Řeuŋnie

Ouřefr /ˈəʊrɛfə/ (Ouřefŕnie cítnŕ /əʊrɛfɐːɲeː tsijʔtnɐː/) is an Idavic language. It is inspired by Czech, Dutch, Cantonese, and Japanese (but mainly by the first two).

Ouřefr is native to the island nation of Tumhan (Tumhaŋ), where it evolved in isolation from other Idavic languages.

Ouřefr has loans from the classical language Netagin, a fellow Idavic language.

Classical Ouřefr was less agglutinative and more fusional; it also had freer word order, whereas Modern Ouřefr is strictly SOV and head-final.

todo

Words

euj = (literary) lo, behold

Diachronics

1. OSL
2. Czech-like depalatalization and hard/soft vowel splits
3. Palatalization-dependent GVS, then another depalatalization?
4. Old Ouřefr ć dź ś ź merge into c z s z
5. n- > l- (unless assimilating)

Test

Woeŋanies uistřivt melouk lo vahrádyvijŋ, ar mezryz woþmyce bacirňr řeunie aš ŋávej těmzánisie. Evloedr wie doezanejne hář, po ryhoteuŋ.

Phonology

"Czech with more vowels and simpler phonotactics" or "Play up the Dutch in Czech"

Consonants

		Labial		Dental	Alveolar		Palatal(ized)		Velar
Nasal		m /m/			n /n/		nj /ɲ/		ŋ /ŋ/
Plosive		p /p/	b /b/		t /t/	d /d/	tj /c/	dj /ɟ/	k /k/	g /g/
Fricative		f /f/	v /v/	þ /θ/	s, š /s/	z, ž /z/			ch /x/
Affricate					c, č /ts/
Flap					r /ɾ/
Trill					ř /r~r̥/
Approximant		w /β/			l /l~ɫ/		j /j/

Word-initial h is silent; ' is always silent (with no effect on pitch).

m n ŋ can be syllabic; when syllabic they are written ḿ ń ŋ́ and have the same length as long vowels.

Voiceless stops are unaspirated as in Dutch and Czech.

Obstruent voicing assimilation as in Slavic.

Glottal reinforcement, but no gemination

/l/ has the same l~ɫ allophony as in RP; vocalization of dark L to [w] possible

Realizing /c ɟ ɳ/ as [tʲ dʲ nʲ] is a feature of sung Ouřefr.

In the Ouřefian accent, r is always a tap [ɾ]. In the Lo'edjeuan accent, r can be a voiced trill.

In the Ouřefian accent, ř is realized as a voiceless trill [r̥] in voiceless environments (word-finally and adjacent to a voiceless consonant). In the Lo'edjeuan accent, ř is always voiceless [r̥]. In dialects, ř is variously pronounced like [r̝] (the Czech ř), [ʐ], [ʂ], [ʒ], [ʃ], or [ð], or merges with r.

In stylized or archaizing registers, ř, h and ' are still pronounced as [r̝ ʕ ʔ].

Notes on consonant diachronics

Like Nabbrzé, Ouřefr shows debuccalization of Proto-Nabŋaic *g to h /ʕ/; compare Dutch and Czech. Proto-Nabŋaic *b has shifted to v while it stayed as /b/ in Nabbrzé. /p b g/ are loan phonemes.

Proto-Nabŋaic *ɬ has shifted to þ /θ~ð/.

Proto-Nabŋaic *ť ď has shifted to c z.

Vowels

The spelling of Ouřefr vowels reflects a shift similar to the Great Vowel Shift (cf. Common Czech and Dutch), which also affects loanwords borrowed before the shift, such as most Netagin loans in Ouřefr.

a e/je i/y o u á é í/ý ó ú ae eu/ui ie oe ou ŕ /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ɵ ɒː ɛː ɛɪ~ɪj ɒː yː~ʉː ae œː ɪː oː~uː əʊ~əʏ ɜː/

Closer allophones [ɪj~eɪ] of /ɛɪ/ are more common after palatals /c ɟ ɲ/.

