Since my initial post here I've been working on the construction of Gallentian, that is, to account for a primordial ancestral language I call Pre-Gallentean (-ean, not -ian). This is namely the foundation, as one of the seven proto-languages mentioned in Evelopedia, of a group of 'modern' languages in the Eve Universe. After that, I will try to work out Proto-Gallentian, as one of the descendants.
First of all I wonder whether to post all my linguistic theorizing here, because I suspect this to be uninteresting to most people. They probably mainly want to see the result, if they care at all. On the other hand, I ought to account for everything I do, otherwise the end result looks whimsical and daft. So, LET ME KNOW! At this moment, I've written about thirty pages full of data about phonology, morphology, lexis, syntax and semantics. Perhaps it is best just to attach Word documents here, because its undoable to post the list with basic vocabulary and so forth.
Its open to feedback, of course.
Here's a líttle taste already.
1. à 'to/at' a > e e
2. adulte 'adult' > adil > edɪl edill
3. arrière 'behind' > ɑRɛi > ɑRɛi arrei
4. aujourd’hui 'today' > o:ʒudwi (intransparancy of final morpheme) > ududwi ududwi
5. autre 'other' > o:t > ut ut
6. avant 'before/in front of' > ɑvɑi > ɑvɑi avvai
7. avoir 'have' > ɑva (assimilation v & w) > ɑve avve
Syntax:
7000 AD; SOV wordorder
1. Mah le at-eh lih-eh
I the is-PAST read-PAST
‘I was reading it.’
7000 AD; SOV order + postposition
2. Mah le jih eidibu-eh
I the upon stand-PAST
‘I stood upon it.’
9000 AD; SVO order + postposition (phonological changes not included, in Pre-Gallentaen word forms)
1. Mah disirr-er sevai dimei masoi e.
I want-FUT work tomorrow home at
‘I want to work at home tomorrow.’
Pre-Gallentean sentence (original taken from Evelopedia):
‘Le Gallente Widerratoi, libb-taipjoi a wirois gadd-esspih du immei, at le joi ri dimukas e New Eden.’
= ‘Champions of liberty and fierce guardians of the human spirit, the Gallente Federation is the only true democracy in New Eden.’
Semantic shift:
maison > masoi ‘house’ (refers to the building)
chez moi > tam ‘at home/at my own place’
domicile > dumis ‘residence/address
bâtiment > bhattimmai ‘building’
édifice > idiffiss ‘building’
It is not that hard to imagine that space travel and the colonization of alien planets can easily give new meanings to those words. The result is a gap in the paradigm, ‘at home’, which will be filled in via an internal formation.
masoi ‘building’ (suitable to live in)
tam ‘house’
dumis ‘home-planet’
bhattimmai ‘construction’ (building in general)
idiffiss ‘complex of structures’ (compound)
atam ‘at home’
**SEE ATTACHMENTS FOR ALL THE DATA**