Sedunnic language (Pacifica)

Sedunnic
Sedunnejj
Pronunciation	['seːd̪ʉn̪ːejː]
Native to	Sedunn
Ethnicity	Sedunners
Native speakers	46 million (2021)
Language family	Beilltemmic Teggic Sedunnic
Early forms	Duric Nevesum Sedunnic Old Sedunnic
Writing system	Sedunnic alphabet
Signed forms	Signed Sedunnic
Official status
Official language in	Sedunn CPSC World Forum
Recognised minority language in	Ikoania Huawan (Nesvem Bay) Valora
Regulated by	Sedunnic Language Council
Language codes
Language code	sed

Sedunnic (Sedunnejj ['seːd̪ʉn̪ːejː]), sometimes alternatively Duric (Durejj ['dʉːrejː]), is a Teggic language of the Beilltemmic language family and is spoken natively by about 46 million people, predominantly in the country of origin, Sedunn, where it is the sole official language. It is also an official minority language in Ikoania and in Nesvem Bay in Huawan. It is the most widely spoken of the Teggic languages with which there is no mutually intelligibility. Sedunnic is taught as a second or third language in several nations around the South Pacific Ocean due to the historic presence of Sedunnic merchants.

Modern standard Sedunnic evolved from prestige dialects spoken along the river Setru, which themselves where a mix of several other Sedunnic dialects. While generally considered a conservative language, favouring existing vocabulary instead of loaning words, the spelling is highly phonologically oriented, meaning the spelling rules are frequently updated to reflect spoken standard Sedunnic. Modern Sedunnic is classified as an agglutinative language, but more recent development has for example introduced prepositions, more conjunctions and some auxiliary verbs, which has reduced the complexity of the inflection system somewhat. Still, there are 18 different noun cases and 19 different verb tenses, aspects, voices and moods. The standard word order is similar to that of Austral, but is generally freer. The almost total absence of diphthongs in Standard Sedunnic is a notable feature.

Classification

Sedunnic is a Beilltemmic language that belongs to the Teggic branch together with Varallic and the extinct Leifish language. Much of Leifish has however been preserved in the Hazelbrustian creole. Compared to other Beilltemmic languages, for the Teggic languages there never was a fusional shift. The Teggic languages separated mainly by several consonant and vowels shifts, as well as the partial collapse of the case system in Leifish predating its creolisation.

Geographic distribution

Sedunnic has about 36 million speakers, mainly in Sedunn where it originates from. Sedunnic is the only official in Sedunn, and has status as a regional minority language in Ikoania and in Nesvem Bay in Huawan. There are a few smaller Sedunnic-speaking minorities in several nations around the South Pacific Ocean, who mainly are descendants of Sedunnic merchants. Sedunnic is taught as a second or third language in many of these nations, as well is in nations allied to Sedunn. Sedunnic is also an official working language in the CPSC along with Austral (Austral has a more wide use), and in the World Forum but not as a working language.

History

Prehistory

The Beilltemmic family of languages, of which Sedunnic is a member, is believed to have developed from a single ancestor language termed Proto-Beilltemmic that was spoken in the southwestern corner of Bailtem between 7000 and 2500 BCE. It is hypothesised that Proto-Beilltemmic is a creole or a contact language that subsumed a non-Beilltemmic substrate language spoken by the Absne culture that predates the arrival of the Beilltemmic peoples. Between 3300 and 3200 BCE, speakers of Beilltemmic independently developed a cuneiform writing system called the Salana after the first three letters S, L and N. To write, a device with an I shape on one end and an S shape on the other was rotated and flipped to imprint on clay certain combinations that formed letters. There were two generations of the script. The first was a consonantary (an abjad) and used only the I shape. The second generation introduced the S shape in order create more letters to both be able to write voiced consonants as well as vowels. The script did not distinguish between long and short vowels or consonants.

Second generation Salana. Creation generally credited to Master Liejneu of Lotne

Between 2500 and 1000 BCE, Proto-Beilltemmic branched off into Teggic - from which Sedunnic evolved, Ortinic and Ersomic. Teggic dropped many of the open front vowels but preserved the complex inflection system. There was also never a fusional shift. The definite article suffix -d, the partitive and causative cases, many grammatical moods such as jussive, as well as the exclusive form of the personal pronoun have been preserved. The speakers of Teggic developed a cuneiform script that evolved into modern glyphs.

