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==History== | ==History== | ||
Eyalian is a Ketan language and is one of three languages with an extensive literary tradition (the other two being '''Virjalian''', which is a close relative of Eyalian, and '''Phomˀald''', which is much younger than the previous two written languages). There are other languages with a long written history are Zėnan, Pietan and Kianne, but they were not continuous. Eyalian and Virjalian also share a common period, usually called Old Qenan. Several texts are known from this period, but the data they had given is insufficient to clearly establish whether Old Qenalan was a single language of both nations, or both Virjans and Eyans used a single written standard. Even if the second is true, both languages were likely very close during that period. | Eyalian is a Ketan language and is one of three languages with an extensive literary tradition (the other two being '''Virjalian''', which is a close relative of Eyalian, and '''Phomˀald''', which is much younger than the previous two written languages). There are other languages with a long written history are Zėnan, Pietan and Kianne, but they were not continuous. Eyalian and Virjalian also share a common period, usually called Old Qenan. Several texts are known from this period, but the data they had given is insufficient to clearly establish whether Old Qenalan was a single language of both nations, or both Virjans and Eyans used a single written standard. Even if the second is true, both languages were likely very close during that period. | ||
===Tarnan and Keian | ===Tarnan and Keian=== | ||
The oldest evidence of the split between Tar and Kei goes back to almost a seven hundred years ago, however ''Kei Ejale'' was finally standardised only two hundred years ago. Prior to that Keians used a modified Tarnan orthography. Modern Tar Eyalian also underwent a spelling reform two hundred years ago. Nowadays both standards are referred to as Ejale and Keile respectively, though some speakers occasionally refer to Eyalian as ''Tarejale'', mostly among the Tarnans. The Tar-Kei boundary was traditionally placed directly on the border between the Tarna and Keina Republics, however as the dialects diverged, it became obvious that the old boundary became obsolete. A new boundary is placed along the Ropra (or | The oldest evidence of the split between Tar and Kei goes back to almost a seven hundred years ago, however ''Kei Ejale'' was finally standardised only two hundred years ago. Prior to that Keians used a modified Tarnan orthography. Modern Tar Eyalian also underwent a spelling reform two hundred years ago. Nowadays both standards are referred to as Ejale and Keile respectively, though some speakers occasionally refer to Eyalian as ''Tarejale'', mostly among the Tarnans. The Tar-Kei boundary was traditionally placed directly on the border between the Tarna and Keina Republics, however as the dialects diverged, it became obvious that the old boundary became obsolete. A new boundary is placed roughly along the '''Ropra''' (or ''Ravar'') river to the north and east and along the Uve Province borders to the south. These dialects are called the Transitional (including ''Uve'') dialect, sharing common traits with both Tar and Kei varieties, while culturally most of its native speakers refer to themselves as simply ''Ejale'' without any further differentiation. The capital of the United Republic Kaurez (often pronounced as [kɛʊ.rɛθ] natively) also lies within the Transitional area, even though all neighbouring towns belong to the Keian speaking territory. | ||
==Dialects== | |||
Despite Tarnan and Keian varieties still share a low mutual intelligibility, they are treated as separate languages rather than dialects of a single Eyalian language. Both also show dialectal variation, especially Tarnan, being located in the mountainous region and thus remaining in a relative isolation for centuries. | |||
