Old Piscean language

The term 'Old Piscean' is used to describe Piscean language (between 2005 and 2007) that is in any way dissimilar to the modern dialect. Old Piscean technically has several stages and was changed by Anderson rapidly. However, few records of the language remain and it is currently understood to have had two or three major transitions, the first of which is barely mutually intelligible with modern Piscean, while the last of which is closely related. Old Piscean was always written using the Latin alphabet, before the introduction of the Andersonic alphabet, which defined a new age in the language.

Early Old Piscean

Early Old Piscean, then referred to as Gallifreyan (G'ow'lufrën) after the name of the protagonist's home planet in the popular science-fiction programme Doctor Who, was an extremely basic variety of the language. It began as the fictional 'vulgar' language of the Time Lords in Anderson and Dearden's abandoned novel Wasporella, one of the only remaining sources that proves Gallifreyan's existence. Mostly, it appears to be a creole of modern English vocabulary [1], with some invented stems and influences from Romance languages; in the novel from whence it came, Gallifreyan was supposedly the result of the Festaran conquest, a race of aliens who had observed cultures on Earth, especially enjoying British mannerisms, and had been inspired to alter their language.

From Wasporella is the following excerpt of early Old Piscean text:

'Ne G’ow’lufrëän réfömiä foЋ < À’de’löd Inplaçä Gég Zil > skrip’ine: William Shakespeare foЋ Ongliä, Barg Brætannik, Yö’rûps, puЋ Teπniä, à ne Lûdöniä Likwæ’sek’ine: Täm Seköndriäkën Nundiä’fondät’air’ëä, tiam’ine: IV:00;00. Réligën y’ow’l’air’s cuπ Krövën’déçæ’berЋä! Öd lokäti’de’biß inkluçä Frarnäçëä, D’oy’cëä, RûЋëä, IjiÞëä, Chinnëä, JiÞänëä, Östarlëä, Harbor’ore Ajäçënsë-ύ foЋ Annërikä, Jumäkä, nes Méksikö. Skrip’ëlög’ine, ne puЋ Sakörëä, Pökävil, Dash’tæt, Içæn Kaßuذl, nes Olëänfäkëä. Ermendä a’ow’l’air's tu réçæ elög dat.'

This text reveals many features of early Old Piscean. Of particular note is the frequent use of apostrophes. The primary reason for this is due to 'sound units': these are groups of letters that make a widely-used sound in the language, almost becoming letters themselves by being isolated from surrounding letters. Sound units from the excerpt include 'ow', 'ine', 'air', 'oy' and 'ore'; these units are all considered members of the Old Piscean alphabet, which also consists of:

a à ä b c з d e é æ ë f Ћ ύ g h i j k l m n ŋķ o ö p Þ r π s ß ç t u û v w y z ذ

The exact phonological values of these letters cannot be completely determined. Note that some letters are corrupted and do not match their original values: for example, з is a double C, Ћ is a double F (or TH), Þ is a double P and π is a double R.

While the excerpt resembles an English creole, some original compounds have been made. For example, observe the word 'likwæ’sek’ine', which is derived from [likwæ ('liquid')]+[sek'ine ('section')]. This word is translated into English as 'river'. It shows that early Old Piscean was heavily dependent on apostrophes, not only to make new 'letters' from sound units, but also to separate words in compounds.

Some words in Old Piscean have different meanings from those in English from which they were produced:

• réfömiä - from 'reform' > 'adaptation'
• réligën - (probably) from 'realign' > 'treat' (verb)
• ajäçënsë - from 'adjacency' > 'state'
• ermendä - (possibly) from 'amend' > 'contact'
• elög - (probably) from 'elong[ate]' > 'more'
• dat - from 'data' > 'information'

Early Old Piscean was crude, so to speak. There were no conjugations or alternate forms of verbs whatsoever, only a stem that was used in every instance; the word 'neeЋ' placed after a stem made it past tense. Piscean also incorporated a dash as a significant linguistic device because the language had no standalone verb translated as 'to be'; it merely had the word 'nee', which meant 'it is':

• [M'ow'l - nee] - [I - it is]>I am
• [A’ow’l’air’s – nee dæpätä-ŋķ] - [we - it is going]>we are going

(Sometimes, 'liz' was used instead of 'nee' for a purpose that has become unclear.) Note that a hyphen and 'ŋķ' after a verb stem indicates present continuous tense, which was also adapted as the sole future tense. A hyphen and 'ύ' indicates a plural. Either '-ύύ' or '-ύύύ' were used to indicate possessive forms, although the reason for choosing one of the two is now unknown.