Duric

By 1000 BCE, many of the Teggic dialects had changed so much that they were hardly mutual intelligible, however, the Teggic dialects spoken in mainland Sedunn had not changed as much as the neighbouring dialects. Teggic had branched off into Leifish, Varallic and Duric. The latter was the earliest form of Sedunnic; Duric was the commonly accepted name of the language until Sedunn's unification 700 BCE. A process of monophthongisation of Duric was initiated which was completed in the mid 1500s, setting it further apart from the other Teggic languages.

Nevesum Sedunnic

The language spoken in Sedunn after its unification in the 700s BCE until the fourth Grovne Chronicle was written in 654 CE is called Nevesum Sedunnic (from Sedunnic nevesum, "guarantee" or "law", referring to the bill of rights granted to all Sedunners after the unification). The fourth Grovne Chronicle is the first time the voiced glottal fricative -/ɦ/ is dropped in official writing. Other changes in pronunciation in the Setru valley were reflected as well, most importantly the loss of diphthongs. The verb suffix -om, an ablative case, started being regarded as an adverb ending.

Old Sedunnic

The trend of omitting vowels and the monophthongisation continued until the introduction of the printing press in the 1400s when it was nearing its completion. The loss of the glottal fricative had resulted in diphthongisation of the vowels that were in front and after it; in Queen Hilvma's Law written in 1521, spelling rules were introduced that cemented the completed monophthongisation. Several vowels transformed from back vowels to mid vowels.

Modern Sedunnic

In several prestige dialects spoken around the Setru, the close-mid back rounded vowel /o/ and the voiceless fricatives were dropped between the 1600s and 1800s. Auxiliary verbs and some prepositions were introduced as well. Until 1648, vowel duration used to be represented by double occurrences of the grapheme. A spelling reform which aimed to reduce the amount of letters in print was introduced where long vowels were marked by a macron. The rule was revised in 1714 to apply to instances were it was unambiguous. The Sedunnic spoken during this era is labelled "modern" due to the fact that it was the first time teaching of the language was centralised. The standard language was based on the Setru dialects.

Phonology

The phoneme inventory of Sedunnic is relatively small. There are six vowel qualities that differ in duration (i.e. being long and short), thus 12 different vowel phonemes in total. There are 15 consonant qualities that also differ in duration (gemination), meaning there are 30 consonant phonemes in total. Preservation of phoneme quality is strict, but in some dialects the vowel quality may change with duration, and the consonants /k/, /p/ and /t/ are aspirated in the beginning of words if the following vowel is short. Additional consonants exist in some dialects. A consonant following a short vowel is always long.

Sedunnic does not have diphthongs, i.e. all vowels are pronounced as distinctly separate (hiatus), which is a distinguishing feature of the language. Stress is almost always on the first syllable and does not modify vowel quality, but secondary stress on short vowels may occur in longer compounds.

Consonant clusters of three or more phonemes are not uncommon, especially in compounds. Though not present in modern standard Sedunnic, Sedunners rarely have problems with phonemes such as /sh/ or /th/.

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː	ʉ	ʉː	u	uː
Close-mid	e	eː
Open							ɒ	ɒː

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n̪
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪		k
	voiced	b	d̪		ɡ
Fricative		f	s̪			h
Approximant		v	l̪	j
Rhotic			r

Writing system

Alphabet

The Sedunnic alphabet consists of 21 letters, containing six vowels and 15 consonants. All vowels can occur with a macron, but these are not considered separate letters. Uppercase vowels with a macron are uncommon.

Uppercase	A	B	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	R	S	T	U	V	Y
Lowercase	a	b	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	r	s	s	u	v	y
Macron	Ā			Ē				Ī						Ō					Ū		Ȳ
	ā			ē				ī						ō					ū		ȳ

The names of the letters in Sedunnic follow a simple pattern. The names of the vowels are how their long versions are pronounced, and the names of consonants are how they are pronounced in their short versions followed by a long /a/. The macron is called vejt in Sedunnic, and a letter with a macron is said to be "lined", e.g. vejtejj e for ē.

