Talossan language
| Talossan | |
|---|---|
| File:Grischun.svg | |
| Created by | R. Ben Madison |
| Date | 1980 |
| Setting and usage | Talossa |
| Users | 8 fluent, est. >50 |
| Purpose | Constructed language
|
| Sources | a posteriori language (Romance) |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | La Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ (Kingdom), L'Icastola (Republic) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | art |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
The Talossan language (El Glheþ Talossan) is a constructed language created by R. Ben Madison in 1980 for the micronation he founded, the Kingdom of Talossa.
The Association of Talossan Language Organisations (ATLO) maintains talossan.com, a Website describing the language for new learners, providing language information, research, and online translation to and from English.[1]
Talossan is the best-known example of the micronational language genre of conlang. The language is spoken and used in the Kingdom of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossan), a "constitutional monarchy" with its own parliament and a bicameral legislature, founded by Madison on December 26, 1979, and also in the Talossan Republic (La Repúblicâ Talossán), formed in 2004 by ex-citizens of the Kingdom.
Talossan is one of the best-known artistic languages on the Internet. It garners perennial interest and respect from online conlangers and conlang aficionados.[citation needed] Of particular interest to them is its large vocabulary—with over 28,000 words in its official dictionary, it is one of the most detailed fictional languages ever invented.[2]
The language is overseen by the Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ (CÚG; the Committee for the Use of the Language), a group formed in the Kingdom of Talossa by Madison in the 1980s. This group periodically issues Arestadas (reformations) which describe and document changes in the usage of the language, and to the vocabulary. The CÚG maintains a multi-lingual Website providing access to the recent recommendations of the Committee.[3]
In the Republic the language is kept alive by the Talossan-Language project, which built an online dictionary English-Glheþ, Glheþ-English; and by l'Icastolâ, the School of the Talossan Language in the Talossan Academy of Arts and Sciences, established 9 August 2005.
The language, and its corresponding micronation, are mentioned in the book Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World by Michael R. Solomon, and the language is documented in two published grammars.[4]
The most significant recent development in the language was the issuance of the Arestada of December 12, 2007. This Arestada instituted a rule for stress that allowed many extraneous stressmarks to be omitted, and simplified the vowel set by recognizing certain letters as allophones of other vowels, and respelled a few strange letter combinations. This Arestada is accepted in the Kingdom, but usage of Talossan in the Talossan Republic often retains pre-Arestada conventions.
Linguistic properties
Classification
Talossan is a constructed Gallo-Romance language, inspired by French and Occitan, and very naturalistic [citation needed] (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber sub-tribes of Morocco was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were "inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers." This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages. More recently however, words are derived from Romance roots and given a French/Provençal feeling to them (some see a Romanian influence as well), but there is no one set of rules for derivation through which every word can be predicted. The word "Talossa" itself is not Romance, but Finnic in origin: it comes from the Finnish word for "inside the house" (Talossa began in Madison's bedroom).
| Latin | Sic enim Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam æternam. |
|---|---|
| Talossan (Post-Arestada) | Cair Díeu sa ameva el mundeu, qe O zoneva sieu Figlheu viensplet, qe qissensevol créa in Lo non pieriçarha, mas tischa la vida eternal. |
| Talossan (Pre-Arestada) | Cair Dïeu så ameva el mundeu, që O zoneva sieu Figlheu viensplet, qe qissensevol créa în Lo non pieriçarha, más tischa la vidâ eternál. |
| French | Car Dieu a tellement aimé le monde, qu'il a donné son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse point, mais qu'il ait la vie eternelle. |
| Provençal | Car Déu a tant amá lo monde qu'i a doná son Filh solet, per que tot ome que crèi en elh non perigue, mai ague la vida eternala. |
| Catalan | Car talment ha estimat Déu el món, que donà son Fill unigènit, a fi que tot el qui creu en ell no es perdi, ans tingui vida eterna. |
| Spanish | Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que cree en él, no perezca, más tenga vida eterna. |
| Portuguese | Porque assim amou Deus ao mundo, que lhe deu seu Filho unigénito, para que todo o que crê nêle não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna. |
| Italian | Infatti Dio ha talmente amato il mondo da dare il suo Figliuolo unigenito, affinchè chiunque crede in Lui non perisca, ma abbia la vita eterna. |
| Romanian | Fiindcă atât de mult a iubit Dumnezeu lumea, că a dat pe singurul Lui Fiu, pentru că oricine crede în El, să nu piară, ci să aibă viaţǎ eternǎ. |
| Rhaeto-Romance | Perche cha Deis ha tant amâ il muond, ch'el ha dat seis unigenit figl, acio cha scodün chi craja in el non giaja a perder, ma haja la vita eterna. |
| English | For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. |
| Interlingua | Proque tanto Deo amava le mundo que ille dava su Filio unigenite a que quicunque crede in ille non va perir ma va haber vita eterne. |
Writing system
The Talossan alphabet is Roman, but contains some letters not (or no longer) found in English—including the Germanic scharfes S (ß) [known as "eseta" in Talossan], Icelandic thorn (þ), the cedilla-c (ç), and Icelandic eth (ð). The eseta can be replaced by the equivalent digraph ss, and the thorn by the digraph tg. Prior to the 2007 Arestada, the eth was often seen written using the digraph th; the 2007 Arestada recognized the eth as replaceable in modern Talossan by the letter d.
