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The pronunciation of the Oceana language is very different from the general pronunciation of Lovian English and Hurbanovan English (but it has influenced the last one) and includes several vowels and consonants which are not present in those language forms, like /y/, /ɲ/, /c/, /ʋ/, /x/, /ɣ/, /ɦ/, /ʁ/ and /tˠ/. Also vowels like /e/ are different from the English equivalents, as they are not diphthongs. Therefore non-native speakers often have difficulties in learning to speak the language properly.
Writing system[]
The first major work written in the Oceana language is the George Ský Translation which used a very consistent spelling based on Slovak and English. Ský's spelling remained in use for a few years, but as the Oceana language developed very rapidly, his spelling was no longer consistent with the actual pronunciation. It would take another seven decades before new consistent spellings were proposed. In the meantime, hundreds of literary works were produced with highly inconsistent spellings, often spelling Slovak sounding words exactly as in Slovak (which resulted in the surname Opať still having the Slovak letter <ť>, which is absent in English and present day Oceana) and English sounding words as if they were English. To make matters worse, most spellings also kept an etymological base, often attributed Slovak words with a folk etymology from English, f.e.: [mackɑ], meaning mother, comes from Slovak matka and is pronounced approximately the same way, was written as mothka ([motʰkɑ]) because writers thought it was a corrupted version of mother with the Slovak dimunitive ending -ka.
The current writing system of Oceana was published by Seyberg in the early 80's. Before that time, no unified spelling existed for all dialects. It was even very common that people just wrote Oceana the way they thought would be best. This lead to very inconsistent spellings based on English which also influenced the pronunciation of many words as a result of spelling pronunciations. Most of these pronunciations have been reverted (or otherwise made less English) in Seyberg's new writing system. Some examples of words with changed pronunciations are fly (1950: [flɨː], 1980: [flaɪ̯], 2000: [flʌː]), vague (1950: [vɪːgə], 1980: [veɪ̯g], 2000: [vagɔ]), and vicedah (1950: [viə̯kda] or [viə̯zda], 1980: [vaɪ̯stɑ] or [(vaɪ̯)ˈstɑː], 2000: [vikʲɛdax]). Another example is the word for English "type" (written by Hladovka as tayp). Some people used a spelling pronunciation, while others used the English pronunciation. This resulted in the word having two forms nowadays: taip (English pronunciation: [taɪ̯p]) and tayp (spelling pronunciation: [teɪ̯p]).
With Seyberg's spelling, the major problem of the inconsistent spellings, legibility, was solved. Hladovka used eleven ways of writing the word for power in his book Michal Hlán, making the book one of the most inconsistent works in the Oceana language. A new edition was therefore published recently. Seyberg's most difficult task was creating a flawless spelling which could be applied to all dialects. He was not able to get all forms down to one spelling all the time. Therefore, the word for power still has two forms: motsh and motch.
There was a lot of resistance to Seyberg's proposal but over two decades' time, the spelling became official in the State of Oceana and hardly any other spelling systems are in use nowadays. Two notable exceptions are the Skiechlawn spelling, which is used in Mäöres for political reasons, and the James-McCrooke spelling, which is used for Muzan Oceana, as Seyberg did not adjust his spelling to this dialect because he did not consider this dialect to be "pure Oceana".
Vowels[]
Monophthongs[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i · y | · u | |
| Close-mid | e · | · o | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ · | ʌ · ɔ | |
| Open | a · | ɑ · ɒ |
Orthography:
- There are several ways to pronounce <a>:
- Before an <r> it's pronounced as [ɑː].
- Word final it's [ɑ].
- In all other cases it's [a].
- <e> is pronounced as [ɛ]. Some different monophthongs written starting an <e> are:
- <ea>, which is pronounced as [ɛː].
- <ee>, which is pronounced as [iː].
- open <e>, which is pronounced as [iː] by the younger generation.
- [ɛ] is often weakened to [ə] at the end of words, which in turn is further weakened to [ʲ] when preceding a vowel, but this is not mandatory.
- <i> is pronounced as [i].
- <o> is pronounced as [o].
- <oo> becomes [u] or [uː], depending on the speaker's dialect.
- <ou> is pronounced as [ɒː].
- open <o>, which is pronounced as [u] by the younger generation.
- <u> is pronounced as [y].
- <ue> is pronounced as [ɔ].
- <y> is pronounced as [ʌ], but if it is the last sound of an adjective it could also be pronounced as [i]. Note that <y> could also stand for the consonant [j].
Diphthongs[]
| True diphthongs | False diphthongs |
|---|---|
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Triphthongs[]
| True triphthongs | False triphthongs |
|---|---|
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Pronunciation of "oa"[]
The digraph "oa" is a bit more complicated and cannot be grouped under a single pronunciation. Instead, it behaves differently appropriate to its environment. Several rules for the sound can be given:
- When occurring as the first phoneme of a syllable, it is pronounced as /ʔʊ̯ɑ/, f.e. oak (eye).
