Scellan

Scellan-English lexicon
Swadesh list
Names
Phrasebook
A fir mi dy Eevo (This page in Eevo)

Scellan
brits Eevo
Pronunciation	[[w:Help:IPA|brits ɛivɔ]]
Created by	IlL
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Quihum Talmic Thensaric Scellan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qee

Scellan (/ˈɛivɔ/; English: /ˈeɪvoʊ/; from the word ébhó for "common, shared") is a Talmic language belonging to the Eevoic branch; as its name suggests, it was originally a koiné spoken in the Smewlan Peninsula and across northern Mainland Talma. Eevo is now the most dominant modern language in Tricin.

Eevo is official in three Talman countries: Smewla, Nøøvr and Phormatin.

It's inspired by Icelandic, Welsh and (literally read) Hmong.

Todo

• Goal: Duolingo course
• Old Eevo prefixes remain productive.
• silent leniting prefix
• Toiréir Grughaid > Tører Grwid
• Note to self: nd != nn in Eevo!!!
• Need more Netagin
• adjectives might be verbs
• Dyrring a bunym armi dy ynang = the living fish swims in water
• Verbalizers?
• Numbers are determiners.

Diachronics

• a > a
• á > aw
• ae > ai
• ai > e
• aei, ái > ee
• ao, aoi > øø
• e > y /ə/
• é > ee
• éi > oi > wa
• eó, éu > ew
• ei, i > e
• i > i
• iu > y
• iú > iw
• o > o
• oi > ø
• ó > oo
• ói, ua > wa
• u, io > w
• ui > y
• ú > u /y/
• úi > wi
• rb, rd, rg > rv, rð, rj
• -n > -m (at least after w)
• aw > o in unstressed syllables or before clusters

Background

See also: Proto-Talmic.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		/m/	/n~l/		/ŋ/
Stop	unaspirated	/p/	/t/		/k/
	aspirated	/pʰ/	/tʰ/		/kʰ/
Affricate			/ts/	/tʃ/
Non-sibilant	unvoiced	/f/	/θ/	/ç/		/χ/	/h/
	voiced	/v/	/ð/	/j/		/ʀ~ʁ/
Sibilant	unvoiced		/s/	/ʃ/
	voiced		/z/
Trill	unvoiced		/r̥/
	voiced		/r/

Orthography:

m n~l ŋ tn̥~tɬ kŋ m̥ n̥~l̥~ɬ ŋ̊ (m n ŋ nn ŋŋ hm hn hŋ)

ʁ r χ r̥ (l r ll/hl rr/hr)

ph th kh (p t c)

hp ht hk (pp tt cc)

p t k (b d g)

f θ s ʃ ç h (f þ s x ch h)

ts tʃ (ts tx)

v ð z j (v ð z j)

/n n̥ tn/ are pronounced [l ɬ tl~tɬ] before vowels.

l r can be syllabic.

Vowels

Eevo has many vowels and diphthongs. It is often said to have 8, 11 or 13 basic vowel qualities depending on the analysis.

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y	ɨ~ə	u
Open	ɛ	œ	a	ɔ
Diphthongs	ai au ɛu iu ɛi œy ɔu iə uə ui

/a ɛ i ɔ u œ y ə ai au ɛu iu ɛi œy ɔu iə uə ui/ ⟨a e i o w ø u y ai aw ew iw ee øø oo ia wa wi⟩

Diaereses (ä ë ï ö ø̈ ẅ) can be used on stressed vowels to distinguish them from diphthongs.

Vowels in pausa are breathy-voiced or followed by a final [h] in many dialects.

Stress

Non-initial stress is marked with an acute accent in the romanized orthography.

Diaphonology

Peninsular

See above.

Rrend Ew

• ee øø oo ia wa are all monophthongs: [e: ø: o: i: u:]
• i u w are lowered and lax.

Cdam Sre

• ee øø oo = [əi əy əu]
• /χ/ = pharyngeal h

Orthography

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

Morphology

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

Nouns

Eevo uses a singulative-collective-plurative system. Singulative and plurative (called "singular" and "plural" below for convenience) refer to one resp. more than one specific instances of the noun. Collective refers to "[noun] in general" or "the set of all [noun]".

The plural is usually marked by -ar for nouns ending in consonants and -r for nouns ending in vowels. Nouns of Netagin origin in -ǿ may use an -ǿv plural.

The collective is marked by -an for nouns ending in consonants and -n for nouns ending in vowels.

There is no marking for possessors or possessed nouns.

• brits "language" > britsar "languages", britsan "all languages"
• chamna "woman" > chamnar "women", chamnan "all women"

Definite marker = -m or -ym (not needed with collective)

• a brits = a language
• a britsym = the language; a britsarym = the languages
• a chamna = a woman
• a chamnam = the woman; a chamnarym = the women
• a swarym = the house
• a swarym vosde = the blue house

Pronouns

• naw = I
• fiar, iar, 'r = you
• av = he
• ee = she
• e = it
• cawv = we (exc.)
• gwad = we (inc.)
• swad = youse
• hawr = they

genitive pronouns: ren, rys, reev, ree, rec, riav, ryg, ryd, ryr

dative pronouns: llen, llys, lleev, llee, llec, lliav, llyg, llyd, llyr

Demonstratives

• mi, mend = near 1 (adnominal), (pronominal)
• si, send = near 1+2 (adnominal), (pronominal)
• ci, cend = near 2 (adnominal), (pronominal)

Adjectives

Adjectives are essentially verbs that can take degree inflection.

