Inglesh Language

**Inglesh** (Ingleß/恩語いんぐれ゚し) is a language spoken in the Isles of Pwek. The language arises from extensive contact between English and Cantonese, with English being the base of the language's grammar and vocabularies. There are 3 standard forms of Inglesh, which represents the 3 major dialect groups of Inglesh.

## Etymology and Nomenclature

The name of the language "Inglesh" is from slightly distorted pronunciation of the "English". The name was chosen to reflect the difference of it from English despite showing its relationship with it. As with its name, a few of the vocabularies of Inglesh have their pronunciation intentionally distorted.

As for the names of Inglesh in other languages, they are usually related to the word for Ingland (Homeland of the Inglesh) in that language. For example, the name for Inglesh in Chinese is "恩格蘭語", which is related to "恩格蘭" Ingland.

## Classification

Inglesh belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages, itself a subgroup of the Indo-European family. It is directly descended from English, with grammatical features still very much the same as in English, and a large portion of the vocabularies directly related to those in English. As such, Inglesh is still very much mutually intelligible with English, and is classified as a member of the Anglic languages.

Within the Inglesh language, there are 3 dialects of the language spoken on the Isles of Pwek. Each of these dialects are represented by a standardised language. This means that Inglesh has 3 standard version: Ingland Inglesh, New Inglesh and Ryutanian Inglesh. The 3 dialects are generally intelligible with each other, with Ryutanian Inglesh being the furthest away from the other 2, due to the more frequent use of Japanese loan words.

Seeing as the influences from Cantonese to Inglesh in terms of grammar and vocabulary, some argue that Inglesh should be considered as a mixed language or a creole between Cantonese and English. However, during the evolution of Inglesh, it had retained quite a fair few of grammatical features from English, due to the fact that its speakers usually underwent the education of the English language. Thus, this view of Inglesh being a mixed language or a creole is rarely considered amongst scholars.

## History

In terms of history, Inglesh is a relatively new language, only being developed into a seperate language decades ago.

### English in the Pwekish Isles

The English language first appeared on the Isles of Pwek in the 17th-18th centuries, as European traders and explorers arriving at the shores of the islands. Chinese merchants, who would buy European goods and sell them to the islands' locals, are usually the ones who contacted the English, thus bringing the Chinese Pidgin English to the islands. However, visits of European ships on the Isles of Pwek is rare, as the location of the isles are relatively hard to reach. Therefore, English did not blow up in popularity on the Isles of Pwek, and was merely seen as another foreign language at the time.

### The Colonial Ages

As European powers fought to spread their power across the Pacific Ocean, the effects of colonisation soon reaches the Isles of Pwek. After the defeat of the Pwekish Kingdom by the Germans, the isles became a German colony, which is then changed hands to the English after World War II. Because of this, English became the prestige language on the isles. With the significant Cantonese population on the islands, contact between English and Cantonese increased overtime, thus causing Inglesh to appear.

### Early Inglesh

As English education reaches most of the population on the islands, a local form of English is formed. People soon realised the inconsistencies in English spelling, so they started writing English words phonetically, thus forming the earliest form of Inglesh. Early Inglesh were often just English words spelt to reflect their pronunciation, as it only surfed as a helping tool of English learning. It only started developing new unique features afterwards when it began to be used for communication.

### Later Development

Inglesh started to be used for communication within small communities as some form of jargon. During this time, Inglesh absorbed vocabularies from other languages, primarily Cantonese. The popularity of Inglesh in the Isles started to explode due to access to the internet. Soon, 3 standardised form of Inglesh appeared, and were chosen as an official language of most regional governments in the isles.

## Phonology

Inglesh phonology and phonetics is generally consistent among dialects, although it may differ from person to person, depending on the speaker's ability to pronounce some of the phonemes.

### Consonants

* p, t and k are usually aspirated (ʰ) except when following s, and may be unreleased at coda of syllables.
* tʃ, dʒ, ʃ and ʒ are realised as tɕ, dʑ, ɕ and ʑ respectively by Ryutanian Inglesh speakers and speakers of Pwekish.
* v, ɸ and θ may be merged with f in some speakers.
* ð may be merged with d in some speakers.
* z may be merged with s in some speakers.
* ʒ may be merged with ʃ in some speakers.
* ʁ may be merged with h in some speakers.
* Some speakers are unable to distinguish between ɹ, ɾ and r. In Ryutanian Inglesh, ɹ and ɾ are not distinguished.