- When occurring following <l->, <loa> is pronounced as /lʊ̯ɑ/ (in Hurbanova) or /ɫa/ (in East Hills), f.e. load (load).
- The syllable final sequences <oar> and <oard> are pronounced as /ɒːʁ/, f.e. goard (mountain).
- In most other cases, it is pronounced as /uə̯/ (in Hurbanova) or /ʊə̯/ (in East Hills), f.e. hoa (whore).
- Note: there is a tendency in East Hills to raise and monophthongize this sound in a few words. "noa" (foot) is pronounced as /nuə̯/ in Hurbanova, in contrast to /niː/ in East Hills. This results in the English word "knee" being a homophone with the word for "foot" in the East Hills dialect of Oceana.
For a list of "oa" pronunciation per word, see: Digraph "oa".
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | c | k ɡ | ʔ | |||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | ʋ | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | ç | x ɣ | ɦ |
| Approximant | r ʁ | j | ʍ w | |||||
| Lateral | l ɫ | |||||||
Some orthographic notes:
- <nj> means [ɲ] and <ng> means [ŋ].
- <dsh> means [dʒ].
- <-t> at the end of verbs and some words and before "-ka" is often pronounced as [c].
- <v> between two vowels is nowadays very often pronounced as [ʋ].
- <w> is pronounced as [ʋ] or [w].
- <gh> means [ç].
- could be [θ] or [ð], although in most cases, if not all, it is pronounced as [tʰ].
- <sh> means [ʃ]
- <j> is often pronounced as [ʒ] in dialects without the j-y merger but most people would pronounce both <j> and <y> as [j]. In initial position, it is common to realize [j] as [ʝ], perhaps this is more common with <j> than with <y>.
- <h> is sometimes pronounced as [x] or even [ɣ] in syllabic clusters, but [ɦ] (or [h]) often makes more sense.
- <r> is pronounced as [ʁ] or [r].
- <wh> means [ʍ].
- <l> is very often pronounced as [ɫ] or even [w].
- [t] and [d] are slightly dental, older speakers also pronounce [n] (and even [l]) slightly dental.
- [ʁ] can be pronounced as [χ] in a voiceless consonant cluster.
Aspiration, velarization and palatalization of consonants[]
One of the more difficult things of the Oceana pronunciation is the consequent applying of consonant aspiration, consonant velarization and consonant palatalization. These three values are often not include in the narrow IPA transcriptions included in dictionaries and therefore are often omitted by second language speakers. It is one of the characteristics of the Oceana language which tends to disappear, except for the very stable [tʰ] sound, which occurs when there is [θ] or [ð] in English.
| normal value | aspirated | palatalized | velarized | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing | IPA | Writing | IPA | Writing | IPA | Writing | IPA | |
| <b> | [b] | - | - | <bb> | [bʲ] | - | - | |
| <p> | [p] | <ph> | [pʰ] | <pp> | [pʲ] | <pph> | [pˠ] | |
| <d> | [d] | - | - | <dd> | [dʲ] | - | - | |
| <t> | [t] | [tʰ] | <tt> | [tʲ] | <tth> | [tˠ] | ||
| <g> | [g] | - | - | <gg> | [gʲ] | - | - | |
| <k> | [k] | <cc> (<kh>) | [kʰ] | <c> (<kk>) | [kʲ] | <ck> (<kkh>) | [kˠ] | |
| <tsh> | [tʃ] | <ch> | [tʃʰ] | - | - | - | - | |
| <l> | [l] | - | - | <ll> | [lʲ] | - | - | |
| <m> | [m] | - | - | <mm> | [mʲ] | - | - | |
| <n> | [n] | - | - | <nn> | [nʲ] | - | - | |
| <r> | [r] | - | - | <rr> | [rʲ] | - | - | |
| <f> | [f] | - | - | <ff> | [fʲ] | - | - | |
| <s> | [s] | - | - | <ss> | [sʲ] | - | - | |
| <z> | [z] | - | - | <zz> | [zʲ] | - | - | |
A few minimal pairs:
- shaldutshred (gastric ulcer) and shalduchred (dark red).
- tak (so) and thak (roof).
- trash (explosive) and thrash (thrash).
Even though "c" is pronounced as [kʲ] according to the table, there are a lot of exceptions, such as can [kan]. Especially when accompanied by a liquid or voiceless plosive, "c" is pronounced as [k], f.e.: crew [krɛʋ], not [kʲrɛʋ], and accent [akʲɛnt], not [akʲkʲɛnt] (though most people would nowadays pronounce it as [aksɛnt]. It should be noted however that these words do have palatalisation in the East Hills and Scotland dialects.