Adjectives usually follow nouns; they may precede nouns in poetry.

Degree: -te = comparative; -ws = superlative

Derivational morphology

		From...
		Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
To...	Noun	-a (Netagin female suffix) -wŋ (agentive) -os (instrument) -i (diminutive) -óm (augmentative) -emb (female suffix) ni- (non-) ir- (un-) bach- (sub-)	-ach (verbal noun) -ev (verbal noun) -wŋ (agentive) -os (instrument)	-e (abstract noun) -ev (abstract noun) -íra(abstract noun)
	Verb	(verbing)	ar- (applicative) as- (telic) ee- (co-, with) for- (causative) fw- (back, re-) gol- (up) oc- (from, out) ro- (down) so- (towards) sen- (well) mi- (mis-)
	Adjective	-att -on -ín (Netagin)	-i -in (-ee) -gon (-able, but ergative)	ci- (non-) ir- (un-)
	Adverb				-

Noun-noun compounds are head-final.

Syntax

Eevo is strongly head-initial (with exceptions in poetry). It usually uses VSO word order; the focused constituent can be fronted.

Eevo is split-ergative, the split being conditioned by tense.

Noun phrase

a (að before a vowel or after a) is used as a determiner before the noun phrase (like Lushootseed ti and kʷi). Determiners are not used with prepositions or when the noun is used as a predicate.

Determiners can be omitted in elevated language.

Predicates are fronted

Eevo has no copula. Instead, the "predicate" or the focused constituent is fronted:

e.g. Dy eell naw ee. = I love her; Ee a fa dy eell ren. = It's her that I love

When fronting of a noun occurs, the remaining verb phrase becomes a noun phrase, thus a determiner must be used.

Twm øráð syrng toxroréginan a go tarcǿma að smøøch sbenopatsan.

NEG only new evolve-PASS.PART-CLV DET PST.IPFV inhabit DET world s.-CLV

The world of the sbenopatsar was not solely occupied by the newly-evolved.

In some tenses (progressive, perfect) the particle fa can be used after the a when fronting.

Dy iant a duvwŋym.

The teacher is sleeping.

Duvwŋym a (fa) dy iant.

It's the teacher who is sleeping.

Ergativity

Eevo is split-ergative, with imperfective tenses using accusative morphosyntax and perfective tenses using ergative morphosyntax. The ergative preposition is rw.

It's conflated with the possessive pronouns in some dialects, where it is used even outside ergative tenses to mark an ergative subject in clauses with fronting, and the possessive pronouns are also used ergatively. Some even argue that a(ð) is on its way to becoming an absolutive case marker.

TAM marking

Verbs have little inflection, and the bulk of verbs are completely regular.

Imperative

Imperative: so [VERB] (from "do VERB")

Cohortative: [VERB] gwm, [VERB] wm (from "VERB with us")

Present

The present uses the unmarked form of the verb followed by the subject. For example, Mol naw a duvwŋym means "I thank the teacher" or "I used to thank the teacher".

Imperfect

The imperfect uses the particle go.

Progressive/Stative

To form the progressive, the particle dy is used before the verb.

Verbs referring to emotional states, as well as adjectives referring to states, commonly use the progressive. For example, Dy eell naw'r means "I love you."

Preterite

The preterite uses the ergative particle.

• Iantin naw. = I slept.
• Vesin rw naw að attynarym. = I painted the pictures.

Perfect

Perfect: Yv iant naw. = I have slept.

Perfect progressive: Yv fatt dy VERB SUBJECT

Future imperfective

The future imperfective uses the -t affix inherited from Old Eevo.

Future perfective

The future perfective tense is formed with ly + VERB. It is ergative.

Relative clauses

• no relativizer is used when the head is the subject in the relative clause
• re is used otherwise

If... then...

I yv tøøch a barach, (coþ) gias a cnoom.

If it has rained, (then) the grass is wet.

Modal expressions

• Byð ren a... = I have to (lit. it is my part to)
• Cwlli llen a... = I can (lit. it is open for me to)
• Orr llen a... = I should...
• Dewm ren a... = I may... (lit. it is my right to)
  • The possessive pronoun can be omitted in casual speech.

Vocabulary

Eevo's basic vocabulary is largely Talmic. However, a large portion of Eevo vocabulary (comparable to English) is borrowed, for example from Netagin, Clofabic languages (including Tamil) or other Talmic languages.

Sample texts

Tower of Babel

1. Go cia jawþ as cia brits dy smøøchym aðer.

PST.IPFV one language and one speech in world-DEF throughout.

2. Ach arw go rotta caran ly ceev, ŋonn awr a dooméxa dy Xinar as inos hawr cach.