Yardistani language

Yardistani is the fictional native language of the people of Yardistan. In real life, it is actually a conlang developed by Gryphon Avocatio.

Yardistani is primarily based on Spanish vocabulary and grammar, but it's pronunciation and spelling are more based on Germanic languages. It also has several influences from English, Swedish, and Japanese. Before it was adopted for use in Micronations, Gryphon created the language to have a certain aesthetic value in his mind. Consequently, it looks rather peculiar.

According to his fictional history for the language, Gryphon says that the language is derived from a trade pidgin, combining elements of a now-lost native language with Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Swedish from far-off traders.

Also evolving from that long-lost language is Rantsilastani, spoken in the territory of Rantsilastan in the south-east of the Isle of Yardistan. The only actual speaker of the language is Gryphon Avocatio. He has been working on the language intermittently for over eight years.

This introduction is translated into Yardistani below.

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Iardîstato ne Idiomr nativix fiktix du Hêntrsa dIardista. Nja Vidr verdix, ljo ne aktualís Idiomr konxtrutejix kju ne formaj par Grifon Avocatio.

Iardîstato ne basaj primís nja Vokablulari ce Gramatikr Spanjâtix, ye ljona Habašavegr cOrþaši ne basaj maís nja Idiômrsa Jermanix. Habe Influênsrsa multix dÂngloto, du Svêriyeto, ce du Nihonto. Antís du ljo neja adoptaj par Usr nja Micronâtrsa, Grifon creaja ljo Idiomr par habejj Valihr aasþetix xpesifix nje Mêntrlo. Konsegešís, apara peculiarix.

Akordaši nja Hixtoraat fiktix du Idiomr, Grifon haba kju Idiomr ne derivajix du Pidjin du Komersr, kombinaši Elemêntrsa du Idiomrsa nativix hrís-perdix kjan Spanjâtix ce, njExtentr maís-menix, Svêriyeto af Komêrsamajsa du Landsa leyix.

Tam evolveši af oya Idiomr perdix ne Rantsilâstato, habaj nje Tera du Rantsilasta njOrd sordix du Islr du Iardista. Habamaj aktualix solix du Idiomr ne Grifon Avocatio. Le habe nej scribaši ljo Idiomr par maís kju novi ânrsa.

Yardistani Pronunciation

Yardistani is in some ways difficult to pronounce. There are a number of consonant sounds that occur in the language that sound very similar and that do not occur in the English language (including retroflex and palatal fricatives). There is also, in several cases, more than one way to spell several consonant sounds, but generally any group of letters can only be pronounced one way; for instance, the combination 'sk' and 'xk' are both pronounced [sk], and 'š' and 'sj' are both pronounced as [ʃ] (the 'sh' sound in English).

Generally speaking, Yardistani vowels follow the conventions of a continental language, with some variation in precise quality based on stress and position in a word. The real exception to this is 'u' which can have three pronunciations with no distinction indicated in the orthography. For instance, in the word <siu> city, it is pronounced [u] (as in English rude); in 'su' and 'ku' yes and no, it is pronounced [ʊ] (as in put), and in 'du' of, it is pronounced [ɨ] (think Californian dude!).

Orthography

Alphabets

The Yardistani Alphabet comprises 27 letters:

A B C D E F G H I Í J K L M N O P R S Š T U V X Y Z Þ

There are some variations on this; for instance, some dialects use 'æ' instead of 'aa' in words like 'hixtoraat/historæt', but this is very uncommon. In some older texts, 'š' is printed as 'ж' (an 'x' with a vertical bar through it), such that words like 'talaši' would instead be 'talaжi'. This convention has been abandoned, but can occasionally be seen in older texts. Also, it is not uncommon to see '-jj' handwritten as a single 'j' with an accute accent; however, no such character exists in Unicode.

Circumflex accents are written over vowels to show stress when words do not follow the normal prosodic rules of the language. This can happen for a number of reasons: the word may have a different stress pattern phonemically, suffixes may have altered the number of syllables a word has, or the word is a loan. The letters I and Í are considered separate.

The alphabet also lacks characters found in the English alphabet, namely 'Q' and 'W'. These letters do not occur in Yardistani. The language opts to adapt loan words to the native orthography. Thus, if names such as 'Enrique' and 'William' were to be loaned into the language, one would expect them to be spelt 'Enrike' and 'Uiljam' or 'Uiljamr'. Of course, as the latter is not loaned into the language, it would still be written as in English. Othe exceptions include scientific names, like 'W-bosonr'.

Yardistani also has its own script, Yômato (lit. 'reading language'). It is derived heavily from Greek, though it has its own, purely Yardistani influence. A font is known to exist.

Yardistani can also be written in runes, which is most common in the north-east of the island.

Spelling

Spelling in Yardistani can sometimes be anomalous, as mentioned above. Most letters have only one pronunciation. The ones that are pronounced vastly differently than they are in English are listed below:

Consonants

• C - [tʃ], as the 'ch' in English 'chair'. This is always the pronunciations.
• I - [j], like the 'y' in 'yes'. This pronunciation only before vowels.
• J - [ʒ], as the 'si' in 'fusion', but only at the beginning of words; [j], directly after or before consonants; [dʒ], as in the 'j' in 'judge' elsewhere.
• R - This letter is the most complicated in the language. Some hard, fast rules are that it is always a flapped [ɾ] at the beginnings of words and between vowels, but at the end of words it can be more complex.
• Š - [ʃ], as the 'sh' in Shireroth.
• X - [z], as the 'x' in 'xerograph', at the beginnins of words; [s], like the 's' in 'start', before voiceless consonants (see below); [ks], as the 'x' in 'fix', elsewhere.
• Y - [ʝ]. There exists no equivalent sound in English. It can be approximated by making the vowel in the English word 'be' and pushing the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth until there is vibration. It sounds very similar to [j] and [ʒ] and should not be confused.
• Þ - [θ], as the 'th' in 'thank', but never the 'th' in 'that'.