• je i ie í eu are palatalizing; all other orthographic vowels are nonpalatalizing.
  • For C = b p v f, Cje Ceu Cí denote /Cjɛ Cjœː Cjɛɪ/; mje meu mij denotes /mɲɛ mɲœː mɲɛɪ/.
  • For C = d t n, Cje Ci Cie Cí Ceu denote /ɟ c ɲ/ + vowel.
• ó mostly occurs in loanwords from Netagin.

Notes on vowel diachronics

Ouřefr has lost Proto-Nabŋaic vowel length. Pre-Proto-Nabŋaic i u e a ī ū ē ā become e o e a i y ě o when not lengthened. Unlike in Nabbrzé, some vowel devoicing has occurred (cf. Japanese), which gave Ouřefr more consonant clusters.

Long vowels result from open-syllable lengthening (OSL): **čettijn > *četijn; **četijn > *čétijn. OSL occurred before the devoicing, making the Ourefr distribution of long vowels somewhat similar to Czech.

Modern ie ý/í oe ú result from older 'ää ý/í ó ú. Old Ouřefr u, ú has shifted to i, ij after soft consonants j č ž š ň *ľ ř.

Palatalizing eu /œː/ is common in native words. Common sources are:

• Old Ouřefr /æː/ before velars or /l/: for example, řeuŋ /rœːŋ/ 'wind' comes from Old Ouřefr řa̋ŋ < PNab *rěŋu < PId *rēŋu.
• Old Ouřefr long /juː/, coming from PId /ew/ or /iw/.

Non-palatalizing ui /œː/ comes mostly from historical *ujV or loanwords.

Most speakers today are in the process of merging /ɜː/ into á /aː/.

As suggested by the spelling, ŕ /ɜː/ comes from syllabic r; they are cognate to Nabbrzé -arz/-árz.

ae mostly comes from historical aje or awe.

Downstep

Ouřefr has pitch accent. Non-initial h (historically /ɦ/, from earlier /g/) is realized as suprasegmental pharyngealization which acts on a syllable level: vowels in affected syllables are lengthened, lowered, and pharyngealized, and the syllable gains a downstep. On the other hand, ' (historically /ʔ/) in the same position would indicate lack of a downstep. For example,

• Vh# or VhC indicates [+phar]ꜜ: ftoh /ftoꜜ/ 'riverbank; coast' is read as [ftɔː], but the genitive/dative sg. ftohy /ftɔˤːꜜɪ/ is pronounced [ftɔ̌ːɪ̀], and ftohta (instrumental/locative plural) is pronounced [ftɔ̌ːtà].
• VhV indicates V[+phar]ꜜV: ksaha /ksaꜜa/ 'stranger' is read as [ksâː], and the genitive sg. ksah /ksaꜜ/ is pronounced [ksǎː].

h also removes falling components from preceding diphthongs: aeh ouh ýh are pronounced [aːꜜ œːꜜ ɛːꜜ].

Historically hard-soft vowel pairs

• hard y ~ soft i
• hard u ~ soft i
• hard a ~ soft ě
• hard ý ~ soft í
• hard á ~ soft ie/eu
• hard ou ~ soft eu
• hard ui ~ soft eu
• hard oe ~ soft ie
• hard ú ~ soft í

Long vowels result from OSL ćettijn > cetijn; ćetijn > cétijn

Morphology

Inflectional morphology is Slavic and Germanic-inspired; clitics and syntax are Japanese-inspired

Nouns

Ouřefr nouns are classified into two genders: animate and inanimate, and they inflect for case. Similarly to Slavic languages, the case affixes are fusional, encoding both case and number.

The inflectional cases are as follows. Other grammatical relations are expressed using postpositions and clitics.

