Jutlandic

Jutlandic
Language family	Unknown; "Jutic"
Era	today
Writing system	Pottery, Plants, Modified Latin
Official status
Spoken in	Jutland
Speaker
Demonym	Jutlandic (adj), Jutan (s), Jutae (p)
Number of speakers	Unknown
Technical information
Usage	De Facto Official Language
Language code	jut

Jutlandic is a language isolate spoken in Jutland. It is not clear that it could be related to any nearby language. It is a polysynthetic, head-initial, partly fusional VSO language with strong ergativity and is extremely head-marking. Because it is so prominently head-marking and polysynthetic, it features a highly unusual case system, object incorporation, weak subject incorporation, and a rich TAM system. Despite this, it is fairly regular, has no ergative case, and also uses a small set of particles and many coverbs. It also features clicks, voiceless liquids, and gemination, and despite having human phonology, it is documented as using pottery and plants as alternate writing systems, with a slightly modified Latin script created to make it easier to read for the rest of the Ŋorld.

Phonology

Jutlandic has a rich phonemic inventory, featuring a multitude of click consonants, voiceless trills and lateral liquids~fricatives, and four distinct types of coronal consonants. Despite this, it also allows for a fair amount of allophony, both with free variation and contextually. It also ultimately has 18~28 consonants, depending on how you count both glottal and nasal(-click) phonemes.

Vowels

A simple 5-vowel system exists in Jutlandic.

	Front	Back
Close	/i/ Ii	/u/ [ů] Uu
Mid	/ɛ/ (alt. /e/) Ee	/ɔ/ (alt. /o/) Oo
Open	/a/ Aa

It should be noted that /u/ may become voiceless [u̥] or even unreleased [ˀʷ] between voiceless consonants, not including the glottal stop or glottal clicks.

Consonants

	Labial (Bilabial/ Labio-Velar)	Alveolar (Apical)	Retro-Dental	Palato-Alveolar (or alv-dental)	Retroflex (/retracted alv.)	(Post-)Velar	(Glottal)
Nasal	/m/ Mm	/n/ [ⁿ] Nn	[/ɳ̪/] nv	[nʲ,n̠ʲ,ɲ] ny	[n̠,ɳ] nl	/ŋ/ Gg
Plosive(/Affricate)	/p/ Pp	/t/ [t̺] Dd	/ʈ̪/ [ʈ̪͡θ] Tt	/tʲ/ [t̠ʲ,t͡s̪,t͡ɕ,c] Cc	/ʈ/ [ʈ͡ʂ,t̠͡s̠,t̠͡ɹ̠̝̊] C̊c̊	/k/ Kk	[ʔ] vowel hiatus-
Fricative	/ɸ/ [ʍ,ɸʷ,hʷ;h] Ff	/θ/ [s̺,θ̠ ,ɾ̥,ɹ̥] N̊n̊	/ʂ̪/ Ss	/ɕ/ [s̪,s̠ʲ,sʲ,ç] Jj	/ʂ/ [s̠,ɹ̠̝̊] S̊s̊	/x/ [χ,ʀ̊;h] G̊g̊	-& word-initially
Voiceless Continuant		/r/ [ɾ] Rr	/r̪/ Vv (w:)	/lʲ/ [,l̠ʲ,ʎ,l̪,j] Yy	/ɭ/ [ɽ,ɻ,ɫ,l̠,ɹ̠] Ll		/V_:/ [j,w,∅;V:]
Liquid (Trill/Approximant)		/r̥/ R̊r̊	/r̪̊/ V̊v̊ (ẘ:)	/ɬʲ/ [ʎ̥,ɬ,l̪̊ʲ] Y̊ẙ	/ɬ̠/ [ɭ̝̊,ɭ̊,ɹ̠̊,l̠̊] L̊l̊		(/h/) Hh (weak h)
Tenuis/Fricated Click	/ʘ/ [p͡k] M̊m̊	/ǁ/ Bb	/!̪/ [!̪!] Zz	/ǀ/ Xx	/!/ [!ǃ,ǂ] Qq
Glottal Click	/ʘˀ/ P̊p̊	/ǁˀ/ B̊b̊	/!̪ˀ/ Z̊z̊	/ǀˀ/ X̊x̊	/!ˀ/ Q̊q̊
(Nasal Click)	(/ⁿʘ/) Mp̊ mp̊	(/ⁿǁ/) Nb nb	(/ⁿ!!) Nc nc	(/ⁿǀ/) Nx nx	(/ⁿ!/) Nq nq

Retro-Dental consonants are pronounced with the tongue curled back but still against the upper front teeth. Retroflex consonants may retracted alveolar, but either way are usually labialized.

