Latest revision as of 17:59, 23 April 2005

Laytal is an Atlantic-South language spoken in Star City and Dotjxraomm. The two native spellings Látal and Létal are often used to distinguish the two dialects used in the aforementioned locations.

There is political pressure in Dotjxraomm for Middle Laytal to be considered a language in light of Orthographical and Grammatical reforms in Látal.

The name "Létal" is though to have arrived through a contracted corruption of the Old Létal "kletj-tlan" ("among people") -> klɛtʃtɬɑ -> lɛtɬɑ -> létal - roughly meaning shared language.

Colloquially, the language is known as Rotj-Gaju, a translation of the Hâgú phrase Sââ-gú (Red Voice) used by the ancient inhabitants of the islands to describe the Romans (due to their red dye). The archaic name Hellenic Lip (Old Létal: Labiso Grekam) originated from a misunderstanding when explorers believed Je akúptojó (I don't understand) to be Greek.

From the late-18th Century onwards, the South languages came into increasing contact with the Japanese and Slavic languages amongst many others. The vocabulary differs substantially from the solidly Germanic and Romance one of Old Létal.

Old Forms

Arxe Ardemesénn

Orthography, Phonology and Grammar

Tatlasiragaki, Aodiótjalab tó Domsiñtak

Old Laytal

Arxelétal

Old Laytal is resident in the Atlantic group whereas the later languages are branches of this.

The semi-organised vowel system reflects the wide influences from which the Laytal languages draw.

There were around 40 Consonants and the Latin alphabet was adapted with various diacritics and digraphs in an ad hoc manner. /ŋ/ was written as 'ng' as in English, but attempts at one-to-one correspondence resulted in 'n' (and /n/ became 'nn'). A similair system did not arise for palatalization, where instead a 'ý' (the diacritic distinguishing it from a consonantal 'y') was suffixed to the intended letter (as ɲ being 'nn' which would have clashed).

Mini-Swadesh List

The       lý
I         je / ye
you (s)   vaa

Middle Laytal

Létal

Middle Laytal drastically reformed the vowel setup. ɛ, ɪ and ʌ merged into ə and õ was dropped. 'a' changed to 'é', 'ë' to 'i' and 'oo' to 'u'. The same Dimension table is used as in the Late-Modern language.

An attempted reform for palatalisation in 1895 resulted in a dictionary being published with initial 'y's being changed to 'h' (rather than 'ý's). As the /h/ sound still existed at the time, it was presumed a sound change had occured. Though the erroneous spellings were corrected, initial 'y's are subsequently pronounced as /h/.

The most famous piece of literature in Star City was written in Middle Laytal. It is a poem called Raztrati Dri Altidpoli (Battle of Evermore) which was published in 1885.

Changes

• Palatalising '-h', taken from Portuguese, was finally introduced in 1896.
• 'dq' was introduced to distinguish the 'th's (tq) used in English loanwords.
• Initial 'd's frequently become Voiced retroflex plosive /ɖ/ when followed by a consonant.

Mini-Swadesh List

The       teh
I         ye
you (s)   ta

Modern Laytal

Látal Fragukatj

The language regulatory body approved the full Noun-Case system in 1931 which split the langage between the forms spoken in Dotjxraomm (Middle) and Star City (Modern) - the High and Low classifications are named after the respective geographical locations. Originally, the noun cases and spelling differences were the only differences between the two. However, Létal has interacted significantly with the Q-Celtic derived language Lacaidh which has led to greater seperation.

Mini-Swadesh List

The       te (n)
I         yó
you (s)   ðao

Current Language

Létal

Late-Middle (JaLétal) has been significantly influenced by the now extinct Celtic-Atlantic language Lacaidh.

To be Finished

Tenses

Where 'X' is the initial consonant:

• Past = Xý(í)... X^h
• Present = Xc(í)... X^s
• Future = Xw(í)... X^w

to travel - tokcó
travelled = týokcó
travelling = tcokcó
will travel = twokcó

To be Finished

Grammatical Prepositions

Látal

Late-Modern (Látal JaFragukatj) has largely concerned itself with the elimination of orthographical anomolies.

