Ilbiyoni

Ilbiyoni Ιlbiyonĭm
Timeline and Universe:	Lorech
Spoken:	National language in: Ilbiyon A community language in: Small areas of Western Jinyero (Esfoth) and South-Eastern Elitho
Total speakers:	1,610,740
Typology
Morphological type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Ergative-absolutive
Basic word order:	Generally VOS
Credits
Creator:	A. Ayres
Created:	2011-

Ilbiyoni or Ilbiyonĭm - pronounced /ˈyˑlbyˌjoˑnəm/ (Eastern) or /ˈɨ̞lβʲo̞nɨ̞m/ (Western) - is a language isolate spoken in the Ilbiyon archipelago, a string of islands located in the Great Lake Lyric, which divides the nations of Elitho from Western Jinyero/Esfoth. Despite contact with both cultures dating back hundreds of years, Ilbiyon has retained its independence, and its language is relatively uninfluenced by Celinese and Jinyera - indeed, some claim that Ilbiyoni predates both languages.

As well as being spoken by 900,000 speakers in the independent Principality of Ilbiyon, it is also spoken in the Lake Lyric islands that are under Elithoan and Jinyer administration, and in small areas of mainland Elitho and Jinyero proper. There is also a robust community of non-Ilbiyoni researchers and explorers who have learnt the language in order to understand the myriad tomes of the Ĕlsinor Ilbiyonĕs - the Ilbiyon Palace of Books, the most expansive library in the world.

Nomenclature

Ilbiyoni's native name, Ilbiyonĭm, is a compound noun, composed of the words ilbĭ (lake) and yonim (language). Some believe that 'Lake Ilbiyoni' was one of several dialects, some of which were spoken on the mainland. Modern Ilbiyoni itself has a number of varieties, with the speech of each island being characterised by its own idiosyncracies; whilst these are usually classified as 'dialects' or 'regional varieties', an ongoing debate about whether Western and Eastern variety groups should be classified as competing standards of a single pluricentric language, or as languages in their own right.

Phonology

Pronunciation varies greatly from island to island, but two broad varieties - Eastern Ilbiyoni, spoken in the isles closer to Jinyero, and Western Ilbiyoni, in the islands closer to Elitho. Whilst there is no agreed standard dialect, it is an Eastern islands dialect - that of Sĕroği, usually - which tends to be taught to second language learners.

Eastern Ilbiyoni

The following phonology is based on the Ilbiyoni dialect spoken in Sĕroği, the most populous island in the peninsula and thus often considered to be the archetypal Eastern dialect. Most islands of Ilbiyon on the Jinyer side of Lake Lyric are more similar to the below than to the phonology of the average Western Ilbiyoni dialect, but the Săroği dialect does have idiosyncracies unshared by most Eastern dialects, such as the pronunciation of <v> as /b̪͡v/.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m						n					ŋ
Plosive	p b						t	d					k	g
Affricates				b̪͡v			t͡s			ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ
Approximants											j
Tap							ɾ
Lateral Approximant								l

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	y									u
Near-close			ʏ				ʊ
Close-mid	e									o
Close-mid						ə
Open-mid	ɛ									ɔ
Open	a									ɒ

Western Ilbiyoni

The archetypal Western Ilbiyoni phonology, described here, is that of the dialect of the isle of Erĕvir. The most notable divergence from Eastern Ilbiyoni is the spirantisation of medial and final plosives, such as /p/ to /ɸ/ and /t/ to /θ/.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular
Nasal		m						n					ŋ
Plosive	(p) (b)						(t)	(d)					(k)	(g)
Fricative	ɸ β				θ	ð	s				ç	ʝ
Approximants											j
Trill							r
Lateral Approximant								l

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High		y			ɨ
Mid		e̞			ɘ					o̞
Near-open		ɶ̝
Open						ä				ɒ

Stress and length

In most words, primary stress falls on the first syllable, with secondary stress falling on every subsequently odd-numbered syllable: aĭniyadĕs - the teacher's - pronounced ['aʏnyˌjaˑdɛs] in the East and ['äɨnɨˌjäðɘs]in the West is a good example of regular stress. Primary stress can fall on breve-accented vowels - such as ĕlosimto ['ɛˑlo't͡syˑmto] (dawn) - but secondary stress cannot - c̆elorĕ (music) is pronounced ['ʈ͡ʂeˑlorɛ], not *['ʈ͡ʂeˑloˌrɛˑ]. Some speakers also do not place secondary stress on grammatical endings - so telbunen, from the child, where the -nen marks the the ablative case is often pronounced ['teˑlbunen] rather than ['teˑlbuˌneˑn].

In Western Ilbiyoni varieties, stress does not ever change vowel length. In most Eastern Ilbiyoni varients, when primary or secondary stress falls upon a monophthong vowel, it is pronounced half-long. Diphthongs are unchanged by stress.

Orthography

Ilbiyoni dialects are united through the use of a shared orthography. Eastern Jinyero has more accented consonants to reflect its somewhat larger number of phonemes.

Vowels

Orthography	Eastern Ilbiyoni	Western Ilbiyoni
A	/a/	/ä/
Ă	/ɒ/	"
E	/e/	/e̞/
Ĕ	/ɛ/	/ɘ/
I	/y/	/ɨ/
Ĭ	/ʏ/	/ɶ̝/
O	/o/	/o̞/
Ŏ	/ɔ/	Not used
U	/u/	/y/
Ŭ	/ʊ/	Not used
Y	/ə/	Not used

Consonants and semi-vowels

Orthography	Eastern Ilbiyoni	Western Ilbiyoni
b	/b/	/b/ at the beginning of words, and /β/ elsewhere.
c	/k/	/k/ word-initial, and /ç/ elsewhere.
c̆	/ʈ͡ʂ/	Not used
d	/d/	/d/ word-initial, /ð/ elsewhere
g	/g/	/g/ word-initial, /ʝ/ elsewhere.
ğ	/ɖ͡ʐ/	Not used
l	/l/	/l/
m	/m/	/m/
n	/n/	/n/
nc	/ŋ/	/ŋ/
p	/p/	/p/ initial, /ɸ/ elsewhere
r	/ɾ/	/r/
s	/t͡s/	/s/
t	/t/	/t/ initial, /θ/ elsewhere
v	/b̪͡v/	/w/
y	/tj/	/j/

Grammar

Nouns

	Case		Final consonant		Final vowel (not i, u)		Final vowel (i, u)
	Ergative		Ĕlsinor		Dolina		Ilbi
	Absolutive		Ĕlsinorem		Dolinayem		Ilbiem
	Dative		Ĕlsinorar		Dolinar		Ilbi(a)r
	Ablative		Ĕlsinoren		Dolinanen		Ilbinen
	Genitive		Ĕlsinorĕs		Dolinarĕs		Ilbiĕs

Modern Ilbiyoni retains a case system -