Elbic

Helvica
Pronounced:	/ElvIk@/
Timeline and Universe:	Ill Bethisad
Species:	Human
Spoken:	Elba
Total speakers:	30,000
Writing system:	Latin
Genealogy:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    South-Central Romance     Central-Southern Italian      Elbic
Typology
Morphological type:	Inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order:	SVO
Credits
Creator:	Sectori
Created:	May 2006

Elbic is the language of the Principality of Elba, an island off the coast of Tuscany. It is a Central and Southern Italian language, related to Neapolitan and Tuscan Italian. It has two sets of changes to initial consonants, similar to the mutations found in the Celtic consonants: the geminate mutation (also found in Neapolitan), and the gorgic mutation (Tuscan Italian).

Phonotactics/Orthography/Stress

The Elbic alphabet contains 37 distinct letters. There are 15 vowel letters representing ten sounds. Elbic has the following vowels:

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high			ɪ					ʊ
High-mid			e							o
Mid					ə
Low-mid			ɛ							ɔ
Near-low
Low					a

Orthographically, these are represented by:

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	í									ú
Near-high			ì					ù
High-mid			é							ó
Mid					à
Low-mid			è							ò
Near-low
Low					á

There are a set of unaccented vowels <a e i o u>. These, when stressed, are pronounced as the acute vowels, when unstressed as the grave vowels.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n				ɲ
Plosive	p	b			t	d							k	g
Fricative	ɸ	β			θ	ð	s		ʃ				x	ɣ
Affricate						dz			t∫	dʒ		kw	(ks)
Approximants		(w)										(j)
Trill								r
Lateral Approximant								l

These are represented orthographically by the characters following. However, there are some important notes. /dz/ when adjacent to an unvoiced consonant or initially is [ts]. Double consonants <nn ss>, etc. are pronounced /nn ss/, etc. /t∫/ is [k] before <a o u> in all variations. /dʒ/ is [g] before <a o u> in all variations. There is also an orthographically represented <h>. <h> is non-phonemic, but rather represents /ˈ/, a movement of stress. <h> always precedes a vowel, and moves the stress of the word to that vowel. /kw/ is /k/ before <e i> in all variations. < i u> in diphthongs are pronounced /j w/. /ɲ ʎ/ before <a o u> in all variations are /gn gl/. /∫/ in non-Elbic words (i.e. lone words) is /ks/.

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n				gn
Plosive	p	b			t	d							ch	gh
Fricative	hp	hb			ht	hd	s		x				hc	hg
Affricate						z			c	g		qu	(x)
Approximants		(u)										(i)
Trill								r
Lateral Approximant								l

Stress

To place the stress of a word, follow these rules in the order they are presented here.

• When determining the stress of a word, always initially place it on the final syllable.
• If the final phoneme is a vowel, stress moves back one syllable.
• If the final syllable ends in a nasal or an approximant, move the stress back one syllable.
• If anywhere in the word there is an <h> preceding a vowel, move the stress to the h-vowel.
• In monosyllabic words, the vowel is always treated as if it were stressed.

Thus, Mhexicó, the Elbic name for Mexico, is /mˈɛksɪko/, and Helva, the Elbic name for Elbic, is /ˈɛlvə/. No Nápolitanno, or "a Neapolitan", is /no napɔlɪtˈannɔ/.