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Efenol: Difference between revisions
Evolution of Spanish vowels
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** In Northern Efenol, /kw/-derived /p/ (written as a regular 'p') becomes <ph> /f/ under nasal and rhotic mutation but remains a <pv> /v/ under lenition. | ** In Northern Efenol, /kw/-derived /p/ (written as a regular 'p') becomes <ph> /f/ under nasal and rhotic mutation but remains a <pv> /v/ under lenition. | ||
** In Eastern Efenol the pattern is identical as in Standard Efenol but the lack of distinction between /b/ and /v/ makes the distinction irrelevant under lenition. | ** In Eastern Efenol the pattern is identical as in Standard Efenol but the lack of distinction between /b/ and /v/ makes the distinction irrelevant under lenition. | ||
==Evolution from Spanish== | |||
The following section indicates how Efenol vocabulary can be derived from the corresponding Spanish-language terms. As elsewhere in this article, the content of this section applies to the Western Efenol dialect unless otherwise noted. | |||
===About the base Spanish variety=== | |||
All forms of Efenol are based on (and supposedly descended from) the Spanish language as spoken today. The Spanish variety that serves as base for North-Central Efenol (''ie'' excluding the Southern Efenol language) is an unspecified form of European Spanish with the following features: | |||
* Preserving the distinction between phonemes /s/ (spelled <s> in Spanish) and /θ/ (spelled as either <c> or <z>). This feature is known as 'distinción' and is found in most of Spain, contrasting with the merger of both sounds into /s/ ('seseo', found in most of the Spanish speaking territories) or the merger of both sounds into /θ/ ('ceceo', found in some regions of Andalusia). | |||
* Preserving the distinction between the phonemess /ʝ/ (spelled <y>) and /ʎ/ (spelled <ll>). This feature (sometimes referred to as 'lleísmo') is relatively uncommon but can be found in some regions of Spain and South America, contrasting with the far more common merger of both phonemes (a feature known as 'yeísmo'). On the other hand, the Southern Efenol language (not covered in this article) either descends from a variety with yeísmo or adopted a similar merger early on its evolution. | |||
This features suggest that Efenol would probably have originated somewhere in the northern half of Spain. Accordingly, Spanish regionalisms are preferred to Latin American regionalisms although neutral vocabulary found across the Spanish-speaking world is preferred to either. | |||
===Vowels=== | |||
====Monophthongs==== | |||
As mentioned in the phonology section, Spanish pentavocalic system [ä e̞ i o̞ u] is mostly preserved (and expanded) in Efenol. When not in an unstressed word-final open syllable (where vowels are typically subject to elision) nor affected by ablaut, these five vowels (as monophthongs) evolve in the following way: | |||
* Spanish 'a' [ä] remains as an <a> [ä]. This vowel is usually transcribed as /a/ in phonemic transcriptions despite it remaining a central low vowel (except for Hunzad, where it is indeed fronted to [a] or in Eastern Efenol where the vowel is fronted to [a] in unstressed position and remains central [ä] otherwise). | |||
* Spanish 'e' [e̞] is raised to be a true upper-mid [e], spelled <e>. This is true except for Central and Northern Efenol (where it remains as a true mid [e̞]) or in Eastern/North-Eastern Efenol where vowel height varies depending on stress placement. | |||
* Spanish 'i' [i] remains the same. | |||
* Spanish 'o' [o̞] is raised to a true upper-mid [o] except in Northern Efenol where it remains an [o̞] or in Eastern/North-Eastern Efenol where vowel height varies depending on stress placement. | |||
* Spanish 'u' [u] remains the same. | |||
Examples: manzana > ''manthan'', queso > ''ces'', mito > ''mit'', rosa > ''ros'', mundo > munn''. | |||
