Elbic

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

 Italic
  Romance
   South-Central Romance
    Central-Southern Italian

     Elbic
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∫ 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. < i u> 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/.[[Category:Indo-European conlangs