Celinese
| Celinese Celínec | |
| Spoken in: | National language in: Elitho, Circasio, Ifanco, Gwyðach
|
| Timeline/Universe: | Lorech |
| Total speakers: | 397,531,000 (Celinese languages) |
| Genealogical classification: | Tygenoci
|
| Basic word order: | Free |
| Morphological type: | Fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Ergative-absolutive |
| Created by: | |
| A. Ayres | 2002- |
Celinese languages (several names in Celinese languages) are divergent dialects that form part of a macrolanguage that is the most spoken offshoot of the Tygenoci language family, and one of the major languages of the Northern hemisphere of Lorech. The spoken and written standard (Celinese languages: Celínec, pronounced [ˈkɛlinɛk]), a compromise based on the dialects of Perís and Ioðinbêr, is spoken as a first language by almost 400 million people, and understood by a further 950 million second language learners.
Originating as independent languages in the Northern swathes of the large island, Tygenoc, the union of thitherto sovereign states - first under the Lainoê Elíneg and Northern Elitho, then under a united Elithoan commonwealth - precipitated the need to find a compromise dialect to unite these tongues, creating the standard, trans-Elithoan acrolect that is the basis of this article. To this day, Celinese languages - which will be considered on other pages - remain robust in their divergences from the Períseg-Ioðinbêreg norm, but it is rare to find an individual who cannot speak the standard Celinese language. Celinese is spoken in the North of Beichlë - the nation neighbouring Elitho to the south - where native Celinophones outnumber native Beichlophones 6-1; and in the West of Jinyero, or Esfoth - the nation to the South-East. Because of emigration, expansion and the colonisation of uninhabited islands and landmasses, Celinophones can be found in varying numbers across the entirety of Lorech. A language with a proud literary history, more books are published in Celinese than in any other language of the Northern hemisphere. It is the third most commonly learnt second language abroad, and is one of the official languages of the Lorechian Assembly of Sovereign Nations.
Name
The naming of the standard Celinese language was a matter of some controversy. Today's standard acrolect, largely derived from the urbane speech of Perís and Ioðinbêr, two of the most prominent cities of the time; the speech of the other major conurbations - the twin cities of Chlasc-Lainoch in the South-West, and Iferðí-Danðí in the North-East - was considered too divergent to be the basis of a pan-Elithoan prestige dialect.
Up to that point, speakers of Celinese languages generally referred to their variety by the name of the tystír where it was spoken. Thus, speech in Perís was invariably referred to as perísec, and despite attempts to declare the language of the Southern Lainoê Elíneg as 'elínec', it was usually called 'ioðinbêric'.
Having commissioned a dictionary and linguistic survey, the first Senate of the Commonwealth of Elitho was determined to refer to the compromise acrolect as Elithoan (Celinese: elithoëc), but were persuaded not to by representatives from Circasio, who were insulted at the idea of their shared language being named after Elitho. Alternatives based on the two languages from which Standard Celinese was principally drawn, such as perðinec and pèrberec, were rejected for being too divisive. The name celínec - derived from celín (language tongue) and -ec (a suffix often used to denote language, similar to English -ish or -ese) - was eventually agreed upon. However, most Celinese speakers describe themselves as speakers of their local language first and foremost, and only refer to the prestige dialect as "Celinese".
Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | x | ɣ | h | |||||
| Affricate | ts | dz | ||||||||||||||
| Approximants | w | j | ||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
| Labial | Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
| Voiceless plosives | p | t | c | |||||||
| Voiced plosives | b | d | g* | |||||||
| Flap | r* | |||||||||
| Voiceless fricatives | f* | th | s* | s* | g* | ch | h | |||
| Voiced fricatives | f* | ð | r* | |||||||
| Approximant | w | y/i | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l |
- <f> is pronounced [f], except intervocally, where it is [v]. In some dialects, it is also pronounced [v] in final position
- <r> is pronounced [ɾ], except in word-final position, where it becomes [ʐ] in Periso-Ioðinbêr Celinese
- <s> is pronounced [s], except in front of <é> and <í>, where it is instead pronounced [ʂ]
- <g> is pronounced [g], except in word-final position, where it is pronounced [ç]
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | i | y | ɯ | u | ||||||
| Near-high | ʊ | |||||||||
| High-mid | e | o | ||||||||
| Mid | ə | |||||||||
| Low-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||||||||
| Near-low | æ | |||||||||
| Low | a | |||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
| Close | [i] <í> | [u] <u, ù> | |||||
| Near close | [ɪ] <y> | ||||||
| Close-mid | [e] <é, ê>; [ø] <i> | [o] <ô> | |||||
| Mid | [ə] <ə> | ||||||
| Open-mid | [ɛ] <e, è> | [ɔ] <o, ò> | |||||
| Open | [a] <a> |
- Acute diacritics appear on e and i to signify a change in vowel quality, namely from [ɛ] and [ø] to [e] and [i]. Syllables with an acute are always stressed: norís [nɔˈɾis], élainig [ˈe.laɪn.øç].
- Circumflex accents – ê and ô - denote a change in vowel quality without a change in stress. Êdithír (parent) is pronounced [e.døθ.ˈiʐ]; ôthím is [oθ.ˈim].
- Unaccented vowels are only stressed if they are in the penultimate syllable of a word with neither an acute nor a grave-accented vowel: thus, alsë would be stressed on the penult [ˈalʂə], but soisé would be stressed on the accented final syllable: [sɔˈʂe].
- Vowels with a grave accent have the same quality as unaccented vowels (e.g. è, ò and ù are pronounced [ɛ], [ɔ] and [u] like e, o and u are), but are stressed: sefodèsg (Swedish) is pronounced [sɛfɔˈdɛsç].
- In other Celinese languages, one can see other diacritics being used. They are nearly always used in a similar way to standard Celinese - e/è comparing with ê and é. Common even in Standard Celinese is the transcription of irregularly stressed [u] as <ú> rather than <ù>. This is an accepted variant for the subjunctive mood, but the Representative Council of the Celinese language dissuades it from being used elsewhere.
Stress
On most words, primary stress falls on the penultimate syllable, unless a subsequent syllable is marked with an acute or grave accent. Thus tynðeg is pronounced [ˈtɪnðɛç], but welèc and mairís are both stressed on the last syllable: [wɛˈlɛk] [maɪˈɾis].
When a word is made by attaching a suffix or suffixes to a root, the penult of the root is stressed. Take the word ecosoireg, meaning scholastic, which derives from ecosí ("to study") + -oir (suffix denoted "place of") + -eg (one of the regular adjectival endings.) Learners of the language may initially pronounce the word with the stress on the penult, but it would instead be pronounced [ɛˈkɔsɔɪɾɛç], with the stress falling on the penult of the root.
When it comes to compound words that combine two roots, some speakers stress the penult of the first root, some the penult of the last. Consequently, drethcybethír (taxpayer), which comes from dreth (tax) + cybethí (to pay) + -ír (suffix to denote "person who does action") can be heard to be pronounced as [ˈdɾɛθkɪˌbɛθiʐ] or [ˌdɾɛθkɪˈbɛθiʐ], with the former being more common.
In words of three or more syllables, secondary stress is applied to the syllables two syllables before and/or two syllables after the stressed syllable; thus celnoê (discussion) is pronounced [ˈkɛlnɔˌjɛ] and momeirlairel (candlelight) is pronounced [ˈmɔmɛɪʐˌlaɪɾɛl] (or [ˌmɔmɛɪʐˈlaɪɾɛl].
Epenthesis
In most Celinese languages, epenthesis has arisen to separate two consecutive vowel sounds at the end of one word and at the very beginning of the subsequent word. Take the words mo (my) and athlë (town). When mo directly precedes athlë, either an r- (in Ioðinbêr and much of the South) or a th- (in Perís and most of the North.) The epenthetic r can be pronounced [ɾ] ([mɔ ˈɾaθlə]) or [ʐ] ([mɔ ˈʐaθlə]).
