The Beaver River dialects are marked in yellow
The Beaver River dialects or Beaver River Lovian English is a group of Lovian English dialects spoken in parts of Sylvania and Oceana, mainly along the Beaver River, and by people originally from those areas. Several hamlets where the dialects are spoken are Boborbrod and Severnybana (in Sylvania), and Newmouth, Tshadsa, and Westwall (in Oceana). The dialect of Heighnow could be considered a hybdrid variant of Beaver River English and Oceana English.
Dialects[]
Boris Hartman, the BBU linguist who identified the major dialect regions in Lovia, discerned several local dialects in West Sylvania and Southern Oceana:
- Beaver River Mouth dialect (Newmouth, Tshadsa, Westwall)
- Boborbrod-Severnybana dialect
- Heighnow dialect
These are together referred to as the Beaver River dialects, because they share most of their characteristics.
Common features[]
Most common features of the dialect are in the pronunciation, see also Phonology. Influence from Slovak can be noticed; many diphthongs are realized as monophthongs in the dialects, for example /ɛː/ and /oː/ instead of /eɪ̯/ and /oʊ̯/, though this might be disappearing in Oceana. All dialects have dental consonants, and the dialects in Oceana are non-rhotic. Another common feature is the verb "to i" for "to have", pronounced as /t̪y ʔɛɪ̯/, a feature shared with Oceana English and the dialects surrounding Train Village.
Most of the Beaver River dialect vocabulary is similar to standard Lovian English vocabulary. However, a couple of words are only used by speakers of the Beaver River and Oceana dialects, including words like "fondestmate" (best friend), "pils" (beer), and "boozecan" (pub). A very common influence from Slovak is the use of a genitive construction after numerals (with the exception of 1, 2, 3, and 4), for example: "two dogs" and "two men" vs. "six of dogs(')" and "six of men's".
Phonology[]
Vowels[]
Beaver River vowels have clearly been influenced by Slovak and Oceana. The following table list words with vowels, followed by their Beaver River English and General American pronunciation. The table shows the Newmouth pronunciation.
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| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i(:) · y | · u: | |
| Close-mid | ɝ · | · o(:) | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ(:) · | ||
| Open | a(:) · | ɑ: · ɒ: |
Vowels[]
The pronunciation for <r> varies, in the Oceana areas, it tends to be /ɹ/ or /ɻ/, with the exception of Heighnow which has either /ʁ/ or /r/, while the Sylvanian areas use /r/ almost exclusively.