Phipul

From NSwiki, the NationStates encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search
Phipul

P'ipur'

Spoken in: Abasina ( BT)
Region: International Democratic Union
Speakers: 160,000-175,000 (est)
Genetic classification: unclassified
Official status
Official language in: -
Regulated by: -

Phipul (P'ipur') is a minority language spoken in the western tip of the Baranxtuan province of Abasina.

Its relationship to other native languages remains unclear, although an albeit very distant link to Akes Mersanint has been proposed by linguists as being very likely.

Phipul is remarkable as having the largest sound inventory of all languages spoken in Baranxtu. It also has a unique script that was developed entirely independent from the various scripts used to write Akes Mersanint or its descendants.


Phipul vs. P'ipur'

There is some controversy regarding whether the name of the language should be written Phipul or P'ipur'. Whereas the former is the older, established form, the latter is the correct romanization of the term.

Phipul itself is a romanization of the Baranxeï name for the language in the 18th century, when the originally palatalized consonants were pronounced aspirated (the shift from aspirated consonants to fricatives did not occur until the early 19th century). Thus, Baranxtimans wrote the p' of the Phipul script as ph, but the r' as l.

Today, "Phipul" remains the more common way of writing the name. In Baranxeï, the name is now written Φipul.


Orthography

Phipul orthography is somewhat complicated. The pronunciation of a letter heavily depends on its position within a word. Whereas this gives each letter three potential different pronunciations, many only have two. Currently, they may be considered allophones, but there is an ongoing trend to separate the different sounds.

Letter Beginning Center End
Vowels
a a a &
e e e 2
i i i y
w Q Q A
o o o 7
u u u M
a' 1 & & a
e' 1 2 2 e
i' 1 y y i
w' 1 A A Q
o' 1 7 7 o
u' 1 M M u
Consonants
p p_h p p
t t_h t t
k_h k k q
p' p_\ p_\ p_\
t' T s S
k' c x X
b b b p
d d d t
g g g q
b' B B p_\
d' D z S
g' j\ G X
m m
n n
ŋ J N N\
r r 4 r
r' l 5 l
j j j j
1 All vowels marked with ' do not occur naturally in Phipul. They were invented in the 19th century to allow proper transcription of non-Phipul names. For a few decades now, there have also been plans to unify the pronuncitation of the vowels, i.e., for "a" to always be /a/ and for "a'" to always be /&/, etc.

Grammar and Syntax

As Phipul is largely an isolating language, it relies heavily on worder order and particles to convey sense. It features few synthetic elements; only number and possessive are formed by inflection.


Word Order

Word order is very fixed in Phipul. In general, it is an SOV language, meaning the subject of a sentence comes first, followed by the objects and finally the verb. This applies to all sentences except questions, in which it is shuffled to VSO.

In sentences containing more than one objects, the exact order of the different objects is somewhat more free, although the overwhelmingly prevalent order is dative-patient-instrument.

  • Kepar ke tek'ima r'u etik ki.
  • A friend broke the window.
  • Etik ki kepar ke tek'ima r'u?
  • Did a friend break the window?
  • Etik ki rab' ke tek'ima r'u?
  • Who broke the window?

Nouns

Case Markers

Role Marker Example in English Example in Phipul
Agent ke A friend breaks the window. Kepar ke tek'ima r'u etik o.
Patient r'u A friend breaks the window. Kepar ke tek'ima r'u etik o.
Experiencer ri The window breaks. Tek'ima ri etik t'i.
Dative t'i I give my friend a book. Nini ke kepar t'i man r'u arti o.
Instrument na A friend breaks the window with a bat. Kepar ke tek'ima r'u p'inna na etik o.

Number

Number is one of the only two synthetic featurs of Phipul.

A null-marker denotes singular, whereas plural is marked by a duplication of the first consonant with a filler -i added. If a noun starts with a vowel, the first consonant is simply added. This may change the pronunciation of the second consonant as its position changes from initial to middle.

English sg. Phipul sg. English pl. Phipul pl.
friend kepar friends kikepar
house ŋar'e houses ŋiŋar'e
word ar'na words r'ar'na
tree iki trees kiki

Possessive

The possessive is the second synthetic element of Phipul. It is marked by adding -p' to the noun. If it already ends in a consonant, typically a filler vowel is added; which vowel is used depends simply on the dialect and has no distinct rule.

