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| {{Infobox|name=Parseltongue-inspired|pronounce=''n.a.''|tu=''Harry Potter'' world|species=Ophidic<br/>(snakes and snake-likes)|in=All over the HP world|no=''unknown''|script=''n.a.''|tree=Isolate|morph=Inflecting|ms=Accusative|wo=SOV|creator=[[User:Denihilonihil|Eugene Oh]]|date=July 2005}}
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| '''Parseltongue''' is a fictional language spoken by snakes in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels (author: J. K. Rowling), whose known human speakers include the Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. This language has, however, not been publicly described by Rowling and has no known form. | | '''Parseltongue''' is a fictional language spoken by snakes in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels (author: J. K. Rowling), whose known human speakers include the Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. This language has, however, not been publicly described by Rowling and has no known form. |
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| The '''Parseltongue''' referred to below in this article refers to '''Parseltongue-inspired''', a hypothetical form of the abovementioned snake-speak. Because the tongue has no written form, the text samples appearing hereafter are in romanised form.
| | Indeed, it is unlikely that a dictionary or a grammar of Parseltongue was ever written even in the ''Harry Potter'' wizarding world itself. The reason for this is that Parseltongue is not as much a learnable language as an innate magical ability. Either you are born a ''Parselmouth'', in which case you can speak and understand Parseltongue without ever learning it, or you are not, in which case you will never ever be able to speak or understand Parseltongue. |
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| ==Phonology==
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| ===Consonants===
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| Being a language spoken by snakes and the like, Parseltongue, while having the complete basic plosive repertoire (p/b, t/d, k/g), is rich in sibilants and other fricatives, which occur at a far higher frequency. Plosives also assimilate frequently to neighbouring fricatives or sonorants.
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| <br/>
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| <div style="text-align: center;">
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| {| style="text-align: center; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1pt solid #c0c0c0;"
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| !colspan=13 style="text-align:center; background: #efefef;"| Consonants
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| |- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small; height: 2em"
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| | ||colspan=2| Bilabial ||colspan=2| Labiodental ||colspan=2| Alveolar ||colspan=2| Post-alv. ||colspan=2| Velar ||colspan=2| Glottal
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Nasal || || {{IPA|m}} || || || || {{IPA|n}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Plosive || {{IPA|p}} || {{IPA|b}} || || || {{IPA|t}} || {{IPA|d}} || || || {{IPA|k}} || {{IPA|g}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Fricative || || || {{IPA|f}} || {{IPA|v}} || {{IPA|s}} || || {{IPA|ʃ}} || || || || {{IPA|h}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Affricate || || || || || {{IPA|ts}} || {{IPA|dz}} || || {{IPA|tʃ}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Approximants || {{IPA|ʍ}} || {{IPA|w}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Trill || || || || || || {{IPA|r}}
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| |-
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Lateral Approximant || || || || || || {{IPA|l}}
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| |}
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| </div>
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| ====Assimilation====
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| Due to the inherent tendency of snakes (and hence their human inheritors of Parsetongue) to fricativise sounds, plosives commonly assimilate to neighbouring continuants (including aspirate stops), even across word boundaries, except where plosives are geminate. Regressive assimilation is the most common, and changes of the following types have been observed:
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| *'''p''' + ''fricative'' = labialised fricative (''e.g.'' '''pf''' = '''f<sup>w</sup>''')
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| *'''b''' + ''fricative'' = '''v''' + voiced fricative (''e.g.'' '''bth''' = '''vð''')
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| **Occasionally, complete assimilation occurs, e.g. '''vð''' becomes '''ðð'''.
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| *'''t''' + ''fricative'' = geminate fricative
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| *'''d''' + ''fricative'' = geminate voice fricative
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| *'''k''' + ''fricative'' = '''x''' + fricative = geminate fricative in certain cases
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| When followed by a '''h''', whether or not separated by a vowel or diphthong, plosives are aspirated, eliding the '''h''', and in some progressive dialects fricativise.
