Sceptrian

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Sceptrian (batop lushar or lusha) is an a priori language created for the fantasy world Akekata by juhhmi.

History

Lore: Sceptrian language, named after the Sceptre peninsula, derives from Lutian language used in the Empire of Western Sceptre. With its 12 million native speakers, Sceptrians outnumber those speaking Khattish and Guddean, the other two main West-Herookuan languages.

Actual: I weren't sure how to continue with Aoma (except for translations which I haven't been interested in) so I decided to begin creating a new language based on my scribbles. Remarkably, there is no script yet(!), but I'll be deriving it from the ancient Templar (or Jauhmö) of Aoma after I have created some basic vocabulary and considered of the older language (again, I began from the wrong direction) to add depth. I promise that one day I'll have a good proto-language first, realistic daughter languages second, scripts third and modern languages fourth...

Problems: As mentioned above, I'm still too lazy to create a proto-language...


Basic Grammar

Sceptrian utilizes fusional inflections and has an absolutive-ergative morphosyntactic alignment. The language is rather head-initial and its primary word order is verb-agent-object.


Phonology

Consonants

If the romanization symbol is the same as in IPA, it is not duplicated.

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ń /n/ ng /ŋ/
Plosive Voiceless p t k q
Voiced b d g
Lateral pl bl
/pˡ/ /bˡ/
tl dl
/tˡ/ /dˡ/
kl gl
/kˡ/ /gˡ/
Fricative Voiceless ph /ɸ/ f th /θ/ s sh /ʃ/ h /ç/ h /x/ qh /χ/ h
Voiced w bh /β/ v dh /ð/ z zh /ʒ/
Lateral sl /ɬ/
Affricate Voiceless ts /t͡s/ tsh /t͡ʃ/
Lateral tsl /t͡ɬ/
Approximant Simple j
Lateral l
Trill r ŕ /r/

The liquids r and l can appear as syllabic consonants: tlsl /tˡl̩ɬ/, prn /pr̩n/ and trk /tr̩k/

Vowels

Monophthongs

Front Central Back
Close i
i
u
u
Close-mid e
e
o
ɘ
o
ɤ
Mid o
ə
Open-mid é oe
ɛ œ
ó
ɔ
Near-open ae
æ
Open a
ä
a
ɑ

Schwa o is used as an epenthetic vowel (anaptyxis). When it is used to break consonant clusters (not indicated in native script) it is the simple schwa /ə/: *dŧ → doth /dəθ/. When stressed, it is vernacularly realized as /ɘ/, and in western dialects more clearly as /ɤ/: *dŧs → dothos /dəˈθɘˑs/

Diphthongs

In Sceptrian, there are only closing diphthongs which go up in the vowel chart:

  • Back: ou /ɔʊ̯/
  • Front: ai /äɪ̯/, ei /ei̯/, oi /œi̯/

If the syllable border is between vowels and they don't form a diphthong, apostrophe is used: tai vs. ta'i

Phonotactics

  • Basic syllabic structure is CV, where the onset (beginning) consonant can be of any type.
    • It is possible to use liquids and approximants as glides (CLV) between the onset and the rime (ending).
    • Up to two consonants with same voicing may appear in the onset (CCV), especially fricative-plosive combinations, but never two plosives: stak, fkos, ksaru. Affricate ts takes may be accompanied only by w, j, n or m: tsma. Combination /sl/ has turned into /ɬ/.
  • Nucleus can be either a vowel or a liquid, thus CVC and CLC are also possible syllables.
    • Vowels (diphthongs included) may exist as a stand-alone nucleic syllable (V), mostly in the beginning or at the end of a word.
  • Coda (final) may consist of up to three consonants with possible structures: NS, FS, LS; NF, SF, LF; NL, SL, FL; NSF, LSF, NSL (Nasal, Stop, Fricative, Liquid). Three-consonant clusters are rare word-medially and receive a schwa after the non-lateral stop: kamps /kämps/ → *kampstakamposta /kämpəsˈtä/
    • Approximants j, w and plain voiced plosives never appear as coda (final) even though they may be written that way: nad /nät/. Voiced fricatives rarely appear as coda.
    • In coda, plosives with lateral release, however, will reflect the voicing of the onset: gatl /gädˡl̩/ vs. katl /kätˡl̩/
  • Closed syllables, i.e. those ending in coda, are not as common word-medially as open syllables (ending in nucleus) are.
    • Voicing status must be the same for consonants touching at syllable boundaries and the voiced one reduces into voiceless: katba /kätpä/ vs. kat ba /kät(h) bä/

