Parseltongue

Parseltongue-inspired (Fispa)
Pronounced:	ˈfispa:
Timeline and Universe:	Harry Potter world
Species:	Ophidic (snakes and snake-likes)
Spoken:	All over the HP world
Total speakers:	unknown
Writing system:	n.a.
Genealogy:	Isolate
Typology
Morphological type:	Inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Accusative
Basic word order:	SOV
Credits
Creator:	Eugene Oh
Created:	July 2005

Parseltongue is a fictional language spoken by snakes in the Harry Potter series of novels (author: J. K. Rowling), whose known human speakers include the Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. This language has, however, not been publicly described by Rowling and has no known form.

The Parseltongue referred to below in this article refers to Parseltongue-inspired, a hypothetical form of the abovementioned snake-speak. Because the tongue has no written form, the text samples appearing hereafter are in romanised form. This language is an inflecting accusative language with a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order.

Phonology

Consonants

Being a language spoken by snakes and the like, Parseltongue, while having the complete basic plosive repertoire ([p]/[b] [t]/[d], [k]/[g]), is rich in sibilants and other fricatives, which occur at a far higher frequency. Plosives also assimilate frequently to neighbouring fricatives or sonorants.

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiodental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n
Plosive	p	b			t	d			k	g
Fricative			f	v	s		ʃ				h
Affricate					ts	dz		tʃ
Approximants	ʍ	w
Trill						r
Lateral Approximant						l

Assimilation

Due to the inherent tendency of snakes (and hence their human inheritors of Parsetongue) to fricativise sounds, plosives commonly assimilate to neighbouring continuants (including aspirate stops), even across word boundaries, except where plosives are geminate. Regressive assimilation is the most common, and changes of the following types have been observed:

• [p] + fricative = labialised fricative (e.g. pf = f^w)
• [b] + fricative = [v] + voiced fricative (e.g. bth = vð)
  • Occasionally, complete assimilation occurs, e.g. vð becomes ðð.
• [t] + fricative = geminate fricative
• [d] + fricative = geminate voice fricative
• [k] + fricative = [x] + fricative = geminate fricative in certain cases

When followed by a [h], whether or not separated by a vowel or diphthong, plosives are aspirated, eliding the [h], and in some progressive dialects fricativise.

• E.g. [t] + [h] = [tʰ] or [θ]

The velar plosives exhibit a slightly irregular pattern of fricativisation, and examples as illustrated below have been noted:

• [k/k] (i.e. across word boundaries) = [χ]
• [g] is frequently elided

With sonorants, devoicing frequently occurs before a fricative:

• [m] + [h] = devoiced m
• [r] + [h] = devoiced r or [hr]
• [l] + [h] = devoiced l or [hl]
  • [l] + fricative sometimes causes the [l] to vocalise to an [u]

Frequently, intervocalic [h] is elided.

In the construction of the past tense (see also Verbs below), assimilation takes place regularly with consonant-stem verbs. In the text example provided below, the past tense of "to like" is hinneis; the stem of the verb is actually hil-, but with the adding of the past tense suffix -n-, the -l- of the stem completely assimilates, resulting in a geminate nn.

See also [[{{{1}}}]] for more information

Vowels

Parseltongue vowels have phonemic length, but the distinction is not usually made as speakers generally lengthen and shorten vowels at will, or elide them; only the former process is substantially common, however. Occasionally, when two identical vowels occur consecutively (which happens only when they are across a word boundary or when an intermediate consonant, usually [h], has been elided), the resulting sound may be four times as long as normally due to such arbitrary lengthening.

Monophthongs

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Back
High	i						ɯ	u
High-mid			e					o
Low					a

The above table shows the phonemic vowels in Parseltongue. Among them, [e] and [o] have allophones of [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectively.

Diphthongs

Historically, Parseltongue had four diphthongs, [ai], [ei], [ao] and [au]. In modern times, only [ai] has remained unchanged over the years, while [ei] has become [e:], [au] has become [o:] and [ao] has taken the place of [au], leaving only two.