### Vowels

**Monothongs**
 Near-close
 Middle
 Near-open
 Close

* i and ɪ, y and ʏ, u and ʊ, e and ə, ɔ and o, a and ɐ are considered as long and short vowel pairs. Usually, vowels are shortened in unstressed syllables.
* Ingland Inglesh does not distinguish between e and ɛ.

### Phonotactics

Inglesh syllables generally have the structure of (CCC)V(CCC). The possible consonant cluster combinations at the onset position is basically the same as in English. At the coda position, consonant clusters tend to simplify, and might even disappear after diphthongs. In Ryutanian Inglesh, consonant clusters are very commonly divided into several syllables by inserting a voiceless vowel behind the individual consonant, a feature that arises from influences from Japanese. Because of this, Ryutanian Inglesh syllables are strictly (C)(G)V(C), as in Japanese.

### Stress and Pitch Accent

Though stresses are often denoted in the pronunciation of words in Inglesh dictionaries, Inglesh is actually more of a pitch-accent language rather than a stress-accent language. Stressed syllables are often pronounced with a high tone, while unstressed syllables are usually pronounce with a middle tone before the stressed syllable, or a low tone after the stressed syllable. There are also situations where syllables ofter the one that is stressed are also pronounced with a high tone. The pitch accent of Inglesh is poorly documented, yet predictable, and is very similar to the pitch accent used in Hong Kong English.

### Correspondences with English

Some phonemes in English corresponds to a different phoneme in Inglesh. The following table shows such patterns found between English and Inglesh, tho these patterns may have exceptions sometimes.

## Grammar

Like English, Inglesh features nominative-accusative alignment and is more analytic than fusional as in most Indo-European languages. Inglesh is even more analytic than English, a property influenced by Cantonese. As with English, nouns lost their case inflections, instead expressing the same meaning through a more fixed word order as well as prepositions and particles. Inglesh verbs also lost most of their conjugations. Features such as do-support, wh-movement and word order inversion that are used to mark questions are only optional. Overall, Inglesh tends to regularise grammatical features that are otherwise not as regular in English.

### Nouns

In Inglesh, nouns are only inflected for number. Plural forms are almost always formed by adding the suffix *-s*. Nouns inherited from English in which they follow irregular plural formation either regularised their plural formation (e.g. *naif*/*naifs*, as in English *knife*/*knives*) or have their plural form completely disappeared (e.g. *wumen*/*wumen*, as in English *woman*/*women*). Ablaut is also present in Inglesh, though it only occurs to very few of the nouns (e.g. *fūt*/*fīt*, as in English *foot*/*feet*). It is also worth mentioning that Inglesh noun plural forms are only used optionally. When words describing the number are used, the plural suffix are often left out (e.g. *mæni ium* "many things").

Possession is not inflected in Inglesh, as the purpose of the possessive form of nouns are replaced with the particle *di*.

### Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives are not marked by the gender and number of nouns, just as in English. Several suffixes in Inglesh serves the purpose of marking an adjective, such as the suffix *-tif*. The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are either inflected by adding the suffix *-a* and *-es* respectively, or expressed by using the determiner *mor* ("more") and *mous* ("most").

Many adjectives in Inglesh can be transformed into adverbs by adding the suffix *-di*, just as *-ly* in English.

### Pronouns

Unlike in English, in which the pronouns are inflected through cases and genders, pronouns in Inglesh lack inflections other than possession. Most of the personal pronouns in Inglesh are completely replaced with non-Germanic origin words. The personal pronouns are from Pwekish (*ŋřa*, from Pwekish "ŋra", and *ŋři*, from Pwekish "ŋris"), English (*yu*, from "you", *yo*, from "y'all", and *et*, from "it") and Chinese (*ta* and *tra*, derived from Mandarin "他/她/牠", which is pronounced as "tā") respectively. Inglesh also distinguish between animate and inanimate objects instead of gender when referring to them with third person singular pronouns.

