User:Ceige/Ilpen
Ilpen (Ylpen, Firren, Jip) is the language of the vikstådt of Ylp. The language is spoken beyond the borders of the city-state to an unknown extent.
Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
Vowels
Vowels are considered long if their root word is only followed by one consonant, although in practice speakers may fudge the rules. Some speakers stick to 5~6 phonemic short vowels (often collapsing /e~E/ and /o~O/), while others use more. These are demonstrated in the "cardinal phonemes" section.
| Orthography | Rough IPA | Examples | Cardinal Phonemes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ä ~ ä: | ja, and | /ja/ |
| æ/ä | E ~ E: | lætt, milk; næg, kill | /lEt:/, /nE:(g~j~Ø)/ |
| å | O ~ O: | stådt | /stot// |
| au | äü | naut, ship | /näüt/ |
| e | e ~ e: | let (leit), happy | /le:t~lEit/ |
| ei | Ei | neist, necessity; neiya, hurt | /nEist/, /nE(:)ja/ |
| i | i ~ i: | vik, town, city | /vi:k/ |
| o | o ~ [o: ~ u:] | otta, eight; nolla, novel | /ot:a/, /no(:)l:a/ |
| ø/ö | Œ ~ ø | nöt ship | /nø:t/ |
| u | ü ~ ü: | ju, good | /jü:/ |
| y | y ~ y: ~ i | ylläg, yllät, village | /yl:e(g~t)/ |
Due to inconsistent umlauting and consonant realisations, some words have doublets. For example, "noctem" yields nott (via *nocta) and nytt (via *nujti). This often happens as a result of other influences, such as "nyx".
There is a tendency to eliminate traditional /e/,
Prosody
Stress
Stress tends to be on the first syllable, with secondary stress appearing on other heavy syllable if need be (this can basically lead to a word having no real sense of stress at all, if it is small enough with enough heavy syllables). Syllable weight is generally dictated by the (traditional) vowel used in the syllable (such as y, ä, ö, å), for -VC syllables; -VCC syllables, if they exist, tend to automatically heavy no matter the vowel.
Intonation
Emphasis can be placed on bisyllabic CVCV- words by pronouncing the first stressed syllable with a dipping tone, then the second with a higher falling tone.