Stress

Primary stress is on the second syllable unless it contains the schwa o or is preceded by a syllable with a syllabic consonant.

Orthography

Script

Script

The Sceptrian script was derived from the ancient temple marks as were the Aoman and Northern (Latin) ones.

Romanization

Modern

Consonant variation:

  • Letter r is used with consonants for /r̩/ and between vowels for /r/, but after vowels in the end of syllables for rhoticization or /ɚ/. Letter ŕ is used to emphasize the use of /r/ after vowels /ər/.
  • Similarly letter n can appear syllable-finally with nasalization but ń always as /n/: an /ã/ vs. /an/.
  • With ng /ŋ/, the accent signals lengthening eńge /eŋ:e/ or eŋŋe.
  • Letter h has three allophones: /x/ appears word-finally, /ç/ with front vowels and /h/ with back vowels tihtóhnah /tiçtɔhnäx/.
  • Labialization of plosives may be indicated by either PuV (V is any vowel except u) or PwV (where V can be u)

There are five ways of sound altering which may be used for grammatical purposes (tense, aspect, mood; cases, possessive affixes...)

  • Lengthening: paata /pä:tä/, péete /pɛ:te/-/pɛe̯te/, póote /pɔ:te/, naeepe /næ:pe/
    • Not used word-finally.
  • Lateral (release): plo /pˡə/, tla /tˡä/
    • Western dialects keep the tongue on the alveolar ridge during vowel pronunciation so that the vowels have a distinct l-sound. Historically, this may have lead to the syllabic l.
  • Aspiration/breathy voice: pho /pʰə/-/ɸə/, bho /bʱə/-/βə/, tha /tʰä/-/θä/, dha /dʱä/-/ðɑ/.
    • Aspirated plosives have mostly turned into the corresponding fricatives as shown above.
  • Nasalization: on /ə̃-ɘ̃/, /ən/
    • Close vowels (u, o, ó and i) are always nasalized between two nasals and all vowels after short ng: mónge /mɔ̃ŋẽ/, but nasalization does not occur with open vowels and long ńg: nańge /näŋ:e/.
  • Rhotacization: or /ɚ/, /ər/ or /r/, ar /ä˞/, /är/.

Old

The old romanization system (or part of it) was used until western regions of Eastern Sceptre were joined with the Western Sceptre empire in 7th era 161, during the war against Empress Renula of Golden Islet. A revision was needed when both Sceptrian and Aoma were used in the same printing press and texts had to be distributed to westlang-using communities.

Consonants:

  • Nasal: ŋ ng /ŋ/
    • Texts from the first century of the seventh era use ǥ for word-initial /ŋ/.
  • Fricative: ŧ th /θ/, đ dh /ð/, ś sh /ʃ/, ź zh /ʒ/, ħ qh /χ/
  • Affricate: c ts /t͡s/, č tsh /t͡ʃ/
  • Lateral: š sl /ɬ/, ǩ kl /kˡ/, ǧ gl /gˡ/

Vowels: ø oe /œ/, æ ae /æ/

Compact equivalents of sound altering:

  • Lengthening with a bar: /ɔ:/ and ō /ə:/
  • Lateral release with a breve diacritic: /tˡə/
  • Nasalization with a tilde: õ /ə̃/, on /ən/
  • Rhotacization with a diaeresis: ö /ɚ/, or /ər/
  • Aspiration with a grave accent: /pʰə/, /pʰɔ/

Comparison between the systems:

  • Old: Ǧë śošēŧã
  • Modern: Gler shosleethan

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Sceptrian form the basis of derivational morphology. They are declined according to two numbers and nine cases, and the seven declensions are grouped in three genders which affect the verb conjugation and adjective agreement.