Spelling

Each phoneme quality has its own grapheme. Duration is represented in several ways. A vowel is always long if it has a macron or if it directly precedes another vowel or a single occurrence of a consonant. A vowel is always short if it is followed by a double occurrence of a consonant or an apostrophe, or if it comes last in a word and has no macron.

Vowel duration used to be represented by double occurrences of the grapheme until the 1648 spelling reform which aimed to reduce the amount of letters in print. The apostrophe between vowels marks the loss of a voiced glottal fricative -/ɦ/. Aspirated consonants are not indicated.

Inflections and compounds

If adding an affix or word to another word results in double consonants, the consonant in the affix or the word being added is omitted and marked by an apostrophe. If a suffix or another word is added to a word that is ending with a short vowel, an apostrophe is added in between them.

Grammar

Syntax

The standard word order is subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) - SVO, but the numerous noun cases make syntax less important. Adjectives appear before the noun while adverbs appear after the verb.

Questions

There are two ways to form question. Either the interrogative mood can be used, then the word order remains SVO, or the word order can be changed to OVS. If the OVS order is used, the question is written in the form O,VS?, and the subject is stressed extra, and the intonation raises towards the end. The object marker is sometimes omitted. The use of the interrogative mood is about five times more common.

Nouns

Sedunnic has a rich noun case inventory, with more than 20 noun cases. Nouns have no grammatical gender and two grammatical numbers – plural and singular.

Plural and definite forms

Plural is formed by adding the plural suffix -lē to the noun. The definite suffix -d is added to the noun or its plural form. If the noun ends with d, an e is inserted before the definite suffix d. There is no singular indefinite form or article.

Determiners

There are four determiners: quantifiers, distributives, interrogatives, and demonstratives. The demonstratives are sy ("this"/"these") and sydd ("that"/"those").

Cases

Sedunnic has 18 to 23 noun cases depending on which classification system is used.

Noun cases

Case	Header text	Explanation
genitive	-ō	house’s, of (a) house
accusative	-s	indicates the direct object of a transitive verb if the speaker is the subject or if context makes it clear, the suffix often is omitted, even in formal speech
dative	-is	indicates the recipient or beneficiary of an action if the speaker is the subject or if the context makes it clear, the suffix often is omitted, even in formal speech
inessive case	-un	basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house"
elative/ablative	-jā	basic meaning "out of/from"
illative	-ik	basic meaning "into"
causal-final	-in	expressing the meaning "for the purpose of, for the reason that"
adessive	-all	basic meaning of "at", "towards", "in the direction of"
allative	-ty	basic meaning of "onto"
instructive	-lam	basic meaning of "with (the aid of)"
abessive	-kuv	basic meaning of "without"
?	-res	basic meaning of "between"
?	-rit	basic meaning of "around/outside"
prepositional	-s	marks the object of a preposition and a postposition (cannot be combined with accusative)
instrumental	-ir	indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action
partitive	-it -lī -ip -nī -sī	"none of" "any of" "one of" "some of" "all/each of"
essive	-un	as something: "as a composer my brother is unique"
translative	-mim	indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of "becoming X" or "change to X", e.g. “he made a canoe of the tree”
comitative	-me	together (with)

Constructing nouns

Nouns may be formed by compounding and various affixes. There are three noun compound categories: quality and location/duration that result in a single word, and recipient, that results in several words and which uses the dative case. E.g, the Austral noun compound glass table, which could mean that the table is made of glass (i.e. the quality category) or that it is made from any material and is designed to have glass on it (i.e. the recipient category). In Sedunnic it would be ymmdofp for a table made of glass and dofp ymmis for a table that is designed for items made of glass to be put on it (or in some other way benefit from the table). (Ymm = glass, dofp = table.) The location/duration category encompasses word compounds like "sea legs", "five-day trip" or "ground control".

The list below provides common modern noun-specific suffixes. For more affixes that also can be used for constructing verbs and adjectives, see General affixes. The suffix is added to a verb (V), noun (N) or adjective (A).