Diphthongs, like monophthongs, can also be lengthened, albeit in their case only for the first component vowel. For example, when [ai] is so lengthened, the resulting sound combination (no longer a diphthong, but two separate syllables) is [a:.i].

Arbitrary lengthening sometimes also alters the quality of Parseltongue diphthongs, when the next vowel (irrespective of whether there is an intervening consonant) is identical to the second component in the diphthong. E.g. arsiæ hinneis "my sister liked" [ar.si.ˈai ˈhin.ne:s] (two words) > ar.si.ˈa:i ˈhi.ne:s] (two words) > ar.si.ˈa:.hi.ne:s] (as though one word).

Orthography

Alphabet

Parseltongue, having no native script, is romanised with English consonants and Italian vowels.

Vowels that cannot be reduced or elided are marked with an acute accent ( ́), while stress is normally unmarked. In the rare cases where a vowel is prohibited from arbitrary lengthening, a caron (an inverted circumflex) is used to mark the vowel.

The full alphabet of 22 letters used to romanise Parseltongue is as follows (sounds in IPA):

Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound	Digraph	Sound
Aa	a	Mm	m	Ai	ai
Ææ	ai	Nn	m	Ao	au
Bb	b	Oo	o	Au	o:
Dd	d	Pp	p	Br2	bɯr
Ee	e	Rr	r	Ch	tʃ
Ff	f	Ss	s	Ei	e:
Gg	g	Tt	t	Hw	ʍ
Hh	h	Uu	u	Sh	ʃ
Ii	i	Vv	v	Ts	ts
Kk	k	Ww	w
Ll	l	Yy1	ɯ

¹

If, when [ɯ] elides in everyday speech, the preceding plosive is immediately followed by a fricative, assimilation takes place. When voiced plosives are followed by [h], they are aspirated, e.g. dy hí "and who-ACC" [dɯhi] > [dhi] > [dʰi].

²

Historic [r̩] unpacked itself to become [ɯr]. When followed by a vowel, [ɯ] elides and the digraph becomes the consonant cluster [br].

History

A fictional history involving J. K. Rowling's magical world in the Harry Potter series

Romanisation of Parseltongue for writing was first done by English wizards in the 17th century, by the principle of having, as far as possible, one letter to one sound without using letters outside the basic Roman alphabet or extraneous diacritics. There is one odd extra letter, <æ>, adopted from the Icelandic alphabet, to represent the diphthong [ai], but only where it denotes the first person genitive case (e.g. arsi, sister; arsiæ, my sister), the first-person verb ending (-æ), or the third-person masculine one (-æs). Besides the logically understandable diphthongs, digraphs are historically explicable:

• ch and sh were written as in English
• ts was adopted from romanisation of Greek and Russian

Grammar

Word order

Basic Parseltongue word order is Subject Object Verb, i.e. Sam eats oranges would be, literally translated, "Sam oranges eats", although, unlike most SOV languages, it makes use of pre- instead of postpositions.

Modifiers, including genitives, precede head nouns and verbs; more generally, subordinate clauses precede the particles that mark them, e.g. where English would have I thought that he was dead Parseltongue would say he was-dead that I-thought. In that same vein, verbs precede their auxiliaries, going by the logic that, for example, the progressive verb "is driving" is a type of progressive aspect ( to be -ing) instead of a type of driving, since the verb inflection behaves according to the auxiliary.

Nouns

Parseltongue does not mark nouns for gender or number, and, consequently, neither do adjectives, although the historical loss of such inflection has not occurred with pronouns, which survive in fossilised forms today, much as in English (see #Pronouns below). Inflection does survive in the case system, however, albeit barely, distinguishing the common, genitive and ablative cases (these latter also undergoing attrition). As with gender and number distinctions, pronouns have fossilised other once-marked cases like the dative (though not the locative) and the accusative.

Declension

Historically, Parseltongue had three noun declension systems for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, each of which exhibited a fair degree of variation depending on the ending of the noun stem, through processes such as assimilation to achieve homophony. Later systematic analogical readjustments and phonetic attrition, however, served to level out the differences between the various case endings within genders (including the plural), spreading across genders as well. This resulted in the gradual fudging of the boundaries between different gender categories, culminating in their eventual loss, and the stabilisation of the one remaining declension paradigm today.

