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. < 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 Elba, is /ˈɛlvə/. No Nápolitanno, or "a Neapolitan", is /no napɔlɪtˈannɔ/.
Nominal Morphology
Phew. That's over. Good. Now we can get onto the interesting bit. Nouns in Elbic belong to one of three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. There are also two numbers: singular and plural. All Elbic nouns end in vowels. The changes applied to vowels to go from singular to plural are as follows:
- -o>-i (in cases where the noun ends in -io, the i becomes -ì); gatto>gatti
- -a>-e; cossina>cossine
- -u>-e; frasu>frase
- -e>-i; traduzione>traduzioni
- -i>-e (very few nouns end in -i); spaghetti>spaghette
The singular endings can tell you a significant amount about the gender of a noun. Here are some basic guidelines.
- Most nouns ending in -o are masculine; lo gatto
- Most nouns ending in -a are feminine; la ccossina
- Most nouns ending in -u are neuter; lu ffrasu
- All nouns ending in -zione are feminine; la ttraduzione
- All nouns ending in -ismo are neuter; lu ffaxismo
- Nouns ending in -e or -i can be of any gender, and so you just have to memorize them; lo cambiatte, lu mmomenti
Articles
Along with nouns must come articles. Elbic has six definite articles and four indefinite articles. The definite articles are equivalent to English "the" and precede the noun they modify. There are both singular and plural definite articles. The indefinite articles are equivalent to English "a/an" and precede the noun they modify. There are only singular indefinite articles. The definite articles are as follows.
- lo: masculine singular; lo gatto
- la: feminine singular; la ccossina
- lu: neuter singular; lu ffrasu
- l: singular (substitutes for lo, la, or lu before a vowel); l'arbollo
- li: masculine plural; li gatti
- le: feminine and neuter plural; le ffrase
The indefinite articles are as follows.
- no: masculine singular; no gatto
- na: feminine singular: na ccossina
- nu: neuter singular; nu ffrasu
- n': singular (substitutes for no, na, or nu before a vowel); n'arbollo
Geminate Mutation
You may have noticed that some of the nouns changed when articles were placed in front of them. This is the geminate mutation, one of the more unique features of Elbic, shared with Neapolitan. The geminate mutation is a doubling of the initial consonant of a word. It is triggered by the feminine and neuter articles. Any word following these articles will experience the doubling. However, only certain consonants are doubled. Here is the list. It includes the gorgic mutation for future reference as well.
| Initial Consonant | Geminate Form | Gorgic Form |
|---|---|---|
| t | tt | ht |
| d | dd | hd |
| c | cc | hc |
| g | gg | hg |
| z | zz | z |
| p | pp | hp |
| b | bb | hb |
| ch | cch | hch |
| gh | ggh | hgh |
| n | nn | n |
| m | mm | m |
| l | ll | l |
| r | rr | r |
| f | ff | f |
| v | vv | v |
| x | xx | x |
So you can see how the transfer from frasu to lu ffrasu occurs.
- cossina /kɔssinə/>la ccossina /la kkɔssinə/
- nápolitanna /napɔlɪtannə/>la nnápolitanna /la nnapɔlɪtannə/
- frasu /frasʊ/>lu ffrasu /lu ffrasʊ/
- nome /nomɛ/>lu nnome /lu nnomɛ/
Verbal Morphology
Elbic has a great many verbs. All verbs belong to one of four types: -ha, -he, -hi, and irregular. This section will demonstrate the conjugations of verbs from each type.
Subject Pronouns
Before conjugating a verb, it is important to learn Elbic's subject pronouns. There are six personal subject pronouns, corresponding to English "I, you, he, she, we, you (all), and they". In Elbic, they are:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1P | io | noi |
| 2P | tu | voi |
| 3Pm | lei | lori |
| 3Pf | lui | lore |
Like many European languages, Elbic differentiates between formal and informal pronouns. Similarly to French, Elbic uses the plural second person pronoun, voi, to refer to a person you wish to address formally. In practice, however, this is infrequently used, as the Elbans are a generally relaxed and informal group.
Verb Conjugation
Elbic verbs are composed of three parts:
stem+h+theme vowel
Elbic verbs are conjugated by removing the final -h-theme vowel from the verb stem and adding a different ending. Note that irregular verbs have stem vowels as regular verbs. For example, ésshe is an irregular verb, but appears as an -he verb. Elbic verb conjugations for -ha verbs are conveniently arranged on this table:
| Present Indicative | Simple Past Indicative | Imperfect Indicative | Future Indicative | Present Subjunctive | Imperfect Subjunctive | Present Conditional | |
| 1Ps | -o | -i | -avo | -*ro | -e | -assa | -*ri |
| 2Ps | -ai | -aste | -avai | -*rai | -ei | -assai | -*rei |
| 3Ps | -a | -ò | -ava | -*ra | -e | -assa | -*ri |
| 1Pp | -ammo | -amo | -avammo | -*remmo | -emmo | -assammo | -*rimmo |
| 2Pp | -atte | -asti | -avatte | -*ratte | -ette | -assatte | -*ritte |
| 3Pp | -anno | -ano | -avanno | -*ranno | -enno | -assanno | -*rinno |
The *asterisk indicates that the shown ending is added to the entire verb infinitive, not just to the verb stem. So, the full simple conjugation of cántha, to sing.
| Present Indicative | Simple Past Indicative | Imperfect Indicative | Future Indicative | Present Subjunctive | Imperfect Subjunctive | Present Conditional | |
| 1Ps | cánto | cánti | cántavo | cánthero | cánte | cántassa | cánthari |
| 2Ps | cántai | cántaste | cántavai | cántharai | cántei | cántassai | cántharei |
| 3Ps | cánta | cántò | cántava | cánthera | cánthare | cántassa | cánthari |
| 1Pp | cántammo | cántamo | cántavammo | cántharemmo | cántemmo | cántassammo | cántharimmo |
| 2Pp | cántatte | cántasti | cántavatte | cántharatte | cántette | cántassatte | cántharitte |
| 3Pp | cántanno | cántano | cántavanno | cántharanno | cántenno | cántassanno | cántharinno |
The conjugation paradigm for -he and -hi verbs is below. If there are two entries in a box, the second is the ending for -hi verbs.
| Present Indicative | Simple Past Indicative | Imperfect Indicative | Future Indicative | Present Subjunctive | Imperfect Subjunctive | Present Conditional | |
| 1Ps | -o | -i | -ia | -*ro | -a | -issa | -*ri |
| 2Ps | -ei | -iste | -iai | -*rai | -ai | -issai | -*rei |
| 3Ps | -e | -io | -ia | -*ra | -a | -issa | -*ri |
| 1Pp | -emmo/immo | -imo | -iammo | -*remmo | -ammo | -issammo | -*rimmo |
| 2Pp | -ette/itte | -isti | -iatte | -*ratte | -atte | -issatte | -*ritte |
| 3Pp | -enno | -ino | -ianno | -*ranno | -anno | -issanno | -*rinno |
