Verse:Irta/English

English
Inglish
Pronunciation	[/ˈɪŋglɪʃ/]
Created by	–
Setting	Verse:Lõis
Language family	Indo-European Azalic L-Middle English English

English in the Lõis timeline is an Azalic language: it is an Indo-European language with pretty much exactly the same vocabulary and grammar as our English, but with a very different (in particular not descending from Proto-Germanic) history and orthography. (Also missing are some loans from other Germanic languages, such as schadenfreude.)

It is part of a sprachbund with Togarmite, Modern An Bhlaoighne and L-Persian.

Diachronics

Orthography

uon, tô, thrê, phuor, phîv, six, sevn, aiht, nyn, ten

O Captin! My Captin! ûr phiêrphul trip is dôn;
Ðe ship has weđrd evrih rac, đe prise uê suht is wun;
Ðe port is niêr, đe bels ih hiêr, đe pơpul al exsulting,
Huîl pholo eihs đe stedih kêl, đe vessl grim and dâring;
But O hart! hart! hart!
O đe blêding drops of red,
Huer on đe dec my captin lihs,
Phalen cold and diêd.

pelth₂óm > PPTA pheldă > phêld "field"

Accents

The "Sephardi-Estuary-Ashkenazi" continuum

L-Standard English belongs in a continuum of accents, with a quasi-Sephardi Hebrew accent on one end and a quasi-Ashkenazi Hebrew accent on the other end.

Overview

Vowels
Feature	Quasi-Sephardi Hebrew	L-Philadelphian	L-Standard	Quasi-Ashkenazi Hebrew
KIT	ɪ	ɪ~ɪ̈	ɪ~ɪ̈	i
DRESS	ɛ	ɛ	ɛ	e
TRAP	a	æ	a	a
BATH (the BATH lexical set is same as RP)	eː	eə	ɑː	a
LOT	ɔ	ɑ~ä	ɔ~ɒ	o
STRUT	u	ʌ~ɤ	ɜ̟~ɐ	ɜ
FOOT	u	ʊ	ʊ̈~ɘ	u
FLEECE	iː	iʝ + reinforcement before C; ɪj otherwise	ɪj	iː
FACE	eː~eɪ	ɪj + reinforcement before C; ɛɪ otherwise	ɛɪ	eɪ
PRICE	aɪ	əɪ~ʌɪ + reinforcement before C; ɑɪ~ɒɪ otherwise	ɑɪ	aɪ
CHOICE	oɪ	oɪ~ʊɪ + reinforcement before C; oɪ otherwise	oɪ	ɔʏ~ɔɪ~oɪ
MOUTH	aʊ	æʊ~ɛɔ	æʊ~æʏ	aʊ
GOAT	oː~oʊ	əʊ~ə̟ʊ~eʊ, oʊ before [ɫ]	ə̟ʊ~əʊ~əʏ~ʌʏ, ɔʊ~ɒʊ before [ɫ]	ɔʏ~ɔɪ~oɪ
GOOSE	uː	üw~yː, uː before [ɫ]	üː, uː before [ɫ]	uː
PALM	ɑː	ɑ~ä	ɑː	aː
THOUGHT	ɑː	oə(ɹ)~ʊə(ɹ)	oː	oː
NEAR	iːɹ	iə(ɹ)	iə~iɚ	iʀ
SQUARE	eːɹ	eə(ɹ)	ɛə~ɛɚ	eʀ
NURSE	əːɹ	əː(ɹ)	ɜː~ɚː	əʀ
START	ɑːɹ	ɒː(ɹ)	ɑː~ɑɚ	aʀ
NORTH	ɑːɹ	oə(ɹ)	oə~oɚ	oʀ
FORCE	oːɹ	oə(ɹ)	oə~oɚ (əʊə~əʊɚ for Jewish speakers)	ɔʏʀ~ɔɪʀ~oɪʀ
POOR	uːɹ	oə(ɹ)	uə~uɚ	uʀ
CURE	juːɹ	joə(ɹ)~jə(ɹ)	juə~juɚ~jɜː~jɚː	juʀ
commA	ə	ə(ɹ)	ə	ə
lettER	əɹ	ə(ɹ)	ə~ɚ	əʀ
happY	i	iː~ɪj	iː~ɪj	i
Other phenomena
Feature	Quasi-Sephardi Hebrew	L-Philadelphian	L-Standard	Quasi-Ashkenazi Hebrew
Rhoticity	Historical /r/ is always [ɹ]	Non-rhotic with intrusive R	Rhoticity in idiolectal or free variation	Historical /r/ is always [ʀ]
Dark L	Always	Always, often vocalizing	Only when non-prevocalic	Never
/θ ð/	Always [t̪ d̪]	Often [t̪ d̪]	[θ ð]	[s̠ d]
/w/	[v]	[w]	[w]	[v]
Aspiration of voiceless stops and t/d-tapping	As in AmE	As in AmE	As in AmE	Never

"Sephardi" accent

This is the "Western English" accent.

L-Philadelphian

This accent is spoken in the city of Philadelphia in Turkey (or as locals call it, "Flulfia"). It's basically a non-rhotic version of our Philly accent; r-intrusion is used, as in the New York accent.

A characteristic feature is reinforcement for certain vowels or diphthongs before consonants, which changes the pronunciation of the vowel:

• The nucleus is shortened.
• When the consonant is voiced, the offglide is lengthened: fame [fɪiːm]
• When the consonant is voiceless, the consonant is lengthened: face [fɪjsː]

/θ ð/ are commonly [t̪ d̪].

