Titanian Language 101

PRAFACE

INTRODUCTION

Herein you will find a simple introduction to the language of the Yeti people. It is meant to give you a solid foundation upon which to build vocabulary and be able to read in the native written language and construct basic sentences. Hopefully at the end of this guide you will be able to hold simple conversations and by able to speak about yourself and ask questions. This introduction will provide you with some background on our language as well as some notes on the structure and contents of this guide.

On Structure:

This guide is comprised of six units, each with 2-3 lessons within them. Each lesson will introduce a specific grammatical component or focus on a set of vocabulary with a central theme. There will be two exercises per lesson to help you grasp the material covered. Additionally, there will be a more difficult exercise at the end of each unit for further practice and cumulative review.

There are two examinations: one at the mid-way mark and one at the end. Each of these will be cumulative. This is a self-motivated guide, so there is no requirement to do any of the exercises, though they will help you become comfortable with the language.

There will be four ways new language will be introduced to you: vocabulary sets, grammar, important phrases, and verb conjugations.

Vocabulary sets will be shown in a blue box.

Grammar is indicated by a green box.

Verbs and Conjugations will be shown in a red box.

Important phrases will be in a yellow box.

Cultural remarks will be in indicated by a purple box*.

*(These are not necessary to know but they do enhance the experience by providing background and context. You may skip these if you don’t care, I promise I will only be slightly offended.)

On Orthography and pronunciation:

For common letters which orthographically translate to multiple sounds, we need a way to distinguish one sound from another. For these letters, a circumflex (Û) will be used to mark soft sounds (consonant or vowel), in orthographic translation, to make it easier to see the distinction without native characters. An umlaut (Ü) will be used to indicate accented hard vowels*. There will be a table that elaborates on this in Lesson 1. Orthographic translation allows the language to be used without use of native characters, though I strongly recommend you do not rely solely on the orthographic transcriptions, since most texts and signs in Titania only use native script.

When introducing new vocabulary there will be a standard format to make pronunciation easier. Periods in between words demonstrate how a word is broken up syllabically. Capital letters will show stressed syllables, for example, let's look at a word in the common language you are likely already familiar with:

*Except for the hard A, which will be denoted by an ‘AA’ instead of an umlaut to be consistent with the common methods of translating. See chart in Unit 1 for details.

On Dialect:

For the purposes of this guide, we will use the modern Titanian dialect. There are many dialects, depending on regional and ancestral background, however, this is the most common and wide-spread. Modern Titanian is the standard dialect taught in schools, both in Titania and elsewhere. Since this is an introductory guide, it will not expand upon other dialects. However, if you are curious about the variations in some common phrases, see Appendix II.                                      

Course Objectives

The goal of this guide is to provide a practical knowledge base for anyone who wants to converse in Titanian. I hope that by the end of this course, you will be able to:

·       Read and write using the native alphabet

·       Know basic grammatical rules and how to structure a sentence.

·       Introduce and describe yourself and others and tell someone what you like or dislike

·       Speak about events or activities in the present and past tense

·       Ask and answer questions and give directions

·       Express opinions and compare things

·       Conjugate several types of regular verbs

PREFACE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE

The language spoken in Titania descends from a proto-language spoken about 40,000 years ago. This was long before written records, however it is believed that the rudimentary language was common between ancient Yeti and Vibranni civilizations. As civilizations advanced, and the Yeti became increasingly isolated in the north, new distinct languages would evolve, though they share the same roots.

The proto-Yeti language that included a written component is thought to have evolved about 15,000 years ago among the small civilizations closest to the coast and mountainous regions of the north. A number of inscriptions have been found carved on loose objects. Most of these inscriptions are trade records and memorials to the dead while others, carved into stones, seemed to have been used in very old forms of folk magic. They are the oldest written records in Yeti history, and would eventually evolve into a stable set of over sixty runic symbols known now as the Aaldrsten.

This runic script was simplified in the 7th century, and inscriptions became more abundant. There was a large increase in nomadic Yeti during this time, as more began to brave the harsh inland conditions farther north. This simple and uniform set of twenty-three runes, the Ÿngrsten, became wide-spread and perhaps the first consistent written language among the ancient groups of Yeti peoples.

When international trade became more prevalent, particularly with the human civilizations, it brought along a strong influence from the language of humans. Most notably the common language inspired another revision of the runic writing system, one which created a concrete link between the written language and spoken dialects of the land. In the 13th century, a new twenty-two symbol runic alphabet system was created with each symbol assigned a specific phonetic correspondence. There have been stylistic changes to certain characters, however this is essentially the same system used today.