  • kepar => keparip'
  • ŋar'e => ŋar'ep'


Verbs

Part of verbal morphology are a number of particles that express tense, mood and voice. If all are used in a sentence, they always appear in this order.

Tense

Phipul features only three tenses, present, future and past.

Tense Marker Example in English Example in Phipul
Present o I see a friend. Nini ke kepar r'u ikoko o.
Past ki I saw a friend. Nini ke kepar r'u ikoko ki.
Future r'a I will see a friend. Nini ke kepar r'u ikoko r'a.

It must be noted that the present particle o may be ommited when a voice or mood other than the active or indicative are used. This does not apply to the other two tense particles.

Mood

Four moods can be found in Phipul - indicative (represented by a nullmorpheme), imperative and hortative, optative and dubitative.

Tense Marker Example in English Example in Phipul
Indicative - A friend breaks the window. Kepar ke tek'ima r'u etik o.
Imperative
Hortative
tin Break the window!
Let's break the window!
Arei ke tek'ima r'u tin!
Ankem ke tek'ima r'u tin!
Optative t'am I want to break the window. Nini ke tek'ima r'u etik t'am.
Dubitative ad'u He might be in Phip. Onit' ke Kapet'muk ar' na di ad'u.

Voice

There are three voices in Phipul - active voice, middle voice and passive voice. The active voice is characterized by a nullmorpheme,.

Tense Marker Example in English Example in Phipul
Active Voice - A friend breaks the window. Kepar ke tek'ima r'u etik o.
Middle Voice t'i The window breaks. Tek'ima ri etik t'i.
Passive Voice min The window is broken by a friend. Tek'ima ri kepar na etik min.

Note that in the both the middle and the passive voice, the subject of the sentence stands with the experiencer particle instead of the agent particle.

Pronouns

Phipul has four levels of politeness, and one part of this is the pronoun system. The finer nuances of their usage is difficult to master, and using the "polite" level is almost always appropriate.

Person Colloquial Familial Polite Honoring
1st person sg. ni ni nini ninima
2nd person sg. ki rin arei arinma
3rd person sg. oi oni onit' onit'
1st person pl. no anno ankem pera
2nd person pl. kiki ririn mat'ome antak'a
3rd person pl. ae ane kiom nihun

Vocabulary

IDU Country Names

English Phipul Counry Name Phipul Adjective
Antrium Antirium antiriak'u
Baranxtu Beraŋat Beraŋak'u
Ceorana T'eorana t'eoranak'u
Cikoutimi T'ikutimi t'ikutimik'u
Domnonia Domnonia domonik'u
Fonzoland P'and'or'end p'and'ak'u
Gnejs Ginet' ginet'k'u
Groot Gouda Girwt Gauda gaudak'u
Grosseschnauzer Girot'et'naud'er t'naud'erak'u
Jonquiere-Tadoussac D'onkjer-Tadut'ak d'ontada'ku
Keeslandia Kit'landia kit'ak'u
Malabra Mar'abra mar'abrak'u
Mikitivity Maikitib'iti maikitib'itak'u
Otea Otea oteak'u
Sober Thought T'ober T'wt t'obrak'u
South Antrium B'ani-Antirium b'ani-antiriak'u
Xtraordinary Gentlemen Ekit'trawrdineri D'entr'men ekit'trawrdinerak'u

Language Names

English Phipul Counry Name Phipul Adjective
Alvésin Ar'b'et'in ar'b'et'inmi
Asuaneï At'b'anei at'b'animi
Baranxeï Beraŋi beraŋimi
Chicoutim T'ikutim t'ikutimi
Dutch Wr'and wr'andimi
English Ŋer'it' ŋer'it'imi
French P'ront'e p'ront'imi
German Doitet' doitet'imi
Nidajii Nidaji nidajimi
Qi Ki kimi
Spanish Et'paŋor' et'paŋor'imi


Languages of Baranxtu
Official Languages:
Asuaneï | Baranxeï | Baranxtuan Sign Language | English | French | Nidajii
Other Languages:
Baranxtuan French | Chicoutim | Masenar | Phipul | Qi


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.