Islysian
| Illyrian Ilieski | |
| |
| Spoken in: | Illyria |
| Timeline/Universe: | Modern timeline Alternate Earth |
| Total speakers: | ~10 million |
| Writing system: | Modified Latin alphabet |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European Illyrian |
| Basic word order: | SOV |
| Morphological type: | Inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Nominative-Accusative |
| Created by: | |
| Cody Jaeger | 2006 |
Iterekisna - Introduction
The Illyrian language is spoken by nearly all of Illyria's population of ~10 million; by small ethnic-Illyrian communities in neighbouring countries such as Sweden, Finland, Poland, and the Baltic Rim; and by small emigrant communities in the Anglophone countries.
The Illyrian language is considered an Indo-European isolate. Much loaned vocabulary can be traced to Finnic, Baltic, Germanic, Slavic, and even Romance languages--for example, "poike" boy from Finnish and Swedish; "arbat" tea from Lithuanian; "kamping" from English; and "dešöné" lunch from French.
There are several dialects of Illyrian. While they are all mutually intelligible (except, perhaps, among the very elderly, who tend to retain antiquidated forms of speech), this article will focus on the spoken form of the Western Illyrian (Vísilieski) dialect. This dialect, originating in the metropolitan areas surrounding the Tälia Sound, is the most widespread dialect, spoken by approximately 60% of the Illyrian-speaking population.
Lantevaidaslys - Phonology
Sonesai - Vowels
a - /a/
á - /ɑ/
ä - /ɛ:/
e - /ɛ/
é - /e:/
i - /i/
í - /i:/
o - /ɔ/
ó - /o:/
ö - /œ/
u -/y/
ú - /u/
y - /ɪ/
Pronunciation of certain consonants, such as J, change depending on which vowel they precede. For these purposes, Illyrian vowels are grouped into "hard" and "soft" sets.
- The hard vowels are: a, á, o, ó, ú.
- The soft vowels are: ä, i, í, e, é, ö, u, y.
An accute accent marks a vowel as long. Acute-accented vowels are not considered separate letters of the alphabet; ä and ö, however, are.
Divisonesai - Diphthongs
Diphthongs in Illyrian are as follows:
ai - /ai/
au - /æuˑ/
ei - /ɛi/
eu - /ɛuˑ/
ia - /i.a/
ie - /i.ɛ/
iu - /i.y/
oi - /ɔi/
ou - /u:/ - an historical relic, this diphthong is merely the word-final realisation of ú.
ui - /ɥi/
uo - /uɔ/
All diphthongs are pronounced with a grave accent on the second vowel.
Soklasinet - Consonants
b - /b/
d - /d/
f - /f/
g - /g/ before a hard vowel or finally; /ʝ/ before a soft vowel
h - /h/
j - /j/ before a hard vowel or finally; /ʝ/ before a soft vowel
k - /k/, palatised /kʲ/ before a soft vowel or finally
l - /l/, apical, as in Italian, French, etc.
m - /m/
n - /n/ pronounced dentally; /ŋ/ before K
p - /p/ always aspirated
r - /r/ before a vowel or finally; /ʁ/ before a consonant (except H and J)
s - /s/
š - /∫/
t - /t/ always aspirated
þ - /θ/
v - /v/ in most dialects, but most Western Illyrian speakers realise as /ʋ/
z - /z/
Doubled consonants indicate extended length, which varies greatly between dialects. In Western Illyrian, the length of a doubled consonant should be slightly shorter than the "N" sound in English "pen-knife"
Sanalantaslysti mainai - Pronunciation changes
Pronunciation changes in Illyrian are relatively rare and mostly regular.
Very common clauses sometimes feature internal elision or contraction. For example, the relative clause "saka za" that, which is in everyday speech rendered as ['saksa].
An unstressed "I" before an approximant is lenited to /ɪ/, such as the first letter of the word "ilieski" itself.
