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This is a half-exolang, with mashed-up features from [[Wikipedia:Bantu languages|Bantu]], and [[Wikipedia:Dravidian languages|Dravidian]].  Everything is [[Wikipedia:voicelessness|voiceless]].  A novel morpho-syntactic alignment was created.  All of Cambridge professor Francis Nolan's phrases invented for the movies were incorporated.  However, every one of them was in the imperative voice, so I have made free to extravagantly supplement his ideas.
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It is everyone involved's sincere desire that this project serve as an inspirational model for magical/muggle interactions in the future.  Parseltongue is an excellent pattern to follow since it's existence is only known by magic but only muggles have developed the science of linguistics.  This project is dedicated to the first martyr of this charitable cause, Charity Burbage, and the very kind Parselmouth Penelope Gaunt, without whose help none of this would have been possible.
It is everyone involved's sincere desire that this project serve as an inspirational model for magical/muggle interactions in the future.  Parseltongue is an excellent pattern to follow since it's existence is only known by magic but only muggles have developed the science of linguistics.  This project is dedicated to the first martyr of this charitable cause, Charity Burbage, and the very kind Parselmouth Penelope Gaunt, without whose help none of this would have been possible.


== History ==
== History and Learning ==
[[File:Snake door.jpg|right]]
[[File:Snake door.jpg|right]]
Paracelsus (1493—1541), was an Austrian physician, born Phillip Von Hohenheim.  On accident, he discovered he could speak to snakes.  He had no explanation for the phenomenon and made no attempt to document its simple existence.
Paracelsus (1493—1541), was an Austrian physician, born Phillip Von Hohenheim.  On accident, he discovered he could speak to snakes.  He had no explanation for the phenomenon and made no attempt to document its simple existence.


The features of Parseltongue show that it is learnable by humans, but not related to any one human language.  There are a large number of Semitic and Indo-European features, but some African and East Asian ones too.  The famous ex-Parselmouth Harry Potter has documented that he never had to learn any vocabulary or grammar, yet could produce novel utterances with derived morphologies at will.  We, therefore, speculate that the speech community of Parseltongue is all Parselmouths, Snake-animagi, and sentient snake-like creatures.  The language is magically maintained among all speakers and updates itself, however slowly.  In Sapir's terminology, there is only short-term unidirectional drift, not long-term cyclic drift.  Given the small number of speakers, this drift is assumed to be ''very'' small and gradual.  Dialects are assumed not to exist.
In the 1990's, the now-famous Harry Potter discovered that he was a Parselmouth (a wizard with the unconscious, magical ability to speak to snakes).  He never learned any vocabulary or grammar, but was able to produce novel utterance, even with derived morphologies.  He subsequently lost this magical ability.  After the worldwide rediscovery of magic (hidden since 1692) and the creation of the Ministry of Muggle Relations, our department was given a grant to study Parseltongue and Parselmouths.  To date, we have only found one conscious snake to interview, though communities of Parselmouths have been found in Estonia, Bukina-Fasa, and Sri Lanka.
 
On the one hand, Parseltongue is like any other language that human beings may study and learn.  On the other hand, it is a magical ability possessed by only a minuscule fraction of the wizarding community.  This ability requires no conscious attention by the wizard or witch, but seemingly adds a layer of "pseudo-consciousnes" to the snake with whom they are speaking.  This snake is then able to articulate speech and hear the Parselmouth, both of which are otherwise physically impossible.


Everyone can learn the language, but shall automatically then be able to speak to snakes.  Their hearing does not include such slight vibrations of air as human speech.  Only magic can bridge this chasm.
Parseltongue itself seems to be a magically generated amalgam created by magic from the minds of speakers.  It bears many strong resemblances to languages from Africa and India, both areas with long histories of human-snake interaction.  All over the world, Parselmouths, Snake-animagi, and sentient snake-like creatures all speak the same version of the language, without being in physical contact.  The language is magically maintained among all speakers and updates itself, however slowly.  In Sapir's terminology, there is only short-term unidirectional drift, not long-term cyclic drift.  Given the small number of speakers, this drift is assumed to be ''very'' small and gradual.  Dialects do not exist.
==== Conceit  ====
Cambridge professor Francis Nolan was commissioned to produce consistent '''''phrasing''''' across four movies (i.e. Chamber of Secrets, Goblet of Fire, and Deathly Hallows 1 & 2).  He did ''not'' create a full grammar and dictionary, only a handful of phrases.  As a professor of Finnish and Estonian, he subscribes to the theory that gemination in those languages follows ''three'' levels of gradation, though he seems to have recognized that this is disputed and only included two levels in Parseltonuge.  In his notes, he often uses /ʕ/ but labels it a voiceless fricative, so we have used /ħ/ instead.  Of the vowels, he only uses /a ɪ i ɛ e/, but the actors pronounce /œ æ/ on occasion.  There are no stops or affricates in his phrases, but the snake in "Philosopher's Stone" says /θeiŋksː/.  There are several moments of "unscript" Parseltongue in the movies, which make extensive use of /k/ and /t/.  We also take it as a conceit to the actors that /j/ was used in place of the much more difficult /ɰ/.  Ejectives, clicks, the taps were also not on Nolan's radar, so they must take a small, precise role in Stilio.  Imprecise enunciation must be assumed with the actors to produce distinct cases, but I have tried to limit it to gemination.  Nolan's own notes point at Ergative and Absolutive cases, yet question strict E-A alignment.