L-Standard English

Often called the "Newton accent".

A kind of "Transatlantic accent", inspired by Californian + Philly + Modern RP/Estuary. Rhoticity in idiolectal or free variation.

Vowels

• orange = [ɒɹɪndʒ~ɔɹɪndʒ]
• Mary [mɛəɹi] ≈ merry [mɛɹi] ≠ marry [maɹi]
• Mirror-nearer distinction
• Hurry-furry distinction
• No mergers before /l/

Consonants

• L is light [l] before vowels and dark [ɫ] otherwise, as in RP.
  • wholly-holy split.
• No glottal reinforcement before stops.
• /p t k/ are unaspirated after stressed syllables as in AmE.
• /d t/ has a tapped [ɾ] allophone in similar environments as in American English.
• wine-whine merger optional.
• /r/ may be [ʋ] between vowels.

"Ashkenazi" accent

The "Eastern English" accent. When L-English Jews read Hebrew in this accent, it sounds just like the Ashkenazi accent. Source of "oy vey" (from oh woe /øɪ vøɪ/)

This is not a specifically Jewish accent, and not all L-English Jews (or even all Ultra-Orthodox Jews) speak it; however, a sizeable community of Ultra-Orthodox Jews speaks this accent.

• /w/ = [v]
• /l/ is always light
• /r/ = [ʀ~ʁ]
• /s/ = Basque z
• /θ/ = Basque s
• /ð/ = [d]
• Stops are unaspirated

[ol hu:mən bijənz əʀ boʀən fʀi: ən i:kwəl ɪn dɪgnɪti ən ʀɑɪts. ðɛɪ əʀ ɪndaʏd wið ʀi:zən ən konʃəns ən ʃʏd akt toʀds won ənʏðəʀ ɪn ə spɪʀɪt əv bʀʏðəχʏd]

A rhotic accent

Rhotic with R-colored vowels using uvular r

• KIT = [ɪ],
• DRESS = [ɛ] (but it gets raised before fricatives),
• TRAP = [a] usually, /ɔ:/ before nasals
• LOT merges with TRAP
• THOUGHT = [uə]
• GOAT = [oə]
• FOOT = STRUT = [ɨ]
• GOOSE = [y]
• PRICE = [ei] before fricatives, [ae] otherwise
• MOUTH = [ou] before fricatives, [ɑo] otherwise
• FLEECE = Viby-i
• FACE = [iɛ]
• PALM = [a]

A pre-Grimm accent

Inspiration: Korean accent, British accents, New York accent

• /f θ h hw/ = [pʰ tʰ h~x xw]
• /p t k/ = unaspirated stops, ejective or glottally reinforced when word-final except after fricatives
• /tʃ dʒ/ = [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ]
• /v/ = [b~β]
• /l/ = [l] (always clear L)
• /r/ = [ɾ~ɹ]
• /ð/ = [d~ð]
• /ʃ/ = [sx~sʰ]
• FLEECE = i:
• FACE = e:
• GOOSE = ü:
• GOAT = o:~o̝:
• PALM = BATH = a:
• THOUGHT = NORTH = FORCE = ʌ:
• CHOICE = oi
• PRICE = aɪ
• MOUTH = aʊ
• KIT = i
• DRESS = e
• TRAP = ɛ
• LOT = ʌ
• FOOT/STRUT = u
• NURSE = ɚ:
• START = a:(ɹ)
• SQUARE = e:ə(ɹ)
• NEAR = i:ə(ɹ)
• POOR = u:ə(ɹ)
• CURE = ju:ə(ɹ)
• lettER = commA = ə(ɹ)~ʌ̈(ɹ)

Yod-coalescence, with /tj dj θj sj/ = [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ɕʰ ɕ]

In broad accents: wu/wu:/wuə > u/u:/uə and ji/ji:/jiə > i/i:/iə; hence year/ear, yeast/east, swoon/soon are homophones

BATH [a:] occurs for L-Standard English /a/ usually where Korean commonly transcribes the English word as /a/. (The instances do not correspond to instances of BATH in RP.)

• chance [t͡ɕa:ns]; but dance [dɛns], answer [ɛnsʌ̈]
• plant [pla:ntʼ], Grant [gra:ntʼ]; but grant [grɛntʼ]
• glass [gla:s], gas [ga:s]; but pass [pɛs], class [klɛs]
• plastic [pla:stikʼ], last [la:st], master [ma:stʌ̈]
• mask [ma:sk], flask [fla:sk]; but ask [ɛsk], task [tɛsk]
• after [a:ftʌ̈], craft [kra:ft]
• half [ha:pʰ]; but graph [grɛpʰ]
• bath [ba:tʰ]; but math [mɛtʰ]

An "Old English" accent

• CHOICE = œɪ
• PRICE = ɑ:
• MOUTH = æ:ɑ
• PALM = æ:
• FACE = æɪ
• GOAT = e:o
• THOUGHT = ɔ:
• FLEECE = i:
• GOOSE = u:
  • /ju:/ = y:
• FERN = FIR = ør~yr (also MERRY and MIRROR)
• FUR = ʊr (also HURRY)
• NURSE, FORCE = e:or~ø:r
• NORTH = ɔ:r
• NEAR = CURE = iur~y:r
• POOR = u:r
• SQUARE = e:r
• TRAP = ɑ, æɑ before /l r/ (also START and MARRY)
• DRESS = ɛ, eo~œ before /l/
• KIT = ɪ, ɪʊ~ʏ before /l/
• LOT = ɔ
• FOOT = STRUT = ʊ