Silendion

Silendion
Pronounced:	[silɛndiɔn]
Species:	human
Spoken:	Hesperidia
Total speakers:	extinct
Writing system:	Alphabetic, similar to Mongolian
Genealogy:	Mixed Language (Minoan-Chrysaeglian)  Silendic   Classical Silendion
Typology
Morphological type:	agglutinative > fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Fluid-S
Basic word order:	SOV, free
Credits
Creator:	Epeuthutēbetēs
Created:	late 2003-

Classical Silendion, also known as Hesperidian, is an extinct, non-Indo-European language believed to have been spoken in the Azores and the Madeira Islands from approximately the time of the Trojan War until shortly before the time of Herodotus. Greek texts from the Alexandrian library that have since disappeared tell us that the small descendant community living in Carthage and on the Purple Islands believed that their ancestors had lived on an island outside the gates of Heracles that had since sunken beneath the waves. The size of the island is unclear, since some said it was the size of Sicily, while others claimed it was as large as Iberia or even Gaul.

Scholars believe that the indigenous people were perhaps distantly related to the Basques. Later on, a group of Eteocretan-speaking proto-Minoans migrated for still unknown reasons, bringing their early Cretan civilization with them and strongly influencing the existing culture; at this time, cities started to emerge on the island, and a mixed language arose from the bilingualism of the two populations. After the Trojan War, Mycenaean-Greek-speaking Salaminians and Aegeans who had been driven to the island by stormy weather on the seas settled and culturally assimilated to the native population but left a clear mark on parts of the verbal morphology.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel System

Classical Silendion had at least six short vowel phonemes and five long vowel phonemes.

Short Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i	y								u
Near-high
High-mid
Mid
Low-mid			ɛ							ɔ
Near-low			æ
Low					a

Long vowels are indicated by double writing, also called plene writing, for example in Hittite: da-a-at-ti [dāti] 'you take', pe-e-da-as [pēdas] '(s)he took away', or i-it [īd] 'go!'.

Long Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high
High-mid			e							o
Mid
Low-mid
Near-low
Low					a

Diphthongs

There are several diphthongs, although the exact number is under dispute. [āi], [ēi] and [ōi] were probably long diphthongs, from several sources. There were also three corresponding short diphthongs [ai], [ei] and [oi]. There were probably also at least five other diphthongs: [au], [eu], possibly [ou], [iu] and [ui].

Consonants

Stops

There were ten stops, and there is no evidence to indicate that their distribution was affected by sound change.

There were eight stops, and there is no evidence to indicate that their distribution was affected by sound change during the 500 years during which Hittite was written.

Labial	Alveolar	Palatalized Alveolar	Velar	Labiovelar
[p]	[t]	[tʲ]	[k]	[kʷ]
[b]	[d]	[dʲ]	[g]	[gʷ]

Silendion also had true geminate, or doubled, stops, for example atta 'father' [atta].

Glides, Nasals and Liquids

There were two glides, a palatal [j] and a labial [w]. There were also at least three nasal phonemes [n], [m] and [ŋ] and two liquid phonemes [l] and [r]. Liquids and two of the nasals are written double in a number of contexts, and the evidence suggests that [n], [m], [l], and [r] were opposed to geminate, or doubled, nasals and liquids. In some cases a clear contrast is made, indicating that the difference was phonemic.

Fricatives and Affricates

Silendion had at least one voiceless alveolar fricative [s], which contrasted with a geminate [ss]. The existence of corresponding voiced [z] and [zz] was rhotacized early on to [r] and [rr], respectively. Silendion also had the following fricatives that did not appear in geminate form:

Labial	Dental	Velar	Labiovelar
[f]	[þ]	[h]	[hʷ]
[v]	[ð]	[ɣ] = ∅	[ɣʷ] = [w]

There was one affricate, [ts], which surfaced only as an allophone of [s].

Nominal System

Adjectives

Predicative Verbs

adjective paradigm table

See also [[{{{1}}}]] for more information

Verbal System

Present System Conjugation

The gerund is never used by itself but only as a converb-generating form.