Appendix:World/Radestrian language

Radestrian (endonym: vlunza a rredeșeșe [ˈvlɤ̃ˑzä ä‿rːɛˈɛʃɛʃɛ] or simply a rredeșeșe [ä‿rːɛˈɛʃɛʃɛ]) is a Radic language and the official language of Radestria, and a minority language in Lusetia and Riyana. It is part of the wider Hirdic language family, a subfamily of the Laenkean languages. Related languages include its sister language Lusetian within the Radic branch, Riyan within the superordinate Hirdic branch and most distantly Laefevian.

History

Main article: History of the Radestrian language

Radestrian diverged from the Radic branch as a distinct language around 2000 years ago.

Dialects

Radestrian dialects are traditionally divided into three subgroups: Mainland, Coastal and Insular. Within the Mainland dialect group, the dialects are further divided by the hjádvanþs isogloss, depending on whether they maintain the historical /ʃ~ç/ distinction. The standard language considers both the pronunciation of /ç/ and its merging with /ʃ/ to be correct, although nowadays, the dominating pronunciation disfavours /ç/. Some speakers of non-hjádvanþs dialects may still use /ç/ when referring to names of hjádvanþs-speakers out of respect, and with the word hjádvanþs [ˈçaːdvä̃ˑθs] itself.

Phonology

Main article: Radestrian phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs
	short		long		overlong
	front	back	front	back	front	back
high	i (y)	u	iː	uː	iːː	uːː
mid	ɛ œ	ɤ ɔ	(eː) æː	(oː) ɔː
low	a		aː		aːː

Diphthongs
		front	back
opening	close-mid	ie iːe	uo uːo
	close-open	ia	ua
	mid-open	œa	ɔa
closing	mid-close	ei øi	ɤi ɔi
	open-close	ai (aːi)	au

Standard Radestrian has 18 monophthongal vowel phonemes. It has 8 short vowels, 7 of which are native to Radestrian. There are also 7 long vowels, 5 of which are native to Radestrian, as well as 3 overlong vowels. Moreover, there are between 14 and 15 diphthongal vowel phonemes, bringing the language's overall vowel phoneme count to 32 or 33. Historically, /æː/ was the diphthong /ɛa/, but it is now no longer considered, perceived or realised as a diphthong. The diphthongs /ie/, /uo/ and, in some analyses, /ai/ also have long counterparts: /iːe/, /uːo/ and /aːi/ respectively. The existence of /aːi/ as a phoneme is debated, and is generally regarded nowadays to be the biphonemic /aːj/.

The short-long-overlong duration ratio is approximately 1 : 1.8 : 2.6, with short vowels lasting around 130–180ms. In colloquial speech, the short-long distinction tends to be neutralised in final syllables, particularly in common inflections such as -í and -ú(r): desúr ('in fact') may be realised as [ˈdɛsur]. Similarly, overlong vowels tend to become long—or even short for speakers with a long-overlong merger—in this context: vjeirevỉ [ˈvjairɛvi(ː)] ('of a fifth').

Consonants

Standard Radestrian has 28 consonant phonemes, of which 26 are native. The phonemes /w ɣ/ are loaned phonemes, and are often replaced with /v h/ by some speakers. The phoneme /ç/ is characteristic of hjádvanþs dialect groups, but has merged with /ʃ/ in other mainland dialects. The standard language accepts both ways as correct. The phoneme /ʎ/, however, is maintained chiefly in non-standard dialects.

Phonotactics

A distinctive characteristic of Radestrian is its notable abundance of [ʃ], as well as its initial rhotic consonant clusters, such as rm-, rn-, rņ- and rl-.

Prosody

Stress in Radestrian is predictable, but distinctive. While there are not many cases where stress is indeed distinctive, minimal pairs include fjødeat [ˈfjœdæːt] ('to complete') and fjø·deat [fjœˈdæːt] ('to overdo').

Writing system

Main article: Radestrian orthography

Radestrian is written with the Radic script, but also has a Latin orthography.

Grammar

Main article: Radestrian grammar