Stilio

Stilio zlacuru
Species:	snakes and snake-like reptiles
Credits
Creator:	Francis Nolan/Robert Marshall Murphy
Created:	2002/2012 A.D.

Parseltongue (in this article) refers to Stilio, a reconstructed form of Parseltongue. A script for this language is forth-coming. This language a unique morphosyntactic alignment (which is largely Ergative-absolutive, while incorporating elements of Fluid-S), and defaults to VSO word order. It is, however, strongly non-configurational.

Phonology

Snakes have vastly simplified mouths compared to human-being. We are capable of making every sound they make, though some are easier than others. Snakes have no lips. Their palate is occupied with the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ), which acts as a sense of smell. Snakes have no uvula. Their glottis can move aside when eating large prey. They have no epiglottal region.

Sentient and non-sentient snakes hiss their entire volume of air without interruption, so a Parseltongue utterances cannot be longer than about fifteen seconds. Stops are typically initial, and in a verb. Whatever vocal-cords they are graced with by magic, snakes cannot speak very loudly or vary pitch beyond very low frequencies.

Given their anatomy, even with the aide of magic, Parseltongue

• has no labial consonants
• has no retroflex consonants
• has no palatal or alveolar-palatal consonants
• has no uvular or epiglottal consonants
• has no voiced consonants
• is all spoken in creaky-voice
• has no corarticulated consonants
• of the clicks, has only the dental and the lateral
• may begin an utterance with a stop, but they are rare elsewhere in speech.
• affricates are common
• must end an utterance with a sibilant/fricative or - less commonly - a vowel
• has ejective forms of the stops and affricates

Consonants

Consonants (IPA above, Romanization below)
	Dental	Alveolar		Post-alveolar	Velar		Pharyngeal	Glottal
		Central	Lateral		Central	Lateral
Nasal		n̥			ŋ̊
		n			m
Unaspirated Stop		t			k
		t			k
Ejective		t'			k'
		f			q
Click/Tap	ǀ	ɾ	ǁ
	/	®	\
Fricative	θ	s	ɬ	ʃ	x	ʟ̝̊
	d	s	z	c	x	l
Approximant		ɹ	l		ɰ	ʟ	ħ	h
		r	l		w	l	g	h

Most English speakers round their lips anyway when saying word-initial /r/, and any /ʃ/, which snakes regard as quite irritating. For those unfamiliar with the sound /ɰ/, pronounce a 'w' but leave off the lip-rounding. The dental click (/) is used in the English "tsk tsk tsk", while the lateral click (\) is used to spur on a horse. The alveolar tap (®) is found as the 'r' and 'l' of East Asian languages, or the 'd'-like sound in the middle of 'water'. The lateral fricative (z) is found in Welsh but may be very unfamiliar to English speakers elsewhere. The pharyngeal approximant (g) is a very raspy, rattling 'h'.

A history of Latin alphabet orthography has given rise to the system as presented in the tables. Some consonants are exactly the same as IPA notation: t k x s l h. Others require some thought: n for /n̥/, m for /ŋ̊/, f for /t'/, q for /k'/, d for /θ/, c for /ʃ/, z for /ɬ/, r for /ɹ/, w for /ɰ/, and g for /ħ/. The dental and lateral clicks, and the alveolar flap receive non-letter symbols: \ / ®.

All affricate possibilities are realized in Parseltongue, though most are very rare. Parseltongue does not distinguish between affricate and non-affricate pairs, so the tie-bar is not commonly written, even in IPA. The possibilities are: td ts tc tz kx fd fs fc fz qx.

Allophony

• k/x/q/kx/qx + l > ɫ
• k/x/q/kx/qx + z > ʟ̝̊

Vowels

Vowels (IPA above, Romanization below)
	Front	Center	Back
High	i		ɯ
	i		u
Near-high	ɪ
	y
High-mid	e		ɤ
	e		o
Low-mid	ɛ		ʌ
	œ		v
Near-low	æ	a
	æ	ɐ

The Parseltongue system of vowels consists of nine sounds. As with consonants, there is no lip-rounding. Hence, u means /ɯ/ and o means /ɤ/. English-speakers must remember to distinguish between i and y: y always functions as it does in the English "myth" or "system", while i always a "long 'e'".

Korean-speakers will have an advantage distinguishing e from œ from v: 에 vs. 애 vs. 어.

The presence of diphthongs is disputed (see Phonotactics below).

There are two non-phonemic sounds that snakes are readily capable of making, the trilled 'r' and the glottal stop. However, /r/ is a highly erotic sound which no snake would make in polite company, and stopping the flow of air during an utterance is indicative of sickness or eating.

Phonotactics

Parseltongue is extremely difficult to analyze phonotacticly. Even with enunciating as one would to a fool or simpleton, snakes never cease the continuous airstream. Syllable boundaries, therefore, are somewhat arbitrary. Snakes we interviewed regard this as an unimportant, human problem, akin to transcribing choking or sneezing. For our purposes, we should regard Parseltongue syllables as capable of having either a vowel or a fricative in the nucleus. The overwhelming majority of syllables are V, CV, or CVC. Like Estonian, Parseltongue distinguishes geminate consonants and vowels with a high degree of specificity. Under some analyses, there are three levels of gradation, but this is disputed and typically called a supersegmental feature. In our notation, doubling of any letter indicated gemination.

A fricative (in the onset or in the nucleus) may be long or short, labialized or not. A syllabic fricative may be preceded by a stop, and hence, part of an affricate. It may also be preceded by an approximant or another fricative. Open syllables, in this case, are common. A short fricative or a nasal can be analyzed as the coda of a fricative-nucleus syllable.