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| *E.g. '''t''' + '''h'''' = '''t<sup>h</sup>''' or '''θ'''
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| The velar plosives exhibit a slightly irregular pattern of fricativisation, and examples as illustrated below have been noted:
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| *'''k/k''' (i.e. across word boundaries) = '''{{IPA|χ}}'''
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| *'''g''' is frequently elided
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| With sonorants, devoicing frequently occurs before a fricative:
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| *'''m''' + '''h''' = ''devoiced '''m'''''
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| *'''r''' + '''h''' = ''devoiced '''r''''' or '''hr'''
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| *'''l''' + '''h''' = ''devoiced '''l''''' or '''hl'''
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| **'''l''' + ''fricative'' sometimes causes the '''l''' to vocalise to an '''u'''
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| Frequently, intervocalic '''h''' is elided.
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| {{Seealso|see=the [[#Vowels|Vowels]] section}}
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| ===Vowels===
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| <br/>
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| <div style="text-align: center;">
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| {| style="text-align: center; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1pt solid #c0c0c0;"
| | What a Parselmouth hears when he listens to a snake (or another Parselmouth) are the natural hissing sounds of the snake (or, respectively, their imitation by the Parselmouth), and at the same moment, he magically knows what the snake (or the Parselmouth) wants to tell him. When he speaks Parseltongue, the Parselmouth subconsciously 'translates' his thoughts into snake-sounds. The knowledge of the grammar and the lexicon of Parseltongue is subconscious and cannot be told to someone else or written down. |
| !colspan=11 style="text-align:center; background: #efefef;"| Vowels
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| |- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small; height: 2em"
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| | ||colspan=2| Front ||colspan=2| Near-front ||colspan=2| Central ||colspan=2| Near-back ||colspan=2| Back
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| High || {{IPA|i}} || {{IPA|y}} || || || || || || || {{IPA|ɯ}} || {{IPA|u}}
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Near-high || || || || || || || || {{IPA|ʊ}} || ||
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| High-mid || || || {{IPA|e}} || || || || || || || {{IPA|o}}
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Mid || || || || || {{IPA|ə}}
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Low-mid || || || {{IPA|ɛ}} || || || || || || || {{IPA|ɔ}}
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Near-low || || || {{IPA|æ}}
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| |style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Low || || || || || {{IPA|a}}
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| |}
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| </div>
| | ===Related or descended conlangs=== |
| | * [[Parseltongue-inspired]], aka ''Fispa'' |
| | * [[Stilio]], a.k.a ''Parseltongue-inspired 2'' |
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| <noinclude>The above template is designed with spaces for the most common sounds of natural languages and the symbols thereof pre-included. As this template is meant to be inserted by means of a ''<nowiki>{{Vowels}}<!-- WARNING: template loop detected --></nowiki>'' command line, users are free to add necessary spaces or delete extraneous ones according to their needs.</noinclude>
| | [[Category:Conlangs]] |
Parseltongue is a fictional language spoken by snakes in the Harry Potter series of novels (author: J. K. Rowling), whose known human speakers include the Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. This language has, however, not been publicly described by Rowling and has no known form.
Indeed, it is unlikely that a dictionary or a grammar of Parseltongue was ever written even in the Harry Potter wizarding world itself. The reason for this is that Parseltongue is not as much a learnable language as an innate magical ability. Either you are born a Parselmouth, in which case you can speak and understand Parseltongue without ever learning it, or you are not, in which case you will never ever be able to speak or understand Parseltongue.
What a Parselmouth hears when he listens to a snake (or another Parselmouth) are the natural hissing sounds of the snake (or, respectively, their imitation by the Parselmouth), and at the same moment, he magically knows what the snake (or the Parselmouth) wants to tell him. When he speaks Parseltongue, the Parselmouth subconsciously 'translates' his thoughts into snake-sounds. The knowledge of the grammar and the lexicon of Parseltongue is subconscious and cannot be told to someone else or written down.
Related or descended conlangs
