I Kronurum

I Kronurum
"that which is spoken"
Pronunciation	[/ˈʔi ˈkɾo̞.nu.ɾum/]
Created by	Nicolás Straccia
Setting	Unnamed conworld
Native to	The Marks of Ifarka (i-Étrir, ...) and some exclaves under their influence
Language family	Northern Languages I Kronurum
Early forms	Proto-Northern Ancient IK Old IK

The language known as I Kronurum is a conlang being created and developed by Nicolás Straccia since 2013 [It is part of a larger conworlding project].

Background

The language known as I Kronurum (IK) is a part of the Northern Languages linguistic family, which populates the northern region of the central continent.

Notwithstanding the several subgroups that have split from this branch at different stages, this central branch of the family has been studied as a continuity in which four main stages can be identified: Ancient IK (AIK), Old IK (OIK), Middle IK (MIK; together with Early-MIK, EMIK) and Modern IK (MoIK; together with Early-MoIK, EMoIK).

The developmental stage presented in this article is that of Middle-IK (MIK). At this stage, a group of OIK speakers has already moved westwards from the AIK speaker's cultural Urheimat, which was located in the plains in the northern region of the central continent. MIK is thus the main variety spoken in the region nearby and at the shores of the northern sea.

The endonym of this region is Ifarka (/ʔi.ˈfɑɾ.kɐ/), which is translated as "The Land". It is divided in several administrative provinces, called Igódánafáreþ ("Marks"), which hold periodical meetings regarding whichever matters would affect the generality of the hold.

Grammar

In a nutshell:

OSV

N/A

Pro-drop

[...]

PHONOLOGY

Vowels

Vowel inventory

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i u (ʊ) (ɘ) e̞ o̞ (ɛ) (ɐ) (a) ɑ
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

Vowel allophony

· /ɑ/ becomes /ɐ/ in unstressed syllables and /a/ in word medial unstressed syllables.

· /e̞/ becomes /ɘ/ in unstressed syllables and /ɛ/ in word medial unstressed syllables.

Consonants

Consonant inventory

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d			k g	ʔ
Nasal	m			n		(ɲ)	(ŋ)
Trill				r
Tap or flap				ɾ
Fricative	(β)	f	θ ð	s	ʃ		x (ɣ)	h
Lateral fric.				(ɬ)
Approximant	w					j
Lateral app.				l

Onset mutations

Mutation grade
0	1	2
b- /b/~/β/	p- /p/	f- /f/
d- /d/	ð- /ð/	þ- /θ/
f- /f/	p- /p/	b- /b/~/β/
h- /h/~/χ/	k- /k/	g- /g/~/ɣ/
j- /j/	jw- /jʷ/	ñ- /ɲ/
k- /k/	g- /g/~/ɣ/	h- /h/~/χ/
l- /l/	l- /l /	lh- /ɬ/
m- /m/	mw- /mʷ/	w- /w/
n- /n/	nw- /nʷ/	ñ- /ɲ/
s- /s/	þ- /θ/	ś- /ʃ/
t- /t/	d- /d/	ð- /ð/
w- /w/	gw- /gʷ/	ƕ- /hw/~/hv/

Onset mutations posit a great challenge for the diachronic analysis of I Kronurum. Since the previous stages of the language are not yet well documented, most of the information on this regard is a matter of scientific speculation.

Given the data available and the currently valid synchronic analysis, they are analysed as conforming a continuum of mutation grades from 0 to 2. The 0 degree of mutation is that of the onset consonant as it appears in the citation form of the root (nominative, unmarked). A first and second degree of mutation will be triggered by the prepositions governing the genitive and the accusative cases: the preposition ‹ó› governs the genitive (GEN) and triggers the first degree of mutation. The preposition ‹tró› governs the accusative (ACC) and triggers the second degree of mutation. Thus the mutations of ‹d› /d/, ‹ð› /ð/ and ‹þ› /θ/, are considered part of a continuum as in the example below.

Eg. duma {fox:nom}, ó ðumen {gen fox-gen}, tró þuma {acc fox-acc}

Some of the occurring phenomena are nasalization, labialization, palatalization, velarization, fricativization, voicing and devoicing.

Other contextual phonological phenomena

There are some morpho-phonological phenomena that need yet to be properly described. This is a sample of those:

· -ren-rin- → -relin-

· jw+u /jʷu/ → jub- /juβ/ [+labialization][+methatesis] sky juska /ˈjus.kɐ/, ó jubsken /ʔu̹.ˈjuβs.ke̞n/

· /u̜.j/ → /ui̯/ fish strójr /ˈstɾu̜.jɾ̩/ ; fish (pl.) strójran /ˈstɾui̯.ɾɐn/

· -/m/ /b/- → -/mb̥/- som breja /ˈso̞m.ˌb̥ɾe̞.jɐ/

Syllable structure

The structure of the longest possible syllable is (C)(C)(C)nu(C)(N/R), where the nucleus nu must be either a vowel or a syllabic [R] or [N]. In coda position, a cluster can end either with a nasal, N, or a rhotic, R.

