Amphorean

Amphorean is a Programming minority language spoken in Vallis Draconum. While it is rarely used in the modern day, its effects can still be felt in Ferritumulic Latin.

History

As the Programming languages developed in some ultra-deep alternative future, it came to more-and-more resemble the philosophical and mathematical texts of old. Since these traditions began in Ancient Greek, it is thought that this explains the writing system and a good portion of the lexicon of Amphorean. It appears that Amphorean is a creole language between some myriennia-derived form of Ruby and Modern Greek, though it is often argued that these instead take the form of learned borrowings.

As a so-called Tinoan language, Amphorean, despite being a Programming language, tries to mimic human language as much as possible. This is used as the reasoning behind Modern Greek being a learned borrowing for Amphorean.

Phonology and orthography

There are four scripts in which Amphorean is often written: Theorian runes, Stellar Script 160,000, Greek script, and Latin script. None of these are natively created by Amphorean speakers, though Theorian is considered the closest thing to a native script for Amphorean, followed by Stellar, then Greek, then Latin.

The following shows the Greek orthography for each phoneme given.

Amphorean consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Guttural
Stop	plain	p ⟨π⟩	t ⟨τ⟩	k ⟨κ⟩	q ⟨ϟ⟩
	nasalized	ⁿb ⟨μβ⟩	ⁿd ⟨νδ⟩	ⁿg ⟨γγ⟩
	voiced	b ⟨ββ⟩	d ⟨δδ⟩
Sibilant	plain		s ⟨σ⟩
	affricated	ps ⟨ψ⟩	ts ⟨ζ⟩	kʃ ⟨ξ⟩
Fricative	unvoiced	ɸ ⟨φ⟩	θ	x ⟨χ⟩	h ⟨‘ϟ⟩
	voiced	β ⟨β⟩	ð ⟨δ⟩	ɣ ⟨‘γ⟩
Nasal		m ⟨μ⟩	n ⟨ν⟩	ŋ ⟨γ⟩
Approximant	plain		ɾ ⟨ρ⟩	ɰ ⟨ϝ⟩	ɦ ⟨‘ϟ⟩
	long	j~ɥ ⟨υ⟩	r ⟨δρ⟩

Note that several of these appear different in the coda, specifically ⟨σ ϝ υ⟩ (which become ⟨ς υ ι⟩). Additionally, the dental fricative is written with the Greek letter in IPA - this is why no orthography for it is given.

Amphorean vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨ι⟩	y ⟨υ⟩	ʏɥ~ʉw ⟨ου⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨η⟩	ø ⟨ηω⟩	ɐo̯~ʌw ⟨ω⟩
Open-mid		œ ⟨εω⟩	ɔ ⟨ο⟩
Open	ɛ		α

Note that the open vowels' IPA values are also written like the Greek orthography.

Romanization

Amphorean is romanized essentially like if it were Ancient Greek, with accented vowels keeping their acute accent, although a stressed /e ɐo̯/ is romanized as ⟨ê ô⟩ instead of ⟨ḗ ṓ⟩.

For the long rhotic, dr is used in the onset, and rd in the coda.

Amphorean consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Guttural
Stop	plain	p	t	k	q
	nasalized	mb	nd	ŋg
	voiced	b	d
Sibilant	plain		s
	affricated	ps	c	x
Fricative	unvoiced	ph	th	kh	h
	voiced	v	z	gh
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Approximant	plain		r	f	ħ
	long	j	dr / rd

For vowels, the grapheme for a stressed vowel is the second one.

Amphorean vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ı í	y ý	u ú
Close-mid	ē ê	ew éw	ō ô
Open-mid		aw áw	o ó
Open	e é		a á

Numerals

Amphorean numerals are based on Ancient Greek numerals and Modern Greek's orthography for cardinal numerals. However, it is important for all numbers in Amphorean.

The first digit of a numeral is capital, while all others are lowercase, and a numeral always ends in ΄ or ’. This does not, though, mean that the letters are treated as a single word by themselves. Instead, the name for each letter is used, unless the next digit is a vowel or the number ender ’. If the next digit is a vowel, that vowel replaces the vowel that would be found in the name of the letter: Δψ’ de(ps), Δα’ da. If the digit is the last one in the word, the digit has its letter pronunciation, not its digit pronunciation.

Amphorean numerals

IPA	Letter	Value
ɑ	α	1
be	β	2
ŋɑ	γ	3
de	δ	4
ɛ	ε	5
ɰɑ	ϝ	6
tse	ζ	7
e	η	8
θe	θ	9
ø	ι	10

Negative numerals are prefixed with a lowercase ν, though unlike an actual digit ν /ny/, it is pronounced /ne/.

For Nguhcraft places, the complete toponym of a place in Amphorean requires its coordinates, though this is only required in formal contexts, and only the first time a place is named. This is not the case for either Amphorean's source world (which does not use numerical coordinates; instead, placenames are preceded by Τοποθεσία Topothesía) nor areas for which there either is no defined coordinate system or said coordinate system is not known by the speaker.