Hauteis
Hauteis or L'Hautlang is a Romance language descended from Norman French and is one of two languages spoken on the island of Rathmos.
Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | h | ||||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j |
Vowels
Hauteis has the following six pure vowels, most of which (excluding only /ɛː/), have long and short variants.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i(ː) | u(ː) |
| Close-mid | e(ː) | o(ː) |
| Open-mid | ɛː | |
| Open | a(ː) |
In addition to the pure vowels there are five diphthongs: /au̯/, /ei̯/, /i̯u/, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/.
Orthography
The Hauteis alphabet consists of the following letters:
- a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v w z
The table below shows the correspondence between orthography and pronunciation:
| Graph | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a | /a/ | |
| á | /aː/ | |
| au | /au̯/ | |
| b | /b/ | |
| c | /k/ | before a, o, u, au and oi |
| /s/ | before e, i, ei and iu | |
| d | /d/ | |
| e | /e/ | |
| é | /eː/ | |
| ei | /ei̯/ | |
| f | /f/ | |
| g | /g/ | before a, o, u, au and oi |
| /d͡ʒ/ | before e, i, ei and iu | |
| h | /h/ | |
| i | /i/ | |
| í | /iː/ | |
| iu | /i̯u/ | |
| j | /d͡ʒ/ | |
| l | /l/ | |
| m | /m/ | |
| n | /n/ | |
| o | /o/ | |
| ó | /oː/ | |
| oi | /oi̯/ | |
| ou | /ou̯/ | |
| p | /p/ | |
| q | /k/ | |
| qu | /kw/ | |
| r | /r/ | |
| s | /s/ | initially; finally; adjacent to a voiceless consonant |
| /z/ | between vowels or voiced sounds | |
| t | /t/ | |
| u | /u/ | |
| ú | /uː/ | |
| v | /v/ | |
| w | /w/ | |
| z | /t͡s/ |
Phonological Processes
The following phonological processes occur in Hauteis:
- word-final al and ol become au and ou when a following consonant is added (e.g. animal "animal" > animaus "animals").
- word-final z becomes c when a vowel-intial ending is added (e.g. fáz "face" > fáces "faces").
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender. Nouns themselves are not usually marked for gender but words qualifying nouns, such as articles and adjectives, often are.
- lo rei "the king" (m.)
- la rein "the queen" (f.).
The plural of most nouns is formed by adding -s to the stem. Nouns ending in -s or -z add -es (-z also changes to -c-).
- los óms "the men"
- iuns dáms "some women"
- les fáces "the faces" (< fáz)
- fóus "fools" (< fól)
Articles
Hauteis has definite and indefinite articles, which agree with their noun in number and gender. The definite article is declined as follows:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | lu | lus |
| Feminine | la | les |
Both singular articles are reduced to l' before a vowel-initial word.
Examples:
- l'óm "the man"
- la nuris "the nurse"
- lus arbres "the trees"
- les cats "the cats"
The prepositions de "of", a "to" and en "in" combine with the definite article in the following ways:
| de "of" | a "to" | en "in" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | del | dels | au, al | aus | el | els |
| Feminine | de la, del | dels | a la, al | aus | e la, el | els |
The indefinite article has only two forms: iun (singular) and iuns (plural).