More informally, an initial unstressed "E" is often elided: this is most often heard in the case of the demonstrative pronoun "eta" this/it (is), which is very commonly elided to 'ta, particularly by children. In extreme cases, sentences such as "eta enka erda en ejou eli illa?" is this narrow table sufficient or not? may be heard as tankardan júlilla? However, it would not be likely to hear someone speaking in such an exaggerated manner except for effect.
In some cases, if the mutation becomes widespread enough it may enter the standard form of the language: for example, "siarkesli," good evening is a morphologised contraction of "sia irkesli."
Skiemutasti rakeini - Syllable structure
Illyrian syllable structure is basically (C)V(C). Clusters of up to three consonants are allowed initially. Every syllable must have an acceptable vowel sound, ie. structures such as Czech "prvni" first, which uses "r" as a semi-vowel, would not be allowed in Illyrian. Final consonant clusters are not allowed, however in recent years, it seems this rule has been blurred when adopting loan words--in particular "ir week-end."
Kursa ilieskiai - Writing in Illyrian
Ir alfabet - The alphabet
Illyrian is written with a modified Latin alphabet. The first written text in Illyrian was the Code of Laws of Prince Iliem II, written in the 1340s. However, the missionaries who introduced writing failed to create an orthography specially designed for the language, which is apparent by the wide spelling variations of the period: Ä was interchangeable with E, and Ö with U. /∫/ was variously written as SZ, SJ, SCH, CH, and CJ. K and C were interchangeable, as were V and W. Above all, it seemed that every writer came up with his own realisation of /θ/.
Illyrian spelling was finally standardised by King Andiri IV in 1573. His reform is basically what is in use today. Andiri, a scholar of languages, imported the thorn (Illyrian letter þa) from England and the S-caron (Illyrian letter še) from Bohemia. The phoneme /ç/ is today written with a digraph due to the fact that, at the time of Andiri's reform, /ç/ was not considered a distinct phoneme but rather a palatisation of <h>.
The modern Illyrian alphabet has 26 letters: 8 vowels and 18 consonants. Collation order is as follows:
Vilainon kursatyllet - Non-native letters
The following letters are not considered part of the Illyrian alphabet as they do not occur naturally in the Illyrian language. They are only found in loan words, foreign names, and technical jargon (eg, "www.")
c - /k/ before a hard vowel or finally; /ts/ before a soft vowel
q - /k/
w - /v/ or /ʋ/
x - /ks/ before a hard vowel or finally; /∫/ before a soft vowel
Divikursuret - Digraphs
Besides the diphthongs described in the section on Phonology, the only digraph in the modern Illyrian orthography is <hj>, which is pronounced /ç/. It most frequently occurs word-initially, and is almost never found word-finally except in a few colloquialisms, such as "yhj" [ɪç] - which is equivalent to either "ouch!" or "oy vey!"
Kiesai kursajöruret - Alternate realisations
In situations (eg. typewriters, keyboard, www addresses, etc) in which typing Illyrian letters such as Še and Þa (the thorn) would be difficult or impossible the following realisations are acceptable:
ä - ay
ö - oy
š - sj
þ - tj
Digraphs are not considered separate letters of the Illyrian alphabet. In alternate realisations, however, the two letters are treated as though they were the proper Illyrian monograph: eg. "tjaysti" (þästi) often would nominally be sorted after, for example, "tyrsi" dry.
Suresaslys jau akronimet - Capitalisation and acronyms
Capitalisation is absolutely regular. Only the first letter of a sentence and the first letter of a proper noun are capitalised. Adjectives and common nouns derived from proper nouns are not capitalised.
- Ilieska Illyria
- ilieski Illyrian (adjective, or the Illyrian language)
- ilieskalainen an Illyrian person
Acronyms are written with the capitalised first letter of each component word, and any following letters from the same word are lowercase. There is no punctuation between letters of an acronym. Acronyms which are themselves loan terms are not usually translated.