Titanian language forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. While the universally accepted alphabet provides standards for how to write, for much of history there was no officially sanctioned spoken language. Due to the vast size of Titania, there are numerous variations of the spoken language, all distinct though similar enough to be understood in almost any part of the country. In the 1758, the Council of Elders determined that the dialect spoken in the southeastern part of the country would be the standard used in Hjem, the political capitol, as well as the official dialect taught in schools. However, the use of any Titanian dialect is culturally accepted as correct spoken Titanian, and will likely be understood in any part of the country.

UNIT ONE

LESSON ONE: ALPHABET & PHONETICS

Alphabet – Native Characters:

The alphabet has twenty-two different runic characters. Some of these characters represent multiple sounds, which are denoted by a single dot or a crescent above the character. Details about each of these diacritical marks and what they represent will be discussed later in the lesson.

The diagram below shows each distinct character as well as the possible marking (and sound) it can represent. Please note that the markings are combined here for brevity, but in actual usage a letter will never be distinguished by both a dot and crescent at the same time.

If you would like to learn more about the origins of the Titanian alphabet and how it has developed throughout history, refer to the Introductory section, under A Brief History of the Yeti Language.

Orthography and Pronunciation:
*(H,A,S): H=hard sound, no accent ; A = hard sound w/ accent; S = soft sound

** More accurately, this sound is a combination of the two examples provided, but as it does not exist as part of Common language, and because spoken variations are abundant even from person to person, it is considered to be correctly pronounced using either sound or a combination of the two.

Lesson 1.1:  Alphabet Practice

Practice writing each letter so you can get used to the written form of the language. It might seem trivial, but it will be much easier to work on later lessons when you do not need a reference to know what the letters are, what they sound like, and how to write them.

Hard and Soft Sounds:

Each letter is broken into hard, or ‘voiced’, sounds and soft, or ‘unvoiced’, sounds. Hard consonants typically require the throat and vibration of/near lips to make the sounds, whereas soft consonants more use the teeth and pushing air past the lips.

·       Hard sounds encompass consonant sounds such as ‘v’,’g’,’th’ (as in the), and ‘k’ sounds.

·       Their soft counterparts consist of the ‘f’, ‘j’,’g’,’th’ (thick), and ‘s’ sounds. Soft sounds are designated by a [ ˘ ] symbol using the native alphabet.

Accented v. Non-Accented Vowels:

Hard vowel sounds can also have two different sounds, differentiated by accent. Accented vowels are orthographically denoted in text by the umlaut (¨) symbol and in native characters using a single dot above the letter (˙).

The general pattern is that accented vowel sounds represent short sounds such as the ‘a’ in “cat” or ‘e’ in “sketch” while the non-accented are longer sounds -- the ‘a’ in “Law”, the ‘oo’ in “loop”. You can see the characters for each vowel and its variants in the Orthography chart above. 

Lesson 1.2:  Hard v. Soft and Accented v. Non-Accented

Are the following hard or soft sounds?

F  S  O  j  K

Please identify which of the following letters represent accented hard sounds

a.     A                    c. j

b.    U                     d. E

LESSON TWO: GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH TRANSLATION

A Few Exceptions:

As with all languages, the above phonetic rules are not perfectly consistent, and some words may not follow this or it may not always be clear which letter to use ( A parallel in common language would be knowing if "F" sound is spelled out with an F or a PH). Learning this will come with familiarity, but here are some common guidelines to follow:

·       use (Ë) instead of (U) when the sound is at the end of a word.

·       most often, (Y) is used instead of (I or Ÿ) if you can determine a word has evolved from archaic terminology

Nearly-silent vowels will often be dropped in translation, as in bjaarn [BjaRN] (which is technically pronounces BĴAAr.în). Typically, either spelling is accepted (similarly to the different but equally correct spellings color and colour)

Most often (J) will be used for both the ‘zh’ and ‘y’ sounds instead of using (Ĵ), especially in printed text. In most instances, if the J comes after a liquid or soft sound, it’s the ‘zh’ sound and if it comes after a hard consonant, it’s the ‘y’ sound.

Hjem (h.ƷEM)  vs  Bjaarn (BĴAAr.în)

Lesson 2.1:  Phonetic Spelling

Write your name how you spell it in common language, then next to it write out the phonetic spelling using the orthography chart above.

Now that you know the sounds that make up your name, Can you write it using the native characters?

Vocab List 1: Because Who Doesn’t Love Animals?

To get familiar with distinguishing between hard or soft, accented or non-accented letters, let’s look at the words for some of the animals you may already be familiar with.

Use the chart above until you are familiar with how to pronounce each word.

