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|English=Stilio
|English=Stilio
|native=zlacuru
|native=zlacuru
|subbranch=snakes and snake-like reptiles
|subbranch=[[Wikipedia:Snake|snakes and snake-like reptiles]]
|country=Ministry of Magic
|country=All
|branch=magic
|branch=magic
|universe=Harry Potter
|universe=[[Wikipedia:Harry Potter universe|Harry Potter]]
|speakers=???
|speakers=est. < 10,000
|wordorder=VSO
|wordorder=[[Wikipedia:Verb–subject–object|VSO]]
|family=a priori
|family=[[a priori conlangs]]
|type= Agglutinating
|type=[[Wikipedia:Fusional language|Fusional]]
|alignment=Fluid-S++
|alignment=[[Wikipedia:Active–stative language|Active–stative]]
|author=Francis Nolan/[[User:Aquatiki|Robert Marshall Murphy]]
|author=Francis Nolan/[[User:Aquatiki|Robert Marshall Murphy]]
|date=2002/2012 A.D.
|date=2002/2012 A.D.
Line 16: Line 16:
'''Parseltongue''' (in this article) refers to '''{{PAGENAME}}''', a reconstructed form of [[Parseltongue]].  This language has a unique [[morphosyntactic alignment]] (which is largely [[Wikipedia:Ergative-absolutive language|Ergative-absolutive]], while incorporating elements of Fluid-S), and defaults to VSO word order.  It is, however, strongly [[Wikipedia:Non-configurational language|non-configurational]].
'''Parseltongue''' (in this article) refers to '''{{PAGENAME}}''', a reconstructed form of [[Parseltongue]].  This language has a unique [[morphosyntactic alignment]] (which is largely [[Wikipedia:Ergative-absolutive language|Ergative-absolutive]], while incorporating elements of Fluid-S), and defaults to VSO word order.  It is, however, strongly [[Wikipedia:Non-configurational language|non-configurational]].


== Phonology ==
# [[Stilio/Phonology|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.
## Consonants
## Vowels
## Phonotactics
# [[Stilio/Morphology|Morphology]]
## Nouns
## Verbs
### Adjectives
### Adverbs
# Syntax
# [[Stilio/Texts|Texts]]
## From the Films
## Translations
# [[Stilio/Lexicon|Lexicon]]


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 verbWhatever vocal-cords they are graced with by magic, snakes cannot speak very loudly or vary pitch beyond very low frequenciesHumans speaking above a whisper, voicing consonants and vowels, are something like "shouting barbarians" to the snakes we were allowed to interview.
It is everyone involved's sincere desire that this project would serve as an inspirational model for magical/muggle interactions in the futureParseltongue is an excellent pattern to follow since it's existence is only known by magic and only muggles have developed the science of linguisticsThis project is dedicated to the first martyr of this cause, Charity Burbage, and the very kind Parselmouth Penelope Gaunt, without whose help none of this would have been possible.


[[File:Snake_mouth.jpg|thumb|right|Snake mouth anatomy|400px]]
== History ==
Given snake anatomy, even with the aide of magic, Parseltongue
Paracelsus (1493—1541), was an Austrian physician, born Phillip Von Hohenheim.  He discovered he could speak to snakes quite on accident.  He had no explanation for the phenomenon and made no attempt to document it beyond a bare recording of his ability.
* 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 unpleasant elsewhere in speech.
** (An exception to this is relative clauses, where verbs are still fronted as much as possible)
* allows all affricates (though typically only utterance initial or final)
* must end an utterance with a sibilant/fricative or - much less commonly - a vowel
* has ejective forms of the stops and affricates
=== Consonants ===
{| style="text-align: center; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1pt solid #c0c0c0; float:right;"
! colspan=17 style="text-align:center; background: #efefef;"| Consonants (IPA above, Romanization below)
|- style="vertical-align: top; font-size: small;"
|
! rowspan="2" | Dental
! colspan="2" | Alveolar
! rowspan="2" | Post-alveolar
! colspan="2" | Velar
! rowspan="2" | Pharyngeal
! rowspan="2" | Glottal
|- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small;"
| || Central || Lateral || Central || Lateral
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Nasal || || {{IPA|n̥}} || || || {{IPA|ŋ̊}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || || '''n''' || || || '''m'''
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Unaspirated Stop || || t || || || k ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || || '''t''' || || || '''k''' ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Ejective Stop || || t' || || || k' ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || || '''f''' || || || '''q''' ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Click/Tap || {{IPA|ǀ}} || {{IPA|ɾ}} || {{IPA|ǁ}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"|  || '''/''' || '''®''' || '''\'''
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Fricative || {{IPA|θ}} || s || {{IPA|ɬ}} || {{IPA|ʃ}} || x || {{IPA|ʟ̝̊}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || '''d''' || '''s''' || '''z''' || '''c''' || '''x''' || l
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Approximant ||  || {{IPA|ɹ}} || l || || {{IPA|ɰ}} || {{IPA|ɫ̥}} || {{IPA|ħ}} || h
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| ||  || '''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 irritatingFor 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 horseThe 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 elsewhereThe pharyngeal approximant ('''g''') is a very raspy, rattling 'h'.
The features of Parseltongue show that it is learnable by humans, but not related to any one human languageThere are a large number of Semitic and Indo-European features, but some African and East Asian one 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 willWe, 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 itselfIn 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.