Gender

There are three grammatical genders or classes, abstract, animate and inanimate, which can be fully recognized from their singular dative form endings, k, i and ei. The seven declensional patterns or simply declensions, which are determined by their absolutive ending, are distributed among these classes.

  • Abstract (Ab) class contains concepts, emotions, divine and magical subjects, verb forms etc., and they end in either vowel a, ó or i.
  • Animate (An) class is preserved for nouns related to living things, e.g. people, animals, body parts, plants and comestibles, whose ending is either a fricative (f, th, s, sh, h), nasal (m, n, ng) or vowel u. Mass nouns, such as meat, milk and food, have nasal endings.
  • Inanimate (In) class has nouns such as objects, places and natural formations whose endings are either plosives (p, t, k) or consonant l. Inanimate mass nouns, e.g. sand, salt and water, appear in the l-ending group.

Number

There are two numbers, singular and plural, but abstract i-nouns and inanimate l-nouns are always singular. The declension according to number is complicated and fused with the class/case system explained and tabulated below.

Cases

  • Absolutive (ABS): Unmarked base form for subjects of intransitive and objects of transitive verbs
  • Ergative (ERG): Agents of transitive verbs
  • Dative (DAT): Indirect object; alienable possession gat dothi (a house of (lit. "for") the man); comparison (with ADJ comparative)
  • Possessive (POS): Inalienable possession dhóku dothor (the man's head)
  • Instrumental-comitative (INS): Using something; with someone; in antipassive constructions
  • Lative (LAT): Movement to (+sublative (surface))
  • Locative-temporal (LOC-TEMP): Place (+superessive); time (when/duration...verb telicity); with some adpositions
  • Ablative (ABL): Movement from (+delative); causal construction with particle ...
  • Vocative (VOC): addressing (people, gods); interjections Alae! (Hello! lit. "Day!")
Genders and desinences
Abstract Animate Inanimate
A i F N u P l
SG PL SG PL SG PL SG PL SG PL
Absolutive A Asl i F (ə)lF N Ning u ush P Pl l
Ergative AA AslA ii Fee Fele Neen Nenge uu uushu Pee Ple le
Dative Ak Akl ik Fi Fil Ni Nil (u)ji (u)wi Pei Plei lei
Possessive An Ang ing For Foŕ Nor Noŕ ur -N Pong lon
Instrumantal-comitative Ah Ash ish Fos Fosh Nos Nosh uh ush Ph Ps -dh
Lative AgA AglA iki Fko Fklo Nongo Nongo ugu uglu Póo Plóo lo
Locative-temporal AkhA AlkhA ikhi Fku Fklu Nongu Nongu ukhu ulkhu Pu Plu lu
Ablative ApA AplA ipi Fp Fpl Nop Nopl upu uplu PPo PPol lp
Vocative Ae Asl ii lFé Nin -wé -wésh Plé
  • A: vowels a and ó
  • F: fricatives f, s, sh and h as well as affricates ts and tsh
  • N: nasals n, m and ng
  • P: plosives p, t, k and q
    • INS ending Ph marks breathy voice and may turn the plosive into corresponding fricative /ɸ, θ, x, χ/ if followed by a plosive.
  • - indicates that the original ending is replaced with the following: tip → tin (stick → stick's)

Possessive affixes

Possessive affixes draw a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession: Dothee óntelon gats/vakuhoz. (A man is watching his house/ his own hand.)

  • Interpretations: gat dothi (the house which the man has temporarily settled in = rented), doth gathos(os) (man with his house which he has purchased), gat dothor (the house which was inherited and is now owned by the man)
Possessional suffixes
Person Singular Plural
ALIEN INAL ALIEN INAL
1st (ae)ń (ae)nga (oe)m (oe)ngó
2nd (o)f (oe)fo (e)v (oe)voe
3rd (o)s (o)zh (o)sl (o)zhol
  • Irregular: Only VOC+possessive with 1SG: Posné! (My servant!), Polsmé! (Our servants!)

