Jeisokian language
The city for conlangs
| Jeisokian entéko | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | IPA: [ɜn'teko] | |
| Spoken in: | Jeisok and areas of Kereferia | |
| Total speakers: | 7.4 million | |
| Language family: | Altair Anatol-Kereferian Kereferian Jeisokian | |
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet (Jeisokian variant) | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | Jeisok, Kereferian Federation | |
| Regulated by: | National Language Foundation of Jeisok | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | je | |
| ISO 639-2: | jsk | |
| ISO 639-3: | jsk | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Jeisokian (
entéko tafir , [ɜn'teko ta'ɸir]) is the most widespread language in South Altair, spoken by more than 5 million people in Jeisok, and over 2 million throughout the Kereferian Federation. Sharing roots with the prestigious Altair language, Jeisokian belongs to the Kereferian language family and is distantly related to the ancient Anatolish languages, such as Porshtak and Fiyy, of northern Altair.
Jeisokian is a highly inflected language with complex grammar rules. Challenging the status of Altair as lingua franca, Jeisokian is becoming highly regarded as a second language, as Jeisok gains respect as an economic power. Although its obscure rules and strict nature inhibit its ability to evolve, it is no longer considered a task for only scholars to learn, and is growing at an increasing rate as more students are showing interest in the language.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The Dahish War of VII'2 marked the first time a rebel state successfully seceded from the Kereferian Federation. The Dahish people, who spoke a mutually unintelligible dialect of Kereferian, decided to remove all traces of Kereferian culture from their nation, and banned the Kereferian language. Their own dialect, which had already been evolving away from Kereferian almost since the federation's formation, shared almost no grammatical features. The Dahish dialect, now a dead language, is usually referred to as Venerable Jeisokian, and is considered the ancestor to the modern variant, although it is entirely unintelligible to Jeisokian speakers today.
[edit] Modernity
| Example of Modern Jeisokian (XIX'55–present) — Listen
|
| lak,ijánary rokalof ksitafíl' yöf dviretsa yskel kafvir,lokmárarag ittenes poës fékskel. eríferik nopil dorit lak,hángary' k sórrupof dáttapary kís díëry. tsor la yöf dénkir,lokmárarag viőf lak,odeksary' dénkary viőfol wafvaria sakt volksorol d kop,likénharod modike disop-jaárike kojétike feg. adir,tékery' kói mol,tékory kíppenof mikolskel yöf lik,hékken nal'' |
| Translation: Since I would not play the piano, my mother forced me to study all hours of the day. I would never willingly go to school, but when I did, I hated it. Not only was I forced to learn things I didn't want to, the things I learned were absolutely useless and could be applied in no real-world situations whatsoever. Little did I know, that not knowing the capital of Mikol would lead me to this... |
[edit] Geography and distribution
This is a stub and should be expanded.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | p | t d | k | ||||
| Fricative | ɸ β | f (v) | s | (ʂ) ʒ | ʝ | h | |
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Lat. Fricative | ɬ | ||||||
| Approximant | l | w |
Consonants mirror their IPA counterparts, except for "f" and "v", which are bilabial rather than labiodental. All clusters produce the sounds of every consonant in the cluster (dviretsa, [dβi'rɛt.sɒ]).
| Letter | IPA | Example | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| l | /l/ | la | 'only' | 1 |
| v | /β/ | vos | 'reign' | 2 |
| s | /s/ | kosï | 'to eat' | |
| j | * | ijanary | 'I played' | 3 |
| n | /n/ | nrétï | 'to sleep' | |
| t | /t/ | entéko | 'Jeisok' | |
| k | /k/ | kiïtkan | 'star core' | |
| s | /s/ | siplaÿ | 'vitamin' | |
| h | /h/ | hésto | 'flower' | |
| f | /ɸ/ | fég | 'absolutely' | 2 |
| p | /p/ | po | 'hour' | |
| w | /w/ | wafvï | 'to be' | |
| r | /r/ | dáttapary | 'I hated' | |
| h | /h/ | hángï | 'to go' | |
| m | /m/ | mod | 'no' | |
| d | /d/ | dviretsa | 'mother' | |
| sh | /ʂ/ | shánto | 'vitamin' | |
1The letter "l" is pronounced [ɬ] when it is the first onset in a word, but not within conjunct verbs or after the letter r (which, in practice) is quite rare). In informal contexts it is often universally pronounced [l]
2 The proper pronunciation of these "v" and "f" are [β] and [ɸ], respectively, but in fast or emphatic speech they are commonly pronounced labiodental-ly, [v] and [f].