A history of Latin alphabet orthography has given rise to the system as presented in the tablesSome 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: '''\ / ®'''.
Everyone can learn the language, but shall automatically then be able to speak to snakesTheir hearing does not include such slight vibrations of air as human speech, so magic is required.
==== 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/.  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 tap and /ɹ/ 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 geminationNolan's own notes point at Ergative and Absolutive cases, but question strict E-A alignment.


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


===== Allophony =====
Idioms
* k/x/q/kx/qx + l > {{IPA|ɫ}}
* k/x/q/kx/qx + z > {{IPA|ʟ̝̊}}
=== Vowels ===
{| style="text-align: center; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1pt solid #c0c0c0; float: right;"
! colspan=11 style="text-align:center; background: #efefef;"| Vowels (IPA above, Romanization below)
|- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: small; height: 2em"
! || Front || Center || Back
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| High || {{IPA|i}} ||  || {{IPA|ɯ}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || '''i''' ||  || '''u'''
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Near-high || {{{IPA|ɪ}}} ||  ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"|  || '''y''' ||  ||
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| High-mid || {{IPA|e}} || || {{IPA|ɤ}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"|  || '''e''' || || '''o'''
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Low-mid || {{IPA|ɛ}} || || {{IPA|ʌ}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"|  || '''œ''' || || '''v'''
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| Near-low || {{IPA|æ}} || {{IPA|ɐ}}
|-
|style="text-align: left; font-size: 95%;"| || '''æ''' || '''a'''
|-
|}
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).
 
Parseltongue uses all the letters of the English alphabet except 'b', 'j', and 'p'.  Uses four other symbols: /, \, ®, œ, æ.
 
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.
 
English speakers should take care to pronounce all the vowels carefully and no rush through unstressed syllables.  The English central vowel /ə/ predominates in speech, just as the Parseltongue '''a''' does, but it is not a "reduced" vowel.
 
=== Phonotactics ===
Parseltongue can be 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 language|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.  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 fricative, nasal, or approximant 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.
 
Aesthetically, snakes find it ''very'' distasteful to have stops or clicks in the middle of an utterance.  Hence, while it would be possible through appropriate case use to have any word order, verbs almost always come first.
 
Accent is very hard to detect at times in Parseltongue.  It appears that almost all words are emphasized on the first syllable, though pronouns tend to be enclitic.  Unusually stress patterns are marked with an apostrophe herein (i.e. ''' ' ''').
== 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.
 
 
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right;"
|+ 1st person
! Case
! Form
! Ex.
|-
! N
|
|
|-
! A
|
|
|-
! A
|
|
|-
! P
|
|
|-
! D
| madas
|
|-
! P
|
|
|-
! P
|
|
|-
! G
|
|
|-
! A
|
|
|}
 
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 2nd person
! Case
! Form
! Ex.
|-
! N
| '''gasas'''
| tzoægasas // You fell.
|-
! Acc
| gasgg
| kxvgasgg // You are green.
|-
! Abs
| '''gassi'''
| sayhagassi hœd / You (will) Leave him (alone)!
|-
! Pat
| '''gassa'''
| haceagassa cig / You (will) go away!
|-
! D
| gassaas
| to you
|-
! Par
| '''gashh'''
|
|-
! Pos
| gasy
|
|-
! G
| gas
| /She is longer than you
|-
! Abl
| '''gasswa'''
|
|-
! V
| '''gass'''
| / You who rattle, rattle!
|}
 
<br clear="all" />
 
=== 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:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|
! 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:
{| class="wikitable"
! #
! Name
! Person
! Demon.
! Time
|-
! -1
| Negative
| No one
| None
| Never
|-
! 0
| Indefinite
| Someone/anyone
| Some
| Some time
|-
! ½
| Dim. Proximal
| My mid-section
| This poor
| "These days"
|-
! 1
| Proximal
| I
| This
| Now
|-
! 1½
| Mesioproximal
| We (you and I)
| This*
| "Just now"
|-
! 2
| Mesiodistal
| You
| That
| Then
|-
! 3
| Distal
| He/She/It
| Yon
| "That time"
|-
! 4
| Obviative
| Him
| Other
| "That other time"
|}
As with nouns, Parseltongue verbs do 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.  Only a Parselmouth magician may speak to a snake and be heard.'''''  For the rest of us (Muggles and non-Parselmouth magicians) Parseltongue may be learned and spoken amongst ourselves only.
; 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".
 