- ITv (Ilieskai Televizia, Illyrian Television)
- IK (Idinörju Karjanen, United Kingdom)
- UNProFor (UNPROFOR, United Nations Protection Force)
Kursahaftaslys - Punctuation
Formatting for full stops, commas, colons, exclamation/question marks, etc. is the same as in English--that is, no space after the preceding word.
Inverted commas are used to show emphasis of strength which, in speech, would be indicated by the speaker's tone of voice.
- Illa, ja vardu saka za 'Kören' iše siras. No, I said KÖREN likes cheese.
Outward-pointing double angle quotes (with internal spacing) indicate speech. No comma is used to offset quotes. If the quotation includes the end of a sentence, the full stop goes inside the quotes, otherwise they go outside.
- Se vardun « siras iši. » You said, "I like cheese."
- Isse « kóté jau kiené jau tréšou » irsu. He saw "cats and dogs and a rabbit."
However, for ongoing dialogue, such as in narrative storytelling (which is always written in the present tense), em-dashes are preferred. To show the cutoff point of the dialogue where the sentence does not end, a colon is used.
—Saka? ja roti. "What?" I ask.
—Ö, ja vardu saka za ruosti skolliai ida : isse varde. "Uh, I said I have to go to school," he says.
Indentation is not used in written Illyrian, except for nesting lists. Double-spacing indicates a new paragraph, but blocks of dialogue use only single spacing.
Ir kun alfabetisti - The alphabet song
Illyrian children learn an "alphabet song" which is sung to the same tune as the English alphabet song:
Ha i ja ka el-äm-än-o-ö,
Pe är äs, še te þa, ju vé ipsilon zéta
Ja ir alfabetas jussi, jazo 'ta nén klósoli?
The last line translates to: "I know the alphabet, isn't that lovely?"
Sanarakeinaslys - Morphology
Tauki satslys - Basic syntax
Illyrian is an inflecting language following a typically Indo-European nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment.
Nouns inflect for number and case. There are two numbers in Illyrian, singular and plural. There are four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and a simple locative (which often fulfills the function of dative). There are two genders in Illyrian: masculine and feminine. There is no neutral gender. Masculine nouns have four possible declensions, feminine nouns only one.
Personal pronouns inflect for three persons (first, second, third) and two numbers (singular and plural). Personal pronouns feature nominative, accusative, and locative forms. The genitive actually has three forms (masculine, feminine, and a gender-neutral plural) which agree in gender and number with the noun they indicate possession of and therefore also function as simple possessives.
Adjectives inflect for number, gender, and case, and must agree in all three respects with the noun they modify. Unlike nouns, however, adjectives only have one plural form, which is indifferent to gender. The adjective comes before the noun.
Verbs inflect for tense, person, number, and mood, and they must agree with the subject. Illyrian verbs have five tenses: present, past, present perfect, future, and future perfect (historically there was a past perfect tense, but since narrative storytelling is done in the present tense, it is no longer used). There is a conditional mood and a subjunctive mood, both of which can be used with all five tenses--thus to answer the question "idan?" will you go? the answer "ja idellai nem ja arverai" I would will go, but I have to will work is grammatically acceptable. Finally, there is a passive voice, and naturally only transitive verbs have passive forms.
For adverbs, no agreement of person, number, etc. is necessary. Most adjectives can be made into adverbs by adding the suffix -(e)þai.
Sanet ortaslys - Word order
Illyrian word order is basically SOV, though in some instances (usually for clarity) SVO may be acceptable.
- Se asa ka mén hassen? Do you want to eat with me?
- You - to eat - with - me - want (you)?
There are cases in which SVO word order is acceptable. The most notable case is when using the verb "essa" to be.
- Vai on ilieskai. We are Illyrian.
- Sonic Youth en meun fásti örisli. Sonic Youth is my favourite band.
The indirect object (usually in locative case) comes after the verb.
- Sto kita miksi. Give me that.
- Vai kienas krainek saksi. We're buying you a dog.
