Elbic
| Helvica | |
|---|---|
| Pronounced: | /ElvIk@/ |
| Timeline and Universe: | Ill Bethisad |
| Species: | Human |
| Spoken: | Elba |
| Total speakers: | 30,000 |
| Writing system: | Latin |
| Genealogy: | Indo-European Italic |
| 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. 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/.
