Sinatolean
Sinatolean(sinadoleya; [ɕinaˈdɔleja]) is the official and national language of the Sinatolean Federation, a federative archipelago nation. Before the unification and subsequent formation of the Federation, Sinatolean was still used as a lingua franca in the region as far back as around 900 BCE. It is the most spoken Sinatolean language, with an estimated 680,000 total native speakers as of 2024.
Sinatolean is a heavily agglutinative language. In fact, the autonym of the language is itself an agglutinated phrase:
sin -a dol -e ya
person -SING island -PL speech
Thus, sinadoleya means "speech of the island person".
Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b | t d | (c) (ɟ) | k g | ʔ | |
Nasal | m | (ɱ) | n | (ɲ) | ŋ | |
Fricative | (f) (v) | s z, (ɕ) (ʑ) | (x) | h | ||
Affricate | t͡ɕ d͡ʑ | |||||
Semivowel | w | j | ||||
Lateral | l̪~l |
Broad and slender
Main article: Sinatolean broad and slender consonants
Like in Irish, the realisation of consonants change depending on the vowel after it. For example, a /g/ before an /i/, /ø/ or /e/(slender vowels) changes to /ɟ/, while the same for /k/ changes it to /c/. These changes are not shown in the orthography. The following table only shows the changes for plosives(/p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ/).
Phoneme | Broad | Example |
---|---|---|
Slender | ||
/p/ | /p/ | pola [pɔla] "move(jussive)" |
/f/ | pisani [fisaɲi] "those dogs" | |
/b/ | /b/ | boso [bɔsɔ] "roof" |
/v/ | labin [laviɲ] "wave" | |
/t/ | tolo [tɔlɔ] "triggerfish" | |
/d/ | /d/ | dole [dɔle] "islands" |
/ɟ/ | didika [ɟiɟika] "beach" | |
/k/ | /k/ | angaka [aŋaka] "temple, shrine" |
/c/ | kēnene [ceːɲeɲe] "waterfalls" | |
/g/ | /g/ | ganeu [gaɲəw] "pet food" |
/ɟ/ | ginja [ɟiɲd͡ʑa] "june, 6 months" | |
/ʔ/ | āyo [ʔajɔ] "hey (Sinatʼ regional variation)", janiʼpi [d͡ʑaɲiʔfi] "jasmine tea" |
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e ø | ||
Mid | (ə)* | ||
Open-mid | ɔ | ||
Open | a |
/ə/ is a common unstressed allophone that can theoretically be used for any vowel, though it is mostly only used for /e/ when it precedes a semivowel like /w/ or /j/, such as in ganeu [gaɲəw], "pet food".
Morphology
Calendar
Months
Month | |||
---|---|---|---|
Number | English | Sinatolean | |
Modern | Tuananga Yadān | ||
1 | January | janua | nganada |
2 | February | peblan | |
3 | March | māja | |
4 | April | abīl | ōneya |
5 | May | mēhi | kinānalua |
6 | June | ginja | |
7 | July | geuli | mīlja |
8 | August | ogost | |
9 | September | setembo | saukānān |
10 | October | ōkotubo | saukān |
11 | November | nobembo | sauke |
12 | December | desembo |
Tunanga Yādan(Emeár: tõaanga [d̪ʷãːŋɐ]) is a calendar system of Emeárin origin that was the regional standard calendar before the arrival of Europeans. Most Sinatolean speakers don't use this system anymore, apart from the elderly as well as some disconnected tribes. The Sinatolean variation, often dubbed the Yādan variation, is still used by native Sinatoleans to form mononyms. For example, Dolekamrinu's[1] birthname was Sinaginja, "June person". His younger sister, born a year later in July, was named Adiasinamīlja, "small July person."
Nouns
Number
Sinatolean differentiates between singular and plural nouns. Singular nouns are marked with an -a suffix, while -e is used to indicate plurality.
Determiners
Demonstratives
Sinatolean uses suffixes for demonstratives.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
This | -nga | -nge |
That | -pya | -pye |
These suffixes have to be used after the number-suffix(-a or -e), so dole would be "islands", while dolenge would be "these islands"; dolnge would be grammatically incorrect.
Notes
- ↑ a prominent Sinatolean independence activist