Lesson 2.2: Pronounciation

Can you match together which 2 of these animals’ names rhyme the closest?

LESSON THREE: WORD STRUCTURE

Syllabic Structure:

Much like English, the nucleus of each syllable in Titanian language is the vowel.

A I E o Y

As an example, let’s take the word GOlDAn (Gaaldan) meaning to sing. It is comprised of two syllables, each containing the vowel A :

Gol.DAn                   GAAL.dan (to sing)

The coda (the remaining part of the syllable) can be any combination consonants. A new vowel usually indicates a new syllable.

If there are more than 2 consonants in the onset (the part of the syllable before the vowel), one must be a liquid consonant [r, l] or [h]

DRoTYr            DRO.htyr (knight )

It is not unheard of to have two stressed syllables in a row, but it is very uncommon. Most examples of this are found in names and ancient dialects.

Suffixes and Word Conjugation

As you will learn in future lessions, words can be modified and gain new or nuanced meanings. There are a myriad of reasons for this, including but not limited to: plurality, tense, and conjugations. Similar to the common language, Titanian words are almost always modified by adding a suffix or changing the end of the word.

An example of this can be seen when one wants to identify where they were born. You could use the country name as the object of the sentence:

          I am from Titania.                     TyTANje        ti.TAN.jë   

Or, you could change the phrasing so the country name is an adjective.

          I am Titanian.                           TyTANSET     ti.TAN.set 

The suffix -set is added to the end of the root word Titania. This is just one basic example. We will learn the details about such conjugations in later lessons. 

 UNIT ONE REVIEW

The following words are cognates, meaning the word shares the same linguistic derivation and pronunciation in both the common language and in Titanian. Please familiarize yourself with orthographic symbols as well as the characters of the Titanian alphabet by filling out the chart below.

Can you write out the pronunciations of each of these words? Follow the form used to indication pronunciations found throughout the unit.

UNIT TWO

·       HOR ES MyN.
Haar es mïn.                               Pronoun:         ___________
(I am tall.)

·       FEN VYR LON.
Fen VYR laan                              Pronoun:         ___________
(You speak a lot.)

·       HET RosEM LUOx.
Het RO.shem LÜ.aath                 Pronoun:         ___________
(He runs quickly.)

Adjectives and Gendered Forms:

Adjectives are generally placed directly before or after the noun which they modify, but technically it can be placed anywhere in the sentence as long as the verb-second form is not contradicted. The following are all correct versions of the same sentence:

BRONDLyT EM FYR HUG.
Braandlyt em fyr hüg.



FYR EM BRONDLyT HUG.
Fyr em braandlyt hüg.



HUG EM FYR BRAANDLyT.
Hüg em Fyr braandlyt.

As a general rule, since nouns are not gendered, adjectives only have one ("neutral") form. There is an exception to this, however, when the adjective directly modifies a pronoun or proper noun, it can change form based on the gender of said pronoun.

To clarify what is meant by this, let's look at an example in the Common Language first:

• Orla is a good lawyer. She wins almost every case.
  The adjective, good, in this instance directly modifies the noun 'lawyer' not the proper noun 'Orla'. The adjective would be used in a general(neutral) form
  
  
• Max is Paorrian, but he is also Vibranni.
  Here, both Paorrian and Vibranni directly modify Max (or 'He' if replaced by pronoun.) These adjectives would change to a masculine form.

The plural form of a neutral adjective will have the plurality indicator at the end, however there is no plural feminine or plural masculine.

The neutral form of an adjective is often called the general form or standard form, since it is the default form of an adjective which is can be used in a general case (see example above).

Lesson 5.2: Gendered v. Standard Adjectives

Would the following adjectives (in standard form in brackets) be kept in standard form or be switched to a gendered form? If it should be gendered, what is the correct form?

aRyK LyGo ASyVOL [ ToROfSyT ].        Standard          Gendered
A.rik LI.ggo A.sti.VAAL [to.RAAF.sit].
(Erik lives in the dry desert.)                                 

MyN ES [ HiLEN ].                                                 Standard          Gendered
Min es [HÎ.len].  
(I am well)                                                        

HeND [ black ] ES [ SiLEN ] HeND.        Standard          Gendered
Hund [BLACK] es [SAEL.len] hund.
(The black dog is a good dog.)                              

Most gendered adjective forms follow a pattern: the root (or in some cases, the entire word) is kept and endings are added; -leth is added for feminine form and -lyt for masculine form.

Vocab List 02 – Personal Identifier Adjectives

Let's practice with some adjectives that follow this form. Letters in bold would be discarded in favor of the endings discussed above. Adjectives without bold letters would just have the endings added onto the original word.