The letters of the modern Talossan alphabet are:
In alphabetical ordering, c and ç are not distinguished from one another, nor are s and ß, nor any vowel from its marked counterpart.
Through the Arestada of 2007, the vowel system was simplified by the adoption of a default stress rule, which made explicit stress marking necessary only in words that are stressed irregularly. The Arestada further standardized the stress marking system so that the vowels a, e, i, o, and u are stressmarked using acute or grave accents (as in á or à), and the vowels ä, ö, and ü are stressmarked using circumflexes (as in ô and û).
In pre-Arestada Talossan, a number of other vowel forms are retained (such as ê, ë, å, and î), and no stress rule exists. In pre-Arestada Talossan, words are often marked with multiple diacriticals, which often have different meanings, sometimes indicating stress, sometimes a difference in pronunciation, sometimes both, and sometimes the same mark indicates neither. The consonant ñ was also removed by the 2007 Arestada.
In speech, Talossan exhibits a system of consonant mutation (lenition and eclipsis) very similar to that found in Irish Gaelic. This system is indicated in orthography only rarely, typically only in prepositional phrases, and even then typically only with pronouns. For example, the pronoun "tu" (meaning "you") experiences lenition after a vowel to become pronounced "hu" (this mutation is indicated orthographically by spelling the word as "thu"), and experiences eclipsis after a consonant to be pronounced "du" (indicated orthographically as "dtu"). Thus à thu (meaning "to you") and per dtu (meaning "for you").
In addition to this system of consonant mutation, Talossan exhibits some other unusual consonant combinations, including c'h, gn (which prior to the 2007 Arestada was seen gñh), glh, rh, tx, and xh.
Lexicon
The full dictionary of Talossan has over 28,000 words. Talossan requires only a single word (fieschada) to say "love at first sight".[2]
Criticism
Criticism of Talossan includes:
- That the vocabulary and grammar are invented and have no regular derivation from Latin, belying the claim that Talossan is a Romance language. Supporters, however, claim that although Germanic and Celtic influences are certainly also seen (a trait explained by the mythical migratory nature of the language), this argument is refuted by consistent obvious similarities between Talossan words and cognate words from many Roman languages and languages of Romance descent.
- The use of too many unnecessary accents and letter combinations, although a series of revisions by the 2007 Arestada (see above) has served to remedy this problem.
State of the language
The most extensive study of Talossan is given by the English language edition of the book A Complete Guide to the Talossan Language (Ün Guizua Compläts àl Glheþ Talossan), first published in 2008 and in a revised second edition in 2011.[4] An earlier grammar (La Scúrzniâ Gramáticâ del Glhetg Talossán), last revised in 1996, has been put offline by its author.
Extensive learning material is also available online.[5]
Example of the language
The following are the first two tercines of the first stanzas of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode to the West Wind translated into el glheþ Talossan:
Post-Arestada:
- Oh traversa salvatx, tu and d'Otogneu s'eßençù,
- Tu da qissen presençù unvidat els listopätsilor
- Sint driveschti com'els spiritzen d'iens encanteir escapind,
- Vermel, es negreu, es brançéu, es roxh gripesc,
- Pestidonça-cünsütats plenitüds! Oh tu,
- Qi apoartás à lor auscür þivereu lict.
Pre-Arestada:
- Ô traversâ salvátx, tú ånd d'Otogñheu s'eßençù,
- Tú da qissen presençù ûnvidat els listopätsilor
- Sînt driveschti, com'els spiritzen d'iens encantéir escapînd,
- Vermél, és negreu, és brançéu, és roxh gripesc,
- Pestidonça-cünsütats plenitüds! Ô tú,
- Qi apoartás à lor auscür þivereu lict.
English:
- O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
- Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
- Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
- Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
- Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
- Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
See also
References
- ^ El Glheþ Talossan | Information and Resources for the Student and User of the Talossan Language
- ^ a b Alex Blumberg "It's Good to Be King" Wired 8.03, March 2000
- ^ Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ (Committee for the Use of the Talossan Language)
- ^ a b La Mha, M.; A Complete Guide to the Talossan Language, Second English Edition (2008). ISBN 978-1453777299.
- ^ Introduction to Talossan (Series of instructive lectures/lessons on the Talossan language)
External links
- Talossan.com (Language Information, Reference, Online Translation, and Resources)
- "It's Good to Be King" by Alex Blumberg. Wired 8.03 (March 2000).
- Website of The Committee for the Use of the Talossan Language
- Kingdom of Talossa
- Republic of Talossa
- The Republic's Talossan Language Reference Page
- The Talossan-Language project (with dictionary)
- The 2007 Arestada
- The 2010 Arestada (in Talossan) (in English)
- "R. Ben Madison's Talossan Language Page". 25 January 1999. Archived from the original on Feb 05, 2006. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
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