Noun forming suffixes

Suffix	Austral equivalent (use)
-ul	-tion, -ment, -age, -al, -ery, -ship, etc (action/instance of V-ing, state of being N)
-ib	-er, -ant, -ent (person/tool who V-s, person concerned with N)
-er	-ry (place of V-ing)
-si	(diminutive form or something having the quality of A or being useful as N)
-on	(augmentative form)
-ara	-cy, -ness (state or quality of being A)
-st	-ism (doctrine of N)
-as	-age (collection of N)
-yn	ee (result/product/object/beneficiary of V-ing)

Adjectives

Comparison

Most adjectives can be inflected to comparative and superlative forms by taking the suffixes -ȳ and -yv respectively.

Common affixes

There are several suffixes that can be added to adjectives or verb stems, nouns to make them adjectives. If the last letter of the stem is the same as the first in the suffix, the letter in the suffix is removed.

Common adjective affixes

Affix	Use
-et -liv -a	general, -et is considered more modern and is more common
-ejj	suffix exclusively for relating to how something sounds (e.g. languages: ablative case + this suffix)
-gvi	when the object is without the quality of the original adjective stem (e.g. "fearless")
-hy	e.g. "formable", "drinkable"
em-	to make an adjective mean the opposite (e.g. "unattractive"

Verbs

There are no irregular verbs in Sedunnic, and verbs do not inflect for person or number. Sedunnic verbs, on the other hand, have many inflections, in most cases a suffix. New verbs are commonly formed from nouns and adjectives by adding the infinitive suffix -u. Below is a list with all affixes. The aspects, voices and moods often require a tense suffix. The present perfect indicates the near completion of an action.

Verb inflections

Inflection	Affix	Use
Tense
Infinitive	-u	"to eat", "to go"
Present	-e	"eats/eat", "goes/go"
Past	-al	"ate", "went", "created"
Future	-im	"will eat", "will go", "shall create"
Imperative	-ei	the suffix is considered archaic. Today, using only the verb stem is equivalent
Aspect
Perfect	-a	indicates the occurrence/(near) completion of an action or circumstance or irreversible actions: “I had eaten”, “I will have eaten”, “I had been eating”, “I’m finishing the race”, “I open the can”, often at a specific time
Progressive	-s	incomplete action in progress at a specific time, often combined with another verb: “she walks fast despite carrying” “Andrew was playing tennis when we arrived”, “Andrew will be playing tennis when I graduate”, "he is getting dressed"
Habitual	-i	specifies an action as occurring habitually: the subject performs the action usually, ordinarily, or customarily: “used to go there”, may also be used for the future tense
Voice
Passive	-v/-ev	“mistakes were made”, “the solution will be considered too simple”
Reciprocal	-rī/-irī	each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to the other: “John and Mary criticised each other”
Reflexive	-j/-ej	the subject and the object of the verb are the same, as in “I see myself (in the mirror)”
Mood
Subjunctive/conjunctive	-on	desire in that clauses; counterfactuality in wish or if clauses; desire in that clauses; counterfactuality in wish or if clauses
Conditional	-it	the suffix is added to all verbs: “if I could, I would go”
Causative	vȳ-	“You came, therefore I left”
Jussive	hō-	“Everybody should sweep in front of his own door”
Hypothetical	tā-	“You could have hurt someone”
Hortative	sē-	To encourage or discourage an action: “let us go”, “you've got to be there”, “you might not want to park there”
Interrogative	-ji	To form a question: “Is the house yellow?”
Unknown classification
?	-f/-ef	“In order to become…”, “because of finishing early we could…”
?	-uv-	signifies working on something or change of state, cause to be: “stabilise”, “classify”, “shorten”, etc
?	tī-	signifies possibility/ability: “I can finish it”, “it’s possible to repair”

Adverbs

Adverbs may be formed from adjectives by adding the suffix -om. The adverb comes directly after its verb, except for the word for “not” - irr, which always comes before its verb. The adverb suffix -om can also mean "according to" or "in the manner of" and is for example frequently used in names for different dishes. Originally, the suffix is an old ablative case.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have three forms: nominative/subject, objective and possessive/genitive. Third person singular differentiates between gender. The first person plural has an exclusive form (excluding the addressee): upp. The objective form is jupp, and the possessive is supp.

