Halcánian dialect

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The Halcarnian dialect arose out the isolation period between 500 to 1400AD. Halcarnia was the main southern port on the island, and a major trading artery to central Dalcuria. However, after a corroption battle between a Halcarnian provincial governor and the King's central governmant, Halcarnia was segragated from the rest of Dalcuria, and ran as an autonomous province for nearly 900 years. Halcarnia fell on very hard times during this period since Dalcuria's leaders had always forged good relationships with England and Europe, and they were extremely influential in directing trade away from the province, thus forcing Halcarnia to survive on a recipricol economy. This also had a significant effect on the language, which failed to evolve beyond the realm of Old Dalcurian.
Dalcuria managed to reclaim Halcarnia at the beginning of the 14th century, but the dialect never became superstrated. Although business, political and religious affairs were standardized, both orally and in literacy, the standard tongue of the region was very healthily retained. Of course, from that time, the Halcarnian dialect has undergone changes along with middle to modern-Dalcurian, but retains many old-Dalcurian features such as verb moods and modality, verb-pronoun inflection, and noun cases and accusative marking.

Pronunciation.

There is a distinct difference between standard Dalcurian and Halcarnian pronunciation, mainly:

• High front vowels i and é tend to be more rounded.

• High back vowel u as in the noun ending ämös is shorter

• Non use of neither the characters nor the sounds Þ and ø

• Palatialization with doubled consonants-this is especially important in Halcarnian, for example the Halcarnian word for yearning/longing is hakan /hakan/ yet the word for a summer jacket is hakkan /hakʲan/

Written

Halcarnians spell as they speak. The marked vowels á and ä can be seen, though this is normally reserved for formal contexts. The high front vowels é and i are also only used with formality, however, since they are not pronounced they don't appear in normal writting. For example:

Dalcurian

• vélø-cold
  • Halcarnian
    • veloc

Dalcurian

• disiri vélø-very cold
  • Halcarnian
    • desere veloc