Alvésin

From NSwiki, the NationStates encyclopedia.
Revision as of 20:33, 29 December 2005 by Antrium (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search
Alvésin
Spoken in: Antrium, especially in the province of Alvés-Navlan
Region: International Democratic Union
Official language of: Antrium


Alvésin is a language spoken in southeastern Antrium, specifically in the province of Alvés-Navlan. It is based off of English and French. Many place names in Antrium and almost all of the names of Antrian people are in Alvésin.

History

Not much is known about the history of Alvésin, because most of the older writings have been destroyed or lost. It is assumed to have originated in what is now Antrium, but no one is sure when the language was created.

It is known that the Alvési tribe have spoken it for many years. They conquered the neighboring Navlanis in a very long and brutal war, and spread the language to them.

In 2002, The Orītan R. Révané Dictionary of Alvésin was written, which set spelling standards that were very unclear prior to its publishing. Since then, many people in Antrium have learned the language. It is now the third official language of Antrium.

Speakers

In the most recent Antrium census, it was estimated that about 1,500,000 Antrians know at least an upper high school level of Alvésin. It is spoken mainly in the provinces of Alvés-Navlan and Soréto, where the government requires schools to teach Alvésin, but it is spreading quickly throughout Antrium. It is estimated that over 8 million Antrians will know Alvésin by 2007.

Writing System

The Alvésin alphabet consists of 26 letters (9 vowels, 17 consonants) and is very similar to the English alphabet. Some of the accented letters are borrowed from French, and some accents are unique to the language. Some letters, like c, x, and y, are not included.

a à b d e é f g h i ī j k l m n o p r s t u ū v w z

Note: The Alvésin alphabet used to include the letter ñ, but in the most recent edition of the Orītan R. Révané Dictionary, the letter was removed due to its rare usage. Ñ has been replaced with nīū, which sounds very similar.

Alvésin Letter Pronunciation (using ASCII Phonetic Alphabet)
a @ as in English cat or black
à a: or o as in English father or rock
b b as in English bad or banana
d d as in English did or dark
e e as in English bed or met
é ei as in English say or eight, or French étape
f f as in English find or if
g g as in English give or flag
h h as in English how or hill
i i as in English hit or sitting
ī i: as in English see or heat
j Z as in English pleasure or French je or juin
k k as in English cat or back
l l as in English leg or little
m m as in English man or lamp
n n as in English no or nine
o Ou as in English go or road
p p as in English pot or place
r r as in English red or angry
s s as in English scare or sun
t t as in English too or tea
u u: as in English blue or food
ū u or .. as in English put or cinema
v v as in English five or valley
w w as in English wet or French l'ouest
z z as in English zoo or lazy

Alvésin is easier to learn spelling in than most other languages, because it does not use silent letters. All words are spelled how they sound. All letters only make one sound, so there is no confusion in pronunciation.

Grammar

Pronouns

English Pronoun Alvésin Pronoun Alvésin Possessive Pronoun
I Jàn
You To Ton
He/She/It Hé/Hà/Ho Hén/Hàn/Hon
We Nos Nosī
You all (or French vous) Tos Tosī
They Vos Vosī

Verb Conjugation

All verbs in Alvésin end in -īr or -ér. To conjugate an -īr or -ér verb, you simply remove the īr or ér and put in the appropriate verb ending from the chart below.

Note: only the first verb in the sentence needs to be conjugated.

Pronoun Verb ending for -īr verbs Verb ending for -ér verbs
-īs -és
To -īt -et
Hé/Hà/Ho -īm -em
Nos -īràs -éràs
Tos -īrez -érez
Vos -īrīt -érīt

Some common Alvésin verbs are:
Étir (to be)
Spàkīr (to talk/speak)
Mànjīr (to eat)
Desīr (to want)
Férīr (to do)
Avīr (to have)
Jàrīr (to play)
Ashitīr (to buy)
Lokīr (to find)
Istīr (to listen)
Klīr (to be able to)
Sīrér (to see)
Tàkér (to take)
Galér (to go)
Vàlkér (to walk)
Màkér (to make)


The pronoun and conjugated verb are connected by a hyphen if there are no words between them. (example: "I want to go" is Jà-desīs galér, and "I don't want to go" is Jà no férīs desīr galér)

The pronoun comes before the verb unless it is a question, in which case the verb would come before the pronoun. (example: "I want to go" is Jà-desīs galér, and "I want to go?" is Desīs-jà galér?)

