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 Unfree Elwynn, Free Elwynn and Talenore.
Orthography and pronunciation
Please note that the legality of syllables under this phonological rulebook generally only apply to native Elw words in their standardized form; dialects and loanwords often violate these principles, and that is perfectly fine. Alternative spellings for people's names and placenames are very normal.
Vowels
| Cyrillic | Latin | Quality | Really bad Istvanistani approxmate sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | A a | a | a in hat, or a in hard, or u in but |
| Е е | E e | ɛ~æ | e in met, ai in air, a in bad |
| И и | I i | i | ea in heat, i in hit |
| О о | O o | o | aw in fawn, o in lock, o in so |
| У у | U u | u | oo in loo, oo in good |
| Ы ы | Y y | ə~ɨ | a in about, e in handed |
Consonants
| Cyrillic | Latin | Initial | Intervocalic | Final | Comment | Really bad Istvanistani approxmate sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Б б | B b | p~b | – | b as in bob | ||
| В в | V v | β~w | – | v as in viva | ||
| Г г | G g | k~g | – | g as in gag | ||
| Д д | D d | t~d | – | d as in dad | ||
| З з | Z z | z | – | z as in zoo | ||
| Й й | J j | j | j | – | y as in you | |
| К к | K k | kʰ | kː | – | k as in kit | |
| Қ қ | Q q | q | χ~q | k as in kit | ||
| Л л | L l | ɮ~l | – | l as in low, not as in milk or mull | ||
| – | ɬ | – | When ll | A Welsh double L, otherwise just say L as in low | ||
| М м | M m | m | – | m as in mum | ||
| Н н | N n | n | n as in no | |||
| – | – | ɴ | Before q, r | n in hand | ||
| Ӈ ӈ | Ŋ ŋ | – | ŋ | ng in singer', not as in finger | ||
| П п | P p | pʰ | pː | – | p as in pea and apple | |
| Р р | R r | ʀ̥ | A French-y R | |||
| – | ʁ | – | before n, q | A French-y R | ||
| С с | S s | s | s as in so | |||
| Т т | T t | tʰ | tː | – | t as in tea and ant | |
| Х х | H h | ħ | ħ | h~ħ / Ø | When a final, some people pronounce it /h/, others don't pronounce it at all | h in hunt |
| Ч ч | C c | c | – | Before a, o, u | The "t+y" sound in southern England English, Tuesday, otherwise just say ch as in church | |
| ç | – | Before i, e, y | the h+y sound in "hew", otherwise if that's too complicated, just say ch as in church | |||
| Ш ш | X x | ɕ | ɕː | ɕ | Sh in show | |
Long vowels and long consonants
Elw has a system of long and short vowels, though long vowels are not very common in standardized Elw, though they are written with double letters, aa, oo, uu, etc. Long vowels only exist in standardized Elw for those back vowels, though long vowels exist in dialects also for i and e.
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
- Final -i is often written as -e in people's names, such as Aiomide (dictionary form: Ajomidi)
- Long vowels are not unusually written with circumflex or acute accent instead of double vowels, i.e. aa is often written as â or á. Linguists prefer macron, ā.
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; with йаа and йуу being written as яа and юу.
- Й is often written as И.
