Etrandish language

The Etrandish language is a Human language first spoken in the territories that would become the Kingdom of Etrand by 0 BEKE/AEKE. It reached it's currently recognizable and intelligible form roughly around 600 AEKE, but changes are still ongoing.

At this point, Etrandish has became the lingua franca of global trade, turning from a borrowing language into a loaning language, extending the language beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom of Etrand

Consonants

 * The voiceless stops and affricates became aspirated
 * Modally voiced stops and affricates partially lost their voicing word-initially and word-finally, becoming slack-voiced (completely devoiced in northern dialects)
 * In uneducated speech, coda-position nasals merged into a new phoneme  at the ends of words
 * In all dialects but Standard Etrandish, the voiceless merges with the voiced

Vowels

 * The laxing of short to  has become fully accepted as standard and spread to diphthongs too.
 * ,, , and  shifted to , , ,  and.
 * and merged as
 * Diphthongization of long close-mid vowels:
 * and diphthongized to  and
 * and merged as
 * The long open-mid vowels remained unchanged
 * Shift of to
 * The cluster became
 * also became before the consonants.
 * Shift of to, eliminating historical distinction with  (which shifted to  400 years before)
 * remained unchanged
 * Merger of to  in all except the Northern dialects

Grammar

 * The dative case for nouns and pronouns alike completely falls out of use.
 * For regular nouns (not pronouns), the genitive case also falls out of use - replaced by the preposition "ven" -, except in formal speech and certain phrases, like "Etranden Réct" (Kingdom of Etrand).

Phonotactics
In Etrandish, the construction of a syllable is /(O)(O)(S)V(S)(S)(O)(O)/, O standing for Obstrudent (stop, fricative, affricate), L standing for sonorant (nasal, rhotic, lateral approximant, semivowel), and V standing for vowel. There are some limitations however.
 * Two stop or affricate consonants cannot follow each other in the same syllable. Only stop-fricative and fricative-stop clusters are allowed (not counting the optional glide or rhotic that may follow).
 * Syllable-initially, fricative-stop clusters are only tolerated if they are voiceless. Clusters like /zb zd zg/ are not tolerated, only /sp st sk/.
 * In native Etrandish vocabulary, stop-fricative clusters also take place in their voiceless forms, but voiced clusters like /bz dz gz/ are in fact tolerated in foreign loanwords, such as the personal name Gzaxia.
 * Only up to two sonorants may form a cluster within a single syllable. Such a cluster can only be followed by a fricative within the same syllable. It may not be followed by a stop or affricate consonant, unless it is in the following syllable.
 * Sonorant-clusters can only exist at syllable coda, not the syllable onset.
 * Some consonants - such as the velar nasal /ŋ/ - can only take place in the syllable coda, never at the offset.
 * The placeless nasal /ɴ/ - which only occurs in lower-class dialects - appears only at the end of words, and only when following a vowel.

Now that we know how Etrandish syllables are structured, we also need to realize that Etradish also has sandhi - in other words, if a syllable is followed by a syllable that begins with a vowel (has no initial consonants), the first syllable's last consonant gets transferred over to the second syllable. This also extends beyond word boundaries. For example, /kɔl.dɛr/ (Calder) is pronounced [kʰɔłdəɹ] in isolation, while /eɪk/ (may, might, possibly) is always [eɪ̯k]. Come them together, and instead of [kʰɔłdəɹ‿eɪk], we get [kʰɔłdɛr‿reɪk] or [kʰɔłdɛrːeɪk]. The explanation is that /kɔl.dɛr/ + /eɪk/ equals /kɔl.dɛ reɪk/, not /kɔl.dɛr eɪk/. Normally, the end result would produce a single flapped [ɾ] instead of the geminated trill [rː], but since this is the combination of two words, the /r/ gets treated as a word-initial /r/ - a trill.

