Sethrian language

Sethrian (Sethrian: Sethrisari /seθɾisɑɾi/) is a Sethric language spoken mainly in Sethris, where it is the official language. Its many distinct dialects form a dialect continuum of mostly mutually intelligible varieties. Sethrian, along with the extinct Frosðic language, constitute the Sethric languages.
Today there are several spoken dialects of Sethrian, but only one official written standard, which was constructed by Sethrian linguist Gäles-Ifrik Gelärhisgir.
== History ==
=== Origins ===
Sethrian, like other Pavrhian languages, is a descendant of the Proto-Pavrhian language, an barely-attested proto-language spoken by Pavrhian humans before the founding of the Empire of Pavrhitsöth. Proto-Pavrhian did not have a writing system and the only attestations of it come from manuscripts in the Vinvüri language. As the Pavrhians arrived in Sethris, they began taking in linguistic influences and loanwords from the native races of Sethris. Eventually, the humans adopted and heavily modified the Vinvüri script into the earliest form of the Sethrian runes, which began the Old Sethrian period of the language.
When Pavrhitsöth was founded and the humans became the dominant power in the region, they began to influence the other races until Old Sethrian became the lingua franca, and eventually, the first language of the majority of the population, even for non-humans (excluding the Koldëti). Geksirari disappeared entirely, while Vinvüri went extinct except for as a liturgical language for the Orcaes Avaar religion, while the Koldëti managed to keep their linguistic rights due to a period of resistance and rebellions.
=== Modern Alphabet ===
At the dawn of the modern Republic of Sethris, Sethrian runes were dropped in favor of the Traveler's Tongue alphabet because the runes were time-consuming to inscribe and intended for stone and wooden inscriptions and not for parchment and also because of Traveler's Tongue's rising influence. Around the same time, a variety of vocabulary and pronunciation changes occurred, and spelling changed significantly in order to reflect this, although still the dialects were varied and uncentralized.
=== Standardization ===
Due to the recent efforts of linguists Evëlin-Töve Yvantsel and Gäles-Ifrik Gelärhisgir, who went around Sethris recording the different dialects of the races and communities in the nation, Sethrian has received its first official standardized written form, referred to as Standard Sethrian. Although most native speakers simply write in their local dialect (except in Avaris, Whiteridge, and Zirbenburg, whose dialects are mostly identical to Standard Sethrian and therefore have had little trouble adopting it), Standard Sethrian is taught to foreign learners of the language for simplicity and it is constructed to be mutually intelligible with all Sethrian dialects.
== Phonology ==
As Standard Sethrian is a written standard and not a spoken one, there is still wide variation in pronunciation in Sethrian. The phonology listed below are for the three most common dialects of Sethrian.
=== Consonants ===
Consonant phonemes of Avaris Sethrian
 	Bilabial	Dental 	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar 	Glottal
Nasal 	/m/ 	 	/n/ 	 	/ŋ/ 	
Stop 	/p/ /b/ 	 	/t/ /d/ 	 	/k/ /g/	
Fricative 	/f/ /v/ 	/θ/ /ð/	/s/ /z/ 	 	 	/h/
Approximant	 	 	 	/j/ 	 	
Lateral 	 	 	/l/ 	 	 	
Tap 	 	 	/ɾ/ 	 	 	
Trill 	 	 	/r/ 	 	 	
/f/ and /v/ are labio-dental. Trilled /r/ is rare, only occuring in a few proper nouns and in formal or emphatic speech.
Consonant phonemes of Zirbenburg Sethrian
 	Bilabial	Dental 	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar 	Glottal
Nasal 	/m/ 	 	/n/ 	 	/ŋ/ 	
Stop 	/p/ /b/ 	 	/t/ /d/ 	 	/k/ /g/	
Fricative 	/f/ 	/θ/ /ð/	/s/ /z/ 	 	 	/h/
Approximant	/ʋ/ 	 	 	/j/ 	 	
Lateral 	 	 	/l/ 	 	 	
Tap 	 	 	/ɾ/ 	 	 	
In Zirbenburg Sethrian, /v/ became /ʋ/ due to influence from other languages, as Zirbenburg is a multicultural city.
