Taalen
| Taalen | |
| Spoken in: | Sovrandas /soˈvran.dəs/ |
| Timeline/Universe: | The Coil (the Crux universe) |
| Total speakers: | 2.8 million (or something) |
| Genealogical classification: | Súren branch of the Sovrandian family |
Pronounced /'tɑ.lɛn/.
From tal 'tree' + ra 'speak' + -en agentive suffix: 'Treespeaker', used metonymically. If compounded currently instead of anciently, this results in tallen, which is used to indicate the individual Treespeaker (roughly equivalent to a shaman) as opposed to the language.
Demographic and ethnographic information
The name of the language
What is the language known as to outsiders? What term do the people use to distinguish themselves from other language groups? What is the origin of these terms (if known)?
Ethnology
What is the dominant economic activity of the people? Briefly describe the ecosystem, material culture, and cosmology (these will be intimately related).
Demography
Where is the language spoken, and how are the people distributed in this area? Are there other language groups inhabiting the same area? What is the nature of the interaction with these language groups? Economic? Social? Friendly? Belligerent? In social/economic interactions with other groups, which groups are dominant and which are marginalized? How so?
Genetic affiliation
What language family does this language belong to? What are its closest relatives?
Previous research
What published and unpublished linguistic work has been done in this language and/or its close relatives?
The sociolinguistic situation
Multilingualism and language attitudes
What percentage of the people are monolingual? (Treat men and women separately). What language(s) are people multilingual in, and to what degree? As far as you can tell, what is the attitude of the speakers of this language toward their language, as opposed to other languages they know? If possible, give evidence for your claims even though it may be anecdotal.
Contexts of use and language choice
In what contexts are multilingual individuals likely to use the language described in this sketch? When do they use other languages?
Viability
Are children learning the language as their first language? If so, how long do they remain monolingual? What pressures are there on young people to (a) learn another language, and (b) reject their own language? How strong are these pressures? Are there partially competent speakers?
Loan words
Does the lexicon of this language contain many words from other languages? If so, in what semantic domains do these tend to occur? Give examples.
Dialects
Is there significant dialect variation? What kinds of differences distinguish the dialects? Give examples. What dialect is represented in this sketch?