Labial liquids may have once existed but since merged with null and /f/.

*Both /f/ and /x/ somewhat merge and can become [h] in some cases intervocally, except when geminated, where they may form minimal pairs as they may lose their gemination but retain their original phonemic quality.

- This primarily occurs intervocally between a/o/u, although sometimes if one of the two vowels is /i/ or /e/ they will also merge.

An epenthetic glottal stop [ʔ] is inserted between vowels and before word-initial vowels. It can be geminate after a glottal click, and allophonically glottalize/ejectivize word-final stops.

It also is sometimes analyzed as occurring word-finally after short vowels and voiceless consonants.

Tenuis clicks may have a fricated [x] release or a brief [k] release. These are distinct from the phonemically distinct delayed/lengthened releases when they're followed by /k/ or /x/.

/n/ merges with tenuis clicks and glottal sucks to make them prenasalized, sans gemination. It's unclear if nasal clicks are phonemic, or nasal + tenuis click clusters. They may be voiced or voiceless.

    Glottal clicks may very debatably be prenasalized across word-boundaries, becoming voiced prenasalized glottal clicks, but this is very much not considered phonemic if this even distinct from an /n/ + click sequence.

/n/ assimilates its place of articulation with other coronal consonants but not peripheral consonants. An epenthetic plosive may be inserted after nasals before a continuent.

Velars (/k/, /x/, click coarticulation) are usually velar or postvelar, though may become postpalatal before /i/.

/r/ may be [ɾ] when not geminated. /ɭ/ is often a tap or a non-lateral approximant, while /ɭ̊/ is usually a lateral approximant or fricative. /ʎ/ may merge with /w/ in some environments for some speakers.

/r̪/ devoices word-finally, when geminated, and sometimes around voiceless consonants.

Geminated glottal clicks, as well as glottal clicks before a word-initial vowel, are both allophonically [C:ʔ] or [Cʔ:], arguably being another form of gemination. Plosives may become glottalized.

Coronal plosives generally assimilate with following coronal consonants, either causing gemination in plosives and clicks, or creating (pseudo-)affricates before fricatives

All consonants may be geminated in coda position; vowels are geminated word-finally if there is no consonant, as well as sometimes before /w/ instead of geminating the /w/.

In addition to the five vowels /i e a o u/ <i e a o u> and two tones (high/low; a à), there exist "stressed" syllables which are a bit longer and louder, and predominantly cause gemination.

Coronal fricatives and voiceless continuants assimilate to coronal plosives and clicks within the same onset or coda (but not between syllable boundaries) to the same column.

Gemination also occurs with similar sounds adjacent to each other, such as /kk/, /ʈtʲ/, /ɕʂ/, /nm/, /ɭr/, /θʎ̥/, /ʎw/, [ǁˀ‿ʔ], /ʘʘ/, etc.

Phonotactics

Jutlandic phonotactics allow for somewhat complex syllables, although they are governed by fairly simple rules. The basic syllable structure is generally regarded as CCVC or CVCC, with all Cs optional.

Onset may be any consonant (inc. nasal clicks/sucks), non-peripheral [f/x] v/less-cont. or fricative + plosive / coronal click, or plosive + fricative/v.c./liquid. In all such cluster onsets, either C1 or C2 must be peripheral.

   (/p/ /k/ /f/ /x/ /ɸ/ /w/), except for fric/vless-cont. + plos/click, where two coronals in the same column are allowed (although /r̪̊/ pairs with tʲ/ǀ/ǀˀ).

Coda can be either null, any single consonant (inc. nasal clicks) except tenuis clicks, /w/ /m/ or /ŋ/, or a voiceless continuant/non-peripheral fricative before a plosive (except /p/) or glottal coronal click, with assimilation.

Word-internally, consonant clusters can generally only be 3 consonants long, with many complicated clusters collapsing into geminations. This also happens to a lesser degree across word boundaries.

Because the large number of vowel-initial words always begin with [ʔ], it has been suggested that they must begin with a consonant of some kind. Furthermore, the vast majority of words end in a consonant.

Grammar

Jutlandic is a weakly fusional polysynthetic ergative language with complex verbs. It is sometimes referred to as a VSO language, as the most simple present tense sentences are in fact verb, subject (patient), object (agent). However, for most sentences, there is a coverb that appears before everything else, acting as auxiliaries or even turning the rest of the sentence into a subjunctive, with the agent often incorporated in the coverb itself, making the structure loosely VVSO. Additionally, the past tense is actually SVO, with coverbs still appearing initially making them loosely VSVO. Additionally, sentences in the attemptative aspect or the imperative/permissive/prohibitive mood (and possibly the hypothetical mood) will lose their ergativity, losing much of its ability for object incorporation as well as changing the role order, despite maintaining word order.

