Etrancoasti language

The Etrancoasti language is the main language of Etrancoast, formerly known as Hulra. While no longer carrying the prestige of its predecessors, it is still considered a good-to-know language when one decides to become involved in maritime trade.

The language has a heavy amount of loanwords from Middle Etrandish, Classical High Elven, and indirectly Middle High Elven via Middle Etrandish. The trade of loanwords between Etrandish and Etrancoasti continues even to this day, although it has now become much more mutual, with both languages borrowing words from each other.

Consonants
The consonantal system of current Etrancoasti is no different from that of Late Hulran, except for the introduction of the new sounds and the palatalization of  of to  or even  (mainly by rural speakers) before front unrounded vowels.

Vowels

 * The long vowels diphthongize to, fully eliminating phonemic vowel length distinction from the language (except for  and ).
 * The original Late Hulran also merges with
 * The original Late Hulran tense vowels either diphthongize or get laxed depending on environment
 * In open syllables (except word-finally), they diphthongize to
 * Before velar codas, they merge with the laxed
 * In other closed syllables and word-finally, they remained
 * The centralizing diphthongs become tense vowels

Grammar

 * As a result of Etrandish influence, the nominative case for singular masculine nouns becomes unmarked.
 * For regular nouns, the neuter gender is lost, with only masculine and feminine remaining. The neuter pronoun however remains.

Consonants

 * The consonants appear in foreign loanwords only
 * is generally mispronounced by uneducated speakers as or
 * is generally mispronounced by uneducated speakers as, sometimes even by educated speakers too. Some speakers may hypercorrect it to (the way it's meant to be pronounced in High Elven) even in Etrandish loanwords too.
 * is generally mispronounced as or  in the syllable onset,  in the syllable coda
 * is mispronounced as even by most of the educated speakers
 * Most speakers may pronounce either as just  (without the voiced medial allophone ), or merge it with.
 * Most speakers may pronounce either as just  (without the voiced medial allophone ), or merge it with.
 * Palatalization of velars:
 * ,, and  are palatalized to  or even  (especially by rural speakers) before front unrounded vowels.
 * ,, and are labio-palatalized to , , and  before front vowels - rounded and unrounded alike.
 * A lot of urban speakers do not palatalize at all.
 * was traditionally pronounced as an alveolar trill / flap, and still pronounced as such by higher-class and middle-class speakers, however in lower-class speech, the preferred realization of is a retroflex flap  (in southern dialects) or uvular trill / approximant  (in northern dialects).
 * Syllabic was traditionally pronounced as . Today, southern dialects pronounce it as an R-coloured vowel, while northern dialects use.

Monophthongs

 * The main distinction between the lax and the tense  is not length but vowel quality
 * the lax are always short
 * the tense are long  in open syllables (except word-finally), short  otherwise.
 * The lax appears in loanwords only, and uneducated speakers may mispronounce it as
 * The mid vowels are true mid, just like . In other words, they are neither  nor  but halfway between them:.
 * may be diphthongized to or even  by some speakers

Grammar
Etrancoast is subject-verb-object and synthetic language.

Nouns
The various cases had the following functions:
 * The nominative case usually marks the subject of the sentence. Historically - in Late Hulran and before - it was marked by -r, but due to Etrandish influence, it was lost.
 * The genitive case marks ownership. For example, "Húlrán Réct" means "(the) Kingdom of Hulra".
 * The dative case usualy marks indirect objects, similar to the use of English "to" and "for"
 * the accusative case usually marks direct objects, ones that are being directly targeted.

Verbs

 * The infinitive is marked by -(i)ri, just like Present Simple.
 * Adding an extra -r (or -er, if it ends with a consonant) at the end turns the verb perfect. An example:
 * "seffiri" means "to make someone / something beautiful". It is in Present Simple.
 * "seffeg" is the same verb, but in Future Simple instead. For example, "you will make her beautiful".
 * "seffegher" is the same verb, but in Future Perfect instead. For example, "you will have made her beautiful".

Adjectives
Adjectives have three forms in Etrancoasti:
 * Normal adjective: -en
 * Comparitive adjective: -enri
 * Superlative adjective: -aneg

Adverbs
Adverbs have three forms in Etrancoasti:
 * Normal adverb: -aten
 * Comparitive adverb: -arten
 * Superlative adverb: -ang

Inclusive or vs Exclusive or
Etrancoasti distinguishes between the "inclusive or" and the "exclusive or". The earlier means, "either A, B, or both of them", while the latter means "either A or B, but not both of them - never both of them".
 * The word for the inclusive or is
 * The word for the exclusive or is

Numbers from 0 to 16

 * 0: mar
 * 1: an
 * 2: fán
 * 3: wen
 * 4: ré
 * 5: sé
 * 6: dé
 * 7: ghé
 * 8: step
 * 9: rón
 * 10: rófán
 * 11: rówen
 * 12: rórei
 * 13: róthé
 * 14: ródé
 * 15: róghé
 * 16: róstep

Numerical postfixes

 * 16 power 1: -(a)p
 * Denotes the first power of 16. For example, "anp-an" means $$((16^1) * 1)+((16^0)*1)$$, or 0x11, or simply 17 in decimal.
 * Logic would suggest the number 16 - 0x10 in hexadecimal - be said as "anp" - but it is actually "roustep". This is a holdover from Proto-Elven.
 * 16 power 2: -(i)p
 * Denotes the second power of 16. For example, "enp-an" means $$((16^2) * 1)+((16^0)*1)$$, or 0x101, or simply 257 in decimal.
 * When used as a noun - especially plural, and especially in casual usage - the word can also be used as an equivalent of "hundreds".
 * 16 power 3: -quat
 * Denotes the third power of 16. For example, "anquat-an" means $$((16^3) * 1)+((16^0)*1)$$, or 0x1001, or simply 4097 in decimal.
 * When used as a noun - especially plural, and especially in casual usage - the word can also be used as an equivalent of "thousands".
 * 16 power 4: -iet
 * Denotes the fourth power of 16. For example, "aniet-an" means $$((16^4) * 1)+((16^0)*1)$$, or 0x10001, or simply 65537 in decimal.
 * 16 power 5: -quét
 * Denotes the fifth power of 16. For example, "anquét-an" means $$((16^5) * 1)+((16^0)*1)$$, or 0x100001, or simply 1048577 in decimal.
 * When used as a noun - especially plural, and especially in casual usage - the word can also be used as an equivalent of "millions".
 * negative: -n(e)l
 * Used to postfix a negative number. For example, "an" means 1, while "ennel" means -1.
 * Ordinator: -(e)r
 * Turns a cardinal number into an ordinal number. For example, "an" means "one", while "ener" means "first".
 * Radix point: wir
 * Literally means "full", it separates the integral part of a number from the fractional part. For example, "an wir róstep" means 0x1.F, equivalent to the decimal 1.9375.