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 (off of) | 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/by means 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 marks the 'object' of the verb:
- 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!
This case ending, apart from being used to mark the object, 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.
Note: As a spoken (and strictly colloquial) rule, the objective marker is only needed when it's grammatically neccessary, or to avoid ambiguity. If the noun/pronoun is inflected with a prepositional marker, it may not be used. However, with nouns/pronouns 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.
Locative
Locative is a case which indicates a location. It corresponds mainly to the English prepositions in/inside, into, from (inside/outside/out of), to/towards, and at:
Internal
- Haan habitr talojasä . 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.
Again, for emphasis, word order can change and the objective marker used:
- Talojanäsä habitr han! It's a HOUSE he lives in! He lives in a HOUSE!
External
- Anke ga'adrattalaar talojla. Anke was at home
- Anke gagor d'talojlta. Anke left the house. (lit: Anke went from the house)
- Anke goria talojle. Anke is going to a house.
- Mina ga'bekuuadr Petrilta kiraj. I got a book from (off of) Petri. (lit: I received from Petri a book)
As mentioned earlier, the objective marker may only be used if it's grammatically neccessary. In the above sentence, kiraj needn't be marked because of the intervention of Petrilta, which pr-determines kiraj as an object. If you were to write the sentence with Petrilta in last position, then kiraj would have to be marked:
- Mina ga'bekuuadr kirajan Petrilta.
Essive
This case carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, often equivalent to the English as a....
- 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.
- Lapiijna, minoli glato. When I was a child I was skinny (As a child...)
Marginal
This case roughly equates to the English with/without, together with, and by:
- Haan goria parenojne. He is going with dad.
- Sinaitt konsomiir tatt luufejin. You should eat that with a spoon. (with the aid of)
- Miina levaltr tsuugajin. We're going by train. (by means of)
- Kalo nomaijuuta. Kalo has no money. (is without money)
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
æ is written as ai
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).
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 di automatically renders ni, and di is only used when its really neccessary to identify the noun (however, di is written as d' ; considered more as a clitic):
Danuutt taloj. There is a house. but:
Danuutt d'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 necessary (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.
In formal conditions, Halcarnian follows the same prepositional pattern as standard Dalcurian, the marked noun acting as the prepositional phrase:
Informal-Std Dalcurian
- Araciev, ména, máriÞ érenöra, görøria.
Halcarnian
- Miina guurokria erenanen arakiev.
Both reading: We're going out with them later.
Formal-Std Dalcurian
- Qéörentéla, quintä näocr eladiö, dörac dérÞ, qamör.
Formal-Halcarnian
- Kerontalä, näokr hanäel, d'ttradejsta duurtt, kamuur kanä.
Both reading: Hello, could you all come through here please?
In the Halcarnian example, through here/there isn't possible. A noun or object must be cited.d'ttradejsta duurtt means through the door there.