Morphology
Celinese is a moderately inflected language. Nouns have not been declined for case since the "Middle Elithoan Celinese" era, but they still decline for number, and for grammatical gender in the plural. Pronouns still retain vestiges of the case system. Adjectives (which double as adverbs) are uninflected, whilst verbs inflect for person, mood and tense.
Nouns
The biggest challenge for the learner, with respect to nouns, is pluralising them. There are three standard plural endings, -ím (for 'masculine' nouns), -ot (for 'feminine' nouns), and -ain (for 'neuter' nouns). The gender system is entirely formal and not semantic in the least; without exceptions, the gender of a noun is determined by the last sound in that noun. As a result, taðír and maiðír, dad and mom, are not masculine and feminine respectively, but neuter, because the vast majority of words ending in -r are neuter. Similarly, garys (boy) and gathal (girl) are feminine and masculine respectively, because -s is a feminine word ending and -l is generally a masculine word ending.
Regular pluralisation pattern
Singular Plural Masculine lech (word) lechím (words) Feminine leið (song) leiðot (words) Neuter syrthoir (home) syrthoirain (homes)
Other pluralisation patterns
- Words ending in the unstressed ë - which are invariably feminine - delete the ë and add -ot in the plural. Thus, athlë [ˈaθ.lə] becomes athlot [ˈaθ.lɔt]
- The same goes for words ending in e or a - the borrowed atèlie (workshop) becomes atèliot in the plural.
- Very frequent are words ending in ê, particularly oê. In these words - which are also invariably feminine - the ê changes to a semi-vocalic i in the plural: celnoê (discussions) [ˈkɛlnɔˌ(j)e] becomes celnoiot (discussions) [ˈkɛlnɔˌ(j)ɔt].
- Words ending in <o> or <u>, whether masculine or neuter, take the ending <-m> rather than -ím or -ain. Wylo (wave) becomes wylom rather than *wyloain.
Irregular plurals
Middle and Late Middle Celinese varieties had hundreds of irregular plurals, and some dialects (particularly those of the rural parts of West Elitho) retain nearly all the irregular plurals. However, when the Perís-Ioðinbêr influenced acrolect was standardised, most of the irregular plurals were replaced with ones following a more regular pattern. E.g. mildë (friend) was once pluralised as milðot - [d] to [ð] and [t] to [θ] being a common sound change before plurals. Now, in the standard language, it is the regular 'mildot', but the irregular still remains in many dialects.
Some irregular plurals remained (usually because they were irregular in both Perís and Ioðinbêr acrolects). They can generally be divided into three categories:
- Nouns whose plural is a different gender to what one would predict from its ending. Two good examples of this would be the word for apple and aspect, eflím [ɛfˈlim] and elym [ˈɛlɪm] respectively. Despite -m being a consistently masculine noun ending, the former takes a feminine plural, eflímot, and the latter takes a neuter plural, elymain.
- Nouns that are the same in the singular and plural forms - calím (climate), originally the pluralised form of cal, is now used for the singular and plural. The same can be said about dychlain (clothes), which lost its singular form dychël. Two other key words like this are bairím (fruit/s) and chenosain (evil/s).
- Nouns with an irregular plural inflection, such as calbys (hook) turning to ca(u)lsain in the plural, hidim (insect) to hiðmain, aðel (Elithoan currency) to aðail, selmoth (second) to selmaith and talom (space) to taloim.
Gendered endings
Though there are sometimes exceptions, the table below gives a general idea of which endings correspond to which genders.
Always Sometimes Masculine -ch, -f, -g, -c, -u -l, -m Feminine -th, -ð, -s, -ë, -e* -a -l, -n Neuter -r, -o -os -l, -n, -m
e* refers to <e> and <e> with any diacritic, i.e. <é>, <ê>.