### Prepositions and Particles

Inglesh uses prepositions and particles to convey the informations that otherwise be expressed by case inflections of nouns or verb tenses. The particle *di* is used as a possesive particle instead of a genitive case of nouns. The preposition *der* is also used for the same purpose, but it is put in front of the possessor. There is also a preposition *auf* which is derived from English "of", but it lost its original meaning of possessiveness, and it is almost only used in some fixed phrases.

### Verbs

Whereas verbs in English are inflected through person, tenses and aspects, almost all verbs in Inglesh are only inflected through aspects. The copula verb *bi* is the only one that retained the personal inflections. Other verbs only have 3 different forms, infinitive (or the plain form), perfective (*-de*) and Imperfective (*-in*, also known as continuous), and they are inflected regularly. Past tense is expressed via the particle *jor* (from Cantonese "咗", which is pronounced as "jó"), while future tense is most commonly expressed via the auxiliary verb *wiu* ("will"). There are also verbs that were originally the predicate form of another verb in English, but have their meaning shifted and became a new verb in Inglesh (such as *fot*, which is from English "thought", the predicate form of "think"), though this is only a rare occurrence.

In verb clauses, the preposition *tu* ("to") is usually added in front of the infinitive form.

### Syntax

Just as in English, sentences in Inglesh follows the general structure of SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). Indirect objects are almost always put behind direct object and proceeded by preposition *tu*. Construction of clauses is basically the same as in English.

### Auxiliary Verb

Auxiliary verbs are used to form many verb phrases in Inglesh. Most verbs requires the addition of the preposition "tu" in front of the second verb. Some of the auxiliary verbs, however, don't require this addition. Inglesh uses the auxiliary verbs "don" to express negation. Moreover, some verbs such as "gou" and "woŋ" are frequently combined with "tu" to form new auxiliary verbs in colloquial speech, like "gonna" and "woŋna".

### Questions

Like in English, Inglesh also features subject-auxiliary inversion (*Ar yu hiya?* "Are you here?") and do-support (*Du yu laik ta?* "Do you like her?") in questions. In questions with interrogative words, the interrogative words are put at front, with verbs being place before the subject. It is also possible to not use subject-verb inversion and do-support in questions, though this is somewhat colloquial, or it would express a somewhat sarcastic tone, or that a certain answer is expected. Moreover, questions with interrogative words at the object's position are also seen as grammatically correct, though it may express a surprised tone.

## Vocabulary

Inglesh vocabulary is mostly the same as in English, as Inglesh is descended from English. Despite this, there is an amount of words that is different from those of the same meaning in English, as Inglesh adopted new vocabularies from various other languages, as well as creating new vocabularies via compound word formation and back-formation.

### Word Formation Process

Much like in English, many new words in Inglesh are formed by combining existing vocabularies through various ways. Compound words are frequently generated and commonly used. This is sometimes done through combining several words in a sentence (e.g. *lænensi* "island", from *læn en sī* "land in sea"), combining a word with a modifier word (e.g. *flaīnmaus* "bat", from *flaīn* "flying" + *maus* "mouse") and plainly combining 2 words together (e.g. *apnūn* "morning", from *ap* "up" + *nūn* "noon"), which usually occurs in calques. Some new words are also formed through back-formation, as like in English, there are many affixes which changes a word's part of speech, aspect and meaning (e.g. *-tif* "-tive", which converts a noun into an adjective). Words that seem to contain these affixes are commonly mistaken to have their meaning altered, thus back-formation occurs to them quite often (e.g. *potten* "not important", from *impotten* "important").

### Word Origins

As of the writing of this article, there are no complete Inglesh dictionaries anywhere, However, it is estimated that about 90% of vocabulary in Inglesh originate from English, about 5% originates from Chinese languages (mostly Cantonese), about 2% from Pwekish, about 2% from Japanese, and the rest from other languages such as German, Spanish, French, etc. These percentages can vary depending on the dialect, politeness and the person that is being spoken to. For example, in official situations, more English-origin vocabularies may be used; while in casual speech, more Cantonese and Pwekish origin vocabularies would be used. It is also worth noting that the Ryutan dialect generally uses Japanese vocabularies for more abstract and professional concepts and ideas. An example is the word for "theory", which would be 理り論ろん (*łiłon*) in the Ryutan dialect, but *þiœri* in other Inglesh dialects.

