Prûltu

Prûltu was spoken 3700 years ago by those who migrated north from the Great River. Prûltu means "northern", which is thus a logical name for the language.

[OOC]

One of the languages of a fictious universe. Not related to any real-life language, however its creation was and is somewhat influenced by at least a dozen languages, most notably Russian, English, Japanese and Arabic.

Classification and Dialects
The variation of Prûltu described here is that of standard Prûltu from about 3700 years ago, or ca. 3000 years BFB (Before the Foundation of Bholtikai). A minority at the time also spoke a divergent Northwestern dialect. This dialect had several distinguishing features, such as a larger number of cases, an additional trilled consonant jr (syllabic r), and the hyperhonorific prefix sr-.

Prûltu evolved into the Northern family of languages, which includes the Bholtaziri language — the official language of the Triunite Empire that currently rules a third of the planet.

As for the classification of Prûltu, it belonged to the "d-languages", that is, languages descended from Qormdur, where the adjective suffix began with d (-tu comes from -dur), while in r-languages the suffix had become contracted to -r and n-languages preserved the ancestral n-sound in -tsen. The d-languages were originally spoken in the mountains west of the Great River. All these three language groups originate from the Third Migration, where they split off from the planet's original language.

Vowels
1 stressed allophones (if a letter lacks such an allophone, it is pronounced equally regardless of stress)

2 do not occur in native roots (occur in affixes and borrowed words)

3 allophone of [u] when followed by a vowel

4 allophone of stressed [o̞] after [r]. [r] in this case becomes labialised [rw].

5 word-final allophone of [s̪]

6.in free variation, similar to Japanese /r/.

Diphtongs
One of the five base vowels of Prûltu is a diphtong: ô is pronounced [ɒw] normally or [ɒu̯] when stressed. The verbal simulfixes ending in -j are pronounced as vowels followed by the consonant [j], with the exception of ej, which is pronounced as the diphtong [ei̯]. Also, stressed óh is diphtongised by some speakers as [ʌɘ].

Writing System
The system used in Prûltu is mostly alphabetic. In addition, logograms are used for certain affixes. In verbs, diacritics are placed above the verbal simulfix - the first vowel - and the verb is written as the noun or adjective it is derived from rather than the actual phonetical spelling. The letters are runic in appearance and typically written in a condensed, intertwining style somewhat similar to the Cyrillic vyaz'. The direction of reading/writing is right to left, similar to Arabic. Words are separated by lines, which may be vertical | or diagonal / or \ based purely on the writer's choice. In addition, if a phrase does not contain a word in the dative-absolutive case, two such lines are written between the verb and object. Complete phrases are bound by the symbol ⁪‮ ⁪‮ .⁬◊⁪‮⁬ 1 esarhp ◊ 2 esarhp ◊ :os ekil sedis htob no ◊

Individual consonants are represented by fourteen letters organised in seven pairs, with one consonant in each pair being trilled and the other not. Exceptions are the epinthetic consonant w [ʋ], which is not reflected in writing, and the consonant j [j], which does not occur in roots. J is therefore only written logographically as part of several affixes, or is indicated as part of the infinitive verbal simulfix. Below is a simplified transliteration, followed by IPA and the Prûltu symbol in a slightly distorted keyboard form.

t [t̪~ʔ] 𐰩             —                   tr [ʢ] ƺ

s [s̪~s̺] <          —                  sr [r̥] ⁪«

þ [θ] +               —                  þr [θr] ×

p [ɸ] T                —                pr [ʙ] ʅ

n [n̪~n̥] =           —                nr [r̃] ʍ

l [ɺ~ɾ] ∟             —                r [r] ᎘

h [χ] ⁬ﻌ                  —             hr [ʜ] Ϫ

The base vowels are represented by five letters (the first allophone in each case corresponds to the unstressed vowel, and the second to the stressed vowel). The vowels of the dative-absolutive case ending -ô and accusative case ending -ê are not recorded in writing, but rather inferred by word order. The base vowels can be seen below with transcription, IPA and symbol for each.

u [ʊ~u] Δ

û [ʉ:~ɯ:] ٢

o [ɔ~o̞] ѵ

ô [ɒw~ɒu̯] ]•

ê [ə~e] •

The descriptor suffix (aka genitive ending) -tu is indicated by a small horizontal dash on the descriptor side of the word boundary, so that:

word|word

BUT

descriptor˧described

and

describedⱵdescriptor.

