From ConPlanet
| Nithalosian, Nithalos | ||
|---|---|---|
| Niđalos, Niđalosa Adeg | ||
| Pronunciation | /ni'θaːlɔs/ | |
| Spoken in |  Nithalosia
| |
| Total speakers | 7,185,000 | |
| Language family | language isolate
| |
| Writing system | Latin | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | Nithalosia
| |
| Recognised minority language in |  Rasoran Union,  Toitūkōlad
| |
| Regulated by | Language Regulatory Office, Govtha City, Nithalosia
| |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | – | |
| ISO 639-3 | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
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This article or section needs to be rewritten. |
Thus far, Nithalos has undergone two reforms. The post-first-reform Nithalos is effectively known as Middle Nithalos. The pre-reforms Nithalos is Old Nithalos or Classical Nithalos.
Comparison
The below table gives a comparison of the past alphabets in each reform through Old, Middle and Modern Nithalos. (Note: It only displays the Latin letters)
| ipa | /a/ /ja/ | /b/ | /v/ | /f/ | /e/ /je/ | /k/ | /θ/ | /i/ | /ɪ/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /m/ | /n/ | /l/ | /r/ | /u/ /ju/ | /j/ | /ɔ/ /jɔ/ | /o/ /jo/ | /dʒ/ | /d/ | /g/ | /z/ | /ts/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| old | a | b | v | vi | e | k | x | ï | i | č | s | ş | m | n | l | r | u | y | o | ö | đ | đi | si | xi | ||
| middle | v | í | ç | ó | ḑ | d | ||||||||||||||||||||
| modern | i | t | g | |||||||||||||||||||||||
And now taking into account the alternative script..
| ipa | /a/ /ja/ | /b/ | /v/ | /f/ | /e/ /je/ | /k/ | /θ/ | /i/ | /ɪ/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /m/ | /n/ | /l/ | /r/ | /u/ /ju/ | /j/ | /ɔ/ /jɔ/ | /o/ /jo/ | /dʒ/ | /d/ | /g/ | /z/ | /ts/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| old | a | b | v | vi | e | k | x | ï | i | č | s | ş | m | n | l | r | u | y | o | ö | đ | đi | si | xi | |||
| middle | a ա | b բ | v վ | e ե | k կ | x | տ | í ի | i ը | ç ճ | s ս | ş շ | m մ | n ն | l լ | r ր | u ու | y յ | o օ | ó ո | ḑ ջ | d դ | |||||
| modern | թ | i ի | t տ | g գ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Below is a sample sentence illustrating some key changes between the reforms:
| old/classical | Mï mö yik mïya bravixï yob vlomïyana čas. /miː ˈmoː jɪk miːja brafˈθiː jɔb vlɔˈmiːjana ˈtʃas/ |
|---|---|
| middle | A mó ík aya bravxí om vlomíya ças Ա մո իկ այա բրավտի օմ վլօմիյա ճաս /a ˈmoː ʲik aja brafˈθiː ʲɔm vlɔˈmiːja ˈtʃas/ |
| modern | A mó og aya bravxi om vlomiya tas. Ա մո օգ այա բրավթի օմ վլօմիյա տաս․ /a ˈmoː ʲɔg aja ˈbrafθi ʲɔm ˈvlɔmija ˈtas/ |
First Reform
The first major change that came in 1900 with the reforms, was the introduction of the alternative alphabet.
In the old orthography, <i> morphed a lot of consonants it was next to, <xi> was /ts/, <si> was /z/, <đi> was /d/ and <vi> was /f/. Generally the old usage of <i> and <ï> was used to distinguish length, but <ï> became be to used only on the grounds of preventing the consonants around it to morph. When the new orthography was designed, <ï> was replaced with <í> because <ï> was to be used to show separation in diphthongs, so most <ï> was replaced with <í>. Because of this, there is very few <i> left in the language, or less so than <í> in any case. When the reform was done, a number of choices about the morphed sounds was made. For example, the /d/ once represented by <đi> came to have its own letter <d> which was introduced as the 21st letter of the alphabet. /ts/ which was represented by <xi> has been removed entirely from the language and is now mostly spelled as <x> /θ/. <si> was a rare sound in the old orthography as it was and shall just be replaced by <s> should it be come across. However, <vi> which was said as /f/ still remains in the language, as you can read in the allophony section above.
Other changes included changing <ö> to <ó> to match the <ï> to <í> for the same reasons, the change from <č> to <ç> and <đ> to <ḑ> (mostly for aesthetic reasons) and yeah.
Spelling changes are quite common too. A good deal of <m(V)b> becomes <mv> and <sr> became <ş>. A lot of <y> were dropped off, and quite a few initial <u> became <o> or <ó>. Most diphthongs were shortened down to just one vowel and most longer words where shortened too (mostly loosing <r>). Where old particles used to attach <y> at the front in combos like mađoya uşïra yal has been dropped although the /j/ sound still exists. (The same sentence in the new orthography would be maḑóya uşíra al /maˈdʒoːja uˈʃiːra jal/)
The new use of umlaut is basically just in words like maë, kaḑoëríx and ekakuïx which is used to show that the two vowels should be pronounced separately and not diphthongised. The use of umlauts are not reflected in the adapted Armenian alphabet.
Second Reform
The second reform of 1931 finished what the first reform started - removing useless letters, introducing letters which are there, but not and removing the affricates.
For the most part, the following changes have occurred one for one:
<ç> for <t> (<t> has been introduced to the latin alphabet)
<ḑ> for <d>
<í> for <i> (<i> was too rare and pointless in having when <í> is more common)
Despite the most recent previous reforms, the letter <v> is still highly allophonic and the regulators of the Nithalos language see no point in a separate letter for /f/ as most native speakers don't notice the difference (you can liken this to English's <th>)
Because of the introduction of <t>, the armenian script's <տ> can no longer represent <x>. The latin letter <x> will have the new equivalent of <թ> in the alternative armenian script so that <t> can be represented with <տ>․ The armenian script letter <ը> has been removed from the alphabet. Formerly, <í> was <ի> and <i> was <ը>, however, under the new reforms, <i> is now simply <ի> and the letter <ը> shall no longer be used.
In this reform, the final thing added was the letter <g>. The letter <g> (<գ> under the alternative armenian script) was introduced because of the slowly emerging /g/ phoneme into the more dialectal areas where Nithalos is spoken which quite quickly became prominent in spoken language itself. The spelling reforms using <g> reflect such usage.
