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: [[{{PAGENAME}}/Names|E{{sīn}}me Mijòrìje (Majorcan names)]]

: [[{{PAGENAME}}/self|Zeàl leaṫnaċ fil Mijòrìje (This page in Majorcan)]] ([[{{PAGENAME}}/self/IPA|IPA]])

|name = Majorcan

|states = Majorca

'''Majorcan''' is a heavily Hibernized variety of spoken historical Arabic native to the [[Verse:Irta|Irta]] timeline's Balearic Islands comprising the nation of Majorca (natively ''el Mijòr'' [ə̟lmɪ̟ˈjo̟ːɾ{{lam}}ʲ], from Latin ''(insula) major'' 'bigger island'; Irta Irish ''an Mīrı'', matched to the Old Irish legendary figure Midir), an independent country where it's an official language alongside English. The native name for the language is ''el Mijòrìje'' or ''et teanga Mijòrìje'', but speakers may simply call the language ''teangatna'' [ˈt̪ʰæ̃ːʔʶʌt{{den}}ʶʰn{{den}}ʶʌ] 'our language'.

Majorcan has 850,000 speakers in Majorca; smaller Majorcan communities can be found in Southeast Asia, the British Isles, Eastern Canada, the West Coast of North America, and Bjeheond. Its speakers almost always also speak English; Modern Standard Latin, Irish and Nyvierfusiez are also widely understood in Majorca. Majorcans are predominantly Catholic; some are Remonitionists or Muslims. Education in Majorca is conducted in Majorcan and English up to secondary school level, and higher education is taught in English.

Irish loanwords, called ''clèm Ȝagmìje'' (from Arabic ''{{ayin}}aǧamiyyah'' 'foreign' → 'Irish'; Maqam Ajam in Irta comes from Ionian and Mixolydian in Irish music), comprise over half of Majorcan vocabulary. Besides Irish, Majorcan has borrowed from French, [[Hyperfrench|Nyvierfusiez]] and English. Some Irish vocabulary in Majorcan, called ''Nùa-Ȝagmìje'' 'neo-<i>Ȝagmìje</i>', are in fact coinages by Majorcans. It's the only Irtan Semitic language that evolved naturally under Celtic influence (Irta Modern Hebrew was revived partly by Celtic speakers and partly by Riphean speakers). Majorcan is somewhat mutually intelligible with many Irta Neo-Arabic languages, and is even intelligible with Irish and [[Ăn Yidiș]] in some formal registers.

The main motivation for Majorcan is aesthetic and grammatical similarities between Irish and Arabic, including:

False friends between Majorcan, Irish and Ăn Yidiș

In Irta, the Balearic Islands was ruled by Muslim Arabs since the 10th century. An Irish clan took control of the islands by the 11th century, and established a vassal state of an Irta Medieval Irish kingdom which lasted until the 17th century when the Irta English Order of ___ took over. Majorca gained independence from the Irta English in 1940.  

Majorca briefly occupied Cambodia and parts of Thailand as well as parts of North America (e.g. Kansas and Oklahoma).

The Irish vocabulary in Majorcan reflects a fictional Middle Irish dialect which shows features of modern Munster Irish and our timeline's Scottish Gaelic; it was conservative in that broad dh (> Majorcan /zʶ/) was kept distinct from broad gh (> Majorcan /ʁ/). Broad coronals were strongly velarized, and /a:/ was backed to [ɑ:] after broad consonants, explaining why Irish broad ''s d g'' were heard as /sˁ tˁ⁼ q⁼/ by the Arabic speakers.

The first surviving text in Majorcan is dated to 1515.

Majorcan is an isolate within Irtan Arabic; it evolved from [[Majorcan/Proto|Proto-Majorcan]], a fictional vernacular Arabic variety similar to our old Maghrebi Arabic which had the following features:

One Englishism: ''mā́nduhš Gújjə xuG'' = 'he doesn't have a prayer for...' (This and "sad" comes from a Majorcanism in Irta English which shows up in Pacific English and a few British dialects but not in Quelftonian English)

* Doonancole (''Dùn{{cll}} an Ċoill'', Ir. 'fort of the hazel') is a major city; an inhabitant of Dùn an Ċoill is called a ''Dùnaì'' in Majorcan.