Despite being a strongly ergative language, it does not mark its nouns with an ergative case or even an absolutive case. Word order is fairly strict, with cases not marking a noun's role to its verb, but instead marking its attributers. However, despite there being no ergative-absolutive case marking, the language is still predominantly ergative. In addition to incorporating pronouns, object incorporation happens all the time to manipulate word order and roles (type 2), background information (type 3), and coin new terminology (type 1), with generalized nouns being able to replace full nouns (type 4); subject incorporation also occurs, but really only as a way to coin new words (type 1) and is fairly uncommon. This ability is generally lost when the sentence loses its ergativity. Other aspects of speech, such as conjunction, and even the concept of verbs themselves, are conceptually ergative, with an antipassive construction being required for nouns without a patient.

Coverbs

Coverb Forms include the superjunctive (tense+person, inc. obligative, optative, and dubitative among others), imperative+permissive+prohibitive(Asp., loses ergativity), instructive(Asp.), attemptative(Asp., loses ergativity), interrogative(tense+TAM2), hypothetical-future-"then"(Asp.), conditional-"if"(tense), temporal-relational(tense), and realis(tense+Asp.). Coverbs can stack onto each other, a bit like helping verbs. They further could mark tense (present/past) &/ TAM2: Normative, Abnormative, Experiential/Abilitative, Iterative/Multiplicative, Reiterative, Initiative, and Generic (plain). It should be noted that coverbs may stack on top of each other.

The superjunctive is an unusual catch-all term for a marking that acts partly like an auxiliary and partly like a distinct marking for a verb in an independent clause, turning the rest of the sentence into a content clause. It is essentially the equivalent of the word "wish" or "hope" in "I wish that he were happy", marking the word "wish" instead of changing "was" to "were". Arguably, all of the functions of the coverb function in this sort of way, although the superjunctive is also unique in that it also codes for the person doing the thinking/wishing/saying/other action. It is also one of the few instances where the structure is inherently accusative, and not ergative.

The imperative dictates what the speaker orders the listener to do. The permissive tells the listener what is permitted to be done. The prohibitive acts as a negative form of these, telling the speaker what cannot be done, and is always further marked in the negative. All of these functions make the sentence lose its ergativity, becoming accusative. However, the instructive case acts as a sort of polite command, and the sentence remains ergative; it is never marked in the negative, which must be marked on the main verb or verbs.

The Attemptative is a realis aspect that says that something was attempted but didn't pan out, and is the only other coverb to turn the sentence into a nominative-accusative alignment. The interrogative is used to ask a question, and combines with question suffixes (who, what, when, how, is-it-so, etc.) to form a complex array of question words. The hypothetical is used as a "might be", as well as a future tense and the independent "then" clause in an if-then statement, while the conditional acts as the dependent "if" clause. The temporal-relational verb acts like a traditional coverb, and is used when another verb is going on at the same time time, before, or after another verb, with whether the two events being related left to context or other phrasing. And, lastly, there is the realis coverb, which codes for both tense and "TAM2".

Tense marking is simple for coverbs, when applicable, and only codes for a simple past/non-past distinction, which doesn't affect the word order (as that's dictated by the main verb in the clause). Aspectual marking, however, is a complex set of aspects that further specify the aspects of the main verb, acting partially like adverbial modifiers in English. The normative states that something is also usually the case, while the abnormative states that it's highly unusual. The experiential is used to indicate that something is known or otherwise can be done, like an abilitative. The Reiterative is equivalent to saying "again", while the Initiative is equivalent to saying "for the first of soon to be a multitude times". The iterative/multiplicative mood indicates that something is done multiple times in quick succession, usually something that is momentane, however can be used to indicate something is simply done several times over in a time frame. The generic, or "plain", is essentially the unmarked form, and indicates that no additionally specific aspects are applied.

Orthography

Aside from using IPA, Jutlandic can be written down in three distinct alphabets. The two traditional ways are by using either pottery or plants, written right-left, although any direction technically works.

Since its documentation, a modified Latin script may also be used for romanization.

Below is a table of the different writing systems, including the IPA, pottery method, plant method, and romanization. [To be finished transferring to ngwiki; documentation finished elsewhere.]

IPA
Romanization
Pottery Sherds
Shrubbery