Jovlish

Jovlish
Jóvleş
Ethnic flag used by most Jovlers
Pronunciation	[ˈʒoːvlɛʃ]
Created by	Vrianne
Date	2024
Setting	Earth
Native to	Türkiye
Ethnicity	Jovler
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglic Jovlish
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old English Old Jovlish Middle Jovlish
Dialects	Turkish Jovlish (Türkjóvleş (Türkjóvleş)) Georgian Jovlish (Kortuljóvleş (Kortuljóvleş))
Writing systems	Jovlish Georgian Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Türkiye, Georgia
Map of areas where Jovlish is spoken   ...as a majority language   ...as a minority language
Jovlish is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Jovlish (Jóvleş, Jóvleş [ˈʒoːvlɛʃ]) is an Anglic Germanic language whose speakers mainly reside in the Pontus region (Jovlish: Troψ, Trops [tɾɔps]) in the Republic of Türkiye. It is descended from the Old English spoken by the Anglo-Saxon refugees fleeing from the Norman invasion of England to the Black Sea, thus making it related to other Anglic languages such as English and Scots, and to other Anglo-Frisian languages such as the Frisian languages.

Classification

Jovlish is an Indo-European language that belongs to the Anglo-Frisian branch of the West Germanic languages, which in-turn is also a branch of the Germanic languages. It is specifically an Anglic language descending from the West Saxon dialect of Old English.

Anglo-Frisian Cognates with matching definitions

Jovlish	English	Scots	West Frisian
brıh (brıh)	brother	brither	broer
veş (veş)	week	wouk	wike
fód (fód)	father	faither	faar
Jöq (Jöq)	Earth	Erd	Ierde
grīt (grīt)	great	great	grut
mēqk (mēqk)	milk	milk	molke
reş (reş)	right	richt	rjocht
űvn (űvn)	give*	gie	jaan

History

Old Jovlish (12th–15th century)

By the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the speech of the Anglo-Saxon settlers had diverged noticeably from Old English, forming what is now referred to as Old Jovlish. During this period, extensive contact with the Byzantine Empire led to the incorporation of numerous Greek loanwords, particularly in religious, administrative, and scholarly domains. Additionally, some lexical influences from Adyghe and other nearby languages entered Jovlish, although its core grammatical structure remained largely unchanged from that of Old English.

Middle Jovlish (16th–17th century)

The 16th century marked the transition to Middle Jovlish, characterized by increased linguistic borrowing and grammatical transformation. During this period, Jovlish absorbed a substantial number of loanwords from Ottoman Turkish, Russian, and Classical Persian. These influences were particularly strong in trade, military, and governmental terminology.

One of the most significant grammatical developments in this period was the fusion of pronouns with conjugated verbs, leading to its characteristically un-Germanic verbal paradigm.

Jovlish's orthography remained largely static thus far, leading to a growing divergence between written and spoken forms. As such, words spelled as "mennisćmæn" ("human"), which reflected the Old Jovlish pronunciation /ˈmenniʃˌmæn/ quite accurately, would have been pronounced as /ˈmɛʃmæn/ by Middle Jovlish speakers.

The early 17th century saw the forced migration of many Jovlish-speaking communities due to Russian military campaigns in the Caucasus, which displaced numerous ethnic groups. Many Jovlish speakers were resettled in the Pontic region.

15th-century written form of "Ælfréd óþ" ("Alfred II")

Modern Jovlish (17th century–present)

The 17th century marked the definitive split of Jovlish into two primary dialects:

• Turkish Jovlish (Türkjóvleş, Türkjóvleş), spoken primarily in modern-day Turkey, especially in former Greek-populated areas along the Black Sea coast.
• Georgian Jovlish (Kortuljóvleş, Kortuljóvleş), concentrated in western Georgia.

In the 20th century, the Turkish Republican government initiated policies that suppressed minority languages, including Jovlish, leading to a sharp decline in its usage.

Phonology

Old Jovlish

Vowels

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i iː ⟨í⟩	y yː ⟨ý⟩	u uː ⟨ú⟩
Mid	e eː ⟨é⟩	ø ⟨œ⟩	o oː ⟨ó⟩
Open	æ æː ⟨ǽ⟩		ɑ ⟨a⟩ ɑː ⟨á⟩

	Rising								Falling
	-yː	-u	-ø	-o	-oː	-æ	-ɑ	-ɑː	-ʊ̯	-ɔ̯	-œ̯	-ɐ̯
i-									iʊ̯ ⟨(ǵ)eu⟩	iɔ̯ ⟨(ǵ)eo⟩	iœ̯ ⟨(ǵ)eœ⟩	iɐ̯ ⟨(ǵ)ea⟩
iː-										iːɔ̯ ⟨(ǵ)éo⟩	iːœ̯ ⟨(ǵ)éy⟩	iːɐ̯ ⟨(ǵ)éa⟩
j-	jyː ⟨éy⟩	ju ⟨eu⟩	jø ⟨eœ⟩	jo ⟨eo⟩	joː ⟨éo⟩	jæ ⟨eæ⟩	jɑ ⟨ea⟩	jɑː ⟨éa⟩

Notes:

• /i y u e ø o/ may have been realized as [ɪ ʏ ʊ ɛ œ ɔ].

