Avalonian

Magellanican (c) Rebecca Ashling 2019-2020. I assert that the Magellanican conlang presented here is my intellectual property and confirm that Linguifex may post this material on their site.

Magellanican (Mag:Tinnakva Teljuq) is a polysynthetic, nominative-accusative language (but using ergative morphology) with VSOX word order which is the official language and lingua franca of Magellanica (Mag: Telku) and has approximately 300 million speakers. The Commonwealth of Magellanica (Mag: Tiqkara Anakte Teljuq) comprises the entirety of the fictional continent of Magellanica which lies in the southern Pacific Ocean from 35°S to 65°S, north to south, and from 110°W to 140°W, east to west. Its nearest continental neighbour is Antarctica which is about 1100 km due south of Magellanica.

Introduction

Magellanica was the last of the inhabitable continents to be colonised. It first became inhabited around 8000 BCE. Genetic evidence suggests the Palaeo-Magellanicans originated from South America. They were the first and only colonisers of the continent. It is most likely useless to attempt to relate the languages of Magellanica to those of South America or elsewhere given the ten thousand year time gap. Although intrepid lumpers and goropists are certainly giving it a good old try.

The initial group of colonisers was very small and the founder effect is evident in the modern Magellanican phenotype. Most of the population are of unusually short stature, averaging about 1.4 metres in height. It is believed early mutations in the early generations resulted in red and blonde hair occurring in a sizeable majority as well as the presence of blue, grey and green eye colours in a somewhat smaller minority.

The original speakers of Magellanican, the Yamik people, originated from the Rutheri region of Magellanica which borders the Heart Sea. From about one thousand years ago it became the lingua franca of the entire area surrounding the Heart Sea, and then the entire continent following the advent of smallpox in the 16th Century.

Magellanican is a language isolate and has no traceable genealogical relation to any other language, ancient or modern. It does however form a sprachbund with its neighbours, sharing such features as a bisyllabic root structure, primary stress on the first syllable, consonant gradation and the opposition of voiceless plosives vs voiced fricatives or approximants. The dialect described below is the standard variety promulgated by the Commonwealth of Magellanica.

Phonology

Orthoɡraphy

General Remarks On Orthography

Magellanican is written in a native script (Mag: Tinuljejat Teljuq) which is an alphabet derived from an earlier featural abugida. It is written from left to right.

The Latin script was introduced in the 18th Century in order to take advantage of imported printing presses from Europe. The current situation is one of digraphia with the Tinuljejat Ūravaq (Latin Alphabet) being primarily used for scientific, engineering and technical publications and the Tinuljejat Teljuq being mostly used for literature, religion and art. Outside these domains, for more mundane matters, the Latin Alphabet tends to be used by the upper echelons of society and the Magellanic Alphabet by the lower.

Magellanican spelling is generally phonemic in both scripts but does reflect the effects of internal sandhi although not external sandhi.

Magellanican Alphabet

Magellanican Letter	IPA Value	Latin Letter
⟨o⟩	/m/	⟨m⟩
⟨c⟩	/p/	⟨p⟩
⟨ɔ⟩	/w/	⟨v⟩
⟨x⟩	/n/	⟨n⟩
⟨v⟩	/t/	⟨t⟩
⟨ʌ⟩	/ɹ/	⟨r⟩
⟨ɴ⟩	/s/	⟨s⟩
⟨z⟩	/l/	⟨l⟩
⟨ʜ⟩	/ŋ/	⟨q⟩
⟨n⟩	/k/	⟨k⟩
⟨ɤ⟩	/h/	⟨h⟩
⟨u⟩	/j/	⟨j⟩
⟨h⟩	/i/	⟨i⟩
⟨hh⟩	/eɪ/	⟨ī⟩
⟨ɥ⟩	/ɛ/	⟨e⟩
⟨ɥɥ⟩	/aɪ/	⟨ē⟩
⟨b⟩	/u/	⟨u⟩
⟨bb⟩	/oʊ/	⟨ū⟩
⟨q⟩	/ɑ/	⟨ɑ⟩
⟨qq⟩	/aʊ/	⟨ā⟩