===== To be at =====
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Imperfective
|
! -1 || 0 || ½ || 1 || 1½ || 2 || 3 || 4
|-
! Smell
|-
! IR
|-
! Hear
| tsæ || tsv
| colspan="2" | mæ
| colspan="2" | mœ
| colspan="2" | sa
|-
! Sight
|-
! Imperative
|
|
|
|
|
| saa
|
|}
 
== Miscellany  ==
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.  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/.  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 tap and /ɹ/ were also not on Nolan's radar.  Imprecise enunciation must be assumed with the actors to produce distinct cases.  This is substantiated by Nolan's own notes which indicated Ergative and Absolutive cases (but question strict E-A alignment).
 
In our defense, 92% of the Parseltongue heard in the films is in the imperative voice!
=== 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.
; (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!"
; 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!"
Line 381: Line 50:
; 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.
; 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!"
; ''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!"
=== From the Films ===
<div style="float: right;">
<nowiki>#</nowiki>1
</div>
{|
| ˈaiʃa=ħassi || ˈsɛɬɬ
|-
| Excuse-2-IMPV-PERF=2-ERG || lord-V
|}
<div style="float: right;">
<nowiki>#</nowiki>2
</div>
{|
| ˈsɰɛhh || naˈħini
|-
| what-PAR || name-VOC
|}
{|
| ˈʃia=ħassi || ˈŋaθas
|-
| speak-2-IMPV-PERF=2-ERG || 1-DAT
|}
<div style="float: right;">
<nowiki>#</nowiki>3
</div>
{|
| sa || ˈŋaħalas || ˈnɛsswa || ˈlɛha || ˈsɛɬɬ
|-
| Exist-3-IMPF|| muggle-N || door-ABL || post. || lord-V
|}
<div style="float: right;">
<nowiki>#</nowiki>4
</div>
{|
| ˈsaɪhaħassi || hɛθ
|-
| leave-2-IMP=2-ERG || 3-ABS
|-
| haˈʃeaħassa || ʃiħ
|-
| go-2-IMP=2-ABS || adv
|}
== Lexica ==
=== Parseltongue-English ===
<big>A</big>
; aic : "to excuse, to pardon, to forgive", volitional, active verb
<big>C</big>
; ci : "to speak, to say, to talk", volitional, active verb
; cig : "away, from the center, from me", adverb
<big>G</big>
; gasas : "you, there, then, that", medial pronoun
<big>H</big>
; ha'ce : "to go, to sidewind", volitional, passive verb
<big>L</big>
; lœha : "in front, before, between the eyes", postposition
<big>M</big>
; madax : "I, here, now, this", proximal pronoun
; magalas : "muggle", animate, non-prey noun
<big>N</big>
; nœs : "(open) door, doorway, portal"
<big>S</big>
; sa : "to be, to be at, to have, 있다 (有)", non-volitional, active verb
; say : "to leave alone, to pass by, meta. to choose not to eat", volitional, active verb
; swe : "what, who, whom, whose, which", interrogative pronoun, may be used without a verb
; sœz : "lord, master, owner, snake-charmer", animate, non-prey noun





Revision as of 10:23, 11 November 2012

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 is, however, strongly non-configurational.

  1. Phonology
    1. Consonants
    2. Vowels
    3. Phonotactics
  2. Morphology
    1. Nouns
    2. Verbs
      1. Adjectives
      2. Adverbs
  3. Syntax
  4. Texts
    1. From the Films
    2. Translations
  5. Lexicon

It is everyone involved's sincere desire that this project would 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 and only muggles have developed the science of linguistics. This project is dedicated to the first martyr of this cause, Charity Burbage, and the very kind Parselmouth Penelope Gaunt, without whose help none of this would have been possible.

History

Paracelsus (1493—1541), was an Austrian physician, born Phillip Von Hohenheim. He discovered he could speak to snakes quite on accident. He had no explanation for the phenomenon and made no attempt to document it beyond a bare recording of his ability.

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 one 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. 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.

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, so magic is required.

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/. 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 tap and /ɹ/ 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, but question strict E-A alignment.

In my defense, 90% of the Parseltongue heard in the films is in the imperative voice! -- Aquatiki 2012

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 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 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!"