Halcánian dialect
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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.
Genitive
This marks 'ownership' of an object by a noun (different from possesives, see below) and corresponds directly to the English 'apostrophe 's' and 'of the/a' genitive:
- Fenstij d'talojin The house window lit: The window of the house
- Panuaj d'gaduurajin The dog's bed
- D'eviidrämus Ankein Anke's drink
- D'eliviajel kirajin The pages of a book
Objective
This case ending, apart from being used to mark the object of a sentence, can also be used to emphasize a subject:
- Danuutt taloj. There is a house. (but its not important).
- Talojan danuutt! Look, a HOUSE!
In the 2nd example above, although 'HOUSE' technically isn't an object, the object marker is being used in an 'exclamatary' fashion, to give it special attention.
- Mina ga'visuur talojan . I saw a house.
But for emphasis:- Talojan ga'visuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!
Here, the objective marker MUST be used. Word order alone simply does not denote 'who/what' is being seen since both nouns are unmarked and therefore potentially the 'subject'. Leaving it off could give rise to 'humerous ambiguity: Taloj ga'visuur mina could translates as A house saw I!
- Talojan ga'visuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!
Note: As a spoken (and strictly colloquial) rule, the objective marker is only needed when it's grammatically neccessary, or to distinguish the object from the subject in a simple sentence. If the noun/pronoun is inflected with a prepositional marker, it may not be used. However, with nouns marked by external prepositions, and in sentences where the object also performs an action, it may be neccessary to mark the object:
- Mina ga'gor kafijsta. I went into a shop. But:
- Mina ga'visuur haanan, se ga'gor haan kafijsta . I saw him go into a shop. (Halcarnian verbs take 1st position in subordinate clauses AFTER the conjunction).
In the 1st example, kafij needs no object marker since the locative marker sta can only denote that the 'shop' is 'being gone into'. Therefore, Kafijsta ga'gor mina would still read, I went into a shop.
- Haan habitr talojasä . He lives in a house.
- Talojasä habitr han! It's a HOUSE he lives in! He lives in a HOUSE!
- Sihaan ga'kamuur 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 ga'adrattalaar talojla. Anke was 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 ga'fuukr 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:
ä remains the same
ö is written as uu
é is written as ii
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, viilok-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 semiir retisaamn on kviisanämnn, 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 | |
| miina | 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 | |
| miinan | 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 ga'visuur sinään I saw you.
- Haan ga'visuur minään. He saw me.
- Miina ga'visur gaduurajän. We saw a dog.
- Gaduurajän ga'visur miina. 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 | |
| miinanle | 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 ga'enduukr haananle til. I gave it to him. (note the word order)
- Sihan kuaskria minäänle ni kualtiidrämuus. 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 ga'bekuuadr sihaananle kiraj. 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 ga'enduukr minäänle kiraj. 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.