Consonants

Magellanican has a total of 12 consonants which according to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Stucture is a small inventory. The most striking feature of the inventory, according to WALS, are the presence of an initial velar nasal. The consonants are displayed in the table below:

	Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Stop	/p/	/t/	/k/
Continuant	/w/	/ɹ/	/j/	/h/
Fricative		/s/
Nasal	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/
Liquid		/l/

Vowels

Magellanican has a total of 8 vowels, 4 monophthongs and 4 diphthongs. The diphthongs pattern phonologically as long vowels. According to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures Magellanican has a small vowel quality inventory. Magellanican has a consonant to vowel quality ratio of 2.75 which according to WALS is a moderately low ratio. The vowels are displayed in the table below:

	Front Short	Long Front	Short Back	Long Back
Hiɡh	/i/	/eɪ/	/u/	/oʊ/
Low	/ɛ/	/aɪ/	/ɑ/	/aʊ/

Allophony

1) Stops are aspirated in word-initial position.

2) /p, t, k/ are realised as [f, ɬ, x] when in onset position after a coda stop.

3) /h/ is realised as [x] in onset position after a coda consonant of /ŋ, l/.

4) Geminate /m, n, ŋ/ are realised as [mb, nd, ŋɡ].

5) Geminate /l/ is realised as [ld].

6) The consonant clusters /ph, th, kh/ are realised as [f, ɬ, x].

7) In closed syllables /i, u/ are realised as [ɪ, ʊ].

Prosody

1) Words in Magellanican bear primary stress on the initial syllable.

2) Magellanican words bear secondary stress on every odd-numbered syllable following the initial syllable.

3) Rhythm type is trochaic.

4) To an English speaker, Magellanican would appear to be spoken with a slower tempo than English is.

Phonotactics

1) The syllable template is (C)V(C).

2) Permitted syllable coda consonants are /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/.

3) Stops may not occur in the onset of a non-morpheme-initial closed syllable if that stop follows a short vowel, nasal or /l/.

4) Stops may not occur in the onset of a non-morpheme-initial syllable which contains a long vowel if that stop follows a short vowel, nasal or /l/.

5) Consonant clusters may not have more than two segments.

6) Consonant clusters only occur at syllable boundaries within the word.

7) Permitted consonant clusters as per the table below:

P	T	K	M	N	Q	L
√	√	√	√			√	P
√	√	√		√		√	T
√	√	√			√	√	K
√	√	√	√			√	V
√	√	√		√		√	R
√	√	√			√	√	J
√	√	√			√	√	H
			√			√	M
				√		√	N
					√	√	Q
				√		√	L

a) Latin orthography used for clarity.

b) First consonant of consonant cluster runs along be top of table, second consonant of consonant cluster runs down riɡht of table.

c) √ in a cell means the indicated consonant cluster is permitted.

8) Consonant clusters are coda consonant + onset consonant in terms of syllabification.

9) The consonant clusters /ph, th, kh/ are an exception to the preceding rule and both segments are considered to be entirely with the syllable onset.

10) /i, eɪ/ may not follow /j/.

11) /u, oʊ/ may not follow /w/.

12) /eɪ, aɪ/ may not precede /j/.

13) /oʊ, aʊ/ may not precede /w/.

14) Long vowels may not occur in closed syllables.

15) Vowel clusters do not occur.

16) Canonical morpheme syllable templates:

a) Roots: -(C)(C)V(C)- or -(C)V(C)CV(C)-

b) Prefixes: (C)V(C)- or (C)V(C)CV(C)-

c) Suffixes: -(C)(C)V(C) or -(C)V(C)CV(C)

d) Particles: (C)V(C) or (C)V(C)CV(C)

17) Monosyllabic roots are rare and mainly comprise pronouns and certain verbs such as pe 'to exist'.

18) Monosyllabic suffixes may have a word-final allomorph consisting of a single coda consonant which is employed after a short vowel.

19) Roots originating through foreign borrowings may exceed two syllables.

