Dalcurian Language Homepage

Overview

First of all, through my own experiences, I have purposely used only basic grammar terminology in this article, and I have also included brief descriptions of grammatical words and expressions in each respective sections. This is because I want newcomers to language study not to feel intimidated by heavy terminology and explanations. As I can remember when I first began to study German, I was very confused with 'intense, grammatical explanations'. Of course, when studying or creating a language, one must have some understanding of grammar to begin with, however, for the above reasons I have written this article in simple English.
I should also state that most of the examples and references here are based in comparison to the English language.

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The dal'qörian language and basic history

dal'qörian (pronounced: dal-koo-ree-yan) is the language of dal'qöria-a small group of islands approx 300 miles south-westerly off the southwest coast of Ireland, the main island roughly the size of Cornwall in southwest England. Stylistically, it's full of Indo-European traits, with strong influences from English, German, Welsh, Cornish and Latin. This is most likely due to occupation by Europeans from around the 8th or 9th century. The old dal'qörian script suggests that the language was quite different before this; highly inflected-al be very simple.

The modern language, when spoken, actually sounds like a hybrid of Romance and eastern European languages. There are 2 spoken forms: modern/standard Dal'qörian or Dal'qöriádan, which is the main language, and an eastern dal'qörian dialect, Halcánian. The latter has a different case system, derived from Finnish, plus there are a many spelling and grammatical differences (though the Eastern dialect is not taught in education and not used at all in business or political affairs). This is only spoken around the east coast province of Halcánia and the surrounding valley villages and towns, and in the north east valley region. However, very recently dal'qörian youth (mainly teenagers) seemed to have adopted it as their 'everyday speak', so you will often hear it spoken throughout dal'qöria (though not heavily). Ironically, modern dal'qörian actually sounds slightly archaic by comparison, but is the most widely spoken and used in formal contexts. The two dialects are understood by all dal'qörians but are not interchangeable. There are also 3 alphabets associated with the language.

Dal'qörian uses the latin alphabet-especially since English and German have been the second languages for over 200 years. But up until around this time, it used the Cadoc writing system; a system devised by Dalin Cadoc of Cornwall in the 11th century. The original alphabet (of no known name or origin and not seen anywhere else in the world apart from the islands), now being named as dal'qöristræÞ, was a script bearing resemblences to Hebrew and Arabic. This was banned by Cadoc after he took reign of the island and promtly introduced a new alphabet which he had actually created, based on Gothic and old English characters. However, out of respect, he decided to take grammatical influences from the script, which became a large feature of the new writing system. By decree, he ordered the dal'qörians to learn this new system, and within 5 years was fully embroided into dal'qörian literacy. Over the next 30 years, during Cadoc's reign, (Cadoc was himself a linguist, as was his father, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who was a relative of King Henry III), the language was modified through his own influence, and over the next 600 years or so, dal'qörian continued to be influenced by migrators from all over Europe.

By the time Cadoc took over the islands, the language had undergone a significent change from its early origins, and had become influenced by Old English, Low German and Latin-thought to have stemmed from an exodus by Europeans years before. These were mainly land owners and Barons seeking new worlds to extend their trades, thus making it easier for them to avoid invasions and piliging from rival factions and clans. (Ironically, many of them were themselves rogues).

dal'qöriádn-Standard dal'qörian

Standard dal'qörian is much more related in style and grammar to Indo-European and Germanic than Halcánian, and is spoken by all dal'qörians in formal conditions. Normal word order is S-V-O, but this is governed by a prepositional rule; a prepositioned phrase will always immediately follow the subject (or a modal verb) eg: binä görøria-I'm going out, but, binä, máriÞ érenöra, görøria-I'm going out with them. Modal verbs are present, (in both dialects), but up until around the mid 13th century, a modal case existed (thought to have been filtered out as the language became evermore influenced by Europeans). There are no auxiliaries such as would, shall and will-these are denoted from verbal suffixes (like Latin). Case wise there are 3: subjective, objective and possesive (or genitive). Technically, there is no dative case-this is rendered by use of the preposition to with the subjective pronoun (considered 'lazy' by dal'qörian grammatarians).

One major factor about the language is the absence of the present tense conjugations of the verb 'to be', the simple, perfect and pluperfect tenses was/were, have/had been. The present indicative is ALWAYS indicated by the lack of any 'prefixual-inflection' to a verb, adverb or adjective. Adverbs and adjectives have a unique tense that puts them into the past, denoting the use of was/were/have/had been.

Halcánian-Eastern dal'qörian

Halcánian was established in the fishing villages and ports in the province of Halcánia, by it's Governor, a Finn called Albert Hælgasson, in the mid 16th century. Halcánia was, to some extent, isolated from from its nearest province, the capital Qalmánia. Because Halcánia was the main trading artery for the body of the island, it's governing was paramount. Hælgasson was enticed by the dal'qörian leader, Galeli d'Qalba, after learning of his managerial abilities, strong ties with European traders, and his successeful marketing of the Western European hemp trade-something which dal'qöria had long been a world leader in. Although dal'qöria had a government, the 7 provinces were mainly self-governed. (The central government, where the leader would reside, took charge of foreign policy and general law; provincial by-laws fell under their own control, and saw to it that the provinces were still governed according to the dal'qörian constitution).

