Appendix:World/Radestrian language

Radestrian (endonym: vlunza a rredeșeșe [ˈvlɤ̃ˑza ar‿rɛˈdɛʃɛʃɛ] or simply rredeșeșe [rɛˈdɛʃɛʃɛ]) 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 more distantly Laefevian. As a conlang, it belongs to Avl.

History

Main article: History of the Radestrian language

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

It was imposed as a co-official language of Riyana under Radestrian rule, but has since been stripped of this status following Riyana’s declaration of independence in 2019.

Dialects

Radestrian dialects are traditionally divided into three groups: 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; nowadays, however, 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 [ˈʃaːdvãˑθs] 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	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/ and /uo/ also have long counterparts: /iːe/ and /uːo/ respectively.

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

	labial	dental	alveolar	postalveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
nasal	m		n		[ɲ]	ŋ
plosive	p b		t d			k ɡ
fricative	f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	(ç) [ʝ]	[x] (ɣ)	h
affricative			ts dz	tʃ dʒ
glide	(w)				j
rhotic			r
lateral			l		(ʎ)

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/ respectively 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.

The phonological status of [ɲ] has been debated: the most widely accepted one is a biphonemic interpretation, /nj/, especially as <nĵ> /nj/ does not exist to contrast */ɲ/, cf. <sĵ> /sj/ versus <sj> /ʃ/. Most speakers, however, do realise /nj/ as [ɲ].

The status of /ɣ/ in loanwords is generally that it should be pronounced in formal speech, though in standard speech, it is approximated as /h/, and using /ɣ/ can be seen as snobbish. It is also accepted to elide the sound altogether intervocalically and word‑finally, and so sjorķaha may be realised as /ˈʃɔrtʃaɣa/, /ˈʃɔrtʃaha/ or /ˈʃɔrtʃaː/. Normative language maintains that the consonant should always be pronounced before another consonant, but colloquially it can also be found elided, and so sjorķahs may be realised as [ˈʃɔrtʃaxs] (underlyingly /ˈʃɔrtʃaɣs/ or /ˈʃɔrtʃahs/), but colloquially and proscribedly also /ˈʃɔrtʃas/.

Phonotactics

A distinctive characteristic of Radestrian is its notable abundance of [ʃ], as well as its initial liquid consonant clusters, such as lm-, rn-, lņ- 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