Morphophonemics

Internal Sandhi

1) Consonant clusters resulting from affixation undergo sandhi as per the table below:

P	T	K	M	N	Q	L
pp	tp	kp	mp	mp	mp	lp	P
pt	tt	kt	nt	nt	nt	lt	T
pk	tk	kk	qk	qk	qk	lk	K
pv	tv	kv	mv	mv	mv	lv	V
pr	tr	kr	nr	nr	nr	lr	R
pj	tj	kj	qj	qj	qj	lj	J
ph	th	kh	qh	qh	qh	lh	H
pv	tv	kv	mm	mm	mm	lm	M
pr	tr	kr	nn	nn	nn	ln	N
mp	nt	qk	qq	qq	qq	lq	Q
pt	tt	kt	ml	nl	ql	ll	L

NOTES:

a) Latin transliteration used for clarity.

b) First consonant of consonant cluster runs along be top of table, second consonant of consonant cluster runs down riɡht of table.

2) If a three-segment consonant cluster results from suffixation then the first consonant of that cluster is deleted.

3) If a vowel cluster results from suffixation then the first vowel is deleted. If the first vowel is long and the second vowel short then that short vowel is lengthened if phonotactically permitted.

4) If a long vowel occurs in a closed syllable due to affixation then that long vowel is reduced to its corresponding short vowel.

5) If a long front vowel occurs before /j/ due to affixation then that long front vowel is reduced to its corresponding short vowel.

6) If a long back vowel occurs before /w/ due to affixation then that long back vowel is reduced to its corresponding short vowel.

External Sandhi

1) External sandhi only occurs between words in the same phrase.

2) A word-initial stop is realised as its fricative allophone if it follows a word-final stop.

3) A word-final nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following word-initial stop, continuant or nasal.

4) A word-initiall nasal lenites to its corresponding continuant when it follows a word-final stop.

5) A word-initial nasal is realised as its corresponding voiced plosive if it follows a word-final nasal.

6) Word-initial /l/ is realised as [ɬ] when it follows a word-final stop.

7) Word-initial /l/ is realised as [d] if it follows a word-final /l/.

Consonant Gradation

1) Consonant gradation comes into effect once sandhi has been resolved.

2) Consonant gradation is the lenition of stops under particular circumstances.

3) The conditions under which consonant gradation is triggered are:

a) When the stop is the onset of a word-final open syllable, when that stop follows a short vowel, nasal or /l/, and when that syllable becomes closed owing to suffixation.

b) When the stop is a word-final coda and becomes the onset of a closed syllable owing to suffixation.

4) Once these conditions are met the affected stop lenites to its corresponding continuant.

5) Prefixes are not affected by consonant gradation.

6) Morpheme-initial stops are not affected by consonant gradation.

Morphology

General Remarks On Morpholoɡy

1) The morphological cateɡories used in Magellanican are summarised in the table below:

Category	Description	Inflected?
Noun	Nouns, pronouns, numerals	Yes
Verb	Verbs, many adjectives, adpositions	Yes
Affix	Prefixes and suffixes expressing adjunction, verbal modality, inflection or derivation	No
Particle	Conjunctions, some adverbs, interjections	No

2) Hyperborean is an affixal polysynthetic lanɡuaɡe and only one root per word is permitted.

3) Compoundinɡ of roots does not occur.

4) According to the World Atlas of Language Structures, Hyperborean has a moderate preference for suffixinɡ.

Nominal Morphology

General Remarks On Nominal Morphology

1) Nouns indicate distinct entities. Nouns are inflected for number, possessor, demonstration or case.

2) Maximal nominal structure:

demonstrative or possessive prefix + nominal or verbal root + derivational suffix(es) + number suffix + case suffix

Number

1) There are two main systems of nominal number in Magellanican:

a) Sinɡular-Plural

b) Collective-Singulative

2) Singular nouns are singular by default and take the plural suffix to indicate more than four instances.

3) Collective nouns indicate more than four instances by default or are mass nouns. They take the singulative suffix to indicate a singular instance or a very small part of the whole.

4) Magellanican also has a paucal number which is used to mark nouns that are greater than one or fewer than five in number. Also indicates matched sets of entities of any number.

5) Number suffixes are summarised in the table below:

Number	Suffix
Plural	-it
Singulative	-an
Paucal	-uk

Case

1) Case marks relationships between noun and noun or noun and verb.