• nominative (Japanese ga)
• accusative (Japanese wo)
• genitive (Japanese no)
• dative (Japanese ni)
• allative (Japanese e)
• comitative/"and" (Japanese to)
• instrumental/locative (Japanese de)

Declension classes

The declension classes are:

• -a declension (usually animate)
• -e declension (usually animate)
• -aw/-ui- (verbal nouns)
• hard consonant declension (usually inanimate)
• soft consonant declension (usually inanimate, but default for loans ending in a consonant)
• Inanimate vowel nouns/-h declension (default for loans ending in a vowel; historically nouns ending in -g)
• -ŕ declension
• -ýn/-ín declension (adjectival noun)
• -é/-ie declension (adjectival noun)

There are more declension classes than in related languages such as Nabbrzé; this is because of vowel changes after soft consonants and subsequent depalatalization.

eřecha (a) 'bear'

• nom: eřecha, eřechu
• acc: eřeše, eřechý
• gen: eřech, eřechý
• dat: eřechy, eřechas
• all: eřechet, eřechas
• ins/loc: eřešel, eřechaþa
• com: eřechuf, eřechaf

roustje (a) 'puppy'

• nom: roustje, rousti
• acc: rousti, roustí
• gen: roustj, roustí
• dat: rousti, roustjes
• all: roustet, roustjes
• ins/loc: roustil, roustjeþa
• com: roustif, roustíf

loef (i) 'bridge'

• nom = acc: loef, lofa
• gen: lofy, lofý
• dat: lofy, loefs
• all: lofet, loefs
• ins/loc: lofel, loefþa
• com: lofyf, lofýf

hŕþoh "corner"

• nom = acc: hŕþoh, hŕþoha
• gen: hŕþoj, hŕþojí
• dat: hŕþoj, hŕþós
• all: hŕþót, hŕþós
• ins/loc: hŕþojel, hŕþóþa
• com: hŕþojf, hŕþojíf

ksúv (i) 'tool':

• nom = acc: ksúv, ksúve
• gen: ksúvi, ksúví
• dat: ksúvi, ksúvs
• all: ksúvet, ksúvs
• ins/loc: ksúvil, ksúvþa
• com: ksúvif, ksúvíf

wecsaw (i) 'action'

• nom = acc: wecsaw, wecsui
• gen: wecsui, wecsají (pronounced like "wecsaji")
• dat: wecsui, wecsuis
• all: wecsuit, wecsuis
• ins/loc: wecsuil, wecsuiþa
• com: wecsuif, wecsuif/wecsajíf (pronounced like "wecsajif")

Pronouns

Rank pronouns.

Verbs and adjectives

vej- for negation; generally like Korean, except verbs also inflect for the animacy of the subject and object. (Inverse marking?)

get hard and soft allo-stems (cf. different "theme vowels" for Japanese verb forms)

Conjugation classes:

• "godan" verbs
• "ichdan" verbs
• "nidan" verbs
• irregular: "to do" (added to foreign words to verb them)
• irregular: "to be (copula)"
• irregular: "to exist"

Clitics

Topic particle na

Derivational morphology

Native

• -oelie '-ess'
• -(y)tj/-(i)tj/-tje diminutive
• -ech/-ch verbal noun
• -vŕ patient
• -fa agent
• -koek instrument
• -ář diminutive
• -yCe/-iCe (C = redup) diminutive; not very productive
• -ngoeh abstract noun
• -myc (soft) abstract noun

Syntax

Lifted from Korean and Japanese; completely head-final except in poetry.

Poetry

Poetic forms are influenced by Netagin; piyyut-like rhyming (i.e. last syllables agree) is the most common way to rhyme two words.

Sample text

UDHR

Tkanje ḿbeuku na héčti kfa botsínae vo, oedḿŋo'il ze wakŕvil páčta navŕsínaes. Ḿbeuký na toudžḿnil rachúbiníl ze mačídil sfáším vo, iezoer oŋužeuv lama jŕmi ŋ́kru-teuzimi wášil wecsáš hoezách mienis.