Scellan/Sketchbook

Scellan/Sketchbook is a southern Talmic language descended from Thensarian; more so than other Talmic languages, it has been influenced heavily by Classical Netagin and Clofabic languages in vocabulary and grammar. The phonology is inspired by Ashkenazi Hebrew and Portuguese.

Historical phonology

• p t c > b d g (like Spanish)
• -φ- vanishes
• b d often lenites to v z
• str > sr
• Stress shift

• 1: cêƞ /kɛ̃/
• 2: têxôr /tɪˈsøl/
• nis = not

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/		n [ŋ]
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/	ŧ /t͡ʃ/	c /k/		(ȝ /ʔ/)1
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/	đ /d͡ʒ/	g /g/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	x, ss /s/	s /ʃ/	ch /x/
	voiced	v /v/	z /z/			l, ħ /ʁ~h/
Approximant			r /r~l/	j /j/

¹ Silent in everyday speech.

Vowels

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (oral)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i /i/	y /y/		u /u/
Near-close	[ɪ]	[ʏ]	[ə]
Mid	e, ê /e/	ô /ø/		â, o /o/
Open		[ɞ]	a /a/

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (nasal)

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close
Near-close	iƞ, yƞ /ɪ̃/			uƞ /ʊ̃/
Mid	êƞ /ɛ̃/	ôƞ /œ̃/	[ə̃]	âƞ, oƞ /ɔ̃/
Open			aƞ, eƞ /ɐ̃/

Vowel reduction

Vowels are reduced in unstressed syllables.

Phoneme	Reduced
/i/	[ɪ]
/y/	[ʏ]
/u/	[ʊ]
/e/	[ɪ]
/ø/	[ʏ]
/a/	[ə]
/ɔ/	[ə]
/ɐ̃/, /œ̃/	[ə̃]
/ɛ̃/	[ɪ̃]

Stress

Stress is marked with an acute accent.

Orthography

Scellan/Sketchbook orthography is fairly conservative compared to its pronunciation.

Morphology

Nouns

The masculine, feminine and neuter genders in Thensarian collapsed to common and neuter genders.

The definite article is eƞ.

A common noun:

mâro 'tree'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	mâro	mâriƞ
Construct	mâroz	mấrous

A neuter noun:

stus 'fire'
	Singulative	Plurative
Absolute	stus	stur
Construct	stuz	stuus

Common: mâro, mâriƞ = trees

Neuter: tiƞs, tiƞr = hand

Neuter: stus, stur = fire

Neuter: teŧys, teŧyr = child

Verbs

Bênôcian verbs are significantly simpler than Thensarian verbs, though the multiple infinitives of Thensarian have servived.

There is no future tense.

Present indicative

Person	tôssaƞ "I pray" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaƞ	toreƞ	eliƞ
2SG	tôssar	torer	elir
3SG	tôssa	tore	el
1PL	tôssáƞs	toréƞs	elíƞs
2PL	tôssac	torec	elic
3PL	tôssa	tore	el

Past indicative

Person	tôssaƞ "I pray" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaniƞ	toreniƞ	eliniƞ
2SG	tôssai	torei	elii
3SG	tôssaso	toreso	eliso
1PL	tôssáƞr	toréƞr	elíƞr
2PL	tôssacer	torecer	elicer
3PL	tôssaso	toreso	eliso

Present subjunctive

Person	tôssaƞ "I pray" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tôssaje	toreje	elije
2SG	tôssare	torere	elire
3SG	tôssajor	torejor	elijor
1PL	tôssante	torente	elinte
2PL	tôssace	torece	elice
3PL	tôssajor	torejor	elijor

Past subjunctive

Person	tôssaƞ "I pray" (a-stem)	torenis "I bloom, flourish" (e-stem)	eliƞ "I love" (i-stem/C-stem)
1SG	tốssazoƞ	tórezoƞ	elizoƞ
2SG	tốssazor	tórezor	elizor
3SG	tôssaz	torez	eliz
1PL	tôssazóƞs	torezóƞs	elizóƞs
2PL	tôssazoc	torezoc	elizoc
3PL	tôssaz	torez	eliz

Future

The future tense is ergative; it is derived from Thensarian lē + present participle (cf. German, where zu + active participle is the gerundive).

Li harai his ful tarsuδ.

She will go to school.

Future participle of cassiη 'eat'
	Singulative	Plurative
Common	li cassi	li cassiƞ
Neuter	li cassis	li cassir
Construct	li cassiz	li cassivos

Infinitives

An infinitive: tôssas (used with modal verbs)

• Jozaη êstijas lâma. = "I want to feel good."

Another infinitive: tôssâgos (used in nominalized clauses)

• Carsajes tôssâgos. = "It is exhausting to pray./Praying is exhausting."

Another one: tôssav (used with prepositions such as gil and de)

• drếvijor ham gil cásiviz ham = "He avoided eating it."

Syntax

Bênôcian syntax is VSO.