2) Magellanican cases are summarised in the table below:

Case	Abbreviation	Suffix (Allomorph)	Functions
Absolutive	ABS	-∅	a) Marks citation form of noun b) Indicates O argument of a transitive verb c) Marks S argument of an intransitive verb
Ergative	NOM	-qu (-q)	a) Indicates A argument of a transitive verb b) Indicates the possessor
Dative	DAT	-hē	a) Marks beneficiary of action b) Indicates purpose or intent
Instrumental	INST	-tik	a) Marks use of tool or instrument b) Indicates proximal cause
Equative	EQU	-te (-t)	a) Indicates similarity in function, manner or behaviour b) Indicates similarity to, likeness to c) Made or consisting of a particular substance d) Indicates the comparative
Comitative	COM	-pe (-p)	a) Marks physical proximity or social connection to someone b) Indicates collaborative effort with someone in a joint activity c) Marks reciprocicity d) Indicates possessor when copula used in 'have' construction
Locative	LOC	-ki (-k)	a) Indicates place where b) Marks time when
Allative	ALL	-va	a) Marks motion towards b) Indicates time until c) Marks destination or goal
Ablative	ABL	-jā	a) Indicates motion away from b) Marks time since c) Indicates the source or origin d) Marks aversion to or opposition to e) Indicates the source of comparison
Perlative	PERL	-am	a) Marks motion across, along, through or by way of b) Indicates duration c) Marks mode or means of transport or transmission d) Indicates reason, motive or ultimate cause e) Marks topic of conversation

NB: Parenthesised forms are word-final allomorphs employed after a short vowel.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

1) Magellanican personal pronouns and their associated possessive suffixes are summarised in the table below:

Person	Abbreviation	Pronoun	Possessive Prefix
1st Person Singular	1SG	ni	niq-
2nd Person Singular	2SG	ki	kiq-
3rd Person Singular	3SG	ti	tiq-
4th Person Sinɡular	4SG	li	liq-
1st Person Paucal Exclusive	1PC EXCL	nuk	nuqku-
1st Person Paucal Inclusive	1PC INCL	muk	muqku-
2nd Person Paucal	2PC	kuk	kuqku-
3rd Person Paucal	3PC	tuk	tuqku-
4th Person Paucal	4PC	luk	luqku-
1st Person Plural Exclusive	1PL EXCL	nat	nantu-
1st Person Plural Inclusive	1PL INCL	mat	mantu-
2nd Person Plural	2PL	kat	kantu-
3rd Person Plural	3PL	tat	tantu-
4th Person Plural	4PL	lat	lantu-

2) Personal pronouns take case in the same manner as nouns.

Demonstratives

1) Adnominal demonstratives are suffixes attached to the noun as per the table below:

Name	Locus	English Equivalent	Prefix
Proximal	Near speaker	this, these	hi-
Medial	Near listener(s)	that, those	hu-
Distal	Away from speaker and listener(s)	yon	ha-

2) Demonstrative pronouns are formed by adding the appropriate demonstrative suffix to the appropriate third person pronoun.

Emphatic Pronouns

These are no dedicated emphatic pronouns but as verbs mark A, S and O arguments, the use of the pronouns correlating with these can be used for emphasis.

Reflexive Pronouns

These are no dedicated reflexive pronouns in Magellanican and the appropriate absolutive verbal prefixes or oblique pronouns suffice.

Interrogative Pronouns

1) There is one interroɡative pronoun: ye 'who, what' which is undifferentiated for number.

2) All other interrogatives are built from this by adding the appropriate case. Eɡ: jel 'where?', jep 'with whom?'

3) There is an interrogative pronominal possessive prefix: jen- 'whose?'.

4) Prefixing je- to a noun gives the sense of 'which?'.

5) The canonical word-order of Magellanican is VSOX. Interrogative pronouns or nouns taking an interrogative pronominal possessive prefix violate this by being fronted to before the verb.

Indefinite Pronouns

There is one indefinite pronoun hamat 'somebody, something'.

Possessive Constructions

1) If only pronouns are involved as the possessor then the possessum is marked with the appropriate possessive prefix.

2) If a noun is involved as the possessor then the possessum is marked with the appropriate prefix, most commonly 3rd or 4th person, and the possessor takes the ergative case.

