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. 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	talojla	at (a) house
ablative	-lta	from	talojlta	from (a) house
allative	-le	to	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)	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 - the function of a word being indicated by its ending. But, for emphasis, word order does change on a regular basis:

• Danuutt taloj. There is a house. (but its not important).
  • Talojan danuutt! Look, a HOUSE! (although in this sentence, HOUSE isnt technically an object, the object marker can be used to give special attention to it).

• Mina gavisuur talojan . I saw a house.
  But for emphasis:
  • Talojan gavisuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!
    This time, the objective marker MUST be used. Leaving off the marker here could give rise to 'humerous ambiguity: Taloj gavisuur mina potentially translates as A house saw I!

Note: The objective marker is ONLY needed when the noun/pronoun is NOT prepositioned, even when placed first in word order.

• Haan habitr talojasä . He lives in a house.
  • Talojasä habitr han! It's a HOUSE he lives in! He lives in a HOUSE!

• Sihaan gakamuur talojatä. She came out of (from inside) a house.

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

• Anke talojla. Anke is at home.
  • Talojla Anke! Anke is at HOME!

• Anke gagor talojlta. Anke left a house. (lit: Anke went away from a house)

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

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

• Eren gafuukr til talojattä talotuurijeliksi They changed it from a house into flats.
  In talotuurijeliksi, the suffix tuuri is a diminutive suffix (makes something small) and el is the plural marker, as in Standard Dalcurian.

---

Spelling/pronunciation

The main differences are:

ö is written as uu

é is written as ee

á is written as aa

ø is written as ok but pronounced hard as in lock

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, veelok-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 on jerandelasä elni hamuuniel nemambr efraguuräden on ekuahuuräden. Erenitt semeer retisaamn on kveesanämnn, on 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. On first hearing Halcarnian, one might get this impression, however, Halcarnian shares over 90 percent Dalcurian vocabulary, and in formal conditions adheres to the same prepositional phrase word order rule. Halcarnian, unlike many dialects, has its own grammar and written standard. Some gramatarians argue that dialects are in fact languages unto themselves. I however, feel that, if a 2 forms of the same language are mutualy intelligeable (albiet with a little training), then they are in fact 'dialects'.

---

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
til	it
manuu	one/you (impersonal)
Plural
meena	we
elsina	you
eren	they
Polite
hanä	you (polite)

Personal pronouns (accusative)
Halcarnian	English
Singular
minään	me
sinään	you
haanan	him
sihaanan	her
tilan	it
manuuan	one/you (impersonal)
Plural
meenan	us
elsinan	you
erenan	them
Polite
hanään	you (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 gavisuur sinään I saw you.

• Haan gavisuur minään. He saw me.

• Meena gavisur gaduurajän. We saw a dog.
  • Gaduurajän gavisur meena. 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
tilanle	to it
manuuanle	to one/you (impersonal)
Plural
meenanle	to us
elsinanle	to you
erenanle	to them
Polite
hanäänle	to you (polite)

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

• Mina gaenduukr haananle til. I gave it to him. (note the word order)

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

NOTE: This case can also mark the indirect object as a 'giver' as well as a 'recipient' with the verb bekuuadr-to receive/get, and can relate to the English from off of:

• Mina gabekuuadr sihaananle lalägraj. I got a book from (off of) her. (lit: I received from her a book)

However, Halcarnians will always avoid this if speaking to Dalcurians or foreigners and will mostly place the indirect object as the subject:

• Sihaan gaenduukr ninäänle lilägraj. She gave (to me) a book.

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 the automatically renders a, and di is only used when its really neccessary to identify the noun:

Danuutt taloj. There is a house. but:

Danuutt di 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 neccesary (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.