Halcánian dialect

back to Dalcurian main page

Halcarnian (Dal' spelling: Hal'qánian), also known as: Söemi'Dal'qörian (Finno-Dalcurian) is a Dalcurian dialect spoken exclusively in the Halcarnian province, which has been derived from a Finnish population which had dominated the province for over 500 years. It has several differences between itself and 'Dal'qöriádn'-Standard Dalcurian. These include:

• Noun cases/markers

• Spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary

• Pronouns

• Modal expressivness

• Possesive structure

• Word order

Halcarnian is mutually intelligeable with its mother tongue, although some knowledge of its case system is required.

Here are brief descriptions of those differences.

---

Noun Cases and markers

Halcarnian has fifteen noun cases: 3 grammatical cases, 6 locative cases, 3 essive cases and 3 marginal cases.

Halcarnian cases
Case	Suffix	English prep.	Sample	Translation
Grammatical
nominative		-	taloj	house
genitive	-in	of	talojin	of (a) house
accusative	-an	-	talojan	house (as an object)
Locative (internal)
inessive	-asä	in	talojasä	in (a) house
elative	-ta	from (inside)	talojta	from (a) house
illative	-sta	into	talojsta	into (a) house
Locative (external)
adessive	-la	at, on/onto (static)	talojla	at (a) house
ablative	-lta	from (off of)	talojlta	from (a) house
allative	-le	to/onto/on top of (motion)	talojle	to (a) house
Essive
essive	-na	as	talojna	as a house
exessive	-attä	from being	talojattä	from being a house
translative	-iksi	to (role of)	talojiksi	to a house
Marginal
instructive	-in	with (the aid of/by means of)	talojin	with the house
abessive	-uuta	without	talojuuta	without (a) house
comitative	-ne	together (with)	talojne	with a house

Although the above cases almost replicate those of the Finnish language, their usage is much more 'definate'. And, since Halcarnian is an inflected dialect, word order within sentences can be comparatively free, and is often down to the style of the speaker. But, for emphasis, word order does change on a regular basis.

---

Grammatical

Nominative (-)

In the nominative, Halcarnian nouns remain 'unmarked' which makes them easily identifiable as the subject of a sentence. Since word order does not play any specific grammatical role, the subject might not always be in the typical nominative position (pre-1st verb, as we know it in English). The pitfall here is that, forgetting to 'mark' an accusative noun potentially renders that noun 'also' as the subject, creating ambiguity:

• Anke spiilakria. Anke is playing.
  This is simple since there is no object. But consider the following example:

• Anke masaiaaria Janos. eng trans: Anke is chasing Janos.
  Here, this sentence may pose no ambiguity to an English person, since the word order tells us that Janos is the object of the verb and is therefore the one being chased. However, this would leave a Halcarnian asking the question, "Who is being chased"?. This is because both nouns are 'unmarked', rendering either of them as the 'subject'. This can now read, Anke is chasing Janos or, Janos is chasing Anke. If we mark Janos with an accusative marker, we now know that Anke is 'performing' the action, and Janos is the one who is 'being chased':

• Anke masaiaaria Janos|an.

It's worth noting that reformulating the sentance as: Janosan masaiaaria Anke, can be loosley translated as an English passive sentence: Janos is being chased by Anke (like standard Dalcurian, Halcarnian has no passive tense), since Janos is now the main focus.

