From ConPlanet
| Modern Almsaundean | ||
|---|---|---|
| "Almsaunde" | ||
| Spoken in |  Čeherako Country 3 Country 11 Country 12 Country 25 Country 27 Nithalosia Rasoran Union Saaret Salian Empire Samarkainia Toitūkōlad Vereva
| |
| Total speakers | 245,000,000 | |
| Language family | Bogriain
| |
| Writing system | latin | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | Vereva
| |
| Regulated by | Pfuh Saundekieptekker, Anderjam | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | – | |
| ISO 639-3 | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Almsaundean language, the official language of Vereva, is a language supported by varying dialects that funtions internationally as a language of fine arts, having strong roots in cuisinary, performance and musical arts. Most of its speakers are concentrated on the southern part of Latelen, especially in Vereva, though small Almsaundephone diaspora can be found throughout Daia. As many practitioners of the Fielosheim religion are of Verevian descent, it is also the language in which the Fielosheimbuekheit is written.
Contents |
History
The Almsaundean language belongs to one of the oldest language families on Latelen, and has always been the holy language of the Fielosheim religion. The language is said to be able to be separated into two major sections, the Ancient and Old language, and the Modern dialects.
An important part of this Fielosheim religion that has influenced the Ancient and Old language, is "stinneln." Stinneln states that the first effective solution to any problem in the mortal experience, must be the solution that remains constant until it no longer completes the task it was designed for and becomes obsolete, despite how archaic it may seem. In the problem of communication, Verevites found that the Almsaunde language met the requirements because it was already the most widespread language in the area and was widely being used as a lingua franca. The language was said then to be locked in place by stinneln.
Many Linguists agree that stinneln influenced the longevity of Ancient and Old Almsaunde, which had grammars, orthographies and phonemic inventories that remained constant throughout their use. Present in Modern Almsaundean dialects too are the remnants of noun cases and pronunciation that were part of the Ancient and Old language. Because the Ancient and Old languages have survived the test of time with mostly little change, the two are sometimes called the Llanguages of Permanence," while the later Modern dialects, different in that they have evolved against the ideology of stinneln, are referred to as the "Languages of Change."
Distribution
The map on the right shows the distribution of the Almsaundean dialects on Daia.
The bold yellow shows where an Almsaundean dialect is the official state language:
The light yellow shows where an Almsaundean dialect is a recognised regional language:
The opaque shows where the Almsaundean dialect is only a small minority:
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Čeherako
-
Country 3
- Country 25
- Country 27
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Nithalosia
-
Rasoran Union
-
Saaret
-
Salian Empire
-
Samarkainia
-
Toitūkōlad
Characterization
The Almsaundean language is a little difficult to characterize due to the differences in its six dialects which occassionally seem to be vast. Generally, the Almsaundean language is characterized as a highly-inflected fusional language in which noun and verb modifiers regularly agglutinate into compounds called comments. Verbs rely on conjugating strongly to reflect mood or tense and may take phrasal prepositions and postpositions to form verbs of more complex or metaphorical meaning. The syntax of the Almsaundean language is said to be sov or osv in dependent clauses. It is said to be tripartite, with the subject of a transitive verb, the subject of an intransitive verb and the (direct) object of a transitive verb all being in separate casses. The head direction, which is a particular thing that remains parallell in all dialects, is head-final. The Almsaundean language also follows extensive rules of sandhi which take place at the syllable coda of both ends of a word root and to usually allow for superfluous gemination.
Characterization of the Central Dialects
+ Bogriain
|-+ Almsaundean
|--> Ancient Almsaundean
|--> Old Almsaundean
|-+ Modern Almsaundean
|-+ Central Almsaundean
|--> Lindjerblau
|--> Apfe
|--> Ąsje
The Central Almsaundean dialects are characterized by their proximity with the Ancient and Old Almsaundean language. Their syntax is said to be free in dependent clauses, but SOV or OSV in dependent clauses. Not only do similar words agglutinate into compounds in Central Almsaundean dialects, but partial phrases, particularly relative clauses, may as well. The name volcano "Vittaschtfaronhal", meaning "hill that throws fire" is a common example. Many of the oldest compounds are visibly formed through difrasismo or other metaphorical compounding. Comments are fixed and can only be broken apart into simpler words under specific circumstances. Adjectives and other modifiers, which form the majority of comments, only receive inflections when standing alone. Sandhi patterns are most complex in Central dialects, with some letters having multiple available patterns. Verbs from roots of one of the seven fallen genders sometimes form irregular modal patterns, having followed archaic patterns no longer in use. Verbs and nouns from collapsed genders often contain silent letters which may be taken from them and revived in certain grammatical situations. The liquid and fluid consonants of liquid and fluid vowels remain unwritten in orthography.