If a vowel is the syllable nucleus, it may be preceded by a tap, click, either nasal, a stop (which may be preceded by a fricative), a fricative, an affricate (which may be preceded by a fricative) or an approximant (which may be preceded by a stop or a fricative). The coda of a vowel-nucleus syllable may be a nasal (which may be followed by a fricative), a fricative, l or h, or it may be left open. Clicks and taps may only follow an open, vowel-nucleus syllable.

Grammar

Parseltongue uses a system of cases similar to Latin or Estonian. Nouns and verbs are not marked for number or gender, but there are four noun-classes as well as four verb-classes.

Nouns

There are four 'core' cases - Nominative, Accusative, Agentive and Patientive - and five 'oblique' cases - Dative, Possessive, Partitive, Genitive, and Ablative. The definite article is a prefixed /s/, while indefiniteness is marked in the verb.

The oblique cases function generally like Indo-European cases, but with some notable exceptions.

Dative

Some linguistics prefer to call this the "topico-dative" because it can function similarly to the Japanese は/wa, or the Korean 는/은. These instances are typically best translated as "in regards to" or "as for". Otherwise, the Dative is often equivalent to the English prepositions "to, for, by, with, from" and/or indicates the Indirect Object.

The other four cases fall under the 'genitive' umbrella in many languages

Partitive

Like the Uralic languages, the partitive means "some of" or "part of" or "any". It cannot, however, be used for the object of an atelic action. 'Half of my possessions’; ‘some of the branches’; ‘the poor among of the people’

Possessor

Like the English 's. This is the subjective genitive. "Love of God" would have to mean (in this case) "God's love", not "my love of God"

Genitive

This can be Epexegetical or Attributive/Descriptive.

Ablative

Objective Genitive, "concerning, against, about, on, from", separation, adverbial

Pronouns

'Measure words' can also be used as pronouns, with or without numbers attached.

2nd person

Case	Form	Ex.
N	gasy	/ You fell
A	gasv
A	gassi	sayhagassi hœd / You (will) Leave him (alone)!
P	gassa	haceagassa cig / You (will) go away!
D	gassas	to you
P	gasswa
P	gashh	/ (my) Eating of you is killing me
G	gascc	/She is longer than you
A	gasus

Verbs

All verbs have a lexically contained expectation for which case the subject will be in. Hence, all verbs are active or passive and volitional or non-volitional by default, which will also indicate which paradigm it follows. When given an unexpected case, intentionality or casuality will be signified:

	Active Non-Volitional	Passive Non-Volitional	Active Volitional	Passive Volitional
Nominative	Involuntary Agent	Involuntary Cause	Unintentional Agent	Unintentional Cause
Accusative	Direct Object	Descriptive	Unintentional Patient	Pseudo-Passive Object
Agentive	Agent!	Cause!	Ergative Subject	Intentional Cause
Patientive	Intentional D.O.	Pseudo-Passive Agent	Absolutive Obj	Stative

Verbs inflect for an astronomical eight persons:

Person	Meaning	Example
-1	Universal negation	"No one eats himself."
0	Indefinite	"Someone ate the prey."
½	dim. part of ego	"Me (my mid-section) is coming."
1	Ego	"I ate the mouse."
1½	a.k.a. 1 inclusive	"We (you and I) are friends."
2	Interlocutor	"You are handsome."
3	Near other party	"She is our daughter."
4	Obviative	"He bit her."

As with nouns, Parseltongue does not mark number. Tense is assumed or conveyed via adverbs.

Aspect is either imperfective or perfective. There are three mood: Indicative - for independent clauses; Subjunctive - for dependent clauses; and Illocutionary - for magical or imperative clauses. The subjunctive is very plain, conjugating only for aspect, but not person or evidentiality.

All indicative/independent verbs in Parseltongue must be marked for evidentiality. Snakes senses are (in decreasing order of assuredness):

Taste/Smell

Snakes extend their tongues into the air/water and pull "smells" into their mouths, where their "noses" (Jacobsen's organs) are. This gives them a very refined and directional sense. Knowledge obtained this way is the most certain and so is most analogous to human's "I see" or "I know".

Heat/IR

Snakes have special sensors where other animals' "noses" would be which detect heat or Infra-red radiation. Snakes report not "seeing" a field - as humans do with sight - but "feeling" the nearness and/or warmth of things. This is most akin to a human saying "I feel like you are ..." or "I sense not everyone in the room agrees with ...".

Hear/Vibration

A snake's entire body functions like an "ear", sensing vibrations. This knowledge is very accurate, but because it comes from their whole body (not just their head) it is more like "gut knowledge". Magic causes snakes internal ear to hear external speech.

Sight

Most snakes have poor vision, with a majority not being binocular. This mood is used metaphorically as a person would say, "I suppose" or "I guess".

Idioms

(like a) Human's face in the nose

"It's self-evident." Snakes' faces are unreadable, but they generally know how to read human body language, mainly through smell and temperature sensing. Smells are "in one's nose" because smell samples are brought into the mouth by the tongue and placed upon the Jacobsen's organ.

This must pass over the nose

Food is passed over the Jacobsen's organ as it is eaten. If something is noxious, to eat it would be unbearably intense. Snakes say this meaning "It's too awful" or "I don't want to!"

Passing over roughness aids molting

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger in the end."

Some have eggs inside, some have eggs outside

"Different strokes for different folks." Some snakes have pouches for their eggs to hatch inside their bodies, giving the appearance of live births. Many snakes do not.

I am the venom.

Not all snakes are poisonous, but all snakes spur themselves on to overcome fear and strike out (often metaphorically) by willing themselves to be their own venom. "I can do this!"