Sceptrian

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/ → *kampsta → kamposta /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 oŕ /ər/.
• Similarly letter n can appear syllable-finally with nasalization but ń always as /n/: an /ã/ vs. ań /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/, oń /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/, oŕ /ər/ or /r/, ar /ä˞/, aŕ /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: ṓ /ɔ:/ and ō /ə:/
• Lateral release with a breve diacritic: tŏ /tˡə/
• Nasalization with a tilde: õ /ə̃/, on /ən/
• Rhotacization with a diaeresis: ö /ɚ/, or /ər/
• Aspiration with a grave accent: pò /pʰə/, pô /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	uŕ	-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	Fé	lFé	Né	Nin	-wé	-wésh	Pé	Plé	lé

• 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 verbs:

• "to be": luwi doth "a man is beautiful" vs. doth luwi "a beautiful man"
• "to have": all those possessive forms...

Conjugation

Verbs are given in their 3SG.INAN GNO form

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
GNO-STAT		a	ha	e	he	ai	athi	ó	hó	-	l
PRES	PROG	an	han	en	hen	ang	aing	ón	hón	on	lon
	INCEP	ast	last	est	lest	aest	haest	ós	lós	os	osl
PST	IPFV	ajin	hajin	ejin	hejin	azing	izing	ójin	hójin	oin	loin
	PFV	ai	hai	ei	hei	athi	izhi	óji	hóji	oi	loi
FUT		har	+har	her	+her	athar	izhar	hór	+hór	ho	+ho

• initial l is for lateralization and h for aspiration of the final consonant
• + indicates voicing of the final consonant

Agent prefixes are used only in the formal register.

Agent prefixes for tense and aspect

Tense	Aspect	1SG	1PL	2SG	2PL	2SG.POL	2PL.POL	3SG.AN	3PL.AN	3SG.INAN	3PL.INAN
GNO-STAT		a	sa	e	se	ai	athi	ó	só	o	lo
PRES	PROG	an	san	en	sen	nga	ngai	ón	són	on	lon
	INCEP	tsa	tsla	tse	tsle	tsae	tshae	tsó	tsló	so	slo
PST	IPFV	jan	zhan	jen	zhen	izae	izhae	jón	zhón	i	li
	PFV	ai	sai	ei	sei	tha	zha	jó	zhó	oi	loi
FUT		ar	sar	er	ser	thar	zhar	ór	sór	or	lor

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)? latepóji (he danced AN) vs. bousoi (he fell INAN)

• 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

Momentane vs. frequentative derivations; different ways for different stems/categories (make sound, move,

Mood

Indicative ("normal")

Some duplication with subjunctive ;)

imperative with apophony of 3SG.INAN GNO form

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? (ae inside?)

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

In formal register, it is preferred to use only animate nouns as agents while abstract and inanimate are 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)

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