Nother/Go-Lengi
- Múǹǹôḿijoí
- mút́-Ǹôḿi-jo-í
- speak-Nòmi-NMLZR-DIRECT.DEF.SG
Thalassarctian (
Múǹǹôḿijoí, /mu̬nnᵜɔ̬m̬ijoi̬/) is the name given to the last surviving language of the icebears of Frontier.
Phonology
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Focaneal | Anticardial | Diabrancheal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | m̬ | n | n̬ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nasal w/rumble | mᵜ | m̬ᵜ | nᵜ | n̬ᵜ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | b̬ | t | d | d̬ | k | ɡ | ɡ̌ | ᴥ̥ | ᴥ | ᴥ̬ | ¿ | |||||||||||||||
| Plosive w/rumble | pᵜ | bᵜ | b̬ᵜ | tᵜ | dᵜ | d̬ᵜ | kᵜ | ɡᵜ | ɡ̌ᵜ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | s | z | z̬ | x | H | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affricate | pᴴ | tᴴ | kᴴ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximants | j | ȷ̌ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | l̬ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- /z/ and /z̬/ are realized as /ɹ/ and /ɹ̬/ in some speakers.
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| High | i | i̬ | u | u̬ | ||||||
| High-mid | e | e̬ | o | o̬ | ||||||
| Mid | H̩ | ə | ə̬ | ɔ | ɔ̬ | |||||
| Low | a | a̬ | ||||||||
Rumble
- zôlánd̀uunṕat
- zôláń-d̀uf-q̀-n-ṕat
- sound-warm-COMPAR-DIRECT-DEF.PL
- Mún̂n̂íbjoí
- mút́-n̂íb-jo-í
- speak-cold-NMLZR-DIRECT.DEF.SG
The symbols /ᴥ ◌̬ ¿ H/ in the charts above refer to sounds characteristic to icebear physiology. The technical terms vary, but the common names for these sounds collectively are lollong or "rumble" among colonists; the icebear name is zôlánd̀uunṕat /ˈzɔ̬.la̬n.dᵜu.un.pᴴat/, which translates to "warmer sounds", i.e., sounds produced deeper in the body. These sounds could be approximated but not duplicated by the terrestrial colonists; their attempts were labelled "coldspeak" (Mún̂n̂íbjoí /ˈmu̬n̬.n̬ᵜi̬.bjo.i̬/ or, less charitably, Munnibjoi /ˈmun.ni.bjo.i/), and this name was sometimes given to terrestrial language in general.
Icebears have dual vocal apparatuses; the upper corresponds to that known in humans, from mouth to larynx, and the lower comprises a separate set of vocal folds and points of articulation deeper in the icebear throat[check this]. Any sound may thus be voiceless, upper voiced, lower voiced, or double voiced. In Thalassarctian, however, the lower voice alone does not produce distinctive phonemes. The voicing diacritic /◌̬/ is used on a voiced phoneme to indicate the lower voice is also applied.
| voiceless | upper voice | double voice |
|---|---|---|
| k | ɡ | ɡ̌ |
There are conventionally three points of articulation involved in the lower sounds of Thalassarctian: the focaneum, the anticardion, and the diabranch.
- The diabranch is the point of articulation for the voiceless stop symbolized as /¿/. The lower voice itself may be referred to as the diabrancheal rumble.
- The focaneum is the point of articulation for the voiceless fricative /H/, which may also be syllabic. It may also be co-articulated with an upper voiceless stop (symbolized with /ᴴ/).
| [+focanealized] | kᴴ |
|---|---|
| [-focanealized] | k |
- The anticardion is the point of articulation for the phonemes /ᴥ̥ ᴥ ᴥ̬/, which may be voiceless, voiced, or double-voiced when appearing on its own. These sounds are phonemically counted as stops but it is chiefly the POA and voicing that distinguish them—they may be realized as affricates, fricatives, or approximants. Upper stops may be co-articulated with these sounds, then symbolized as /ᵜ/.
| voiceless | single voice | double voice | |
|---|---|---|---|
| [+anticardialization] | kᵜ | ɡᵜ | ɡ̌ᵜ |
| [-anticardialization] | k | ɡ | ɡ̌ |
Orthography
Thalassarctian is transcribed in the Latin alphabet with some additional diacritics.
| Thalassarctian spelling | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | á | à | â | b | b̀ | b́ | b̂ | d | d̀ | d́ | ||||||||
| /a/ | /a̬/ | /ə/ | /ə̬/ | /b/ | /bᵜ/ | /b̬/ | /b̬ᵜ/ | /d/ | /dᵜ/ | /d̬/ | ||||||||
| d̂ | e | é | f | g | g̀ | ǵ | ĝ | h | i, j | í, j́ | ||||||||
| /d̬ᵜ/ | /e/ | /e̬/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /ɡᵜ/ | /ɡ̌/ | /ɡ̌ᵜ/ | /H/ | /i/, /j/ | /i̬/, /ȷ̌/ | ||||||||
| k | k̀ | ḱ | l | ĺ | m | m̀ | ḿ | m̂ | n | ǹ | ||||||||
| /k/ | /kᵜ/ | /kᴴ/ | /l/ | /l̬/ | /m/ | /mᵜ/ | /m̬/ | /m̬ᵜ/ | /n/ | /nᵜ/ | ||||||||
| ń | n̂ | o | ó | ò | ô | p | p̀ | ṕ | q | s | ||||||||
| /n̬/ | /n̬ᵜ/ | /o/ | /o̬/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ̬/ | /p/ | /pᵜ/ | /pᴴ/ | /ᴥ̥/ | /s/ | ||||||||
| t | t̀ | t́ | u | ú | x | z | ź | q̀ | q́ | ʼ | ||||||||
| /t/ | /tᵜ/ | /tᴴ/ | /u/ | /u̬/ | /x/ | /z/ | /z̬/ | /ᴥ/ | /ᴥ̬/ | /¿/ | ||||||||
P̀íq́ĺuq́int̀u
- p̀íq́ĺuq́iǹt̀u(í)
- p̀íq́ĺu-q́iǹ-t̀u(-í)
- bubble-have-PTCP(-DIRECT.DEF.SG)
The native script is called p̀íq́ĺuq́iǹt̀u /ˈpᵜi̬ᴥ̬.l̬u.ᴥ̬inᵜ.tᵜu/, generally translated as bubble script, after the appearance of the syllables in careful writing and print. (In informal writing, the script is considerably less geometric.) The script is featural and its inventor is unknown.