2nd person polite forms are added to absolutive base and the endings are then declined according to abstract gender:

  • Singular: (a)tha, (a)tazha
  • Plural: (a)dhó, (a)dózhó
  • Example: gatathapa (from Your house)

See non-finite verb forms which utilize some possessive suffixes in adverbial clauses <-- something from Aoma (lettex) & Finnish (kävellessäni)

Emphasizing clitics

Suffixes ma (for ABS) and noh (for ERG) are used to emphasize either the agent or the object: Ónzaitón dotheenoh pof. (It is the man who's lifting the feather) vs. Ónzaitón dothee pofma. (It is the feather that the man is lifting.). Ma is also used with verbs in antipassive constructions.


Pronouns

Pronouns are used to refer people or nouns mentioned before. In Sceptrian, they exist in two numbers and are inflected according to six cases.

Personal

Second person includes polite versions as well which were adapted by Aoma-sperkers. Third person singular makes distinction between abstract (Ab), animate (An) and inanimate (In) pronouns while plural only between Ab-An and In.

Pronoun inflection
Case 1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 2SG.POL 2PL.POL 3SG.Ab 3SG.An 3PL.A 3SG.In 3PL.In
ABS na mo fo po Nith With tha su slo hi kwo
ERG nae moslo foe poslo Nithe Widhes thaa suu sloslo hii kwoslo
DAT nai mokli foki pokli Nithki Withkli thai swi slokli hiki kwokli
POS nar moŕ for poŕ Nithor Withoŕ thar sur sloŕ hir kwoŕ
COM nas mosh fos posh Nithos Withosh  thas  sus  slosh his  kwosh
CAU nape moplo fope poplo Nitti Witti thape supe sloplo hipi kwoplo
  • Comitative case is used to indicate company: Mo slosh orkho. (We were with them yesterday.)
  • Causal describes the cause of an action or origin of something: Aitelai nae su fope (I saw him because of (/thanks to) you), Hi supe foki. (It (is) from him to you.)


Adjectives

agree with their head. Gender --> different words: Ab. "beautiful day", An. "beautiful man", In. "beautiful building"

rhoticization + vowel change


Table of correlatives

Interrogative Demonstrative Quantifier
Proximal Distal Existential Elective Universal Negatory Alternative
Determiner sho ka
kwa
ko
kwo
Pronoun Abstract shu
Animate
Inanimate
Out of two
Out of many
Pro-adverb Locative
Temporal
Causal-ablative
Lative

"What kind of"-ending: millainen? tällainen, tuollainen, sellainen, ...

Verbs

missing "to be" and "to have"

Conjugation

Apophony!

  • e→é, o→ó, ó→ö, a→ä, u→i, i→o
  • for moods

From core nouns: "way-markers" → how the verb reflects the core noun+case/adjective: table... "similarity", "making", "using"


Subject/object suffixes for tense and aspect
Tense Aspect 1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 2SG.POL 2PL.POL 3SG.AN 3PL.AN 3SG.INAN 3PL.INAN
PRES PROG
PST ATEL ajin
TEL ai ei oi
FUT

Only animate nouns as agents. Abstract and inanimate as antipassive subjects: luwifo utelink nas ("beauty-of.yours un-eye-ful-makes me-with", your beauty makes me blind) vs. utelinken foe na (you are making me blind)

  • Then why abs and inan have ergative forms?

Transitivity, animacy and cases: Ónzaitón dothee pof. (A man (ERG) is lifting a feather (ABS).), Bousón doth. (The man falls.) Bouson pof. (The feather (ABS) falls.).

  • Verb form differences when agent-like (he dances) or patient-like subjects (he fell)? latephó (he danced) vs. boush (he fell without ending)
  • agreeing OR circumfix! ónzaiton dothee pof vs. ónzaitón dothee su (the man is lifting him)
    • ending vowel o?

Obs! subject+object (& agent) agreement: Zaiton pof. (Ón)bouson dothee pof. (A feather rises. A man is dropping a feather.)