The tense infix symbols ∴-e, ∵ -o,ᆢ -je and  : -jo are placed above the second vowel (after which the infix is pronounced in speech).

For explanation of verbal simulfixes and use of corresponding diacritics, see Grammar:Verbs section below.

All other affixes are either written phonetically, or logographically prior to the first letter to the word (this depends on the specific affix, so the logographic affixes have to be memorised; the number of common logograms is relatively low). If there is more than one word-initial logogram in a word, these are ordered in the order that they occur in the word. Note that these logograms are ALWAYS written before alphabetic letters, regardless of where they occur in the word. For example (remember, right to left reading direction):

⁪‮⁬◊ⱡ𐰩ѵ᎘◊

Spells out /tor-eþ/ (meaning cleanliness, purity or innocence) with the -eth suffix (a "nounifying" suffix similar to English -ness), despite occuring at the end of the word, being represented by the word-initial logogram ⱡ, followed by three alphabetic letters representing -tor- (clean, pure, innocent), with both being enclosed by the punctuation mark ⁪‮⁬. ◊

The most common word-initial logograms, in addition to ⱡ, are the suffixes -os ∇, -oj ᛎ, and -s ⠶, as well as the prefixes s- ꗺ and o- п.

Example text
The North Wind and the Sun translated to Prûltu:

Prûltu Shênrê Spor rujêos nûê oêhrut prúntþrôns. Trópê sojlhoêwô ôtlêuwêtu prûltooj. Snû prujntoj nuô oêhrut hronojê ejhru sojlhoê hróons nut ôtê. Pþêuþruê oêhrut henrê Shênrêô Prûltu. Ohejnrê srûþoên sojlhoê hrónojs ôtê nut. Prûltu Shênrê nþþêhst urunojtu. Þrûêtor prûltojtu puun Sporô. Sojlhoê lejuêwoj uruntu ôtê nut. Trópês Prûltu Shênrêô hronojê êhruojtu prúntoj Sporô oêhrut.

⁪‮⁬◊ʅ٢∟𐰩Ⱶꗺ⁬ﻌ•ʍ•\ꗺTѵ᎘/∇᎘δ•||=٢˧п•ϪΔ/⠶ ʅἡ=𐰩×•[=⁪‮⁬◊ƺὑT•|>ῡ⁬ﻌѵ•˧•[𐰩∟•Δ•/ᛎʅ٢∟𐰩ѵ⁪‮⁬◊ꗺ=٢\ᛎʅδ=𐰩\=Δ˧п•ϪΔ/ᛎϪѵ=|ōϪΔ/>ῡ∟⁬ﻌѵ•\⠶ Ϫὑѵ=|=٢Ⱶ|•[𐰩⁪‮⁬◊

⁪‮⁬◊T+•Δ×Δ•|п•ϪΔⱵﻌὁʍ•/ꗺ⁬ﻌ•ʍ•Ⱶʅ٢∟𐰩⁪‮⁬◊п⁬ﻌōʍ•|»٢+ѵ•=|>ῡ∟⁬ﻌѵ•/ᛎ⠶ Ϫὑ=||•[𐰩˧=Δ⁪‮⁬◊ʅ٢∟𐰩Ⱶꗺ⁬ﻌ•ʍ•\=++ơ>𐰩ⱵᛎΔ᎘Δ=|×٢•𐰩ѵ᎘/ᛎʅ٢∟𐰩ⱵTۓ=|ꗺTѵ᎘⁪‮⁬◊

⁪‮⁬◊>ῡ∟⁬ﻌѵ•\ᛎ∟ōΔ•˧Δ⁪‮⁬᎘Δ//•[𐰩˧=Δ⁪‮⁬◊⠶ ƺὑT•|ʅ٢∟𐰩Ⱶꗺ⁬ﻌ•ʍ•\ᛎϪѵ=/ᛎ•ϪΔⱵᛎʅἡ=𐰩⁬\ꗺTѵ᎘/п•ϪΔ⁪‮⁬◊⁪‮⁬⁪⁪‮