## Writing System

Several writing systems have been developed for writing Inglesh. As Inglesh is descended from English, the oldest and most established writing system for Inglesh is naturally the Latin Alphabet. Later, speakers of Inglesh took influences from Chinese characters and created various Hanji scripts (which literally means Chinese Characters), while Inglesh of the Ryutan region adopted Japanese Hiragana and Katakana for writing. Nowadays, Inglesh is mostly written in the Latin Alphabet and in Kanji-Kana mixed script in day-to-day life, depending on the region, with Hanji scripts mostly for signage and decoration purposes.

### Inglesh Latin Alphabet

Main article: Inglesh Orthography
As the oldest and most developed writing system for Inglesh, the Inglesh Latin Alphabet (commonly called the Inglesh Alphabet, or *de Ingleß Aufabet*) is the most commonly used writing system for Inglesh. It is a modified sets of the original 26-letter Latin Alphabet, with several letters added to represent all phonemes in Inglesh. This increases the letter count to 44. The Inglesh Alphabet is used for writing the Ingland Inglesh and New Inglesh, 2 of the 3 standard forms of Inglesh. Though both of them uses the same set of letters, Ingland Inglesh tends to spell words more freely and reflects more on the pronunciation, while words in New Inglesh are spelled less freely and reflects more on the etymology.

Inglesh has gone through multiple spelling reforms. Old Inglesh was first written with just the original 26 letters of the Latin Alphabet, with digraphs and trigraphs representing phonemes of which would be represented by individual letters in modern Inglesh. During the addition of new letters, many letters had gone through reforms as well. These older digraphs, trigraphs and older forms of letters are regarded as alternatives nowadays when the new letters are unavailable. Many of them can still be seen on older signs and posters that haven't been corrected yet since the reforms.

### Ryutanian Script

Main article: Ryutan Inglesh § Ryutanian Script
The Ryutanian Inglesh dialect is written in a completely different script, known as the Ryutanian Script (龍りゅう潭たん文字もじ, *Ryūtan Moji*). Influenced by Japanese, the system is composed of 3 different systems, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, used together as a mixed script. Like in Japanese, Kanji is used for most nouns and names of the other East Asian cultures; Hiragana is used for various grammar related words, prefixes and suffixes, as well as some words that cannot be represented with Kanji, but are still vocabularies from Inglesh, Japanese or Chinese; and Katakana is used for onomatopoeia, foreign words not from Japanese or Chinese, and sometimes names of creatures, food and professional and scientific concepts. Though the system is taken from Japanese, it is not completely the same, as several modifications has been used to represent the more phonemes of Inglesh, and that the Kanji uses the Traditional Chinese way of writing instead of Shinjitai of Japanese.

Much like the Inglesh Alphabet, the Ryutanian Script also went through multiple reforms. The first ever form of the Ryutanian Script used only Katakana to write. Later, the half-width Katakana is introduced to represent consonants, digraphs and trigraphs, and Kanji and Hiragana are also inteoduced, with Hiragana used for Japanese vocabularies only. The system was later deemed to be not aesthetic, leading to further reform until today's form of the Ryutanian Script. They might still be seen on some of the older signs and posters, though they are very rare nowadays.

### Hanji Scripts

The Hanji Scripts are various Chinese characters inspired scripts that are used for writing Inglesh phonetically. Thought mostly inspired by the construction of Chinese Characters with various radicals, they are also somewhat inspired by Hangul and BentolPwék. Every radicals used in a character contributes the pronunciation of the character. Since the Hanji Scripts are not as easy to type, they are only used in signages and banners most of the time.

#### Coŋkīk Hanji

Main article: Coŋkīk Hanji
The Coŋkīk Hanji script mostly uses the characters and radicals represented on the keyboard layout of the Cangjie input method as letters. The characters are almost unrelated to the sounds they represent.