Common case

The common case is used, with the appropriate particles or prepositions in Parseltongue for the nominative, accusative, dative, locative, instrumental and vocative cases (the surviving genitive and ablative cases are discussed below), and is the basic form of the noun.

Genitive case

The genitive case marker, originally -VtV, where V stands for a vowel homophonous in rounding and height with the last or predominant vowel in the stem, has gradually simplified to the near-clitic case marker -ti widepsread today (ignoring subsequent phonological processes that change the ending further).

Example passage

The following example passage of Parseltongue is a translation of the Parseltongue dialogue between Tom Marvolo Riddle and Morfin, recorded in English in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, pp.341-2:

English	Parseltongue	Phonetic transcription
“Stop.” “You speak it?” “Yes, I speak it. Where is Marvolo?” “Dead. Died years ago, didn’t he?” “Who are you, then?” “I’m Morfin, ain’t I?” “Marvolo’s son?” “’Course I am, then… I thought you was that Muggle. You look mighty like that Muggle.” “What Muggle?” “That Muggle what my sister took a fancy to, that Muggle what lives in the big house over the way. You look right like him. Riddle. But he’s older now, i’n ’e? He’s older’n you, now I think on it… He come back, see.” “Riddle came back?” “Ar, he left her, and serve her right, marrying filth! Robbed us, mind, before she ran off! Where’s the locket, eh, where’s Slytherin’s locket? Dishonoured us, she did, that little slut! And who’re you, coming here and asking questions about all that? It’s over, innit… it’s over…”	“Psā!” “Efe iska?” “Sā, skæ. Hút fis Marvolo?” “Tæn. Suōs tænas, au?” “Simī hí fú?” “Dē Morfin, au?” “Tuva Marvolī ?” “Sasōl, ebei? Shēsin Muggle saum hwinæ. Tōr shēsin Muggle harisa.” “Hē Muggle?” “Shēsin takím arsiæ hinneis, shēsin Muggle takēm zi aotī heis pi kæs. Me fua harisa. Riddle. E na kalpa fis, au? Kalpava dēgo, na orilæ. Attas, o.” “Riddle attanas?” “Ar, ī stanas, chāsa, spak kastú! Orrē eisnais, ēhī, pabr ītnais! Hút for hívulo, i? Hút for Slǐstrikti hívulo? Orrē aswafanais, paifā! Dy hí fú, bes lālú, mespārú tso hāsla? Pēlos, au, pēlos...”	psa:! efˈfi:ska:? ˈsa:ska:i. ˈhu:ffis marˈvo:lo? ˈta:in. swo:s ˈta:inaza:u? ˈsim̥i:fu:? de: ˈmo:rvina:u? ˈtu:va marˈvo:li:? sa:ˈso: leˈbe:? ˈʃe:sim ˈmʌgl̥ ˈsɔmʍina:i. to:r ˌʃe:siˌmʌgl̥aˈri:sa. ˈhe:mʌgl̥? ˈʃe:sin ˌtakimarsiˈa:hine:s, ˌʃe:siˈmʌgl̥ takɛmziˈzuti: ˈhe:spika:is. mefua:::ˈri:sa. ˈɹɪdl. enaˈka:lpafizza:u? kalˌpa:vaˈde:go:, ˈnaurila:i. ˈatazo:. ˈɹɪdl ˈa:tana:s? ˈa: ri:staˈna:s, ˈtʃa:sa, spaˈka:stu! oˈre:sna:is, e:, pa:ˈbri:tna:is! ˈhu:ffo ˈr̥i:vuli:? ˈhu:ffor slistrikˈtʰi:vulo:? oˈre: asˈwa:fna:is, ˈpʰa:ifa:! ˈdʰi:fu:, bɛsˈla:lu, mɛsˈpa:rutso: ˈha:sla:? ˈpe:loza:u, ˈpe:los...