Who needs conjugation? People in formal situations! --> register!

  • Otherwise no 3SG ending, only pronouns

History of ABS-ERG - Why Sceptrian has it, but Aoma uses NOM-ACC?

  • Passive (~ Aoman 2nd passive... participle form) + causal form: *Pózaiton pofos dothpe. (The feather was lifted by a man.) --> pónzaiton dothpee pofos.

Tense

Past, present, future

Aspect

Telicity (completion) marked in verbs: suomessa ammuin karhun vs. ammuin karhua

  • past: perfective vs. imperfective only with transitive verbs: näin vs. katsoin (agent vs. experiencer...case?). Different case than PRES (DAT/ABL?)
  • present: determination: kirjoitan kirjaa vs. kirjoitan kirjan, joista jälkimmäinen lähestyy futuuria (inceptive?)
  • future: completeness/influence of current actions

Mood

Some duplication ;)

Voice

Sceptrian distinguishes between two voices, active and antipassive.

  • Irregularities‽

The following system is under development! (How ergative came to be?)

Active construction

Ónzaitón dothee pof.
/ɔ̃zaɪ̯tɔ̃ dəθe: pəf/
ón-zait-ón doth-ee pof-Ø
3SG.AN.PRES.IPFV-lift-CIRC man-ERG feather-ABS

A man is lifting a feather.

Passive construction: To demote the agent (ERG), it's either removed or inflected into causal ablative (ABL). Verb circumfix remains untouched.

Ónzaitón pof (dothpo).
/ɔ̃zaɪ̯tɔ̃ pəf (dəθpə)/
ón-zait-ón pof-Ø (doth-po)
3SG.PRES.IPFV-lift-CIRC feather-ABS (man-ABL)

A feather is being lifted (by a man).

Antipassive construction: Agent (ERG) transforms into subject (ABS) and object (ABS) takes the instrumental-comitative (INS) case. Word order becomes SV(O), and the verb circumfix loses its former part and may receive the emphasizing clitic ma.

Doth (ma)zaitón (pofos).
/dəθ (mä)zaɪ̯tɔ̃ (pəfəs)/
doth-Ø (ma/)Ø-zait-ón (pof-os)
man-ABS (POL.)ANTIP-lift-3SG.PRES.IPFV (feather-INS)

The man is lifting (a feather).

Ideas: Instrument and turning it into an agent. Here I used the object-agreement (if it stays, remember to update the examples above!)

  • Ónzaiton dothee pof vakuhos sur. (...with his hand... (should come up with the personal affixes since now you can interpret him using someone else's hand))
    • Ónzaiton pof vakuhos dothir.
    • Ónzaiton pof tiph dothish suwi. (A feather is being lifted with the man's stick for them.) DAT inflected!
  • Vakuh zaito(/ó)n pofos. (a hand lifts the feather)/(someone intentionally lifts the feather with their hand)
    • Tip zaiton pofos dothpo. (a stick, which is being held by a man, lifts the feather) ABL as causative.


Non-finite forms

Multiple... --> adjectives?


Registers

Different endings which reflect the conversation situation: speakers, familiarity, formality, location...

Can people with higher status be abstract or do they occupy a special animate category? (special ending?)

One may use inanimate verb forms as anti-honorific? Ondakon nae ka Nithki. (I humbly offer this to You)

Adpositions

  • "in" with lative, locative and ablative cases to form illative, inessive, elative
  • "on" to emphasize the surface aspect
  • "under" for, well, movement under something


Derivational Morphology

Verbs and adjectives easily from nouns...


Numerals

Decimal base was adopted due to commerce, but traces of the former octal base remain

Syntax

Word order

  • VAO usually, SV(O) in antipassive
  • adjectives precede nouns while possessives follow


Lexicon

  • éla day
  • iwa light
  • pof feather
  • doth man
  • vakuh hand
  • keslan blood
  • dhóku
  • su it/he?
  • batop language
  • tip stick
  • mél water
  • tel see
  • bous go down
  • zait go up