Characterization of the Western Dialects
+ Bogriain
|-+ Almsaundean
|--> Ancient Almsaundean
|--> Old Almsaundean
|-+ Modern Almsaundean
|-+ Western Almsaundean
|--> Alesse
|--> Añdriana
The Western dialects are characterized by their unique orthography almost foreign in look, their standardization of particles as infixes, their unique morphophonology and their soft, euphonic sound. Syntax, alike that of the Central dialects, is said to be free but SOV or OSV in dependent clauses. Alesse goes as fas as to designate rules for each of the six possible word orders; SOV, SVO, OSV, OVS, VSO and VOS. In independent clauses, word order is based on the importance of the word to the phrase. Comments have fallen from Alesse, though in Añdriana, they may both be separated into individual words or may move as a whole. When words that form a comment are beside each other, they follow the rules for sandhi but ignore them otherwise. This has changed modifier patterns in both dialects to make them require agreement at all times. Words from collapsed genders have fallen into regular patterns with other words leaving the verb to be as the most prevalent irregular verb. The phonology, full of softer sounds, follows the Ideal of Euphony, a pattern in which all words must end in a vowel. This morphophonological pattern divides the Western dialects from the Eastern and Central dialects in such a way, the two are often considered their own separate languages. Geminate patterns aren't reduced with the geminate consonant, which does not exist. In Añdriana, however, many geminates in excess of two are spelled and pronounced with the "pts" as a result of the loss of the geminate consonant. Gemination has been lost in Alesse whose only remnant of gemination exists in raddoppiamento sintattico. Vowels fall into stress classes, in which their pronunciation changes in reference with their proximity toward the stressed syllable of a word. Single graphs representing fluid and liquid vowels are replaced respectively by a vowel and succeeding "r" or a preceeding "í". This replacement is common in Añdriana which uses the fluid and liquid vowels in a typical Almsaundean fashion, but is lost in Alesse. Etymologically, Western dialects lend and borrow more foreign words as well as maintain more original roots than other dialects.
Characterizations of the Eastern Dialect
+ Bogriain
|-+ Almsaundean
|--> Ancient Almsaundean
|--> Old Almsaundean
|-+ Modern Almsaundean
|-+ Eastern Almsaundean
|--> Adølie
Adølie, the Eastern dialect, is characterized by its simplification of inflections, grammar and sandhi. The dialect is somewhat oversimplified to the onset of a creole or pidgin, though both its etymology and grammar remain purely Almsaundean. The oversimplifications happen in what were the most highly inflected parts of speech in Lindjerblau. Verbs lost all distiction of person and therefore of number, making absolute the necessity of subject pronouns. Nouns, which were inflected for 5 genders and 8 cases, are simplified into 3 cases, masculine, feminine and neuter, and 4 cases, the Ergative-Accusative, the Dative-Prepositional, the Vocative-Postpositional, and the Nominative-Genitive. Due to the collapse of the ergative and Accusative cases into one case, the Eastern dialect is said to be a "transitive" language, standing separately from all other dialects which are tripartite. Unique to the Eastern dialect are its silent letters. While silent letters exist in the Central dialects, they are revived in certain linguistical situations. This is not true of the Eastern dialects, which may only hints at silent letters through the gemination of the letter preceeding them. This gemination occurs within words and also takes place across word boundaries, alike the raddoppiamento sintattico found in the Alesse dialect.
Comparison of Dialects
Modern Dialects, Languages of Change
Because Almsaunde originated in a region made of semi-independent city-states, the language has six recognized dialects: one which is said to represents each city-state (but is not necessarily spoken only in that specific state), and one standard dialect which has stood as the lingua franca between the other five for the last two centuries. While Lindjerblau, the standard or national dialect, stands linguistically parallel to how it was spoken and written after its Extreme Grammatical Reform more than 200 years ago, the other five dialects, collectively referred to as "Himptemspiekki" or "At Home Dialects," have evolved in various ways. Many of these Himptemspiekki are no longer mutually intelligible amongst themselves nor with Lindjerblau in the spoken language, although all remain to some extent intelligible within the written language.
Lindjerblau, The Standard Dialect
As the standard dialect, Lindjerblau, meaning "lingua franca", is the language spoken in all government and emergency agencies, in most nationwide businesses, in schools and universities, written in newspapers, as directions, on maps and many signs, and found in every form of media published nationally in Vereva. Some forms of media, notably those which are used in cases of urgency and emergency, such television and radio broadcasts, are required by the Verevian government to provide a translation of the standard dialect whenever the regional dialect is being used. These translations can be found in captions on the bottom of a sign or the television screen and often, as a parallel program on the next channel or radio station.