Despite its clumsiness, Old Piscean would eventually become a functional, albeit limited, conlang in its right, aside from Wasporella.

Survival of early Old Piscean

Some vulgar Gallifreyan vocabulary has survived throughout Old Piscean and has ultimately been adapted into modern Piscean. For this reason, Gallifreyan is still classified as Piscean language. Vocabulary retained from Old Piscean is now recessive, due to the Piscean's dominant new foundation of Old English and German. So words have been replaced, while the old words are sub-branches to fill more specific meanings. Observe the following examples:

• Old Piscean gibs'y'ow'l - English thank you
• Modern Piscean gibsjówl - English phrase You shouldn't have!
• Modern Piscean tancee - English thank you

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• Old Piscean winfanëä - English flight
• Modern Piscean Winfanéje - English flight (only referring to a single flight (journey by flight), e.g. a flight on a plane)
• Modern Piscean Fleojung - English flight (only referring to the ability of flight)

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• Old Piscean harbor’ore - English community
• Modern Piscean Harbortsche - English ethnic-minority community
• Modern Piscean Gefere - English community

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• Old Piscean y’ow’l’æçé - English yours (singular)
• Modern Piscean Jowleçaé - English it's yours! (exclamation; referring to something that wasn't previously theirs or not what they believed to be theirs)
• Modern Piscean jor - English your; yours

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• Old Piscean spannäkën - English time
• Modern Piscean Spannáccen - English time (only referring to one's sense of time, e.g. 'The time goes quickly when you're having fun'
• Modern Piscean Time - English time (only referring to physical time)

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• Old Piscean vén’anz - English location
• Modern Piscean Venánz - English sought-after location
• Modern Piscean Pozixion - English location; position

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• Old Piscean foЋ - English of; within
• Modern Piscean foff - English within (only in an abstract sense, i.e. not physically within something, when an [abstract noun] is within sth, as opposed to a concrete noun, e.g. 'the anger within him')
• Modern Piscean [genitive case]/in[+dative] - English of/within (only referring to a [concrete noun] within sth

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Additionally, some early Old Piscean words have retained their original meanings because they are very functional, especially in conversation. These include:

'Nee'

As aforementioned, early Old Piscean had no verb 'to be', but had a steam that meant 'it is'. On the other hand, modern Piscean has two different verbs translated as 'to be' and a separate word 'hit' meaning 'it'.

Nevertheless, modern Piscean revives the use of 'nee' for expressions beginning with 'it is' in English in which 'it' does not refer to an actual item, at least not one that has previously been clarified. For example, many 'nee' statements relate to the weather.

• Nee wolcij - it's cloudy (at the moment)
• Nee god, dass cunn icc faran - it's good that I can go (on one occasion)

'Nee' allows one be concise in a subject matter from which the audience automatically derives the context; in this case, the weather does not need to be mentioned. Furthermore, it would be incorrect in Piscean to say 'the weather is [cloudy]' because that would be seen as describing the concept of weather, rather than its effect on one's surroundings.

Modern Piscean has also derived 'nij' from the Old Piscean word 'nee'. 'Nij' refers to the essence rather than condition. Compare the usage of 'nee' and 'nij' to the verbs 'bee' and 'zij' in modern Piscean: the principles are the same.

• Nij wolcij - it's (generally) cloudy
• Nij god, dass cunn icc faran - it's good that I can go (regularly)

'Tiamíne' and 'eatíne'

In modern Piscean, it is incorrect to say 'the time is ...' and 'the temperature is ...' because these are seen as describing the concepts of time and temperature themselves rather than making a remark about their current state.

'Tiamíne' is from Old Piscean 'tiam'ine' and is ultimately related to modern English 'time'. Translated into English, the word means 'the time is'. In Piscean, it is customary to always use the twenty-four-hour clock and to separate the time into two two-digit numbers (when using hours and minutes) using a hyphen:

• Tiamíne 13-22 - the time is 13.22/1.22 p.m.

'Eatíne' is from Old Piscean 'ëät’ine' and is likely related to modern English 'heat'. In English, the word means 'the temperature is'. It used to state the temperature of the general surroundings, not a specific item, thus not taking various temperature-affecting factors into account. With the Celsius scale in Piscean, a lower-case C is placed before the figure. (Similarly, with the Fahrenheit scale, a lower-case F is placed before the figure.)

• Eatíne c22 - the temperature is 22°C