====Diphthongs and hiatus==== | |||
Vowel sequences (diphthongs and certain cases of hiatus) evolve in the following way: | |||
* Spanish <ai> becomes <ei>: aire > ''eir''. | |||
* Spanish <ae> becomes a long e, <ê>: aeropuerto > ''êrobërth''. | |||
* Spanish <au> becomes an open o, <ò> /ɔ/ except in Northern Efenol, where it becomes <ou> /ow/ in stressed position or is merged with <o> /o/ otherwise and in North-Western Efenol where it is always merged with <o> /o/: pausa > ''pòs'' (N: ''pous'', NW: ''pos''), auténtico > ''òténthig'' (N: ''oténzih'', NW: ''oténthetc''). | |||
* Spanish <ea> becomes a long a, <â>: maestro > ''mêthor''. | |||
* Spanish <ei> becomes a long i, <î>: reina > ''rîn''. | |||
* Spanish <eo> and <eu> becomes <ë> /ɛ/ in Western Efenol: correo > ''corhë'', euro > ''ër''. | |||
* Spanish <ia> and Spanish <io> behave differently depending on whether they are in the first syllable of a word or not | |||
** If they are, they remain as /ja/ and /jo/ which, due to an earlier historical development (when they were pronounced [ɪa] and [ɪo]) are represented as <ea> and <eo> in Western Efenol orthography. The /j/ may be lost under some scenarios, such as when following an s as the combination /sj/ becomes /ʃ/. It's also worth noting that an initial s (palatalized to /ʃ/) is added to word initial /ja/ and /jo/ in Western and North-Western Efenol (but not in any other varieties). Examples: piano > ''pean'', violín > ''beolin'', hiato > ''seat'' (but Northern ''iat''), ionizar > ''seonithar'' (but Northern ''ionizar''). | |||
** If there is a preceding syllable, then 'the yod moves backwards' resulting in an i-ablaut of the preceding vowel while the /a/ or /o/ of the original diphthong evolves as usual. Examples: vegetariano > ''bechedeiran'' (the ''ei'' arising from an i-ablauted a), nación > ''neithôn'' (this generalizes to all Spanish words with the -ción suffix, now expressed through i-ablaut and -thôn). There is a small number of exceptions to this rule, such as colombiano > ''colobean'' and fermión > ''fermeôn''. Additionally, the Spanish suffix -ción does not trigger i-ablaut in Northern Efenol (nación > ''nazôn'') while both forms are found in North-Eastern Efenol (thus both ''nazôn'' and ''neizôn'' may be found in the northeast). | |||
* Spanish <ie> becomes a long i, <î>. In Western and North-Western Efenol, word-initial /je/ gets a prosthetic /s/. Examples: miedo > ''mît'', hierro > ''sîr'' (but Northern ''irr'' or ''îrr''). | |||
* Spanish <iu> becomes an <y> /y/. This vowel is often lengthened if the resulting Efenol word is monosyllabic (the resulting long /y/ is written as <ij> in the Western Efenol orthography). In theory, a word with an initial /ju/ in Spanish would also get a prosthetic /s/ in Western and North-Western Efenol though no such words have been attested. Examples: ciudad > ''thydhadh'', viudo > ''bijdh''. | |||
* Spanish <oe> becomes a long e in Western and Central Efenol, <öe> /øː/~/øi/ in Northern Efenol, <oe> /oe/ in North-Western Efenol and varies between <ê> /eː/ and <oi> in Eastern Efenol (in free variation, with the latter being more common in North-Eastern Efenol). Example: coherencia > ''cêrînth'' (but Northern ''cöerînz''). | |||
* Spanish <oi> remains as <oi> except in Northern Efenol where Spanish /oj/ (but not the hiatus /o.i/) becomes <öe>, pronounced as either /øː/ or /øi/. Examples: boina > ''boin'' (Northern ''böen''), oír > ''oir'' (also ''oir'' in Northern Efenol, since the word has hiatus in Spanish). | |||
* Much like <ia> and <io>, Spanish <ua> and <uo> behave differently depending on whether they occur in the first syllable of a word or not. This does not include the sequences <gua> and <guo> which are interpreted as corresponding to a consonantal /w/ followed by an /a/ or an /o/. | |||