3 The letter "j" represents either [ʒ] or [ʝ], depending on grammatical function. See a grammar for detail.
[edit] Vowels
| Letter | IPA | Example | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| o | /o/ | erífero | 'school' | 1 |
| ó | /oː/ | sórrup | 'it' | 2 |
| a | /ɒ/ | entékash | 'hello' | |
| á | /a/ | ska | 'will' | |
| e | /ɛ/ | itten | 'all' | |
| é | /e/ | fég | 'absolutely' | |
| i | /i/ | ferio | 'you eat' | |
| í | /iː/ | ksitafíl | 'since' | |
| ï | /ɨ/ | kï | 'spirit' | |
| u | /u/ | sórrup | 'it' | |
| y | /u/ | vy | 'squirrel' | |
| ý | /uː/ | mýrh | 'beautiful' | |
Although it may appear to have a large vowel inventory, Jeisokian employs drastic vowel sound and length reduction. Often vowels which indicate a lengthened sound (ó, í, ý) are pronounced identically to their normal version (o, i, y) except in minimal pairs. The letters "a" and "á" are pronounced virtually the same, although distinctions between the two are made in pedantic speech. The letters "u" and "y" represent the same phoneme, but are retained to preserve historical spelling from Venerable Jeisokian, in which the corresponding "u" and "y" represented distinct sounds.
[edit] Grammar
Jeisokian shares attributes of agglutinative and inflected languages. It lacks prepositions, instead employing various suffixes to define the grammatical role of a word in a sentence. Further, these agglutinated forms must be inflected to agree grammatically. Each noun can have more than twenty forms depending on grammatical person, perspective, speech patterns, and other elements. Verbs, although made difficult by the conjunct verb construction, are perhaps the easiest part of Jeisokian grammar, having only a few forms relative to the other parts of speech. Personal pronouns are almost never used, except in imperative or vulgar constructions.
[edit] Writing system
Jeisokian currently uses the Latin alphabet, adopted from Earth c. IX'22 (200 E:BC), when Entalo made its first treaty with Earth. Historically, it has used the abugida Jeisokian script, which is still used for academic essays and official documents. The lengthy script, which descends from that presently used in Kereferia, was not practical for everyday use since the complex ligatures and serifs were awkward to reproduce in a computer font. The transition to the Latin alphabet created a tumultuous era in which traditionalists and modernists clashed over their language heritage. Although there is a minority still today that prefers the script, the Latin alphabet has essentially replaced it in form and function.
The Jeisokian alphabet consists of 29 letters, in no particular order.
| l v s j n t k s h f p w r h m d sh o ó a á e é i í ï u y ý |
Additionally, the diaeresis (¨) and rarely, the double acute accent (˝) are used to comply with orthographic standards, and both are mandatory. The diaeresis serves to distinguish neighboring vowels from diphthongs (yör, me ACC). The letter "i with umlaut" (ï) is considered a separate letter, not with diaeresis. The rare double acute accent appears only in irregular or when a diaeresis is needed over a letter with an accent (viőf, things ACC) and preserves the pronunciation of the original letter (o, [o]→ő = ó, [ɒ]).
Jeisokian uses only lowercase letters, and the standard uppercase forms of its letters are almost unintelligible to native speakers. It is always written or typed in italics, with upright forms reserved for dialogue, headers, or other text outside the main narrative or prose. It generally follows the same punctuation rules as English, although the symbols used are different. The comma (,) is reserved for conjunct verbs (dir,omstéry, I love doing), and indicates a slight pause in pronunciation. The apostrophe (') serves the same purpose as the English comma, but is used much more sparingly. Likewise, a double apostrophe ('') is similar to an ellipsis, and serves the same purpose as a colon (:). There are no question or exclamation marks, since in speech these are rendered by intonation and in writing there are forms to serve that purpose.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- (Jeisokian) Kyrro, Ajart. The Book of Jeisokian Language (eppóllon entékoskel tafirskel). Orín: Malános, XIX'33.
- (Jeisokian) Sajako, Lompir. A Practical Jeisokian Grammar (dakésol hiíndol entékoskel). Orín: Gen, XVIII'198.
- Zimmerman, Anthony. Jeisokian: The Hungarian of Entalo?. London: Hauptwerke, 1965.