Personal pronouns

Person	Subject	Object	Possessive
Singular
1st	um	jum	sum
2nd	ann	jann	sann
3rd masculine	grō	jagrō	sugrō
3rd feminine	grē	jagrē	sugrē
3rd neuter	ver	javer	suver
3rd indefinite	svē	jasvē	susvē
Plural
1st	ufē	jufē	sufē
1st exclusive	upp	jupp	supp
2nd	afē	jafē	safē
3rd	grel	jagrel	sugrel

Prepositions

While agglutination is the standard, Sedunnic has preposition articles for situations when the noun cases are insufficient. The suffixes can also be used as separate articles. Many Sedunnic prepositions are location/direction pairs, like tun ("in") and lī ("inward"). Prepositions work like adjectives and are placed before the noun. Prepositions may be used to modify nouns and verbs in a affix/case-like manner.

General affixes

Below is as list with common modern affixes for verbs, adjectives, adverbs and nouns.

General affixes

Affix	Use
ys-	anti-, counter- (against)
go-	co- (joint)
em-	dis- (the converse of)
an-	pre- (before)
ak-	over- (too much)
vā-	re- (again)
il-	inter-

Numerals

Except for 0 and 2, the ordinals are formed with the suffix -a. All numerals have noun forms, which are formed by adding the suffix -t, except for 0.

Numbers up to 10

	Cardinal	Ordinal	Noun
0	inn	sup	innt
1	vol	vola	volt
2	lē	anna	let
3	rem	rema	remt
4	kass	kassa	kasst
5	ann	annsa	annst
6	trumm	trumma	trummt
7	svā	sva	svat
8	veg	vega	veget
9	foss	fossa	fosst
10	tym	tyma	tymt

Multiples of 10

Multiples of 10 are expressed like “two ten”, “three ten”, etc.

Number	Sedunnic
20	letym
30	remtym
40	kasstym
50	annstym
60	trummtym
70	svatym
80	vegtym
90	fosstym
100	suvv
1,000	klosē
1,000,000	arkta
1,000,000,000	semreta
1,000,000,000,000	berik

For numbers between these the following template applies:

11-99: [multiple of 10 up to 90]+s + [cardinal]

100-: [cardinal] + [specifically named multiple of 10]+s + [blank space] + [11-99]

The -s marks the end of the even multiple.

Example:

15: voltymsann

43: kasstymsrem

170: volsuvvs svatym

8,259: vegkloses lesuvvs anntymsfoss

Decimals

The decimal marker in Sedunnic is the comma (tā). E.g. 10,43 (i.e. 10.43) is read “tym tā kasstymsrem” (“ten comma forty-three”).

Abbreviations

Ordinals are abbreviated by adding an apostrophe after the number. E.g. 1’ (first), 7’ (seventh) and 25’ (twenty-fifth).

Vocabulary

Sedunnic has a larger core vocabulary than, for example, Austral. The vocabulary is mainly of inherited Teggic origin and new formations there of. Loaned words mainly relate to foreign culture, exotic goods or religion. Many specialised words exists, like barru - "to read for yourself" and minou - "to read so that others can hear". New words can be formed by compounding or by derivation from other established words, such as the verbification of nouns by the adding of the infinitive suffix -u or, reversely, making nouns of verbs by removing the suffix.