** In the first syllable of a word Spanish <ua> and <uo> evolve to become <a> and <ô>. The missing /w/, however, can trigger a change in the preceding consonant. In all North-Central dialects (ie all Efenol varieties other than Southern Efenol) the sequenced <cua> and <cuo> become <pa> and <po>. Additionally, in Western and Central Efenol (and for some North-Western speakers as well) some voiceless onsets such as /s/ become voiced. Examples: Juan > ''Chan'', duodecimal > ''dôdethimal'', cuatro > ''páthor'', cuórum > ''pôrum'', suave > ''zabh''. | |||
** If there is a preceding syllable, the /w/ is removed and the preceding vowel is u-ablauted (or lengthened if ordinary u-ablaut wouldn't result in a change). The sequence /kw/ in Spanish still evolves to /p/ (or /v/ if lenited). In Western and (most forms of) Central Efenol a preceding /s/ is still voiced to /z/ under this scenario. Examples: aduana > ''òdan'', virtuoso > ''byrthô'', acuarela > ''avarel'', adecuar > ''adhepar'', casual > ''còzal'' (alternates with ''còsal'', derived by analogy from ''còs'', cause). | |||
* Spanish <ue> becomes <ë> /ɛ/ in Western Efenol. The sequence <cue>, however, becomes /pe/ in the Northern and Western dialects. Examples: puesto > ''pëth'', cueva > ''pebh'' (but Eastern ''këb''). | |||
* Spanish <ui> becomes an <y> /y/: buitre > ''výther''. | |||
====Elision of word-final vowels==== | |||
Word-final unstressed vowels are usually elided in Efenol. Examples: mesa > ''mes'', escape > ''echab'', mono > ''mon''. | |||
Stressed word-final vowels become long vowels: Panamá > ''Panamâ'', café > ''cafê'', buró > ''burô''. This is not true of monosyllables (mostly particles), where vowels remain short: de > ''de''. | |||
If the elision of an unstressed word-final vowel would result in an illegal consonant cluster in codal final position, the vowel is moved to break the cluster: CCV > CVC. This is the case for Spanish clusters with an L or an R as a second element (padre > ''pádher'', cifra > ''thífar'') except for <gl> and <gr> which evolve into Efenol <lw> /ɫ/ and <rh> /ʀ/ respectively, both of which also result in a u-ablaut of the previous vowel: siglo > ''sylw'', tigre > ''*tyrh'' > ''tijr''. | |||
Other disallowed final clusters include L followed by a voiced sound (esmeralda > ''emeráladh'', alma > ''álam'') and, in dialects other than the standard Western Efenol, R followed by a voiced sound: barba > Western: ''barbh'', Northern: ''bárav''; arma > Western ''arm'', Northern: ''áram''. | |||
North-Western Efenol, most Central Efenol varieties and a few Western Efenol varieties always break these clusters with the same vowel regardless of the value of the original vowel. North-Western Efenol uses the vowel <ë> /ə/ while Central and non-standard Western Efenol varieties use <a> /a/. Non-standard Western varieties also extend this behavior to the clusters that are preserved in standard Efenol. Examples: arma > Standard/Western: ''arm'', Central and non-standard Western: ''áram'', North-Western: ''árëm''; padre > Standard/Western: ''pádher'', Central and non-standard Western: ''pádhar'', North-Western: ''pádhër''; libro > Standard/Western: ''lívor'', Central and non-standard Western: ''*lívar'' (alternating with ''lívor'' by influence of Standard Efenol), North-Western: ''lívër''. | |||
The clusters <mbr>, <ndr> and <ngr> are treated differently. In Western Efenol (and in some forms of Central Efenol) they evolve into <nv_r>, <ndh_r> and <nrh_r>, with the elided vowel moving before the R: hombre > ''ónver'', tundra > ''túndhar'', sangre > ''sánrher''. Eastern, North-Western and most Central Efenol dialects preserve the /b/, /d/ and /g/ in those clusters unchanged as exemplified by Eastern ''ómber'', ''túndar'' and ''sánger''. Northern and North-Eastern Efenol also follow the 'Eastern' model (except for <mbr>, which yields <nv_r> in Northern Efenol) but they also lengthen the preceding vowel in these cases, resulting in Northern ''ônver'', ''tûndar'' and ''sânger'' (often shortened to ''sâng''). | |||
==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||