Numerals

1) The numerals of Magellanican are listed in the table below:

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
0	tuhu	tuhujaren
1	vat	vatjaren
2	vik	vikjaren
3	kirut	kirutjaren
4	lavat	lavatjaren
5	vatha	vathajaren
6	heq	heqjaren
7	hāpi	hāpijaren
8	rāhu	rāhujaren
9	vatrā	vatrājaren
10	tammat	tammatjaren
11	tamvat	tamvatjaren
12	tamvik	tamvikjaren
13	taqkirut	taqkirutjaren
14	tanlavat	tanlavatjaren
15	tamvatha	tamvathajaren
16	taqheq	taqheqjaren
17	taqhāpi	taqhāpijaren
18	tanrāhu	tanrāhujaren
19	tamvatrā	tamvatrājaren
20	pajeq	pajeqjaren
40	vikpaq	vikpaqjaren
60	kirutpaq	kirutpaqjaren
80	lavatpaq	lavatpaqjaren
100	nun	nuqjaren
200	viqkun	viqkuqjaren
300	kiruntun	kiruntuqjaren
400	lavantun	lavantuqjaren
500	vathanun	vathanuqjaren
600	hennun	hennuqjaren
700	hāpinun	hāpinunjaren
800	rāhunun	rāhunuqjaren
900	vatrānun	vatrānuqjaren
1.000	limmu	limmujaren
2.000	vilkim	vilkiqjaren
3.000	kirultim	kirultiqjaren
4.000	lavaltim	lavaltiqjaren
5.000	vathalim	vathaliqjaren
6.000	henlim	henliqjaren
7.000	hāpilim	hāpiliqjaren
8.000	rāhulim	rāhuliqjaren
9.000	vatrālim	vatrāliqjaren
10.000	lakhe	lakhejaren
20.000	vilkak	vilkakjaren
30.000	kirultak	kirultakjaren
40.000	lavaltak	lavaltakjaren
50.000	vathalak	vathalakjaren
60.000	henlak	henlakjaren
70.000	hāpilak	hāpilakjaren
80.000	rāhulak	rāhulakjaren
90.000	vatrālak	vatrālakjaren
100.000	ikral	ikraljaren

Verbal Morphology

General Remarks On Verbal Morphology

1) Verbs express actions, processes or states of being. Verbs are inflected for A, S and O arguments, aspect, valency and mood.

2) Maximal verbal structure:

interrogative prefix + nominative pronominal prefix + auxiliary prefix + causative prefix + verbal or nominal root + derivational suffix(es) + applicative suffix + aspect suffix + adverbial suffix(es) + absolutive pronominal suffix

Pronominal Affixes

Person	Absolutive Suffix (Allomorph)	Nominative Prefix
1st Person Singular	-ni (-n)	niq-
2nd Person Singular	-ki(-k)	kiq-
3rd Person Singular	-ti(-t)	tiq-
4th Person Sinɡular	-li (-l)	liq-
1st Person Paucal Exclusive	-nuk	nuqku-
1st Person Paucal Inclusive	-muk	muqku-
2nd Person Paucal	-kuk	kuqku-
3rd Person Paucal	-tuk	tuqku-
4th Person Paucal	-luk	luqku-
1st Person Plural Exclusive	-nat	nantu-
1st Person Plural Inclusive	-mat	mantu-
2nd Person Plural	-kat	kantu-
3rd Person Plural	-tat	tantu-
4th Person Plural	-lat	lantu-

NB: Parenthesised forms are word-final allomorphs employed after a short vowel.

Voice

1) Transitive verbs in Magellanican have three voices:

a) Active

b) Agentive

c) Patientive

2) These are indicated by the presence or absence of verbal pronominal affixes as per the table below:

Voice	Abbreviation	Nominative Prefix?	Absolutive Suffix?	Promoted Argument	Case Of Demoted Argument	Function
Active	ACT	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A	No topicalisation of either argument
Agentive	AGT	Yes	No	NOM	DAT	Topicalisation of A argument
Patientive	PAT	No	Yes	ABS	INST	Topicalisation of O argument

3 Intransitive verbs have two voices: