	[ɛ] / [e:]	in plural cluster -es it is not pronounced
f	[f]	-
g	[g]	it is always pronunced as in the English word "get"
h	[h]	in the digraph 'hv' it is read [k]
ƕ	[hv] or [kv] depending on the speaker	-
i	[ɪ]	short 'i'
j	[j]	it corresponds to y in English you
k	[k]	-
l	[l]	-
m	[m]	-
n	[n]	-
o	[ɔ] / [o:]	-
p	[p]	-
r	[r]	trilled just as in Italian
s	[s]	always voiceless
t	[t]	it can be realized as both a dental and an alveolar
u	[ʊ]	short 'u'
ů	[u:]	long 'u'
w	[v]	it was [w] in Old English, then this sound evolved into [v], but the grapheme <w> remained
y	[i:]	long 'i'

The letter 'c' had two different sounds in Old English: [tʃ] or [k], but when <k> was generalised to express the sound [k], <c> remained to express the sound [tʃ], as in the Old English word ic, "I".

Consonantic phonemes

Tjoc language has the following consonantic phonemes:

Phonemes	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b		(t̯) (d̯)	t d			k g
Affricate					tʃ
Nasal	m	(ɱ)		n			(ŋ)
Fricative		f v		s	ʃ			h
Approximant				r		j	(w)
Lateral approximant				l

In the South the final postvocalic <f> is not pronunced, ex.: stof is read as [sto:], wouf is read as ['vɔu̯], and so on. The [w] phoneme is found as a glide in words like wouen, wolves, that is pronounced as ['vɔu̯wɛn].

Vocalic phonemes

In Tjoc there are the following vowels:

Phonemes	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Closed	ɪ	ʊ	i:	u:
Mid-closed			e:	o:
Mid-open	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a			ɑ:

The 'a' is realized not precisely in the front of mouth, but in the mid between the front and centre of the mouth, wehereas the 'å' [ɑ:] is realized in the mid between the back and the centre of mouth.

Vowel length

The short vowels 'a', 'i' and 'u' have got a long counterpart: 'å', 'y' and 'ů'. Only the vowels 'e' and 'o' can be either short or long, but they are written always in one way. The pronunciation of these two vowels, however, seems not to be more relevant in the language. Actually there are words that differ in the pronunciation of these vowels, such as wjor, that means both "far", when it is pronounced ['vjɔr], and "four", when it is pronounced ['vjo:r]. Anyway in the present language the context has become more important than the correct pronunciation of 'e' and 'o'.

Diphthongs and digraphs

Tjoc has got also twenty diphthongs, that is clusters of two vowels pronounced with a single emission of air. These diphthongs are:

Diphthongs	Pronunciation
aj - åj	[aɪ] - [ɑ:ɪ]
au - åu	[aʊ] - [ɑ:ʊ]
ej	[ɛɪ] - [e:ɪ]
eu	[ɛʊ] - [e:ʊ]
ja - jå	[ja] - [jɑ:]
je	[jɛ] - [je:]
jo	[jɔ] - [jo:]
ju - jů	[jʊ] - [ju:]
oj	[ɔɪ] - [o:ɪ]
ou	[ɔʊ] - [o:ʊ]

Tjoc has got a digraph too: <sh>, that is pronounced [ʃ].

Stress

The position of stress in this language is quite regular, because it falls on the root and thus there are few rules to observe:

• In substantives (and in adjectives and adverbs) the stress generally falls on the first syllable, but if they are compound nouns / adjectives, formed by prefix + noun / adjective, the stress falls on the root syllable of the noun / adjective, ex.: jarjewels, "forgiveness", is read as [var'jɛvɛls]. In compounds which are formed by noun / adjective + noun / adjective, the various words are read as if they were written separately, ex.: lerstof, "school", is read as ['le:r 'sto:f];

• In verbs the stress falls always on the root, even if they are compounds, ex.: iwacan, "to wake up", is read as [ɪ'vatʃan].