** Bejza is an Irta Majorcan town

* Γanè Zammèd: President of Majorca

Majorcan has an almost complete set of pairs of emphatic (''leat{{cda}}an{{cll}}'' ['læ{{heth}}{{lowered}}ən{{den}}{{uvu}}], Ir. 'broad') and nonemphatic (''caol{{cll}}'' [q&#799;{{asp}}ɪ:l{{den}}{{uvu}}], Ir. 'slender') consonants, formed from both native emphatic consonants (Classical Arabic T D S Z q became /t{{uvu}} z{{uvu}} s{{uvu}} z{{uvu}} q/) and the contrast between broad (velarized) and slender (palatalized) consonants in borrowed Irish vocabulary. Irish broad and slender consonants are usually borrowed as emphatic and nonemphatic consonants, respectively. For referring to Majorcan we will use emphatic and broad, and nonemphatic and slender, as synonyms, as well as terms like "broadness spreading" and "slenderization".

Arabic /θ/ and /ð/ become Majorcan /t{{=}}/ and /z/.

|+Consonant phonemes in Majorcan

* Preuvular consonants are halfway between velar and uvular for most speakers but are velar or uvular for some speakers; the velar realization is more common for older speakers. /q/ in contemporary urban Majorcan is turning into [ʔʶ] (cf. Maltese and Egyptian Arabic /ʔ/ for older Arabic ''q''), even affecting Irish loans: ''teanga'' 'language' and ''guid{{cda}}e'' 'prayer' are pronounced [ˈt̪ʰænʶʔʶʌ] and [ˈʔʶʊ{{ret}}jjə] by the majority of younger speakers. This is often attributed to immigration from other parts of Irta's Arab world bringing the glottal stop reflex of Arabic ''q''.

Majorcan is usually analyzed as having 5 short monophthongs, 5 long monophthongs, and 4 diphthongs (not counting vowel + semivowel sequences) in stressed syllables. Some non-exhaustive common spellings for the vowels are given. Sometimes [æ] and [ɑ] (and their long counterparts) are analyzed as distinct phonemes, however this distinction is marginal.

In Majorca, Majorcan uses a Roman orthography which adopted changes to more faithfully reflect Arabic in the spelling of native vocabulary. Like many orthographies used in Irta, Majorcan orthography is based on the principles of etymological spelling and enabling many-to-one reading, with the latter taking precedence. In Gaelic type for Majorcan, the underline diacritic is rendered as slightly slanted horizontal strokes under the letter.  

Majorcans handwrite lowercase i and j without dots.

Consonants in Irish loans generally have the same value as in "carefully-read Irish", i.e. with no vowel contractions from V[semivowel]V. The values are the closest Majorcan equivalents to the Irish consonants, with broad and slender becoming emphatic and nonemphatic, except:

Sufi and Trician Majorcans use an adapted Arabic script devised by the Majorcan Sufi writer ___. The orthography uses invented letters and vowel diacritics made from Latin shapes (especially from Gaelic type) and Ogham for Majorcan consonants and vowels that don't exist in Arabic.

In post-independence Majorcan, ''el{{cll}}-guiḋe gur{{cll}}i'' is more common

The following heuristics are useful for guessing the gender of Majorcan ''inanimate'' nouns of Irish origin:

A Majorcan regular verb has five principal parts:

The tense system of Majorcan resembles that of Scottish Gaelic (with respect to diachronics too). Verbal nouns, inherited from Arabic, are used for Insular Celtic-style tense constructions:

Irish influence preserved or revived many conservative Semitic features of Majorcan syntax:

* (!) Stative verbs are different from Irish: tá mé i mo chodladh = nearg{{cll}}ad (stative verbs use the future tense in Majorcan)

! Majorcan

* a hypothetical news report in Modern Irta Majorca