Other than /r/, /l/ also becomes geminated, if a word ending with it is followed by a word starting with a vowel. Stops, fricatives and nasals - other than /ŋ/ - simply get transferred over. /ŋ/ inserts a /g/ onto the following word instead.

Consonants

 * This is about Standard Etrandish phonology. If you want to read about dialects, see Etrandish dialects.


 * /h/ has a relatively large amount of allophones depending on their position:
 * Voiceless glottal approximant [h] word-initially, and after nasals, voiceless stops and voiceless fricatives
 * Voiced glottal approximant [ɦ] between two vowels
 * Voiceless velar fricative [x] between a back/central vowel and a voiceless stop, fricative or word boundary. Some speakers may use a voiceless uvular fricative [χ] instead.
 * Voiceless palatal fricative [ç] between a front vowel and a voiceless stop, fricative or word boundary
 * Voiced velar fricative [ɣ] between a back/central vowel and a voiced stop or fricative. Some speakers may use a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] instead.
 * Voiced palatal fricative [ʝ] between a front vowel and a voiced stop or fricative.
 * The voiceless /ʍ/ is present only in conservative speech. In every other variant, it is merged with the voiced /w/.
 * The voiceless stops and affricates /p t t͡s t͡ʃ k kʷ/ are aspirated [pʰ tʰ t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ kʷʰ] when not in the syllable coda or proceeding a sibilant.
 * There is no aspiration in conservative speech.
 * The voiceless stops /p t k/ are typically unreleased [p̚ t̚ k̚] in the syllable coda
 * In emphatic speech, they may be aspirated [pʰ tʰ kʰ] instead
 * The voiced stops and affricates /b d d͡ʒ g gʷ/ are slack-voiced [b̥ d̥ d̥͡ʒ g̊ g̊ʷ] word-initially and word-finally.
 * In the dialects of Northern Etrand, they may be completely devoiced [p t t͡ʃ k kʷ] in these environments. This is a marked feature of the stereotypical Steelhelm accent.
 * Modally voiced stops and affricates are always fully voiced in conservative speech.
 * The dental fricatives /θ ð/ are often shifted to other positions.
 * /ð/ is shifted to [d̪] or even merged with /d/ in most dialects
 * /θ/ is merged with /f/ in a lot of lower-class speech. Generally, /θ/ is preserved in its original form (as [θ]) much more widely than /ð/.
 * /θ ð/ are preserved as [θ ð] not only in conservative speech, but also in most educated speech
 * The placeless nasal /ɴ/ only exists in middle-class and lower-class speech as a merger of coda-position /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ when no consonant follows
 * Conservative speech preserves /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ fully intact, as [m], [n] and [ŋ]
 * Word-final /ɴ/ is vocalized to [ʊ̯̃] or [ʏ̯̃], forming nasal diphthongs. Otherwise, it assimilates to the following stop, becoming [m] before labial consonants, [ŋ] before velar consonants, [n] before all the other consonants.
 * /r/ is realized in multiple ways, depending on the envorniment
 * In Standard Etrandish - as well as in the dialect of Western Etrand -, /r/ is realized as an...
 * apico-alveolar trill [r̺] word-initially and when geminated
 * apico-alveolar/retroflex flap [ɾ̺] medially when not geminated
 * velarized alveolar/retroflex approximant [ɹˠ~ɻ] in the syllable coda
 * In several dialects, things are different:
 * in Northern Etrand, the Guttural R [ʀ~ʁ~ʁ̞~χ] reign supreme.
 * In Southern Etrand, /r/ is consistently realized as a post-alveolar / retroflex approximant [ɹ̠~ɻ] and may or may not be elided when no vowel follows (non-rhotic), based on speaker preference (speakers who elide the final /r/ pronunce /ər/ as [ɐ]).
 * In the Eastern Mountains, /r/ is realized as an alveolar/uvular trill [r~ʀ] consistenly. The flap and approximant are never used.
 * Non-humans will usually pronounce /r/ as in their native, non-human languages:
 * Dwarves realizing /r/ as a uvular trill [ʀ]
 * Halflings realizing /r/ as either an alveolar tflap [ɾ] or a uvular trill [ʀ], depending on the context.
 * Lizardmen realizing /r/ as a retroflex approximant [ɻ].

