Elw language
The Elw language is the national language of Elwynn and the ethnic language of the Elw people. It is an ergative–absolutive agglutinating language. It has several quite diverging dialects, of which Caligaean, Utasian, Alalehzamini and Iserdian are the largest. The written standard uses the Cyrillic alphabet (historically a syllabic script) and is based on the Caligaean dialect with large influences from the other dialects. Considered a language isolate, Elw has, however, a large number of loans from other languages, such as Treesian, Elfinshi, Babkhi, Norse, and Præta.
The modern Caligaean dialect uses more Norse words, Utasian is heavily influenced by Præta, Alalehzamini by Babkhi, and Iserdian by Tapferite and Bovic terminology.
Elw is a dominant language in the arts and social sciences.
Elw is an official language of the Elwynn and Talenore.
Orthography and pronunciation
Vowels
| Cyrillic | Latin | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| А а | A a | a |
| Е е | E e | ɛ~æ |
| И и | I i | i |
| О о | O o | o |
| У у | U u | u |
| Ы ы | Y y | ə |
Consonants
| Cyrillic | Latin | Initial | Intervocalic | Final | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Б б | B b | p~b | – | ||
| В в | V v | β~w | – | ||
| Г г | G g | k~g | – | ||
| Д д | D d | t~d | – | ||
| З з | Z z | z | – | ||
| Й й | J j | j | j | – | |
| К к | K k | kʰ | kː | – | |
| Қ қ | Q q | q | χ~q | ||
| Л л | L l | ɮ~l | – | ||
| – | ɬ | – | When ll | ||
| М м | M m | m | – | ||
| Н н | N n | n | |||
| – | – | ɴ | Before q, r | ||
| Ӈ ӈ | Ŋ ŋ | – | ŋ | ||
| П п | P p | pʰ | pː | – | |
| Р р | R r | ʀ̥ | |||
| – | ʁ | – | before n, q | ||
| С с | S s | s | |||
| Т т | T t | tʰ | tː | – | |
| Х х | H h | ħ | ħ | h~ħ / Ø | When a final, some people pronounce it /h/, others don't pronounce it at all |
| Ч ч | C c | c | – | Before a, o, u | |
| ç | – | Before i, e, y | |||
| Ш ш | X x | ɕ | ɕː | ɕ | |
Alternative letters and spelling
Latin
- F is found in loanwords
- J is sometimes changed to I when intervocalically, for example aia instead of aja, Iaqoo instead of Jaqoo.
- Double-L, LL is sometimes written as Ł due to its unique sound quality
- Ŋ is often written as ng or mn or nm.
- W is found in loanwords
- X is often written as SH
Cyrillic
- All letters of the Elwynnese Unified Alphabet may be found in Elw for placenames, people's names, and loanwords.
- Ћ ћ is sometimes used instead of Қ қ, especially in names and old texts, and in handwriting
- Double-L, ЛЛ is sometimes written as Ӆ due to its unique sound quality
- Йа and йу are usually written Я and Ю respectively
