Halcánian dialect
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The Halcarnian dialect, also known as: Söemi'Dal'qörian (Finno-Dalcurian) and Gerödn'qonvetarämös (lit: under speech-an unfavourable term and offensive to Halcarnians), has several differences between itself and 'Dal'qöriádn-Standard Dalcurian'. These include:
- Noun cases/markers
- Spelling, pronunciation and word differences
- Pronouns
- Modal expressivness
- Possesive structure
- Word order
Here are brief descriptions of those differences.
Noun Cases and markers
Halcarnian has fifteen noun cases: 3 grammatical cases, 6 locative cases, 3 essive cases and 3 marginal cases.
| Halcarnian cases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Suffix | English prep. | Sample | Translation |
| Grammatical | ||||
| nominative | - | taloj | house | |
| genitive | -in | of | talojin | of (a) house |
| accusative | -an | - | talojan | house (as an object) |
| Locative (internal) | ||||
| inessive | -asä | in | talojasä | in (a) house |
| elative | -ta | from (inside) | talojta | from (a) house |
| illative | -sta | into | talojsta | into (a) house |
| Locative (external) | ||||
| adessive | -la | at, on | talojla | at (a) house |
| ablative | -lta | from | talojlta | from (a) house |
| allative | -le | to | talojle | to (a) house |
| Essive | ||||
| essive | -na | as | talojna | as a house |
| exessive | -attä | from being | talojattä | from being a house |
| translative | -iksi | to (role of) | talojiksi | to a house |
| Marginal | ||||
| instructive | -in | with (the aid of) | talojin | with the house |
| abessive | -uuta | without | talojuuta | without (a) house |
| comitative | -ne | together (with) | talojne | with a house |
Although the above cases almost replicate those of the Finnish language, their usage is much more 'definate'. And, since Halcarnian is an inflected dialect, word order within sentences can be comparatively free - the function of a word being indicated by its ending. But, for emphasis, word order does change on a regular basis:
- Danuutt taloj. There is a house. (but its not important).
- Talojan danuutt! Look, a HOUSE! (although in this sentence, HOUSE isnt technically an object, the object marker can be used to give special attention to it).
- Mina gavisuur talojan . I saw a house.
But for emphasis:- Talojan gavisuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!
This time, the objective marker MUST be used. Leaving off the marker here could give rise to 'humerous ambiguity: Taloj gavisuur mina potentially translates as A house saw I!
- Talojan gavisuur mina! I saw a HOUSE!
Note: The objective marker is ONLY needed when the noun/pronoun is NOT prepositioned, even when placed first in word order.
- Haan habitr talojasä . He lives in a house.
- Talojasä habitr han! It's a HOUSE he lives in! He lives in a HOUSE!
- Sihaan gakamuur talojatä. She came out of (from inside) a house.
- Anke goria talojsta. Anke is going into a house.
- Anke talojla. Anke is at home.
- Talojla Anke! Anke is at HOME!
- Anke gagor talojlta. Anke left a house. (lit: Anke went away from a house)
- Anke goria talojle. Anke is going to a house.
- Jonäokni, til talojna. At the moment, it's a house.
- Eren gafuukr til talojattä talotuurijeliksi They changed it from a house into flats.
In talotuurijeliksi, the suffix tuuri is a diminutive suffix (makes something small) and el is the plural marker, as in Standard Dalcurian.
Spelling/pronunciation
The main differences are:
ö is written as uu
é is written as ee
á is written as aa
ø is written as ok but pronounced hard as in lock
c is replaced with k and pronounced hard
Þ is replaced with tt but pronounced the same
qu is written as ku
kk-the way to voice this is to pronounce the first k hard, the second is voiced like the English Y in yacht or the soft J in the German Javol or Ja. One has to be careful of spelling traps too, for example the Halcarnian word for a thin, summer jacket is hakan, but the same word spelled hakkan means peace or serenity. Here are some examples in Standard and Halcarnian respectively:
- strömi, struumi-hot
- vélø, veelok-cold
- iáda, iaada-today
- alsalöátsi, alsaluaatsi-fanatic
- eÞöa, ettua-some
- hemørämös, hemokrämus-forgiveness
Vowel Harmony
There is only a 'tinge' of vowel harmony in Halcarnian that came across from Finnish. When the short letter a is part of a syllable, in which the following consonant forms the first letter of a following syllable ending in another short a, then the final a must change to ä. To that, you will never see äa; the final a must change to ä. This is evident in some of the case endings, and also in the accusative pronoun 'polite' form: hanä-you but adding the accusative marker an must change to hanään. The ää is then pronounced as a short e (as in the English hen).
Pronouns
| Personal pronouns (nominative) | |
|---|---|
| Halcarnian | English |
| Singular | |
| mina | I |
| sina | you |
| haan | he |
| sihaan | she |
| til | it |
| manuu | one/you (impersonal) |
| Plural | |
| meena | we |
| elsina | you |
| eren | they |
| Polite | |
| hanä | you (polite) |
| Personal pronouns (accusative) | |
|---|---|
| Halcarnian | English |
| Singular | |
| minan | me |
| sinan | you |
| haanan | him |
| sihaanan | her |
| til | it |
| manuuan | one/you (impersonal) |
| Plural | |
| meenan | us |
| elsinan | you |
| erenan | them |
| Polite | |
| hanään | you (polite) |
Accusative (objective) pronouns are denoted with the noun markers:
- Mina gavisuur sinan I saw you.. (If the subject noun or pronoun ends in a only an objective n is added)
- Han gavisuur minan. He saw me.
- Meena gavisur gaduurajan. We saw a dog. ( This sentence can also be written as: Gadurajan gavisur meena. It still means, We saw a dog because of the objective marker, but gives more importance to the dog as if to say, It was a DOG we saw!)
- Sihan kualteedria haanan. She's asking him a question.
The Halcarnian case system can make it difficult for speakers of of Indo-European languages to grasp-especially if you're used to using prepositions to place a noun. Thankfully, this case system doesn't extend into the articles a and the as in German. In fact, the absence of the definate article the automatically renders a, and di is only used when its really neccessary to identify the noun:
Danuutt taloj. There is a house. but:
Danuutt di taloj. There is the house.
Word order
Generally, Halcarnian word order is SVO, though for emphasis it can change to OSV:
Mina goria talojsta. I'm going into a house. but for emphasis:
Talojansta mina goria! It's a HOUSE I'm going into!
Notice how in the second example, the 'objective' marker is also used. Although this isnt neccesary (since we know that 'I' am the one going into the house because it's taloj that carries the illative marker), the objective an is used for emphasis.