In my defense, 90% of the Parseltongue heard in the films is in the imperative voice! -- [[User:Aquatiki|Aquatiki]] 2012


Idioms
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; (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.
Dr. Nolan specializes in Finnish and Estonian, and he subscribes to the theory that gemination in those languages follows ''three'' levels of gradation, though he recognizes that this is disputed and only included two levels in Parseltonuge.  In his notes, he often uses /ʕ/ but labels it a voiceless fricative, so we have used /ħ/ instead.  Of the vowels, he only uses /a ɪ i ɛ e/, but the actors pronounce /œ æ/ on occasion.  There are no stops or affricates in his phrases, but the snake in "Philosopher's Stone" says /θejŋksː/.  There are several moments of "unscripted" Parseltongue in the movies, which make extensive use of /k/ and /t/. </div>
; 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 eggs are inside, some eggs are 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'' <u>am</u> 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!"




Latest revision as of 09:04, 15 March 2013

This is a half-exolang, with mashed-up features from Bantu, and Dravidian. Everything is voiceless. A novel morpho-syntactic alignment was created. All of Cambridge professor Francis Nolan's phrases invented for the movies were incorporated. However, every one of them was in the imperative voice, so I have made free to extravagantly supplement his ideas.

Stilio
zlacuru
Spoken in: All
Conworld: Harry Potter
Total speakers: est. < 10,000
Genealogical classification: a priori conlangs
magic
snakes and snake-like reptiles
Stilio
Basic word order: VSO
Morphological type: Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment: Active–stative
Writing system:
Created by:
Francis Nolan/Robert Marshall Murphy 2002/2012 A.D.

Parseltongue (in this article) refers to Stilio, a reconstructed form of Parseltongue. This language has a unique morphosyntactic alignment (which is largely Ergative-absolutive, while incorporating elements of Fluid-S), and defaults to VSO word order. It tends to be either double-marking or dependent marking. It is generally head-initial (right-branching).

  1. Phonology
    1. Consonants
    2. Vowels
    3. Phonotactics
  2. Concepts
    1. Cases
    2. Persons
    3. Classes
    4. Evidentiality
    5. Number
  3. Morphology
    1. Nouns
    2. Verbs
    3. Adjectives
    4. Adverbs
  4. Syntax
    1. Word Order
    2. Relative Clauses
    3. Particles
  5. Texts
    1. From the Films
    2. Translations
  6. Lexicon

It is everyone involved's sincere desire that this project serve as an inspirational model for magical/muggle interactions in the future. Parseltongue is an excellent pattern to follow since it's existence is only known by magic but only muggles have developed the science of linguistics. This project is dedicated to the first martyr of this charitable cause, Charity Burbage, and the very kind Parselmouth Penelope Gaunt, without whose help none of this would have been possible.

History and Learning

Snake door.jpg

Paracelsus (1493—1541), was an Austrian physician, born Phillip Von Hohenheim. On accident, he discovered he could speak to snakes. He had no explanation for the phenomenon and made no attempt to document its simple existence.

In the 1990's, the now-famous Harry Potter discovered that he was a Parselmouth (a wizard with the unconscious, magical ability to speak to snakes). He never learned any vocabulary or grammar, but was able to produce novel utterance, even with derived morphologies. He subsequently lost this magical ability. After the worldwide rediscovery of magic (hidden since 1692) and the creation of the Ministry of Muggle Relations, our department was given a grant to study Parseltongue and Parselmouths. To date, we have only found one conscious snake to interview, though communities of Parselmouths have been found in Estonia, Bukina-Fasa, and Sri Lanka.

On the one hand, Parseltongue is like any other language that human beings may study and learn. On the other hand, it is a magical ability possessed by only a minuscule fraction of the wizarding community. This ability requires no conscious attention by the wizard or witch, but seemingly adds a layer of "pseudo-consciousnes" to the snake with whom they are speaking. This snake is then able to articulate speech and hear the Parselmouth, both of which are otherwise physically impossible.

Parseltongue itself seems to be a magically generated amalgam created by magic from the minds of speakers. It bears many strong resemblances to languages from Africa and India, both areas with long histories of human-snake interaction. All over the world, Parselmouths, Snake-animagi, and sentient snake-like creatures all speak the same version of the language, without being in physical contact. The language is magically maintained among all speakers and updates itself, however slowly. In Sapir's terminology, there is only short-term unidirectional drift, not long-term cyclic drift. Given the small number of speakers, this drift is assumed to be very small and gradual. Dialects do not exist.


Dr. Nolan specializes in Finnish and Estonian, and he subscribes to the theory that gemination in those languages follows three levels of gradation, though he recognizes that this is disputed and only included two levels in Parseltonuge. In his notes, he often uses /ʕ/ but labels it a voiceless fricative, so we have used /ħ/ instead. Of the vowels, he only uses /a ɪ i ɛ e/, but the actors pronounce /œ æ/ on occasion. There are no stops or affricates in his phrases, but the snake in "Philosopher's Stone" says /θejŋksː/. There are several moments of "unscripted" Parseltongue in the movies, which make extensive use of /k/ and /t/.
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