MORPHOLOGY

Nominal morphology

Plurals

Grammatical gender	Plural form			Example
Animate	umlaut+-n	{´}n	‹´›-/n/	‹fara› /ˈfɑ.ɾɐ/ → ‹fáran› /ˈfɐi̯.ɾɐn/ (fara-{´}an)
	umlaut+-an	{´}n	‹´›-/ɐn/
Inanimate	umlaut+-ran	{´}ran	‹´›-/ɾɐn/	‹þane› /ˈθɑ.nɘ/ → ‹þáneran› /ˈθɑi̯.nɘ.ɾɐn/ (þane-{´}ran)
	umlaut+-eþ	{´}eþ	‹´›-/eθ/	‹baga› /ˈbɑ.gɐ/ → ‹bágeþ› /ˈbai̯.geθ/ (baga-{´}eþ)
Indefinite	umlaut+-aþ	aþ	-/ɐθ/

Diminutives

Grammatical gender	Diminutive form			Example
Animate	-	-	-
	preposition	‹som›	/so̞m/	som lugr, little hand; som breja, little animal.
Inanimate
	umlaut+-þu	{´}þu	‹´›-/θu/
	umlaut+-li	{´}li	‹´›-/li/
Indefinite	-	-	-

Augmentatives

Grammatical gender	Augmentative form			Example
Animate	-
	preposition	‹det›	/de̞t/	det _, big _; det _, big _.
Inanimate
	-
Indefinite	-

Superlatives

Grammatical gender	Superlative form			Example
Animate	-
	preposition	‹dette›	/de̞.tːɘ/	(dette < det-det)
Inanimate
	-
Indefinite	-

Marking hierarchy

Nouns

The marking of the nouns happens according to the following hierarchy:

0	1	2	3	4
√noun	det	pl	and	nom, gen, akk, dat, inst, loc, all

In the genitive and accusative cases, the root is also preceded by a preposition.

Verbs

The marking of the verbs happens according to the following hierarchy:

-2	-1	0	1	2
Passive voice marker	Aspect marker prefix	√verb	Conjugation affix for person, number and mood	Aspect marker suffix

Syntax

Word order per sentence type

Sentence type			Word order	Marking	Notes
Declarative sentences	Active sentences	Intransitive verbs	SV	nom-v	-
		Monotransitive verbs	OSV	acc-nom-v	-
		Ditransitive verbs	OTSV	acc-dat-nom-v	-
	Passive sentences		SOV	nom-acc-pvm-v	-
Questions			-	-	Focus fronting
Imperative sentences			OVS	acc-v-nom+det	-

Lexicon

Citation forms:

· Nouns: nominative singular;

· Verbs: first person singular present active.

Orthography

Besides the history of the in-world, "native" orthographies of the different historical stages of I Kronurum, there are two transliteration standards: a romanization, and a variation on Ulfilas' Gothic script.

Orthographies
Consonants
IPA value	Latin letter	Gothic letter	Native orthography	Notes
p	p	-	-	-
b	b	-	-	-
t	t	-	-	-
d	d	-	-	-
k	k	-	-	-
g	g	-	-	-
m	m	-	-	-
n	n	-	-	-
ɲ	ñ, ń, nj	-	-	-
r	ŕ, rr	-	-	-
ɾ	r	-	-	-
f	f	-	-	-
θ	þ	-	-	-
ð	ð	-	-	-
s	s	-	-	-
ʃ	ś	-	-	-
h	h	-	-	-
w	w	-	-	-
j	j	-	-	-
l	l	-	-	-
ɬ	lh	-	-	-
Vowels
ɑ	a, å	-	-	The graphy ‹å› is used for the causative marker caus ‹-a-› to be pronounced as /ɑ/, which happens in a position in which ‹a› would be realized either as /a/ or /ɐ/
i	i	-	-	-
e̞	e	-	-	-
o̞	o	-	-	-
u	u	-	-	-
u̹	ó	-	-	From an early long o vowel; AIK and OIK ‹ō› /oː/, EMIK ‹ó› /oʊ̯/

Samples

Sentences

‹ó pagrumórn, undrumórn, faŕumen›
/ˈʔu̜	ˈpɑ.gɾu.mu̜ɾn	|	ˈʔun.dɾu.mu̜ɾn	|	ˈfɑ.ru.mɘn/
ó(r)	{b→p}aga-rum-ór-(e)n		unda-rum-ór-(e)n		fara-rum-(e)n
gen	tree-det-and-gen		bird-det-and-gen		horse-det-gen
"of/about the tree, the bird and the horse" (a tale)

Other samples

I Kronurum has also taken part in the Fourth Linguifex Relay.