Genitive (in)

This marks 'ownership' of an object by a noun and corresponds directly to the English apostrophe 's and of the/a genitive. It also roughly corresponds to to the possessive adjectives my/your/her/his/its/our/their, and also renders mine/yours/hers/his/its/ours/theirs. It's Dalcurian counterpart is the possessive structure qve + pronoun/noun:

• Fenstij d'talojin The house window (lit: Window of the house)

• Panuaj d'gaduurajin The dog's bed

• D'eviidrämus Ankein Anke's drink

• D'eliviajel kirajin The pages of a book

• D'eviidrämus sihaanin Her drink

• Parenoj minäänin My dad

• Siita taloj minäänin This house is mine/This is my house (lit: This house is of me)

• Tuui vuutaj minäänin That's my car/That car's mine

• Tamel ziigaretijel Keliinain Those cigarettes are Kelina's/Those are Kelina's cigarettes

Objective (an)

This case, also know as the 'accusative', marks the 'object' of the verb:

• Mina ga'visuur talojan . I saw a house.
  In this sentence, taloj is the object; it's the thing that's being 'seen', and is therefore marked with its objective marker. As stated above in the nominative section, word order alone simply does not denote who/what is being seen if the object noun remained unmarked. Leaving it off could give rise to 'humerous ambiguity: Mina ga'visuur talo could translate as A house saw I!
  In contexts like these however, the marker might be omitted if its completely obvious what is meant, but only in a colloquial sense.

For emphasis, the object may go 1st, in which case it must be marked:

• Talojan ga'visuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!

This case ending, apart from being used to mark the object, can also be used to emphasize a subject':

• Danuutt taloj. There is a house. (but its not important).
  • Talojan danuutt! Look, a HOUSE!

In the 2nd example above, although 'HOUSE' technically isn't an object, the object marker is being used in an 'exclamatary' fashion, to give it special attention.

Note: As a spoken (and strictly colloquial) rule, the objective marker is only needed when it's grammatically neccessary, or to avoid ambiguity. If the noun/pronoun is inflected with a prepositional marker, it may not be used. However, with nouns/pronouns marked by external prepositions, and in sentences where the object also performs an action, it may be neccessary to mark the object:

• Haan ga'gor kafijsta. He went into a shop. But:
  • Mina ga'visuur haanan, se haan kafijsta ga'gor. I saw him go into a shop. lit: I saw him as he into a shop went.
    In the 1st example, kafij needs no object marker since the locative marker sta can only denote that the 'shop' is 'being gone into'. Therefore, Kafijsta ga'gor mina would still read, I went into a shop.

Note: As a rule, Halcarnian verbs are demoted to the end of subordinate clauses, though this isn't static. To that, and rather idiomatically, when talking in the simple past, the verb in the subordinate clause may also go into the simple tense:

• Mina ga'visuur haanan ga'gor kafijsta. lit: I saw him went into a shop.
  Here the subordinate clause is dissolved by the lack of a subordinating conjunction, so no word order rule applies. Again, this is a spoken stylistic feature only and would only be used among friends and close family.

---

Locative

Locative cases indicate a location. They correspond mainly to the English prepositions in/inside, into, from (inside/outside/out of), to/towards, at, and idiomatically within/inside of. They can also correspond with made from/out of and through:

Internal locative (asä/äsä)

As it suggests, this can either be static or motion into/out of an internal location.

Inessive

• Haan habitr talojasä . He lives in a house.

• Si sakiijasä sinäänin. It's inside your bag.

• Miina ga'macialaar akiatträmuus tonain We finished the race within an hour.

• Mina eviiarai minuuetinel 10. I'll be there in 10 minutes.

Again, for emphasis, word order can change and a 'stressed' objective marker used:

• Talojanäsä habitr haan! It's a HOUSE he lives in! He lives in a HOUSE!

Elative (atä/ätä)

• Sihaan ga'kamuur talojatä. She came out of (from inside) a house.

• Mina ga'hiir belistaamn, tatt ga'kamuur d'komakuanoatä. I heard a noise coming from the bedroom.

• Si metalojatä. It's made of/out of metal.

Illative (sta)

• Anke goria talojsta. Anke is going into a house.

• Ga'nebaar Anke liiprämuus sihaananin vaasojsta vin'viiloko!. Anke really regretted jumping into the freezing water!.

• Eren ga'visuukr fenstijsta. They looked through (into) the window.