Halcánia had on many occassions in the past been badly ruled, thus creating economic problems, and as dal'qöria had a world market in hemp produce, the province needed to be governed well in order to keep its import and export trade efficient. However, acting against it's own constitution of appointing a non-dal'qörian, Hælgasson was asked to come and govern the province-and did so with gusto, turning Halcánia into a thriving and wealthy province within 5 years. Since the provincial councils were in control of their own education, Hælgasson saw to it that a language reform took place in 1670, after insisting that he needed to refine business and formal literacy. Although not in favour of this (the central government had constitutional powers to veto such reforms) they chose not to 'upset' Hælgasson, who at this point had become quite powerful in the province. The Hælgasson reform introduced (rather selfishly in the eyes of most historians) a new case system directly derived from his native finnish tongue. (It's widely thought that this was also heavily influenced by the many finnish traders and inhabitants, who held various monopolies over the trading posts). This done away with many prepositions, and although intitially, this reform was only introduced to business and formal documentation, within 10 years it had infiltrated every day speech. This in turn had isolated the Halcánians even more, as the other provincial leaders (who were native dal'qörians) did not condone the governments decision: a, to appoint a non-native to run a province and b, to allow his language reform. This created great tension over a period of time, which resulted in a minor civil war in 1685. Fortunately today, Halcánians and Dal'qörians co-exsist peacefully.

The eastern dialect, or officially 'Halcánian', for the most part, is a spoken language. It is rarely written, since standard dal'qörian is taught in education (as the main language, plus being a phonetic language makes much more sense for young children to learn this), and never used with tourists and indeed dal'qörians in general. The percentage of dialectal differences in the province stands at around 85% in Halcánian favour. However, in a few of the Halcánian villages, which reside on the valley slopes, the dialect is strictly spoken, and in local publications such as announcements, council and local authourity leaflets and local newspapers written Halcánian is used. It is also used in personal letters and e-mails, though again, only within the Halcánian borders.

The dialect has no less than 12 noun cases, and word order is different due to the absence of the prepositional phrase rule in standard dal'qörian. In fact, standard dal'qörian is much more strict. Pronouns are also different, being derived directly from Finnish. Consider these examples:

Standard:
binä, máriÞ di parenöj qve binöra, te qaƒéj, göria.

Halcánian:
minä gör qaƒijle parenojne.

Both read: I am going to the shop with my father.

For more on Halcánian grammar click here.

The remainder of this article refers to dal'qöriádn

Sample text

ela mantábel, am gravætas ön jerandel, nämambr eƒragörädn ön equahörädn.
éren Þöldr, máriÞ resæÞámn ön qevésenámn, néba qväombr,, ön, máriÞ ela, am perös qve beröjelperös, agöentr.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They should be endowed with reason and conscience and act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Style

dal'qörian is a 'rhotic' language; the letter 'r' is pronounced after every vowel. It's pronounciation is very deliberate. In fact, by and large, dal'qörian is quite formal-largely due to the lack of idiomatic phrasal verbs. There is also no 'slang' form, although there is a small colloquial element to it.

Alphabet and pronunciation

letter	letter name	pronunciation
a	al	as in cat
b	bri	as in bat
c	ca	as in cat
d	da	as in day
e	era	as in end
f	ƒe	as in fall
g	géø	see special pronounciation
h	hal	as in hat
i	il	as in kill
j	öja	as in the French name Jean
l	lá	as in like
m	ma	as in man
n	na	as in not
o	ol	as in top
p	pä	as in pat
q	qöc	as in 'k' in kick
qu	q'qöa	as in quick
r	ræ	see special pronunciation
s	siri	as in sit
t	tø	as in take
v	vála	as in van
x	séca	as in wax
y	yenta	see special pronounciation

special vowels and characters

letter	letter name	pronunciation
ä	äli	as in 'ey' in they (see also special pronunciation)
á	áli	long as in bar
é	éga	long as in feel
ö	öli	long as in cool
ø	ø	as in German doch
æ	æ	as in the 'i' in find
Þ	eÞ	th as in bath but not in the

special pronunciations

g is pronounced hard at the beginning and middle of a word, like g in get but soft at the end of a word,like g in the German word swanzig.
r is an alveolar trill. Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (or just behind the top teeth). It can be likened to the way in which a Scottish person with a strong accent would say great, straight, road, etc.
ä is pronounced like the ey in they. However, at the end of a word, or where it is separated by a high apostrophe, it is pronounced 'ey ya'.
y is always pronounced as the English upper case 'y'.
q on its own is only found at the beginning of a word, including words that are separated by a high apostrophe, as in dal’qörian or qatáj-cat, and is always pronounced like an English 'k'.
c only appears in the middle or end of a word such as qurvecsár-to annoy and dörac-through, and is sounded like an English hard 'c'.
x is used only to denote a negative word and attaches to the end of a verb. (see verbs and negatives)

As well as being a 'rhotic' lanuage, dal'qörian is also PHONETIC; its spoken exactly as it is written. Once you have learned to pronounce the letters, speaking and reading dal'qörian should be relatively easy. For example, dal'qörian is pronounced dal-koo-ree-yan. Here are a few more examples, in syllabic form, to give you a flavour of how words sound:

dal'qörian	meaning	phonetic pronunciation
strömi	hot	stroo-mi
binä	I/Iam	bin-Aya
stæcnáÞrädn	thankless	sty-kun-arth-rey-dun
ädiáda	yesterday	ey-dee-ar-da
yenø	immense	why-en-och
ødérämös	steadiness	och-dee-rey-mooss
qsendaréø	scenario	ku-send-a-ree-och
embáragadöraj	puppy	em-bar-ra-gad-oo-raj
siagentöj	aunty	see-a-gent-ooj