Etzeá

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Etzeá
etzeá
Pronunciation[ed͡zeɑ]
Created byJukethatbox
Date2023
Native toEtzeán Island
Yeldhic
  • Etzeic(?)
    • Etzeá
Early forms
Proto-Yeldhic
  • Proto-Etzeic(?)
Standard form
Etzeá Standard
Dialects
  • Duzuyel-Nyimörs dialects
  • Southern Sunyr dialects
    • Tisli dialect
    • Ntifi dialect
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Moshurian Empire
Etzean.jpeg
Etzeán Island. Most Etzeá speakers live on the western side of the island, past the Tûzogyâud Range.

Etzeá(etzeá; [ed͡zeɑ]) is the secondary language spoken on the island of Etzeán within the Moshurian Empire. Due to its early geographic isolation from mainland Yeldhic languages, Etzeá became the closest modern living relative to Proto-Yeldhic in the Yeldhic language family, making the language a key contributor in modern reconstructions of Early Proto-Yeldhic. Since the arrival of the Taskaric Néekh people in the Tûznam Basin around 1350 UH, various Néekh loanwords and Taskaric language loanwords in general have seeped into the Etzeá lexicon, such as ungesku [uŋesku] "long spear", from Néekh unghêsgu [uŋɣejsgu] "Izhkut spear", from Izhkut khungëskue [xuŋˈɛskuɨ̯] "spear with twisted blade".

History

Etymology

The name etzeá's etymology is heavily debated, though one theory is that it developed agglutinatively by the combination of one word and a case marker: Proto-Yeldhic *eðu, "land" and ablative case marker *-ē, or in other words, *eðʷē, "away from the mainland".

Formation

The first Etzeic peoples were a Proto-Yeldhic people who probably inhabited Kokiso Point, the closest coastal landmark on Talkoch to Etzeán Island. They probably arrived on Etzeán Island around 2400 UH, just in time before the development of the Paleoyeldhic languages on the mainland in 2370 UH. On Etzeán Island, the Etzeic peoples spread all the way to the Tûzogyâud Range by 1750 UH. The areas around Mount Ogoñi was settled later, around 1600 UH.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive p b t d c ⟨ty⟩ ɟ ⟨dy⟩ k g
Nasal m n ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Tap/trill ɾ ⟨r⟩ · r
Lateral approximants l ʎ ⟨ll⟩
Fricatives pulmonic s z ʃ ⟨c⟩ ʒ ⟨j⟩ ç ⟨ch⟩ x ⟨h⟩
palatalised sʲ ⟨ss⟩ zʲ ⟨zz⟩
Affricates pfʷ ⟨ŵ⟩ t͡s ⟨ts⟩ d͡z ⟨tz⟩ (t͡ɕ) (d͡ʑ)
Semivowel w j ⟨y⟩

⟨th⟩ is a digraph that was once used to represent Moshurian /ð/. Modern speakers pronounce ⟨th⟩ as /s/.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Close-mid e eː o oː
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a aː ɑ

/ɑ/, /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are shown by the letters ⟨á⟩, ⟨é⟩ and ⟨ó⟩ respectively. Long vowels are represented by circumflexes, as in ⟨â, ê, î, ô, û⟩ for /aː eː iː oː uː/ respectively. All Proto-Yeldhic vowels, including long vowels, are preserved in Etzeá, except which merged with /e/.

Prosody

Stress

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Other resources