Êanglluk

Êanglluk

=Summary= Êanglluk is a future version of English meant to be spoken by space colonists who have been isolated from Earth for long enough to develop their own language. The phonology has changed drastically, for example tone developed when consanants began to alter the pitch of nearby vowels. After consonant mergers tone became phonemic e.g. byet pronounced with a low tone means "bread", and with a rising tone means "breath". Other notable features are the development of ejectives, implosives and glottalised resonants, with the voicing distinction being lost everywhere except affricates. Uvular, retroflex and pharyngeal consonants have also emerged. The range of possible syllable structures has shrunk to (C) (j) V (C). The grammar has also changed, with noun incorporation becoming much more productive. Word order has become Topic Verb (Subject) (Object) and the alignment has changed to ergative-absolutive.

= Phonology =

Vowels
The vowel system is simply the 7 cardinal vowels.

Before a nasal consonant all vowels are nasalised.

Consonants
(Phonemes in brackets are marginally phonemic)

Velar ng /ŋ/ can only occur after a vowel, and ll /ɫ/ can only occur before a vowel. Retroflex consonants, r /ɾ/, y /j/, rk /q/, h //,The "glottal nasal" is realised as nasalisation of the preceding vowel (like some Japanese speakers do for moraic /N/. It can only occur after a vowel.

Tone
There are 6 tones in Êanglluk, although the system is simplifying to 5. There are many rules about how tones in a word can combine with each other and with consonants such as aspirates, ejectives and implosives.

Low Tone: a /a˨/ pronounced at the bottom of the speaker's vocal range and either level or slightly falling

Rising Tone: á /a˨˦/ starting at the bottom of the speaker's vocal range and rising.

High Tone: a (unmarked) /a˦/ starting at the top of the speaker's vocal range and either level or rising slightly.

Falling Tone: à /a˦˨/ starting at the top of the speaker's vocal range and falling.

Dipping Tone: ä /a˦˨˦/ this is in the process of merging into the high tone, and is only marginally phonemic if at all. It can only occur in a syllable before another syllable beginning with an aspirated consonant, where a high tone can never occur.

Glottal High Tone: â /aʔa ˦˥˦ / pronounced like the high tone, but with tense voice and interrupted by a glottal stop (tense voiced) midway through. This tone can only occur once per word.

One important tone rule in words with two or more syllables is that if a the tone of a syllable begins high (High, Falling, Dipping and Glottalised Tones), then the tone on the preceding syllable in the word (if any) must have ended high (Rising, High, Dipping and Glottalised Tones). Likewise if the tone of a syllable begins low (Low and Rising Tones), then the tone on the preceding syllable must have ended low (Low and Falling Tones).

=Basic Grammar= ...

=Dictionary = ...

=Example text= ...