---

External locative

These cases denote position or movement 'away' from something, and correspond with from/away from, off of, movement 'onto' something such as, to/onto/on top of, and also 'place' the position of something, equal to the English at, on/on top of. They can also denote above:

Adessive (la)

• Anke ga'adrattalaar talojla. Anke was at home.

• Tankaj tabojla. The cup is on the table.

• Si vin'smatuurädn lamaikabinojla~el. It's very dusty above the cupboards. (The ~ denotes a glottal stop).

Ablative lta)

• Anke gagor d'talojlta. Anke left the house. (lit: Anke went from the house)

• Tankaj ga'palomiitr tabojlta. The cup fell off the table.

• Mina ga'bekuuadr Petrilta kirajan. I got a book from (off of) Petri. (lit: I received from Petri a book-it's standard for the prepositoned noun to immediately follow the verb bekuuadr), however, the following is also correct:

• Mina ga'bekuuadr kirajan Petrilta.

Allative (le)

• Anke goria talojle. Anke is going to a house.

• Kanä stelaniir d'tankajan tabojle! Put the cup on the table please!.

• Haan ga'palomiitr minäänle He fell on top of me.

---

Essive

This case carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, often equivalent to the English as a....

• Jonäokni, se talojna. At the moment, it's a house.

• Eren ga'fuukr san talojattä talotuurijiksi~el. They changed it from a house into flats.
  In talotuurijiksi~el, the suffix tuuri is a diminutive suffix (makes something small) and el is the plural marker, as in Standard Dalcurian.

• Lapiijna, mina ge'glato. When I was a child I was skinny (As a child...)

---

Marginal

The cases in this section roughly equate to the English with/without, together with, and by:

• Haan goria parenojne. He is going with dad.

• Sinaitt konsomiir tuui luufejin. You should eat that with a spoon. (with the aid of)

• Miina levaltr tsuugajin. We're going by train. (by means of)

• Kalo nomaijuuta. Kalo has no money. (is without money)

• Mina ga'tiier retisaamnuuta. I cried for no reason. (without reason)

---

Spelling/pronunciation

The main differences are:

ä remains the same

ö is written as uu

é is written as ii

á is written as aa

ø is written as ok but pronounced hard as in lock

æ is written as ai

c is replaced with k and pronounced hard

Þ is replaced with tt but pronounced the same

qu is written as ku

kk-the way to voice this is to pronounce the first k hard, the second is voiced like the English Y in yacht or the soft J in the German Javol or Ja. One has to be careful of spelling traps too, for example the Halcarnian word for a thin, summer jacket is hakan, but the same word spelled hakkan means peace or serenity. Here are some examples in Standard and Halcarnian respectively:

• strömi, struumi-hot

• vélø, viilok-cold

• iáda, iaada-today

• alsalöátsi, alsaluaatsi-fanatic

• eÞöa, ettua-some

• hemørämös, hemokrämus-forgiveness

Consider these 2 examples-the 1st Article of the Declaration of Human Rights:

Halcarnian:

Ovakkatäsä je jerandelasä elni hamuuniel nemambr efraguuräden je ekuahuuräden.
Erenitt semiir retisaamn je kviisanämnn, je alotr elnine vaalimäin amuurämuus.

Dalcurian:

Ela mantábel, am graßætas ön jerandel, nämambr efragörädn ön equahörädn.
Érenöra Þöldr, máriÞ reÞæsámn ön qvésänámn qväombr,, ön máriÞ ela, am perös qve beröjelperös, agöentr.

It's often said within the Dalcurian borders that Halcarnian ISNT a dialect, but a different language all together. For my personal view, click here.

---

Vowel Harmony

There is only a 'tinge' of vowel harmony in Halcarnian. When the short letter a is part of a syllable, in which the following consonant forms the first letter of a following syllable ending in another short a, then the final a must change to ä. To that, you will never see äa; the final a must change to ä. This is evident in some of the case endings, and also in the accusative pronoun 'polite' form: hanä-you but adding the accusative marker an must change to hanään. The ää is then pronounced as a short e (as in the English hen).