Apfe, The Stylistic Dialect
Spoken solely in the city-state of Apfe, the Apfe dialect is and has always been the one of closest relation to the Ancient and Old Languages. The differences between the two are so subtle, they exist almost completely in spelling and obscure grammatical situations, although a few more familiar pronunciation and syntactical differences occur. Most unusual of Apfe, is the return of the archaic grammar points dead for hundreds of years. The reapplication of the dual, trial and quadrual numbers, the latest of which effectively died out from Almsaunde around 550 years ago, are notable. It is said "When a root form is understood by the listener but the ending is not, the speaker must be speaking Apfe." Despite this peculiarity, Apfe and Lindjerblau are enough alike for many linguists to consider the Apfe dialect to be a stylistic way of speech and writing used by the refined and distinguished rather than its own solitary dialectal phenomenon. Arbitrarily, the reapplication of the dual, trial and quadrual numbers causes more homonyms and homophones as words formed through amelioration in the Lindjerblau dialect using endings from obsolete numbers are used in Apfe. The word "Manheim," for example, is the singular ergative case noun meaning "'masculinity" formed through such amerlioration. "Manheim" also represents the trial prepositional case noun "three men." To distringuish meaning, special attention needs to be paid to the modifiers governing nouns in Apfe.
As a Himptemspiekki, Apfe carries with it the smallest number of speakers, most of whom are concentrated around surburbian Anderjam and in small diaspora in the city-state. It is also said to lack a wide pop culture, limited only to one newspaper in the dialect, a few books and novels, and highly formal situations such as being knighted or holding a court with the Saljente or other members of the Verevian royal family.
Ąsje, The Second Official Dialect
Alike Apfe, Ąsje is considered a refined dialect of close relation to Lindjerblau. While Apfe is often regarded as a stylistic form of Lindjerblau, Ąsje is remarked as a dialect due to its loss of several phonemes, mutation of various consonant clusters, and its use of obsolete stem formations for nouns of the 4th gender that aren't present in any other dialect. The mutation of one cluster in particular, the "pf", is found in all Himptemspiekki save Apfe.
Ąsje is the third most widespread dialect, and is spoken throughout the city-state city-state and the majority of neighboring Apfe. Because the better of the law, business and medical universities are located in Asjan cities, the dialect is colloquially referred to as the second official language, despite the Alesse dialect being spoken by nearly three times its populus.
Adølie, the Unique Dialect
The joke between Verevephones is that when one speaks the Adølie dialect, it's reminiscent of baby babble. This is because the dialect is different from all the others and therefore the least intelligible. Unique to Adølie is the complete loss of inflections on nouns for case and number and a strict SVO syntax due to loss of case inflections. Alongside these grammatical changes, Adølie has suffered also the loss and mutation of the most phonemes in comparison to the other dialect. It is often proposed that the Adølie dialect, as well as the Alesse and Añdriana dialects, are different enough to officially declare them as languages separate from Almsaunde. Adølie is often considered a pidgin, however.
Adølie, spoken by a slightly larger percentage than Apfe, is centered around the border between Adølie and Ąsje.
Alesse, the Popular Dialect
The most widespread and one of the lesser intelligible dialects is the Alesse dialect. The dialect stretches an expanse of the entire oceanic border, Alesse, Ąsje, Apfe and Adølie, and encompasses most tourist destinations and many airports and ports. Small Alesse-speaking diaspora can be found throughout Añdriana as well making it the only dialect beside the standard Lindjerblau spoken in each city-state. Despite the law stating that each able citizen must attain a certain proficiency in standard Lindjerblau, many Alessephone youth falsely regard knowing only Alesse as being adequate for travel throughout the majority of Vereva. Alesse is known mostly for its melodic sound and it's introduction of several new and unique rules of grammar and morphonpnonology; it uses several letters not found in any other dialect, replaces two word verb tenses with a single word verb tense, and has lost many silent letters among other things. While its verbs are inflect for aspect as in Adølie, they are conjugated to express tense, mood, person and number. Alesse is also the only dialect which allows word drop. While word drop is semantically permissible because of noun cases and verb agreement in most dialects, it's only grammatically correct in Alesse. New again to Alesse, but shared with Añdriana, is the Idea of Melodic Euphony. This rule states that all words must end in a vowel, in most cases that vowel is -e or -i. This point is what divides Alessan and Andrian intelligibility from the other dialects. By comparison, 92% of words in Lindjerblau, Apfe, Ąsje and Adølie end in consonants, and all words in Alesse and Añdriana dialectss end in vowels.
Añdriana,
