Adcovtle

Adcovtle (Adcovtle: adcovtle) is a lograði language spoken primarily in Covtle. The only lograði language in eastern Tiðloten, it originates from the exiled followers of Baðatrepava who settled in Covtle 450. Adcovtle is the official language of the Wiþi Empire, and the official language of Covtle.

Classification

Adcovtle is considered to be a lograði language, despite its influence from Grèstilsan languages and the original languages of Covtle.

History

Adcovtle began to develop separately from Avamants Logetavys, the language of the Ancient Land which it descends from, almost as soon as Baðatrepava and his followers left the Ancient Land. Analysis of written documentation is difficult using Ancient Land Logograms, but the development of the alphabet in the 300s allows for more phonetic analysis. After the fall of Lajavlugli, Adcovtle began to change more rapidly. Some of the most notable changes during this period were the disappearance of the gender system, and the Covtle vowel shift.

Old Adcovtle marks the period from roughly 800 to 1200, including tedadera ad lapegar (English: Years of Peace). Spelling became standardised around this time, and remained so until the updates made by Lañome ad lini. During this period, Adcovtle also lost its final case marker.

The Teslator era, in roughly the 1600s, marked the loss of the infinitive t- prefix.

Distribution of speakers

Adcovtle is spoken as a first language by roughly 88 percent of the population of Covtle as a first language, and by roughly 12 percent of the population of Covtle as a second language. It is also spoken as a first language by 60 percent of the population of Onþod.

Adcovtle is also spoken as a second language throughout the Wiþi Empire, and in Wàmèrà and Quərfi.

Phonology

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial		Labiodental		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal			m						n		ɲ		ŋ
Plosive		p	b					t	d			k	g
Fricative				f	v	θ	ð	s	z			x
Approximant	Central										j	ʍ	w
	Lateral								l

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Adcovtle phonotactics follow the sonority hierarchy, while allowing a large number of consonant clusters. Stress in Adcovtle is lexical, but defaults on most words to the first syllable. Adcovtle is a syllable-timed language.

Grammar

Basic word order

Adcovtle syntax is marked by a strong SVO (subject-verb-object) word order. Since Adcovtle does not have any case markings, word order can change the meaning of a sentence. For example:

La-	zeþlada	b-	eclet	la-	plusamben
COUNTABLE	person	PRES	step.on	COUNTABLE	lightning.skink

"The person steps on a lightning skink."

is different from

La-	plusamben	b-	eclet	la-	zeþlada
COUNTABLE	lightning.skink	PRES	step.on	COUNTABLE	person

"The lightning skink steps on a person."

Adcovtle is an head-initial language. Adjectives follow nouns, adverbs follow verbs, and prepositional phrases follow nouns and verbs.

Nouns

Nouns in Adcovtle are inflicted only for countability. This infliction is done with a prefix.

la-: countable te-: uncountable

Countability in Adcovtle is not the same as plurality. For example:

la-	plusamben
COUNTABLE	lightning.skink

"One lightning skink"

te-	plusamben
UNCOUNTABLE	lightning.skink

"Many lightning skinks"

Do	La-	plusamben
Two	COUNTABLE	lightning.skink

"Two lightning skinks"

Verbs

Verbs in adcovtle are conjugated for tense and aspect. The verb prefixes are given below:

ð-	future absolute
b-	present absolute
d-	past absolute
ðoz-	future relative
ps-	present relative
doh-	past relative

There are two common classes of irregular verbs, þepete verbs and consonant verbs. þepete verbs have a voiceless stop as the first consonant in the stem, and are conjugated with «þ-», «p-», and «t-» in the absolute. Consonant verbs begin with a consonant, and have the vowel from the end moved to the beginning when conjugated.

Pronouns

Unlike nouns, pronouns mark plurality. The pronouns in Adcovtle are:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	ma	ri
2nd person	va	atle
3rd person	ðo	co

Plavestafras

The «plavestafras» is a special kind of particle in Adcovtle that is inserted at the beginning of a sentence. They can be used to form questions, negations, conditionals, and change the mood of a sentence. The plavestafras are the following:

plavestafras	meaning
are	active (optional), imperative (mandatory)
po	passive (optional)
so	question
na	negation
iz	conditional, causal (in past)
þi	subjunctive

See also

Adcovtle learning app - an online app for learning Adcovtle. Also has the most up-to-date dictionary.

Older resources (have been moved)

An introduction to Adcovtle - Introductory Adcovtle textbook

Tiðloten dictionary - Online dictionary for Adcovtle and other languages of Tiðloten

Adcovtle sound changes - Documentation of the sound changes in the history of Adcovtle