Consonant phonemes of Whiteridge Sethrian
 	Bilabial	Dental 	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar 	Glottal
Nasal 	/m/ 	 	/n/ 	 	 	/ŋ/ 	
Stop 	/p/ /b/ 	/t̪/ /d̪/	/t/ /d/ 	 	 	/k/ /g/	
Fricative 	/f/ /v/ 	 	/s/ 	 	 	 	/h/
Affricate 	 	 	 	/tʃ/ 	 	 	
Approximant	 	 	 	 	/j/ 	 	
Lateral 	 	 	/l/ 	 	 	 	
Tap 	 	 	/ɾ/ 	 	 	 	
Whiteridge Sethrian is by far the most unique of these three dialects phonetically, with /ts/ from Old Sethrian evolving into /tʃ/ instead of /z/ as in the other two dialects and the fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ becoming /t̪/ and /d̪/.
=== Vowels ===
Vowel phonemes of Avaris Sethrian
Orthography	IPA
a 	/ɑ/
ä 	/a/
e 	/e/
ë 	/ɛ/
i 	/i/
o 	/o/
ö 	/ø/
u 	/ʊ/
ü 	/u/
y 	/y/
Vowel phonemes of Zirbenburg Sethrian
Orthography	IPA
a 	/ɑ/
ä 	/æ/
e 	/e/
ë 	/ɛ/
i 	/i/
o 	/o/
ö 	/ø/
u 	/ʊ/
ü 	/u/
y 	/y/
Vowel phonemes of Whiteridge Sethrian
Orthography	IPA
a 	/ɑ/
ä 	/æ/
e 	/e/
ë 	/ə/
i 	/i/
o 	/ɔ/
ö 	/ø/
u 	/ʊ/
ü 	/u/
y 	/y/
== Written Language ==
The Sethrian alphabet has 26 letters.
Letter	IPA Pronunciation(s)
A/a 	/ɑ/
B/b 	/b/
D/d 	/d/
E/e 	/e/
F/f 	/f/
G/g 	/g/
H/h 	/h/
I/i 	/i/
J/j 	/j/
K/k 	/k/
L/l 	/l/
M/m 	/m/
N/n 	/n/
O/o 	/o/ (Avaris, Zirbenburg) /ɔ/ (Whiteridge)
P/p 	/p/
R/r 	/ɾ/
S/s 	/s/
T/t 	/t/
U/u 	/ʊ/
V/v 	/v/ (Avaris, Whiteridge) /ʋ/ (Zirbenburg)
Y/y 	/y/
Z/z 	/z/ (Avaris, Zirbenburg) /tʃ/ (Whiteridge)
Ä/ä 	/a/ (Avaris) /æ/ (Zirbenburg, Whiteridge)
Ë/ë 	/ɛ/ (Avaris, Zirbenburg) /ə/ (Whiteridge)
Ö/ö 	/ø/
Ü/ü 	/u/
The Sethrian alphabet uses a modified version of the Traveler's Tongue alphabet with several letters dropped and four vowels with diaereses added. These vowels are treated as separate letters in their own right and not modified versions of the letters they are based on. In addition, there are four digraphs which produce altered sounds:
Digraph 	IPA Pronunciation(s)
ng 	/ŋ/
th 	/θ/, /ð/ (Avaris, Zirbenburg) /t̪/, /d̪/ (Whiteridge)
rh (archaic; used in some proper nouns)	/r/ (Avaris) /ɾ/ (Zirbenburg, Whiteridge)
ts (archaic; used in some proper nouns)	/s/ (Avaris) /z/ (Zirbenburg) /tʃ/ (Whiteridge)
In all dialects of Sethrian, <ng> cannot occur syllable-initially. /θ/ and /ð/ become the equivalent dental plosives in Whiteridge, while <ts> and <rh> are archaic spellings from Old Sethrian which are only found in a few proper nouns such as surnames and place names. Only Avaris Sethrian keeps the trilled <rh> as it was in Old Sethrian, while Zirbenburg and Whiteridge reduce it to a tapped <r>, and <ts> is pronounced differently in each region.
== Grammar ==
=== Nouns ===
Sethrian nouns are inflected for number (singular and plural) and definiteness. There are three noun cases in Sethrian: the nominative, the accusative, and the genitive.
==== Nominative ====
 	Indefinite Singular	Definite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Plural
Sethrian 	Al dig 	Digta 	Vüdig 	Vüdigta
English equivalent	A fish 	The fish 	Fishes 	The fishes
==== Accusative ====
 	Indefinite Singular	Definite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Plural
Sethrian 	Al digvi 	Digvita 	Vüdigvi 	Vüdigvita
English equivalent	A fish 	The fish 	Fishes 	The fishes
==== Genitive ====
 	Indefinite Singular	Definite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Plural
Sethrian 	Al digbi 	Digbita 	Vüdigpi 	Vüdigpita
English equivalent	A fish's 	The fish's 	Fishes' 	The fishes'
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Category:Sethris
Category:Traveler's Era