Because of the Illyrian language's inflecting nature, in casual everday speech, subject pronouns are often dropped from simple sentences:
- Ir poikas irsi. I see the boy.
- Sa linniai idas. Theyre going to the city.
- Pénte isten. You're right'. (lit. "you have reason/logic")
In some cases the subject pronoun is absolutely necessary. For example, "krainu" could mean either I bought or he bought.
Adjectives come before the noun they modify.
- Ir sieni poike The small boy
- Sa siena talakänta (The) small talk
- Ir sienai jallet The small rooms
- Sa sienai tréšai The small rabbits
Adverbs come after the verb they modify, and no agreement of person, number, etc. is necessary. Most adjectives can be made into adverbs by adding the suffix -(e)þai.
- Nö tuisse leteneþai. She sighs sadly.
- Ja ka Ili vardu tistiþai. I talked quietly with Ili.
- Skolliksi idas fausiþai. They slowly walk to school.
Javati - Gender
Illyrian has two genders: masculine (myskati) and feminine (naini). All nouns are either masculine or feminine--there is no neutral gender. Gender is random, other than obvious inherent sexuality of animate nouns ("sa naina," the woman; "ir poike," the boy) and the fact that loan words are inherently masculine, regardless of their meaning in the original language. Feminine nouns can only end in the letter -a (or its long form -á), but the reverse is not necessarily true: exceptions include "ir sa," the sea, and "ir vaika," the child.
The grammatical gender of an animate noun normally corresponds to the noun's natural gender. For such nouns, there is almost always one noun for each gender: for example, a male doctor is toktori, while a female doctor is a toktora. If the gender of the doctor is unknown or is semantically irrelevant (eg. "I need a doctor!") the masculine form is default. For some animate nouns, the only change is in the article: "ir agna" is a male ox, "sa agna" is a female ox. Groups of mixed gender are also described as masculine--therefore a toktori and a toktora would collectively be toktoret.
While nouns have either two forms (singular and plural) or four (masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular, feminine plural), adjectives have strictly three forms: masculine, feminine, and plural. Unlike in nouns, the plural form of an adjective is indifferent to gender, as illustrated by the following forms of the phrase "sei vuos" good friend:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| masc. | sei vuos | siai vuoset |
| fem. | sai vuosa | siai vuosai |
In dictionaries, adjectives and animate nouns are usually presented only in their masculine forms--with a few exceptions, like "cow/bull."
Artikelet - Articles
Illyrian has two definite articles: "ir" for masculine singular and plural, and "sa" for feminine singular and plural. There is no indefinite article, though it is not uncommon to specify using "idin," the number one (ex. "Ja kótas isti" I have a cat versus "ja idinas kótas isti" I just have one cat).
As in languages such as French and Arabic, the definite article is used when describing abstract concepts (eg. "ir ei en sei" life is good; "ir politík mén interiesse" I am interested in politics). It is not used, however, when describing general concepts of tangible objects (eg. "kafas iši" I like coffee, "politet lukas" politicians lie). If it is used, it implies that you are describing a particular item or set (eg. "ir kafas iši" would imply something like I like this particular blend of coffee or I like the coffee at this café; "ir politet lukas" would mean these particular politicians lie).
Vilainon sanet izeraninaslys - Assimilation of loan words
Loan words in Illyrian can be divided into two categories: "recent" loan words, and "Illyrianised" loan words, which have been more or less completely assimilated into the Illyrian language.
An example of the former is "week-end," directly from English. To the Illyrian ear, such loan words sound distinctly "foreign," so older speakers and linguistic purists will tend to use an older, fully Illyrian phrase such as "sa soima veikisti," lit. the end of the week. If and when this loan word is assimilated, it would undergo conformity to the Illyrian phonology and orthography, including paragoge (typically of I), since Illyrian does not allow final consonant clusters.
Since all loan words in Illyrian are inherently masculine, regardless of their native gender or function, we could therefore expect "week-end" to Illyrianise to "ir vikendi."