---

Pronouns

Personal pronouns (nominative)
Halcarnian	English
Singular
mina	I
sina	you
haan	he
sihaan	she
se	it
manuu	one/you (impersonal)
Plural
miina	we
elsina	you
eren	they
Polite
hanä/el	you/you all (polite)

Personal pronouns (accusative)
Halcarnian	English
Singular
minään	me
sinään	you
haanan	him
sihaanan	her
san	it
manuuan	one/you (impersonal)
Plural
miinan	us
elsinan	you
erenan	them
Polite
hanään/el	you/you all (polite)

Accusative (objective) pronouns are denoted with the objective noun markers. However, mina, sina and hanä must adhere to vowel harmony: (a does not follow ä and vice versa):

• Mina ga'visuur sinään I saw you.

• Haan ga'visuur minään. He saw me.

• Miina ga'visur gaduurajän. We saw a dog.
  • Gaduurajän ga'visur miina. We saw a DOG!

The allative ending le is added to the accusative to form a dative pronoun:

Personal pronouns (dative)
Halcarnian	English
Singular
minäänle	to me
sinäänle	to you
haananle	to him
sihaananle	to her
sanle	to it
manuuanle	to one/you (impersonal)
Plural
miinanle	to us
elsinanle	to you
erenanle	to them
Polite
hanäänle/l	to you/to you all (polite)

(The accusative/dative haanan/haananle often gets mistaken for the accusative/dative hanään/hanäänle by foreign speakers and also by Dalcurians themselves)

• Mina ga'enduukr, haananle, se. I gave it to him. (Note the word order: Colloquially, se probably wouldn't be marked for object since it's preceeded by an intonated haananle-to him, pre-determining that se is being given).
  This is common word order for the younger generation; they think it's 'cool' as it's an idiomatic take on formal Halcarnian syntax. If the word order were to change, then se would need to be in the accusative:

• Mina ga'enduukr san haananle.

In a formal sense, as in talking to a stranger, an elder or someone of authority, one would say

• Mina, haananle, ga'enduukr san.

But don't worry-you are more than likely to still be understood which ever way you say it!

• Sihan kuaskria minäänle ni kualtiidrämuus. She's asking me a question. (lit and idiomaticaly: She's asking to me a question).

The Halcarnian case system can make it difficult for speakers of of Indo-European languages to grasp-especially if you're used to using prepositions to place a noun. Thankfully, this case system doesn't extend into the articles a and the as in German. In fact, the absence of the definate article di automatically renders ni, and di is only used when its really neccessary to identify the noun (however, di is written as d' ; considered more as a clitic):

Danuutt taloj. There is a house. but:

Danuutt d'taloj. There is the house.

Word order

Generally, Halcarnian word order is SVO, though for emphasis it can change to OSV:

Mina goria talojsta. I'm going into a house. but for emphasis:

Talojansta mina goria! It's a HOUSE I'm going into!

Notice how in the second example, the 'objective' marker is also used. Although this isnt necessary (since we know that 'I' am the one going into the house because it's taloj that carries the illative marker), the objective an is used for emphasis.

In formal conditions, Halcarnian follows the same prepositional pattern as standard Dalcurian, the marked noun acting as the prepositional phrase:

Informal-Std Dalcurian

• Araciev, ména, máriÞ érenöra, görøria.

Halcarnian

• Miina guurokria erenanen arakiev.

Both reading: We're going out with them later.

Formal-Std Dalcurian

• Qéörentéla, quintä näocr eladiö, dörac dérÞ, qamör.

Formal-Halcarnian

• Kerontalä, näokr hanäel, d'ttradejsta duurtt, kamuur kanä.

Both reading: Hello, could you all come through here please?

In the Halcarnian example, through here/there isn't possible. A noun or object must be cited.d'ttradejsta duurtt means through the door there.