Ilbiyoni
| Ilbiyoni Ιlbiyonĭm | |
|---|---|
| Timeline and Universe: | Lorech |
| Spoken: | National language in: Ilbiyon
|
| Total speakers: | 1,610,740 |
| Typology | |
| Morphological type: | Fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Ergative-absolutive |
| Basic word order: | Generally VOS |
| Credits | |
| Creator: | A. Ayres |
| Created: | 2011- |
Ilbiyoni or Ilbiyonĭm - pronounced /ˌyˑlbyˈjoˑnəm/ (Eastern) or /ˌɨ̞lβʲo̞nɨ̞m/ (Western) - is a language isolate spoken in the Ilbiyon archipelago, a string of islands located in the Great Lake Lyric, which divides the nations of Elitho from Western Jinyero/Esfoth. Despite contact with both cultures dating back hundreds of years, Ilbiyon has retained its independence, and its language is relatively uninfluenced by Celinese and Jinyera - indeed, some claim that Ilbiyoni predates both languages.
As well as being spoken by 900,000 speakers in the independent Principality of Ilbiyon, it is also spoken in the Lake Lyric islands that are under Elithoan and Jinyer administration, and in small areas of mainland Elitho and Jinyero proper. There is also a robust community of non-Ilbiyoni researchers and explorers who have learnt the language in order to understand the myriad tomes of the Ĕlsinor Ilbiyonĕs - the Ilbiyon Palace of Books, the most expansive library in the world.
Nomenclature
Ilbiyoni's native name, Ilbiyonĭm, is a compound noun, composed of the words ilbĭ (lake) and yonim (language). Some believe that 'Lake Ilbiyoni' was one of several dialects, some of which were spoken on the mainland. Modern Ilbiyoni itself has a number of varieties, with the speech of each island being characterised by its own idiosyncracies; whilst these are usually classified as 'dialects' or 'regional varieties', an ongoing debate about whether Western and Eastern variety groups should be classified as competing standards of a single pluricentric language, or as languages in their own right.
Phonology
Pronunciation varies greatly from island to island, but two broad varieties - Eastern Ilbiyoni, spoken in the isles closer to Jinyero, and Western Ilbiyoni, in the islands closer to Elitho. Whilst there is no agreed standard dialect, it is an Eastern islands dialect - that of Sĕroği, usually - which tends to be taught to second language learners.
Eastern Ilbiyoni
The following phonology is based on the Ilbiyoni dialect spoken in Sĕroği, the most populous island in the peninsula and thus often considered to be the archetypal Eastern dialect. Most islands of Ilbiyon on the Jinyer side of Lake Lyric are more similar to the below than to the phonology of the average Western Ilbiyoni dialect, but the Săroği dialect does have idiosyncracies unshared by most Eastern dialects, such as the pronunciation of <v> as /b̪͡v/.
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | p b | t | d | k | g | |||||||||||
| Affricates | b̪͡v | t͡s | ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ | |||||||||||||
| Approximants | j | |||||||||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | y | u | ||||||||
| Near-close | ʏ | ʊ | ||||||||
| Close-mid | e | o | ||||||||
| Close-mid | ə | |||||||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||||||||
| Open | a | ɒ | ||||||||
Western Ilbiyoni
The archetypal Western Ilbiyoni phonology, described here, is that of the dialect of the isle of Erĕvir. The most notable divergence from Eastern Ilbiyoni is the spirantisation of medial and final plosives, such as /p/ to /ɸ/ and /t/ to /θ/.
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | (p) (b) | (t) | (d) | (k) | (g) | |||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ β | θ | ð | s | ç | ʝ | ||||||||||
| Approximants | j | |||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | y | ɨ | ||||||||
| Mid | e̞ | ɘ | o̞ | |||||||
| Near-open | ɶ̝ | |||||||||
| Open | ä | ɒ | ||||||||
Orthography
Ilbiyoni dialects are united through the use of a shared orthography. Eastern Jinyero has more accented consonants to reflect its somewhat larger number of phonemes.
Vowels
| Orthography | Eastern Ilbiyoni | Western Ilbiyoni |
|---|---|---|
| A | /a/ | /ä/ |
| Ă | /ɒ/ | " |
| E | /e/ | /e̞/ |
| Ĕ | /ɛ/ | /ɘ/ |
| I | /y/ | /ɨ/ |
| Ĭ | /ʏ/ | /ɶ̝/ |
| O | /o/ | /o̞/ |
| Ŏ | /ɔ/ | Not used |
| U | /u/ | /y/ |
| Ŭ | /ʊ/ | Not used |
| Y | /ə/ | Not used |
Consonants and semi-vowels
| Orthography | Eastern Ilbioni | Western Ilbioni |
|---|---|---|
| b | /b/ | /b/ at the beginning of words, and /β/ elsewhere. |
| c | /k/ | /k/ word-initial, and /ç/ elsewhere. |
| c̆ | /ʈ͡ʂ/ | Not used |
| d | /d/ | /d/ word-initial, /ð/ elsewhere |
| g | /g/ | /g/ word-initial, /ʝ/ elsewhere. |
| ğ | /ɖ͡ʐ/ | Not used |
| l | /l/ | /l/ |
| m | /m/ | /m/ |
| n | /n/ | /n/ |
| nc | /ŋ/ | /ŋ/ |
| p | /p/ | /p/ initial, /ɸ/ elsewhere |
| r | /ɾ/ | /r/ |
| s | /t͡s/ | /s/ |
| t | /t/ | /t/ initial, /θ/ elsewhere |
| v | /b̪͡v/ | /w/ |
| y | /tj/ | /j/ |