Vowels

 * This is about Standard Etrandish phonology. If you want to read about dialects, see Etrandish dialects.

Monophthongs

 * The vowels /ɒ/, /ɔː/ and /ɛː/ only exist before /r/ and /l/
 * In all but the most conservative pronunciations - Standard and dialectal alike - /uː/ is centralized to [ʉː], or even fronted to [yː], especially after /j/.
 * /ɑ/ is primarily pronounced as [ɑ] or [ɑ̈], but also has the following allophones:
 * [ɒ] before coda-position /r/
 * [ɔ] before coda-position /l/
 * [ɐ] in diphthongs, word-finally, and also in vowel clusters following /ɪ/, /ʏ/, /ʊ/, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/: in other words, /ɪɑ ʏɑ ʊɑ ɛɑ ɔɑ/ are pronounced as [ɪɐ ʏɐ ʊɐ ɛɐ ɔɐ].

Diphthongs

 * In lower-class and middle-class speech, the nasal diphthongs [ɑʊ̯̃ əʏ̯̃~əʊ̯̃ ɛʏ̯̃ œʏ̯̃ iʏ̯̃ ɔʊ̯̃ uʊ̯̃] exist too, as allophones of /ɑɴ əɴ ɛɴ œɴ ɪɴ ɔɴ ʊɴ/
 * /ɴ/ does not exist in conservative speech. Conservative speech preserves /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ fully intact, as [m], [n] and [ŋ]
 * Even in most non-conservative speech, /ɴ/ only exists word-finally

Grammar
Middle Etrandish was a subject-verb-object and synthetic language, although now with analytical elements.

Nouns
While Old Etrandish used cases and relied on them, and Current Etrandish did away with cases altogether (except for the genitive in formal usage and archaicisms) - relying almost entirely on prepositions instead - Middle Etrandish marked the transitional stage between the two, where both systems coexisted.

The various cases had the following functions:
 * The nominative case usually marks the subject of the sentence.
 * The genitive case - which has largerly fallen out of use, replaced by the preposition "ven" - marks ownership. For example, "Etranden Réct" means "(the) Kingdom of Etrand". "Réct ven Etrand" also means "Kingdom of Etrand".

The dative case of Middle Etrandish has completely fallen out of use, even in formal speech. The genitive case - for regular nouns, that is - is preserved only in formal speech, especially written documents.

Pronouns

 * While the genitive case has largely fallen out of use for regular nouns, it is still preferred and mandatory for pronouns. For example, "Réct ven Ai" is not valid. Only "mae Réct" (my Kingdom).

Verbs

 * The infinitive is marked by -ir, just like Present Simple.
 * Adding an extra -(e)r at the end turns the verb perfect. An example:
 * "seffir" means "to make someone/something beautiful". It is in Present Simple.
 * "seffei" is the same verb, but in Future Simple instead. For example, "you will make her beautiful".
 * "seffeier" is the same verb, but in Future Perfect instead. For example, "you will have made her beautiful".

Adjectives
Adjectives have three forms in Etrandish:
 * Normal adjective: -en
 * Comparitive adjective: -ener
 * Superlative adjective: -enei

Adverbs
Adverbs have three forms in Etrandish:
 * Normal adverb: -eten
 * Comparitive adverb: -arten
 * Superlative adverb: -eng

Inclusive or vs Exclusive or
Etrandish 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

In casual speech, the distinction between the inclusive or and exclusive or has grown blurred, with the majority of speakers using the two interchangeably in informal speech. In formal speech - and written text - however, it becomes mandatory to make a distinction and use them correctly.