/ɛ/ has re-emerged in the past half-century as a variant of /ə/. Thus, 'e' is now /ɛ/ and the former value of /ə/ is now 'é'. This forced The House to introduce 'á' for the displaced 'é' (/e/). /õ/ has also reappeared recently with no commotion along with the new 'vq' (see Phonology below).

Due to the semi-frequent tendency for multiple 'n's to appear together (which had previously led to the plural genetive becoming 'mó'), The House replaced the Latin transcription 'nn' with the Spanish 'ñ' (except for grammatical affixes) - largely because 'ñ' indicated two n's in the Latin rootword (eg: annum > año)

After studies showed literacy would improve with all-noun capitalisation, Te Kotjnnó Látal agreed and promptly implemented it.

Phonology

Aodiótjalab

¹ Voiced Labiodental Fricative articulated with the upper lips and the lower teeth.

• First row letters indicate the base form in the native alphabetic script.
• The only diphthongs are "ao" [ɑʊ] and "ão" [ãʊ].
• Suffixing "h" to the desired phoneme palatalises.

Numbers

Rivrénn

No numbers above 99 (nor below 0) exist as these can be manufactured through SI based orders of magnitude.

For example, 125 = 1.25 Ektom.

• Ordinals are formed by suffixing -pla to the intended number.

Orthography

Tatlasiragaki

Scripts

To Be Finished

Capitalisation

All nouns are capitalised.

Punctuation

Punctuation follows the Spanish model. Most notable are the inverted question and exclamation marks which precede exclamatory and interrogative sentences:

Help!   What?
¡Yão!   ¿Ká?

Grammar

DomSiñtak

Whereas vocabulary is primarily derived from Indo-European languages, the Noun cases in particular derive from the Finno-Ugric languages.

The order in which affixes are applied is the order in which those affixes appear below, though the first affix may be out of order if it is applied for emphasis. The affix order also excludes plural agents, ax.énn, and any plurals, where -énn is always final.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns and Conjugations

• I = Yó, Yuþ = I am
• We = Ñami, Ñaþ = We are
• You = ðao (singular), ðaþ = You are
• You = Ti (plural), Tiþ = You are
• He = Nhés, Nhéþz = He is
• She = Nhév, Nhéþf = She is
• It = Nhu, Nhuþ = It is
• They = þés, þéþ = They are
• One = Uñ, Uñþ = One is

Demonstrative & Interrogative Pronouns

To Be Written

Inflexion

Skitão

In the following:

• -(C) indicates that the final consonant is repeated if the word ends with a vowel
• -(V) indicates that the final vowel is repeated if the word ends with a consonant
• (v), where "v" is a vowel, indicates that the vowel is dropped if the word ends with any vowel except "é"

Article

There is no indefinite article or zero article and grammatical gender is found only in articles.

• Definite (Neuter) = Te
• Definite (Masculine) = Tev
• Definite (Feminine) = Tef
• Partitive = Ró

Noun

Nouns have no forms unlike adjectives, verbs and adverbs; though proper nouns are preceeded by wa. If one wishes to preserve the spelling and sound of a foreign word in Romanised text, one can prefix it with Ser-.

• Plurality = -(C)énn
• Negation = á-
• Agent = (Verb)-(C)ax (Masc), -(C)av (Fem), -(C)aj (Neut)
• Tool = (Verb)-(C)ahtj
• State = -(V)st
• Result of a Verb = -(C)ão

Noun Cases

Adjective

• Base Adjective = -(a)tj
• Comparative Adjective = -(a)tji
• Superlative Adjective = -(a)tju

To Be Finished

Verb

• Verb form = -(C)ó
  • A root word ending in -a/ão becomes -a/ãó, but the pronunciation does not change

Person

The first through third are used when pronouns are dropped. The fifth person may be used to elaborate when describing the weather.