Verb Forms

To make a verb negative, add ne before the verb (example: "I do not walk" is Jà ne vàlkés)

To make a verb past tense, add an -àn to the end of the verb ending (example: "I ate" is Jà mànjīsàn)

To make a verb future tense, add -étà before the verb (example: "I will make" is Jà-étà màkés)

Useful Words and Phrases

English Alvésin
hello élo
goodbye avàr
please àplez
thank you érsīt-to
sorry serīj
this/that/those/there/then sel/set/ses/seplàs/setem
which/what/where/when/who/why kel/wà/vér/à wà tem/hu/vor wà
Do you speak Alvésin? Férīt-to spàkīr Alvésīn?
English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Baranxeï, Poirih Englé, Frànsé, Spàñol, Jérmàn, Néderlàn, Bàrànké, Poītik
I am from Sivaris, in Antrium. Jà-étīs do Sīvàris, on Àntrīàn.
Baranxtu, Domnonia, Groot Gouda, Grosseschnauzer, Keeslandia, Malabra, Mikitivity, Sober Thought, International Democratic Union Bàrànktu, Dàmnonīū, Grot Gawdū, Gros-Shnawzūr, Kīzlandīū, Mūlabrū, Mikitivitī, Sober Thàt, Intūrnasīonel Démocrajī Unīàn
yes
no no
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten un, tu, tér, for, san, sīx, vet, àt, nàv, tàn
twenty, twenty-five, fifty, one hundred, two hundred, one thousand tutàn, tutàn-san, satàn, tàtàn, tutàtàn, thàj
The Grand Democracy of Antrium De Gran Démocraj do Àntrīàn
My name is Ràtéraj. Jà-avīs de nom Ràtéraj.
I am forty-seven years old. Jà-avīs de fotàn-vet añas.
Where is the restroom? Vér étim-ho de bantepes?
It is four twenty-six. (time) Ho-étīm de tem for tutàn-sīx.



Languages of NationStates
Major constructed or created languages: Dienstadi | Gurennese | Jevian | Necrontyr | Noterelenda | Pacitalian | Pacitalian English | Rejistanian | Rethast | Riikan | Solen
Minor constructed or created languages: Alçaera | Algebraic English | Alvésin | Ancient Shieldian | Anguistian | Aperin | Avalyic | Baranxeï | Belmorian | Belmorian-Rejistanian | Celdonian | Chicoutim | Constantian | Dovakhanese | Edolian | Eugenian | Fklaazj | Footballian | Galadisian Quenya | Garomenian | Gestahlian | Gosian | Hockey Canadian | Isselmerian | Kerlan | Khenian | Kurma | Kzintsu'ng | Lank Jan | Latika | Lausem | Letilan | Limbruenglish | Mock Welsh | Neo-Virgean | Nielandic | Nord-Brutlandese | Nordaþ | Novian | Palixian | Paristani | Poirih | Rukialkotta | Sandrian | Scat | Schnan | Simple English | Søskendansk | Syokaji | Tetemelayu | Trøndersk | Volscian | Weegie | Weserian | Wymgani | Xikuangese | Yokarian
Selection of Real-life languages in NS: Albanian | Arabic | Belarusian | Catalan | Chechen | Chinese | Czech | Dutch | English | Esperanto | Faroese | Finnish | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Hindi | Icelandic | Irish | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Latin | Latvian | Maltese | Maori | Mongolian | Norse | Norwegian | Persian (Farsi) | Polish | Portuguese | Punjabi | Russian | Samoan | Sign language | Sanskrit | Spanish | Sumerian | Swahili | Swedish | Tamil | Thai | Tibetan | Tongan | Urdu | Welsh
For a full list of NationStates languages see Category:Languages.