Language examples

Basic greetings and phrases

Phrase	Sedunnic	Comments
Greetings
hello; hi	rose; myt	informal
greetings; good morning/day/night etc	sum/sufē rommn	formal, lit “my/our respect”
welcome	baolhy'om	lit. "receiveable-ly"
what's up?	alamne?	informal, lit. “happens?”
how are you?	oppe'ji ell?	lit. “[it] is how?”
I’m good, thank you	luvom, lit	formal
good	lurrom	informal
and you?	gjī ann/afē?
goodbye; good morning/day/night etc	allp dai/etull/mov	formal
bye; goodbye	sele; ukse	informal
see you	vahavvu’on	formal (lit. subjunctive of re-see)
see you	vā	informal (lit. re-)
Important words and phrases
excuse me; sorry	ammnom	said as a request for an individual's attention or as an apology
where is ...?	... oppe'ji kad?
how much is ...?	... sebune'ji ell?	asking for a price
it's/it costs ... Tenn(lē)	sebune ... Tenn(lē)
what time is it?	destremd tarre'ji ell?	lit. “the clock poses how?”
it's X o'clock	X-un	lit “like nineteen-six; six over nineteen/seven", (or further 18:55: "five to seven", 18:35 "twenty-five to seven" etc)
when?	tarr?
thank you	lit
you are welcome	nyrvelom	lit. “pleasurely”
do you speak X language?	ann/afe pase'ji X language?
yes	hē
(unfortunately,) no	(emoposom,) des
I would like (to order/a etc)	um lognu’on
I take a/the	um brie
a/an ..., please	... , ammnom
can we have the check, please?	ufē pilu’onji plivvd?
what's your name?	ann laeffe'ji sak?
my name is ...	um laeffe ...
do you understand?	ann mirkasske'ji?
I understand	um mirkasske
I don't understand	um irr mirkasske
OK; okay	mie
what?	sak?
where are you from?	ann nyte'ji kadjā?	lit “you come from where”
I'm from X	um nyte Xjā
how old are you?	ann sinne'ji?
I'm ... (years old)	um sinne ... anglē
let's go	sēuffu; vattsila	latter is informal
help!	mejj!
Sedunn	Sedunn
Sedunnic (language)	Sedunnejj
Sedunner	Sedunnjā
Austral (language)	Ostralejj

Glossed grammar samples

See the Wikipedia:List of glossing abbreviations for the definition of the abbreivations below.

Seuffu hunnd.

Let's go to the beach.

(HORT+go/visit+INF beach+DEF)

Vu'etull ufē semalavv aghet limleiprit.

Yesterday we were dropped off at one of the ugly houses.

(yesterday we drop off+PST+PERF+PASS at/by ugly house+PL+PTVc+?)

Arrm jerr!

Do it now!

(do+IMP now)

Um barrima skend lametull.

I will have finished (read) the book by tomorrow.

(I read+FUT+PERF book+DEF tomorrow)

Grō parse’ji?

Is he hungry?

(he.3SBJ hunger+PRS+INT?)

Ann oppu'on typ, irr ole ann?

Don’t you wish you were there?

(OVS question used: you.2SBJ be+INF+SJV there, not wish+PRES you.2SUB)

Kosd mahali reddu bynnds.

The dog used to love playing in the park.

(dog+DEF love+PST+HAB play+INF in park+DEF+ACC)

Afē appe lini’lē mivsala jufē.

They believe aliens had observed us.

(they believe+PRES alien+PL observe+PST+PERF us)

Sutivasd ysesal, vytaosstu rammd.

The population has rebelled, therefore we may lose the war.

(population+DEF rebel+PST, CAUS+HYP+lose+INF war+DEF)

Dialects

Sedunnic is a highly centralised language, but several dialects exist that differ mainly in that some of the phonemes that were lost in Standard Sedunnic, like close-mid back rounded vowel /o/ and the voiceless fricatives, have been preserved. The earlier vowel shifts have also resulted in different vowels in different regions and the occasional loss of initial nasal consonants. The vocabulary differs slightly between the different regions also.

The Dybd river is considered a border between two distinct continua of dialects, exemplified by the word for island. In northern dialects it is ness [n̪es̪], while in southern dialects it is ess [ɛs̪]. In some southern dialects the consonants /k/, /p/ and /t/ are aspirated in the beginning of words if the following vowel is short. Due to the fact that the /ɛ/ in a sense is similar to a sound sheep make, speakers of southern dialects can be called hosslē ("sheep") or balē ("baaers"). The southern provinces also have traditionally larger farming sectors. In turn, northerners can be called Tennlē (Sedunnic coins), referencing the sharp sound made by a coin as it is dropped on a hard surface and the fact that many wealthy traders lived in the north.