• First person = -(C)éxþ
• Second person = -(C)ezd
• Third person = -(C)éð
• Fourth person = -(C)u
• Fifth person = -(C)etc

When one flies...
Kum tubuóu...
Kum tubu-ó-u...
When fly.verb.4thp

Aspect

• Capacity (can) = d(i)-
• Permissive (may) = pl(e)-
• Willingness (will) = dh(a)-
• Futurity (shall) = zl(i)-
• Habitual (every day) = -(V)sk

You can run...
ðao dilopépó...
ðao di-lopé-pó...
You.si can.run.verb

Tenses

• Present = r(a)-
• Past = p(e)-
• Future = s(e)-

Moods

• Imperative (command) = -(V)dhó
• Conditional (would) = -(C)vi
• Hypothetical (could) = -(V)jil

If I could fly...
Maz yó mosójil...
Maz yó mos-ó-jil...
If I fly.verb.hypo

Evidentiality

• Sensory
  • Direct experience = unmarked
  • Sensory observation = -ãra
• Quotative
  • Inference = -ága
  • Hearsay = -ron

John supposedly eats penguins
Joñ mañsquénném redóron
Joñ mañsqu-énn-ém red-ó-ron
Subj penguin.pl.obj present.verb.rumour

Adverb

• Base Adverb = -(a)tf
• Comparative Adverb = -(a)tfi
• Superlative Adverb = -(a)tfu

Word Order

Zqlaobnnó Dadcu

All sentences, including questions, are written in the SOV order with adjectives following the noun.

The man destroyed the blue house
Tev añdros kotj kuraþaotj pepasñdáló
Te-v añdros kotj kuraþao-tj pe-pasñdál-ó
The.masc man house blue.adj past.destroyed.verb

As an SOV language, additonal phrases conform to Time-Manner-Place order.

Tomorrow, I will be the first person to travel to Paris by aeroplane for the benefit of my health.
Tef jinn kozplatj sohvasol vahluxtbaluinn yónnó pokÑázqesem setõkcóexþ nohParis
Te-f jinn koz-pla-tj sohva-sol vah-luxtbalu-inn yónnó pok-Ñázqes-em se-tõkc-ó-exþ noh-Paris
The.fem person one.ord.adj next.day instruc.aeroplane.indirobj I.genetive benefac.health.dirobj
fut.travel.verb.1p termin.Paris

Common Phrases

Steñzazénn Sóvalatj

• Laytal: - Látal -
• Hello: - Kahsó -
• Goodbye: - Yét jatfi -
• Please: - ¿Éreó yó? -
• Thank you: - Yanko -
• Sorry: - Izqvitro -
• That one: Ate -
• How much?: - ¿Pragc? - /pragz/
• Yes: - Ahi -
• No: - Nhi -
• I don't understand: - Yó ákuptohó -
• Where's the bathroom?: - ¿Doñdá iþ gutjxraom? -
• Happy birthday - ¡Bheñu baþsol! -
• How are you? - ¿ðaonnóst? -
• Generic toast: - ¡Tcalu! - /tsalu/
• Do you speak English?: - ¿ðao vókordó Anglaser? -

Idioms

When I hear the word "choice", I reach for my crossbow
Kum kikuóéxþ te zqlãob "alips", liatarióéxþ yónnó yagisaja-ahtj
kum kikuoəxθ tɛ ʒlãʊb ɑlips liɑtɑrioəxθ jono
jɒgisɑdʒɑ ɑɪtʃ

You have the arch (You have [power, knowledge, etc])
ðao/Ti déñé te brisk
ðɑʊ/ti dənə tɛ brisk

You are a kalashnikov (You speak powerfully)
ðao iþ wa Kalasqñikova
ðɑʊ iθ wɑ kɑlɑ&#643nikɒvɑ

Swadesh List

To Be Written

External Links

To Be Written