As the oldest Hanji Script of the Inglesh language, Coŋkīk Hanji is also the most commonly used Hanji Script. However, as with other Hanji Script, its popularity has been decreasing due to the difficulty to type such characters.

#### Saun Hanji

Main article: Saun Hanji
The choice of characters in the Saun Hanji script were made in consideration of the sounds they represent. Although designed with a similar idea to Coŋkīk Hanji, it uses more characters as different radicals are used for the same sound in different positions of the syllable.

Although with a better design than Coŋkīk Hanji, Saun Hanji is still considered less common, and are rarely seen. Saun Hanji Characters are somewhat more easy to type than Coŋkīk Hanji, as more characters in Saun Hanji matches the shape of some Chinese Characters.

#### Ţukßiŋji

Main article: Coŋkīk Hanji § Ţukßiŋji
The Ţukßiŋji is a mostly obsolete system descended from Coŋkīk Hanji. Its idea is based on the Simplified Cangjie input method, also known as Sucheng, which only requires the users to type the first and last radicals of the Chinese Character to type it. Ţukßiŋji uses Chinese Characters, the Simplified Cangjie sequence of which represents the syllable's pronunciation. As such, only the first and last elements of the syllable are represented in every character, making it a system somewhat similar to Abjad.

The Ţukßiŋji was invented for ease of typing block characters that represents Inglesh. However, the system quickly fell out of use due to its difficulty to read. Nowadays, only a few characters of Ţukßiŋji survived, and are used as Kanji Characters in the Ryutanian Script, such as 亓むる゚ "million" and 賗ぶる゚ "billion".

## Dialects

Inglesh is generally classified to have 3 major dialects, represented by the 3 standard forms of Inglesh: Ingland Inglesh, New Inglesh and Ryutanian Inglesh. The language is generally intelligible between dialects, though different vocabulary and spelling of words may be used.

### Ingland Inglesh and New Inglesh

Ingland Inglesh and New Inglesh are based on 2 dialects of Inglesh that are similar to each other. There are minor differences in pronunciation, such as the distinction between /ɛ/ and /e/, and the realisation of vowel length, which are present in New Inglesh but not present in Ingland Inglesh. Several words are also spelled differently in the 2 dialects, as New Inglesh spelling preserves more etymology from English, while Ingland Inglesh spelling is more free and are more based on pronunciation. There are also differences in the prefered vocabulary, though the 2 dialects tend to converge on vocabulary nowadays.

### Ryutanian Inglesh

Ryutanian Inglesh diverges the most from other Inglesh dialects. Besides being written in a different script, Ryutanian Inglesh also uses a larger portion of Japanese-origined vocabularies, particularly in more complicated and professional topics. Ryutanian Inglesh also has several differences in phonology to other Inglesh dialects, which had already been explained in the phonology section.

### Sneiktang Inglesh

Sneiktang Inglesh is the variety of Inglesh used in Sneiktang, a state of the United Ingland in Scificity. Aside from a few of Scificity terminology that are used sometimes, Sneiktang Inglesh is practically the same as New Inglesh. Sneiktang also doesn't have its own standard form of Inglesh, and New Inglesh is seen as the standard in the area.

## Sample Text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Ingland Inglesh:

O hiumen ar bonde frī und īkwou en degneti und raits. Tra ar indaude wif rīsen und konßens und ßud trīt īc ada wif de spirit der bradahūd.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in New Inglesh:

O hᵫmen ar bornde frī und 'īkwou en digneti und raits. Tra ar indaude wif rīsen und konßens und ßud trīt īc ada wif de spirit der bradahūd.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Ryutanian Inglesh:

お人ある生んで自由うんど等うえん尊嚴うんど權利。其ある授けでゐふ理性うんど良心うんどしゅど當と互あだゐふで精神どぇ同胞。

Transcription of the Ryutanian Inglesh example into Latin script:

O hᵫmen ar bonde frī und 'īkwou en songen und kenłi. Tra ar sazukede wif łisei und łyoußin und ßud trīt īc ada wif de seißin dœ douhou.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

## See Also

* Pwekish Language
* Sisaidian Language
* United Ingland