===Northern Tarnan (ehomėla Toalejale)=== | |||
There is no consensus on the northern Eyalian borders with the Viryan language. Though both standard languages differ in their respective phonology and grammar, Eastern Viryan dialects are more similar to Tarnan Eyalian than to Viryan. From a linguistic perspective it would be reasonable to consider Ahāres and Valeres (natively - ''Ahāre'' and ''Vajare'') to be Eyalian dialects rather than Viryan, as both preserve the phoneme [kʷ], while other Viryan dialects have [p] instead. The same is true for Tēna Viryan (natively - ''Cēna'' or ''Ceana'') which is almost identical to Oana Eyalian and both dialects are fully mutually intelligible. | |||
Here are some features of '''Ahāre''': | |||
*Strengthening of consonant clusters: ''*su'''jd'''a>lu'''st'''a'' (E. ''lȯ'''ht'''a'') – “hay”. | |||
*Phoneme [kʷ]: ''skvane'' "neck" (E. ''skona''). | |||
*Initial [[w:Rhotacism (sound change)|rhotacism]]: ''*'''d'''apenta>'''r'''afta'' (V. ''rafen'', E. ''lauta'') – “house". | |||
*Rounding: ''*å>o'' [ɔ], *ā>[ɑɔ~ɒː]. Short *a does not undergo any rounding - ''zasku'' (E. ''zohtu'') – ("he/she has become"). | |||
*All words receive penultimate stress (on the second to last syllable). | |||
*The intial *n is preserved in a small western area: ''naze'' (E. ''aze'') "dark", but "n" can appear in words that didn't originally begin with this sound: ''nīhpo'' "feather". | |||
*Partial diphthogization: ''*ō>ou, *ē>ei'' in the eastern area. | |||
'''Cēna''' features: | |||
*Initial and medial lenition of ''k'': ''*k'''al>'''x'''al'' (E. and V. ''kal'') – “who ([[w:Relative pronoun|relative pronoun]])”. | |||
*Medial lenition of ''t'': ''*je'''t'''īji>he'''z'''ei'' (E. ''heti'') – “small”. | |||
*No rounding, but the phoneme ''å'' [ʌ] is distinct from "a": ''kårni'' (E. ''korni'') – "to give". | |||
*Diphthongisation of high vowels: ''*ū>au'' [ʌʊ], ''*ī>ei'' [eɪ], but ''*īt>yz'' [ɪθ]. | |||
*Phonemes [kʷ] and [c]: ''*bårgwi>(v)ykve'' (E. ''oakve'') "heavy", ''*jinees>ceine'' (E. ''cienji'') – “husband”. | |||
*In border regions (and further eastwards) initial [ʋ] is elided: ''vykve – ykve'' "heavy". | |||
*Phoneme "y" [ɪ]: '''*dōki>lyx'' (E. ''loake'') – "hand, arm". | |||
*Pitch accent with two pitches: high (acute) and low (default or unmarked). | |||
===Ohta (ehoma Ohte)=== | |||
'''Ohtan''' dialects, spoken primarily in the Tarnan Province of Olerana but also extend into the Virjan territory are undoubtfully Eyalian dialects: | |||
*No plosive lenition: ''*kiiki>kieke'' – “short”. | |||
*Complete diphthongization of long vowels in stressed syllable (including ''*ā>oa''). | |||
**Rounding: ''*å>o'', including *a before high vowels. | |||
*[[w:Apocope|apocope]] of the final "e" in nouns and verbs: ''skvan'' "neck" (E. ''skona''). The final "e" did not elide in genitive, which was "-es" originally, and in adjectives, where it was restored by analogy. | |||
*Phonemes [kʷ] and [c]. | |||
*Phoneme "y" [ɪ]: ''*sujda>lyhta'' (E. ''lȯ'''ht'''a'') – “hay”. | |||
*Pitch accent: rising - ''éna'' [ɛ̌.nɑ] "language"; and falling - ''Ena'' [ɛ̂.nɑ] "the Ena region". | |||
===Transitional (Irekinėla)=== | |||
The transitional dialects (''ehomėla irekėnėla'') are spoken in the west of the Keina Republic. This is not a genetic grouping and thus various dialects show different features closer to either Tarnan or Keian. None of these dialects have a specifically Keian [s̠] sound, but they also lack rounding of *ā typical to Tarnan (initial ''*ā>uo'' in Uve, but initial ''*ō>eu'', which means they did not merge like in Tarnan), with some also lacking rounding of the short *a. Dialects close to Keian lenite /f/ to [v] between vowels: ''lavat'' "house" (T. ''lauta''), but do not lenite /k/ or /t/ even word-finally. | |||
==Phonology== | ==Phonology== | ||