Glottal stop[]
The glottal stop (IPA: [ʔ]) is a separate consonant in the Oceana language. All words beginning on a vowel always start with a glottale stop: "a" (English: I) is pronounced as [ʔɑ], even when preceded by another word ending on a consonant: "den a" (English: today, I) is pronounced as [d̪ɛnʔɑ], although this might be disappearing.
The glottal stop is also used at the beginning of a sentence if it begins with a voiceless plosive (t, p, k): "Came shese?" (English: Where is she?) is pronounced as [ʔkʲamɛʃɛsɛ]. If a word at the end of the sentence ends on the vowel [ɛ], or its weaker form [ə], this vowel can be replaced by a glottal stop: "I's trea o'that clocke." (English: It is three o'clock.) can be pronounced as [ʔist̪χɛːʔot̪ʰat̪klokˠɛ], [ʔist̪χɛːʔot̪ʰat̪klokˠə] and [ʔist̪χɛːʔot̪ʰat̪klokˠʔ].
Consonant clusters[]
Consonant clusters can be very long in Oceana compared to English. A lot of these consonant clusters origin from Slovak, in which they are very common. Most of them, however, have been simplified. A consonant only word is trh (market, IPA: [t̪χɣ̍]) and the word with most consonants in a row is strchkrick (manually turned out vomit, IPA: [ˈstχ̍tʃ͡ʰkχikˠ]).
Consonant merging[]
Some consonants tend to merge when following on each other but the exact outcome of the mergers differs per dialect. Especially velarised consonants combined with /r/ often result in the loss of the velar quality of the first phoneme and /r/ being pronounced as [ʁ], even in dialects where /r/ is rolled. An example of this "velar r-dropping" is "ockray" (English: border) which exhibits the change from [okˠreɪ̯] to [okχeɪ̯], as if it were written as okray. Another common merger is the affricative merger, which has several variants:
- The "tsh-tch" merger, both pronounced as /tʃ/, with "ch" being pronounced as /tʃʰ/ (Hurbanova, Mäöres, Slowane).
- The "ch-tch" merger, both pronounced as /tʃʰ/, with "tsh" being pronounced as /tʃ/ (East Hills, Scotland).
- The "ch-tsh-tch" merger, all pronounced as /tʃ/ (Beaver River dialects).
Note: in the Millstreet dialect it is common practice to merge "tch" with "sh" to /ʃ/, while "tsh" and "ch" keep the general pronunciation. This difference from the Hurbanovan practice has its origins in the fact that "tch" was pronounced as an aspirated sh (/ʃʰ/). "tch" eventually lost its aspiration and thus merged with "sh", though there might still be some older people from the '30s generation who keep this distinction.
Pronunciation of the r-phoneme[]
Percentage of the uses of the different r's, including change by time.
The /r/ sound is pronounced variously throughout Oceana. The most common variant is the uvular fricative (known as "throat-r") [ʁ], which is also found in Danish, French, and varieties of German and Dutch. It is very closely followed by the alveolar tap [ɾ], which is common in Scottish and Limburgish. Another common realization of /r/ which is growing in popularity is the retroflex approximant [ɻ], which is typical for American English, including most dialects of Lovian English.
Different dialects of Oceana show different typical pronunciations for the /r/. Some variations are only found in a few families, while others can be found in almost all parts of Oceana. Now follows a list of typical pronunciations per dialect, both the traditional single variant and the most common variant nowadays. Of course, the list is not exhaustive.
- Beaver River Mouth: alveolar approximant [ɹ], moving towards retroflex approximant [ɻ].
- East Hills: uvular fricative [ʁ] (stable), some older members of the Úskalie family have a uvular trill [ʀ].
- Hurbanova: uvular fricative [ʁ], moving towards retroflex approximant [ɻ] and alveolar tap [ɾ], some people (mainly in Newport) use a retracted alveolar fricative - [s̱]. Traditionally, all people used an alveolar trill [r], but this died out in the twenties and early thirties; in the Overbanken area, some people still use it.
- Mäöres: uvular fricative [ʁ], moving very rapidly towards alveolar tap [ɾ].
- Muza: uvular fricative [ʁ], some people use alveolar approximant [ɹ], both moving towards retroflex approximant [ɻ].
- Millstreet: very divided, approximately one half of the people use uvular fricative [ʁ], the other half uses alveolar tap [ɾ]. Traditionally, all people used an alveolar trill [r], but this died out in the fifties.
- Scotland: uvular fricative [ʁ], traditionally alveolar tap [ɾ]. Some older speakers use alveolar trill [r] but it is rare.
- Slowane: uvular fricative [ʁ] and alveolar approximant [ɹ], both moving towards alveolar tap [ɾ]. Traditionally, people used an alveolar trill [r].
People using [ʁ] often have a non-rhotic pronunciation.
