User:IlL/Spare pages 1/53
English in the AETHER timeline is an Indo-European language and has pretty much the same vocabulary and grammar as our English, but is a Riphic language, not a Germanic one. It is native to our Germany and Poland area, not the British Isles.
Etymologies
- leitmotif: an opera which used a leitmotif for a character named Lait or Light? (it was an operatic version of Death Note)
- karma: a non-Earth Indo-Aryan language
- mana: from IA *manas
- Parmesan: unknown. A folk etymology derives it from a Cubrite woman's name (Parm Eshan?).
- German linguistic terminology: invented by Edna? The standard terms are:
- affection not umlaut
- apophony not ablaut
- linguistic area not sprachbund
- lexical aspect not aktionsart
- case stacking not suffixaufnahme
- place of origin not urheimat
Accents
Welvington
name is placeholder
Philly + Boston; should inspire Shalaian and Netagin. Should be RP in ways that the Standard accent is not
- (Ph) Philly L
- (~Ph, ~RP) Philly-style reinforcement on preconsonantal vowels, but specifically before voiceless consonants; i.e. generalized Canadain-raising-esque effects
- (B, RP) non-rhotic
- (Ph, B, RP) Few or no mergers before prevocalic /r/
- (Ph, B, ~RP) Philly short-A system; lax A = [æ], tense A = [eə~ɛə]
- (Ph, RP) GOAT = [əʊ]; GOOSE = [üw]
- (~Ph, ~RP) LOT = [ɑ], THOUGHT = NORTH = FORCE = POOR = [oə~ɔə]
- (B, ~RP) START = [ä]
- SQUARE (= tense A) = [eə~ɛə]
- NEAR = [iə~ɪə]
- NURSE = [ə:]
- /aɪ/, /aʊ/, /eɪ/, /oɪ/ = [aɪ], [aʊ], [eɪ], [oɪ]
- wine-whine merger (optional in Standard)
- A 3-way distinction of Mary [meəɹi], merry [mɛɹi~mɤɹi], marry [mæɹi], unlike Standard English
- hurry [hɤɹi], furry [fəːɹi]
- orange [ɒɹɪndʒ]
- mirror [mɪɹə(ɹ)] != nearer [niəɹə(ɹ)]
- /iːg/ > /ɪg/, /eɪg/ > /ɛg/ in many words
- /θ ð/ are commonly [t̪ d̪].
A characteristic feature is reinforcement for certain vowels or diphthongs before voiceless consonants, which changes the pronunciation of the vowel:
- When the consonant is voiceless, the nucleus is shortened consonant is lengthened: face [fɪjsˑ]
- Otherwise this does not happen: fame [fɛˑɪm]
A-Standard
Partly stolen from Lõis
Overview
| Vowels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | Standard | Welvington | ||
| KIT | ɪ~ɪ̈ | ɪ | ||
| DRESS | ɛ | ɛ | ||
| TRAP | a | æ | ||
| BATH (the BATH lexical set is same as RP) | a | eə | ||
| LOT | ɔ~ɒ | ɑ | ||
| STRUT | ɜ̟~ɐ | ʌ~ɤ | ||
| FOOT | ʊ̈~ɘ | ʊ | ||
| FLEECE | iː | ɪj; iʝ (reinforced) | ||
| FACE | eɪ | ɛɪ; ɪj (reinforced) | ||
| PRICE | ɑɪ | ɑɪ, ʌɪ (reinforced) | ||
| CHOICE | oɪ | oɪ, ʊɪ (reinforced) | ||
| MOUTH | æʊ | æʊ~æː~æɤ̃ (like "al") | ||
| GOAT | əʏ~ʌʏ, ɔʊ~ɒʊ before [ɫ] | ɛʊ~əʊ, oʊ before [ɫ] | ||
| GOOSE | üw, uː before [ɫ] | üw, uː before [ɫ] | ||
| PALM | ɑː | aː | ||
| THOUGHT | ɔː~ɒː | oə~ʊə | ||
| NEAR | ɪɚ | iə | ||
| SQUARE | ɛɚ | eə | ||
| NURSE | ɚː | əː~ɜː | ||
| START | ɑɚ | aː | ||
| NORTH | oɚ | oə | ||
| FORCE | oɚ | oə | ||
| POOR | uɚ | oə | ||
| CURE | juɚ~jɚːː | jəː~jɜː~joə | ||
| commA | ə | ə | ||
| lettER | ɚ | ə | ||
| happY | iː~ɪj | i | ||
| Other phenomena | ||||
| Feature | L-Standard | Welvington | ||
| Rhoticity | Fully rhotic | Nonrhotic with intrusive R | ||
| Dark L | Only when non-prevocalic; vocalized L is [w] | Always; vocalized L is a uvular approximant | ||
| /θ ð/ | [θ ð] | Often [t̪ d̪] | ||
| Aspiration of voiceless stops and t/d-tapping | As in BrE | As in AmE | ||
| Reinforcement | No "reinforcement" of any kind | Philly-reinforcement before voiceless consonants | ||
A kind of "Transatlantic accent", inspired by Californian + Philadelphia + Modern RP/Estuary.
Intonation is mostly American + my own weird intonation
Vowels
- orange = [oːɹəndʒ]
- Mary-merry-marry merger
- Mirror-nearer merger
- Hurry-furry merger
- No mergers before /l/
- No trap-bath split
Consonants
- L is light [l] before vowels and dark [ɫ] otherwise, as in RP.
- wholly-holy split.
- No glottal reinforcement before stops.
- /p t k/ are unaspirated after stressed syllables as in AmE.
- /d t/ has a tapped [ɾ] allophone in similar environments as in American English.
- wine-whine merger optional.
- /r/ may be [ʋ] between vowels.