Scellan/Sketchbook

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Scellan/Sketchbook (English: /bɪˈneɪkiən/) is a southern Talmic language descended from Thensarian. The phonology is inspired by Ashkenazi Hebrew and Portuguese.

Historical phonology

  • p t c > b d g (like Spanish)
  • -φ- vanishes
  • b d g often lenites to v z Ø
  • str > sr
  • Stress shift: non-initial stressed vowels are marked with acute accent
  • How does Benocian borrow Windermere words?
  • 1: cêƞ /kɛ̃/
  • 2: têxôr‚ têx /tes/
  • 3: nâge
  • 4: lov
  • 5: orv
  • 6: cuv
  • 7: xol
  • 8: zic
  • 9: ad
  • 10: gar
  • 11: vem
  • 12: clut
  • nis = not
  • a = and
  • Fasám = Fyxám

Phonology

Consonants

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

In addition, the letter h is used as a silent letter.

Borrowing Windermere consonants

  • m n ng → m n n
  • b d g → b d g
  • p t c ' → p t c ȝ
  • ts tł → tx ŧ
  • f th ch → f~v x~z ch
  • s ł ș h → x s s ħ
  • w r y l → v r j l

Vowels

Bênôcian has 7 basic vowels: /i u e ø o ɛ a/.

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (oral)
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
Close i /i/ u /u/
Near-close [ɪ] [ʏ] [ə]
Mid ê /e/ ô /ø/ â, o /o/
Open e /ɛ/ [ɞ] a /a/

Scellan/Sketchbook vowels (nasal)
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
Close
Near-close iƞ /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]
/u/ [ʊ]
/e/ [ɪ]
/ø/ [ʏ]
/a/ [ə]
/ɔ/ [ə]
/ɐ̃/, /œ̃/ [ə̃]
/ɛ̃/ [ɪ̃]

Borrowing Windermere vowels

Windermere vowels

a e i o u y 〈a e i o u ü〉 → a e i o u i

iə eə uə oə yə 〈ie ea ua oa üe〉 → ia ea ua oa ia

ə 〈ă〉 (in unstressed syllables → a

Stress

In this article, stress is marked with an acute accent; stress marking follows the same rules as in Portuguese.

Orthography

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

Morphology

Nouns

The masculine and feminine genders in Thensarian has collapsed into the common gender.

The definite article is eƞ.

Declension paradigms

A common noun:

mâro 'tree'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute mâro mấrois
Construct mâroz mấrous
o-stem common
vêro 'king'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute vêro vêrois
Construct vêroz vêrous
i-stem common
u-stem common
C-stem common
ā-stem common
ē-stem common
tie 'hand'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute tie tieis
Construct tiez tieus
ū-stem common
andu 'sun'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute andu anduis
Construct anduz anduus
o-stem neuter
ħôdos 'spear'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute ħôdos ħôdôη
Construct ħôdoz ħôdous
i-stem neuter
veles 'name'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute veles veliƞ
Construct velez vélius
u-stem neuter
scizôs 'pile'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute scizôs scizuƞ
Construct scizôz scízôus
Consonant-stem neuter
stus 'fire'
Singulative Plurative
Absolute stus stuƞ
Construct stuz stuus

Gender of borrowed nouns

Foreign nouns are usually assigned gender according to animacy: animates become common nouns, and inanimates become neuter nouns.

Declension of borrowed nouns

Loans ending in unstressed vowels
ilsa 'eagle' (common)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute ilsa ílsais
Construct ilsaz ílsaus


acla 'sugar' (common)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute acla aclaη
Construct aclaz áclaus
Loans ending in stressed vowels
amré 'demon' (common)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute amré amréis
Construct amréz amréus


xra 'chord' (neuter)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute xrá xrais
Construct xraz xraus
Loans ending in consonants
nuxíad 'doctorate' (common)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute nuxíad nuxíadis
Construct nuxíadiz nuxíadius


tarxíad 'school' (neuter)
Singulative Plurative
Absolute tarxíad tarxíadiƞ
Construct tarxíadiz tarxíadius

Adjectives

Verbs

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

Ablaut patterns for strong verbs

Present indicative

Person tôssânâ "I invoke"
(a-stem)		 torenâ "I bloom, flourish"
(e-stem)		 elinâ "I love"
(i-stem/C-stem)
1SG tôssânâ torenâ elinâ
2SG tôssâr torer elir
3SG tôssâ tore el
1PL tôssáƞs toréƞs elíƞs
2PL tôssấc toréc elíc
3PL tôssâ tore el

Past indicative

Person tôssânâ "I invoke"
(a-stem)		 torenâ "I bloom, flourish"
(e-stem)		 elinâ "I love"
(i-stem/C-stem)
1SG tôssâz torez eliz
2SG tôssâi torei elii
3SG tôssâso toreso eliso
1PL tôssáƞr toréƞr elíƞr
2PL tôssâcer torecer elicer
3PL tôssâso toreso eliso

Present subjunctive

Person tôssânâ "I invoke"
(a-stem)		 torenâ "I bloom, flourish"
(e-stem)		 elinâ "I love"
(i-stem/C-stem)
1SG tôssaj torej elij
2SG tôssare torere elire
3SG tôssor torior elior
1PL tôssante torente elinte
2PL tôssace torece elice
3PL tôssor torior elior

Past subjunctive

Person tôssânâ "I invoke"
(a-stem)		 torenis "I bloom, flourish"
(e-stem)		 elinâ "I love"
(i-stem/C-stem)
1SG tôssấzoƞ tórezoƞ elizoƞ
2SG tôssấzor tórezor elizor
3SG tôssấzo tórezo elizo
1PL tôssâzóƞs torezóƞs elizóƞs
2PL tôssâzóc torezóc elizóc
3PL tôssấzo tórezo elizo

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 haη de tarsíad.
He will go to school.
Li cassis eη glexanos tri nâ.
I will eat the potato.
Future participle of cassiη 'eat'
Singulative Plurative
Common li cassi li cassiƞ
Neuter li cassis li cassir
Construct li cassiz li cassius

Infinitives

The Thensarian -s infinitive has been lost; the present subjunctive is used instead, as in Arabic or Greek.

  • Jozanâ rê êstiaj slâma. = "I want to feel good."
  • Nis joza haη rê haror de tarsíad cresiη. = "He doesn't want to go to school today."

An infinitive: tôssâgos (used in nominalized clauses)

  • Carsais tôssâgos. = "It is exhausting to cast spells./Invocation is exhausting."

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

  • drếvior haη gil cássiviz haη = "He avoided eating it."

Derivational morphology

From...
Noun Verb Adjective
or Determiner 		Adverb
To... Noun -veη, -veniη (agentive) -veη, -veniη (agentive)
Verb
Adjective
or Determiner
Adverb -

Syntax

Bênôcian syntax is VSO.

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