Stress[]
Word stress[]
Oceana is relatively straight forward when it comes to word stress. Almost all words have primary stress on the first syllable. However, there are several suffixes and prefixes which alter the stress: some prefixes are rarely stressed; some suffixes take the primary stress.
- Unstressed prefixes: be-; bez-; bi- (very often stressed); for- (can also be stressed).
- Primarily stressed suffixes: -bechen; -ee (can also be unstressed).
- Compound shifts: darafter; amere; bivetst.
Stress can however be variable, especially in a literary context and sometimes initial stress feels unnatural to native speakers of English, for example "ekawnt" (from account) has initial stress. Obvious loanwords from Greek or Latin can take either primary stress or the same stress as in English. Note: "Oshenna" always has primary stress on the second syllable.
Sentence stress[]
In Oceana, nouns and lexical verbs are almost always stressed; pronouns, conjunctions, determiners, articles, prepositions, copula, and modal verbs are not. Therefore, the sentence "Thuf saen that dasht kem we plavath?" (Have you seen the rain?) is stressed as "Thuf saen that dasht kem we plavath?". In case of a copula, the pronoun is stressed and the verb is not, opposite to the English practice: "Thu leek un father." (You seem to be father.). Understanding sentence stress is required in order to be able to use reductions.
Sound changes and reductions[]
Haplology[]
In East Hills, it is very common to pronounce two (nearly) similar sounding, often short, syllables as one long syllable. An example would be "dovolny" (permission). In Hurbanova, it is pronounced /ˈd̪oʋolnə/, while in East Hills, it is pronounced /ˈdɒːlne/. It is especially common when the two involved vowels are separated only by a single glide, such as /ʋ/ or /j/, or a single voiced, so unpalatalised, plosive, such as /b/, /d̪/, or /g/.
Example[]
| Orthography | IPA | |
|---|---|---|
| Older generation | Younger generation | |
| Deep in that horeless 'Oshenna Behine thie strum and curs Thu can find e letislove 'Oshenna, oshine harven |
d̪iːp in t̪ʰat̪ xoʁəɫɛsʲ ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnʲɑ bɛˈɦinə t̪ʰiə̯ st̪χym an kʲyːχs t̪ʰy kan fin̪ ʔɛ lɛt̪islovə ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnʲɑ ʔoˈʃinə ɦɑːʁvən |
diːp in tʰæt xɔɹəlɛs ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnɑ biˈɦaɪ̯nə tʰiə̯ stɹym æn kyɹs tʰy kæn find ʔə lɛdisluvə ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnɑ ʔoˈʃaɪ̯nə ɦɑːɹvən |
| Kem that lew is espavat Hem na bivet is usporite As we uhatshit hen from bespetshense He bude ashatsh |
ʔkɛm t̪ʰat̪ ɫɛʋ is ʔəˈspaʋac ɦɛm nɑ biʋɛt̪ is ʔyˈspoʁit ʔaz ʋɛ ʔyˈɦatʃic ɛn fχom bɛspɛːnsʲ ɦɛ byːd̪ə ʔaˈʃatʃ |
ʔkɛm tʰæt wɛʋ is ʔəˈspaʋac ɦɛm nɑ biə̯d is ʔyˈspɔɹaɪ̯tə ʔæz ʋɛ ʔyˈɦatʃic ɛn fɹom bɛspɛns ɦɛ bydə ʔaˈʃatʃ |
| Near That Great Oshen Ko stow o'tshaicks fly Ko tulenj potshkat ash Came those she go do |
nɛːʁ t̪ʰat̪ gʁɛːt̪ ʔoʃən ko stoʊ̯ ʔoˈtʃaɪ̯kˠs flʌː ko t̪ylɛɲ potʃˈkat̪ ʔaʃ ʔkʲamə t̪ʰosə ʃɛ go d̪o |
nɛːɹ tʰæt gɹɛːd ʔoʃən ko stoʊ̯ ʔoˈtʃaɪ̯ks flʌː ko tylɛɲ potʃˈkad ʔaʃ ʔkamə tʰosə ʃɛ go do |
| Oshine Hurbanoft Pe Narasha 'Oshenna espoke is Ko lodsh amere I's that pimiatka o'Slovenske |
ʔoˈʃinʲ ɦyʁbanofc pɛ nɑːʁˈɦaʃɑ ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnʲɑ ʔəˈspokʲ ʔis ʔko lodʒ aˈmɛːʁə ʔis t̪ʰat̪ piˈmiə̯ckɑ ʔosloˈʋɛnskʔ |
ʔoˈʃaɪ̯nə ɦyrbanofc pɛ nɑːɹˈɦaʃɑ ʔɔo̯ˈʃɛnɑ ʔəˈspokə ʔis ʔko lodʒ aˈmiːɹə ʔis tʰæt paɪ̯ˈmiə̯ckɑ ʔosloˈvɛnskʔ |