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m		n			ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	t͡ʃ ⟨ć⟩		k ⟨c⟩
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ ⟨cǵ⟩		ɡ ⟨g⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ ⟨þ⟩	s	ʃ ⟨sć⟩	(ç)	x~χ ⟨h⟩		(h)
	voiced	v ⟨f, ƀ⟩	(ð)	z ⟨s⟩		(ʝ)		ʁ ⟨ǥ, ł, ɍ⟩
Trill				r
Approximant				l		j ⟨ǵ, i, e, é⟩	w ⟨uu⟩

Notes:

• /ð/ is an allophone of /θ/ when inter-vocalic or clustered with a voiced consonant. The same applies to the voicing pairs /v z/ and /f s/, though /v z/ have since become phonemic.
• /ç ʝ/ are allophones of /x~χ ʁ/ near /i(ː) y(ː) e(ː) ø/.
• /h/ is an allophone of /x~χ/ morpheme-initially.

Phonological shifts from Old English

• Homorganic lengthening and Pre-cluster shortening were carried over from the transition from Old English to Middle English.
• Geminated /ɡɡ, dd͡ʒ/ lose their gemination.
• Nasal-plosive sequences become pure nasals morpheme-finally and geminate plosives elsewhere.
  • /mp/ > /m/ morpheme-finally, /pp/ elsewhere.
  • /mb/ > /m/ morpheme-finally, /bb/ elsewhere.
  • /nt/ > /n/ morpheme-finally, /tt/ elsewhere.
  • /nd/ > /n/ morpheme-finally, /dd/ elsewhere.
  • /ŋk/ > /ŋ/ morpheme-finally, /kk/ elsewhere.
  • /ŋɡ/ > /ŋ/ morpheme-finally, /ɡɡ/ elsewhere.
• /m/ > /n/ morpheme-finally, though some words were unaffected.
• /kn, kl/ > /kʃn, kʃl/, though not orthographically represented.
• Voiceless sonorants become geminate fricatives.
  • /n̥/ > /xx/.
  • /r̥/ > /θθ/.
  • /l̥/ -> /ʃʃ/.
  • /w̥/ -> /ff/.
• /krV, klV/ > /kVrˠ, kVlˠ/ sporadically and with short vowels only.
• /ɣ, rˠ, lˠ/ merge into /ʁ/.
• /æ͜ɑ, e͜o, i͜y/ > /jæ, jø, jø/ word-initially, /jɑ, jo, ju/ word-initially and before either /ʁ/ or a syllable containing a back vowel, and /iɐ̯ iɔ̯ iœ̯/ elsewhere.
  • /e͜o/ > /iœ̯/ before a syllable containing a front vowel.
  • /i͜y/ > /iʊ̯/ before either /ʁ/ or a syllable containing a back vowel.
• /æ͜ɑː e͜oː i͜yː/ > /jɑː joː jyː/ word-initially and /iːɐ̯ iːɔ̯ iːœ̯/ elsewhere.
• /x, ʁ/ palatalize to /ç ʝ/ near front vowels /i(ː), e(ː)/.
• Glides after the diphthongs /iɐ̯ iɔ̯ iœ̯ iʊ̯ iːɐ̯ iːɔ̯ iːœ̯/ are dropped.

Middle Jovlish

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	iː ⟨ǵi, ii, (ǵ)éo, (ǵ)éy, (ǵ)éa⟩	yː ⟨ǵy, iy, éy, wy⟩		uː ⟨wu⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨i⟩	ʏ ⟨y⟩		ʊ ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	eː ⟨ǵe, ie⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e, i⟩	œ	(ə)	ɔ ⟨o, u⟩
Near-open			ɐ ⟨a⟩
Open	æ			ɑ ⟨a⟩

	Rising							Falling
	-ʊ	-œ	-ɔ	-ə	-ɔw	-æ	-ɑ	-j	-ɥ	-w	-ʊ̯	-œ̯	-ɐ̯
i-													iɐ̯ ⟨(ǵ)ea, (ǵ)eo⟩
y-												yɐ̯ ⟨(ǵ)eœ⟩
ɯ-											ɯʊ̯ ⟨(ǵ)eu⟩
j-	jʊ ⟨eu⟩	jœ ⟨eœ⟩	jɔ ⟨eo⟩	jə ⟨í, é, ǽ⟩	jɔw ⟨éo⟩	jæ ⟨eæ⟩	jɑ ⟨ea⟩
ɥ-				ɥə ⟨ý⟩
w-				wə ⟨ú, ó, á⟩
ɪ-										ɪw ⟨iu⟩
ɛ-								ɛj ⟨é⟩		ɛw ⟨eü⟩
ɔ-										ɔw ⟨ó, á⟩
ɐ-								ɐj ⟨í,ǽ⟩	ɐɥ ⟨ý⟩	ɐw ⟨ú⟩

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		m		n			ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	t͡ʃ ⟨tj⟩		k ⟨c⟩
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ ⟨cǵ, dj⟩		ɡ ⟨g⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ ⟨þ⟩	s	ʃ ⟨sć, ć⟩	ç ⟨h, i⟩		χ ⟨h⟩
	voiced	v ⟨f, ƀ⟩	(ð)	z ⟨s⟩		(ʝ)		ʁ ⟨ł⟩
Trill				r
Approximant				l		j ⟨ǵ, j, e, é⟩	w ⟨w, l⟩

Notes:

• although Old Jovlish /t͡ʃ/ merges with /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/ is re-introduced into Middle Jovlish through laonwords.

Phonological shifts from Old Jovlish

• /h/-dropping.
• /x/ fully shifts to /χ/.
• /t, d/ are dropped after /ʁ/.
• /l/ > /w/ before consonants.
• /t͡ʃ/ de-affricates to /ʃ/.
• Short /i, y, u, e, ø, o/ weaken to /ɪ, ʏ, ʊ, ɛ, œ, ɔ/.
• /i, u/ > /ɛ, ɔ/ in closed syllables.
• Long vowel breaking:
  • /iː, eː, æː/ and /uː, oː, ɑː/ merge to /jə/ and /wə/ repsectively after alveolar consonants.
  • /yː/ > /ɥə/ after alveolar consonants.
  • /iː, yː, uː, eː, oː, æː, ɑː/ > /ɐi̯, ɐy̯, ɐu̯, ɛi̯, ɔu̯, ɐi̯, ɔu̯/ elsewhere.
• /ji(ː), je(ː), wu(ː), {w,j}y(ː)/ > /iː, eː, uː, yː/
• /iːɐ̯, iːɔ̯, iːœ̯/ merge into /iː/
• /iɔ̯, iœ̯, iʊ̯/ > /iɐ̯, yɐ̯, ɯʊ̯/
  • iɐ̯ iɔ̯ iœ̯ iʊ̯ > /çɐ, çɔ, çœ, çʊ/ after plosives and /χ/ (absorbing /χ/ into /ç/), though some instances of /χ/ were unaffected by the latter.

Modern Jovlish

Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded		unrounded	rounded
Close	iː	yː		ɯː	uː
Near-close	ɪ	ʏ		ω	ʊ
Close-mid	e(ː)				o(ː)
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː	œ œː	ə		ɔ ɔː
Near-open			ɐ
Open			aː

Notes:

• /aː/ is realized as true central [äː].
• the distinction between /eː oː/ and other mid vowels is more reliant on quality than length, and thus /eː oː/ are not always lengthened.
• in the case of consecutive long vowels, the second long vowel is held for a shorter period of time, such as in fēşēver (fēşēver) /ˈfɛːˌʃɛːvər/ [ˈfɛːˌʃɛˑv(ə)ɾ].

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ		k		(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ		ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ			χ
	voiced	v	z	ʒ			ʁ
Trill			r
Approximant			l		j

Phonological shifts from Middle Jovlish

• /ʊ/ > /ɔ/
• /w, j/ > /v, ʒ/
• /ç, ʝ/ > /ʃ, j/
• /θ, ð/ > /χ, j/
• /kʃn, kʃl/ > /ʃn, ʃl/
• Initial geminates lose their gemination.
• /iʁ, yʁ, uʁ/ > /iː, yː, uː/
• /ɐi̯, ɐy̯, ɐu̯, ɛi̯, ɔu̯/ lose their semivowel component before /r, ʁ/.
  • /ɐi̯-, ɐy̯-, ɐu̯-/ merge into /ɐ-/.
  • /ɛi̯-/ > /ɛ-/.
  • /ɔu̯-/ > /ɔ-/.
• /ʁ/ is dropped inter-vocalically.
• Diphthong smoothing:
  • /iɐ̯, yɐ̯, ɯʊ̯/ > /ɛː, œː, ɯː/.
  • /ɐi̯, ɐy̯, ɐu̯, ɛi̯, ɔu̯/ -> /ɛː, œː, ɔː, eː, oː/.
  • /ɛu̯, ɪu̯/ > /œ, ʏ/.
• /t, d/ get dropped after /ʃ/.
• Sequences of alveolar consonant-glide-/ə/ simplify:
  • /njə, nɥə, nwə/ > /ɲɯ, mɲɯ, mɯ/.
  • /tjə, tɥə, twə/ > /t͡ʃɯ, ʃɯ, tɯ/.
  • /djə, dɥə, dwə/ > /ʒɯ, ʒɯ, dɯ/.
  • /sjə, sɥə, swə/ > /ʃɯ/.
  • /zjə, zɥə, zwə/ > /ʒɯ/.
  • /rjə, rɥə, rwə/ > /zɯ, zɯ, rɯ/.
  • /ljə, lɥə, lwə/ > /jɯ, vɯ, vɯ/.
• /ɑ, æ/ > /ɔ, ɐ/.