Scellan: Difference between revisions

[[Skellan/Skellan|A sfir fi dy Eevo (This page in Skellan)]]

'''Sgewlan''' /skɛlən/ ''SKEL-uhn'' (''Sgewliv'' /ˈskɛ̃ʟiv/), in-universe often called '''Eevo''' /ˈeɪvoʊ/ ''AY-voh'' (in the native script, ꞰꞰⳘΔ /ˈɛivɔ/; from [[Tigol]] ''é-'' 'common' + ''bó'' 'language'), is a [[Talmic language]] belonging to the Tigolic branch. Eevo is modern [[Verse:Tricin|Tricin]]'s lingua franca, the third-most spoken language (after [[Hetomic]] and [[Sjowaazhéñ]]) and the second-most spoken Quihum language (after [[Sjowaazhéñ]]).

The beginning of the modern Eevo language, dated to ca. fT 1150dd (fT 1932), is often credited to the Sgewlan philosopher and poet ????, who wrote his works in the new phonetic, Clofabic-based orthography of his invention, instead of the old Talmic orthography largely based on [[Tigol]] pronunciation. Eevo lexicon has been heavily influenced by [[Windermere]], [[Talman Clofabic]] and [[Phormatolide]]. [The Clofabic orthography is still sensitive to etymology to some extent, as it reflects the original spelling in [[Windermere]] or [[Proto-Clofabic]] loanwords.] The name ''Eevo'' refers to the fact that it had its origins as a Sgewlan koiné. Modern Eevo has been a living language for about 360 years, approximately 1932-2292 (1150dd-13b0dd).

Eevo is official in the Talman nation of [[Verse:Tricin/Sgewla|Sgewla]] [ˈskɛ̃ʟə]. It is also de facto official in [[Verse:Tricin/Fyxam|Fyxam]] [fəˈʃam] and many other countries. In real life, it is one of the official languages of the Facebook group The Pitcairns, Also Bhutan, And Also Possibly Tannara Mòr.

Eevo is inspired by Icelandic, Welsh, Hmong (orthography-wise), English (especially Philadelphian English), and Gaelic.

*The "21 accents" of Eevo

*Eevo word from a cognate of ''cathair'' 'flower' (can't use ''caþr'' because of th-fronting)

Many of the most drastic grammatical changes from Old Eevo are a result of rapid "creolization" as a result of second-language speakers learning the language.

*[[Old Eevo]] nouns, verbs and adjectives were drastically simplified. Nouns and verbs no longer inflect for person; adjectives no longer agree with nouns.

*Old Eevo mutations were lost under the influence of Windermere.

:''See also: [[Talmic languages]], [[Thensarian]], [[Tigol]], [[Middle Eevo]]''

Eevo has a slightly larger-than-average consonant inventory of about 26 consonants.

*/sj, tsj/ become /ʃ tʃ/ in standard Eevo: ''Slysjon'' /ˈsχəʃɔn/ 'April'.

The vowel inventory of Eevo is also fairly large, with 8, 11 or 14 basic vowel qualities depending on the analysis. Eevo also has phonemic nasal vowels (in "lambdic" accents, so called since these vowels are written with an L in the Eevo orthography) and many diphthongs.

**These may become stops, dental [t̪˭ d̪] or alveolar [t˭ d], in some environments. In Eevo eye dialect this may be transcribed by substituting ''d'' for ''þ''.

====General Fyxamian Eevo====

Organically non-lambdic rather than by the influence of Sgewlan Eevo

====Early Modern Eevo====

The following is the "Please call Stella" text as might be read aloud by a speaker with a thick Eevo accent:

===Pronouncing Eevo words in English===

*An epenthetic schwa may be inserted for Eevo clusters that English lacks.

In-universe, Eevo uses the [[Tamil|Clofabic]] script, unlike other Talmic languages (except [[Roshterian]]).  

{{Eevo alphabet}}

The sequences ''çm, çn, çŋ, çl, çr'' are pronounced identically to ''hm, hn, hŋ, ll, rr'' in most modern Eevo dialects, except that ''çm, çn, çŋ, çr'' are [xm, xn, xŋ, xr] in dialects that have [x] for ''ç''.

Eevo uses a base-12 positional numeral system. The digits are as follows:

Eevo inflectional morphology tends to be simpler than most other Talmic languages; for example, it has no grammatical gender and no construct state.

Archaic Eevo (still used in historical fiction) uses the following personal endings in the present tense:

The conditional uses the suffix ''-ð''. It continues the Old Eevo past subjunctive.

The future imperfective uses the ''-t'' affix inherited from Old Eevo. It is used for:

The copula is the most irregular verb in Eevo. In the present tense, zero copula is used.

Eevo uses a collective-singulative-plurative system. Number is marked with determiners, not by affixes:

Eevo has a 4-way contrast in demonstratives:

An adjective may be placed in the construct state by suffixing ''-að''. Construct adjectives are chiefly used in literary Eevo; it also survives in some fixed expressions and prepositions. For example, ''deljað'' is a preposition meaning 'worth; worthy of', and is the construct form of an adjective *deli ('worthy').

Eevo also has phrasal nouns: these are noun-preposition combinations that are stressed on the preposition.

Old Eevo prefixes remain productive in Modern Eevo. Among them is the causative affix ''for-'' (from a preposition meaning "through"), which was formerly only found in some frozen "causative" verbs but is gaining productivity in modern Eevo.

Eevo has phrasal verbs like English does.

*''-flen'' /-fʟɛn/ is an adjectival suffix with the same meaning as Korean ''-tapta'' and Japanese ''-rashii'': it means 'like an X is supposed to be' or 'like a typical X'. The suffix comes from Old Eevo compound adjectives of the form ''X-fheileán'' (from ''feil'' 'name' + ''-án'' adjectivizer; i.e. 'like the name X' or 'worthy of the name X'). Some words with the suffix have undergone semantic shifts, e.g. carflen /ˈkʰarfʟɛn/ 'humane, moral, ethical' (from Old Eevo car "human" + -flen).

*''-on'' is a Talmic adjectival suffix, from Old Eevo -án (itself from Thensarian ''-aħnam'', Proto-Talmic ''*-aʁnəm'').

:''Main article: [[Eevo/Syntax]]''

Eevo's basic vocabulary is largely Talmic. However, a large portion of Eevo vocabulary (comparable to English) is borrowed, for example from [[Windermere]], [[Clofabic languages]] ([[Proto-Clofabic]], [[Phormatolide]] and [[Χrycolidh]]) or other Talman languages. This gives Eevo a rich array of synonyms.

Eevo poetry traditionally uses rhyme. In modern poetry, alliteration is often used instead (cf. [[Tsjoen]] poetry).