Consonant Combinations

There are many orthographic consonant clusters in Yardistani that have less-than-obvious phonetic correspondences:

• CJ - [ç], roughly the 'h' in an emphatic English 'huge'
• DJ - [dʒ], usually only at the beginnings of words
• GR - [ʀ], no English equivalent. Basically the 'r'-sound of French and some German dialects.
• HR - [ʂ], no standard English equivalent. Produced by curling the tongue back slightly whilst making an 's'-sound
• JJ - [ʒ]
• KJ - [dʒ]
• SJ - [ʃ]
• ŠJ - [ʒ]
• XK, XT, XP - These are the prefered ways of spelling the sounds [sk], [st], and [sp], respectively. 's' can generally be used in place of 'x'; for instance 'Hixtoraat' vs. 'Historaat' History. However, some words are usually spelt with an 's', like 'Iardîstato' (compared with the less common 'Iardîxtato').

Vowels

Vowels are virtually all pronounced differently than they are in most English dialects. The pronunciation guides given below are for General American English.

• A - [ɑ], as the 'o' in 'pot', when stressed and before 'r'; [a] elsewhere, though it can reduce to [ə], especially at the ends of words.
• E - [e], as the 'a' in 'fate', before 'r' and word-finally (thought not in some short words like 'ne' and 'ye'); [ɛ], as 'e' in 'met', elsewhere.
• I - [ɪ], as the 'i' in 'bit'; [i]; as the 'ee' in 'beet', word finally.
• Í - [i], as the 'ee' in 'beet'. Never [ɪ]
• O - [ɔ], as the 'au' in East-coast English 'caught'; [o], as the 'oa' in 'boat', word-finally.
• U - [ʊ], [ɨ], [u]

• AA - [æ], as the 'a' in 'cat'.
• AE, AI - [aɪ], as the word 'I' in English. This is the only non-loned diphthong in the language.

Phonology

There are a number of phonological processes at work in Yardistani. Some are described below.

Consonant Phonemes

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d				kg		ʔ
Nasal	m			n
Trill									ʀ
Tap				ɾ
Fricative		f v	θ	s z	ʃ ʒ	ʂ	ç ʝ
Approximant					ɹ		j
Lateral					l

Vowels

Yardistani has nine vowel phonemes (that is, contrasting vowel sounds). There is a three-way height distinction at the phonemic level, as well as a tense/lax distinction for high vowels. It is unclear whether schwa (the mid-central vowel) is in fact phonemic. Likewise, the high back vowels, which show considerable variation, may be analysable in another manner.

Note too that there are a number of allophones not shown here. As the pronunciation section above shows, many vowels have pronunciations that vary based on environment.

Syntax

Yardistani syntax is for the most part straightforward. It is left-headed, and most often sentences are in the Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, just like English. However, Yardistani shows considerably more variation. Despite being undeclined, the language has relatively free word order, especially where pronouns are in use. The following two sentences are equivalent:

• Je Di sabi.
• Sabi Je Di
• Je sabi Di.
• Di sabi Je.

All four mean "I don't know you". They are SOV, VSO, SVO, an OSV, the last being rare. The free movement here is partially due to the fact that Yardistani personal pronouns have both nominative and oblique forms, thus making the subject and object of a verb discernable.

Yardistani is also a PRO-drop language, meaning that the language does not require all of its sentences to have overt subjects. However, Yardistani verbs do not conjugate for person, so it is common not to drop subjects unless it is clearly understood:

• Je kere vejj, ye podi. I want to go, but (I) cannot.

A few verbs, like 'dajj' (which in its subjectless instances translates as 'there is/are'), do not take subjects at all.

• Da trivi Majnsa nje Mrki. There are three people in the house.

There are many other differences between Yardistani and English:

• Adjectives must always follow nouns.
  • Tâlrsa grandix ne veneši. - Big changes are coming.

• Prepositions cannot be stranded.
  • ¿Nja Kje daja De oyo? - Whom did you give this to? (lit. To whom...)

• Yardistani has a tendency towards what is called verb-second word order. This basically means that when there are adverbs in sentences, the verb likes to let the adverbs precede it and to let the subject come afterwards.
  • ¡Hrís sabe Je! - Now I know!

Useful Phrases in Yardistani

• Hi! - ¡Allo! or ¡Don!
• Hello - Donsu
• Goodbye - Donku
• My name is... - Nâmrjo ne...
• Where is...? - Xo da ...?
• I want to go to Novi Nigrad - Je kere vejj nja Nigrad Nehix
• I hope everybody is well and that the bomb are not killing you quickly. - J'espere kju Tôdrsa nejr bonís, ce kju Bômbrsa Disa mataju rapís

See Also: Del-al'Enetet, Radarasilikan