Talossan language
Encyclopedia
The Talossan language is a constructed language
created by R. Ben Madison in 1980 for the micronation
he founded, the Kingdom of Talossa.
The Association of Talossan Language Organisations (ATLO) maintains talossan.com, a Website describing the language for new learners, providing language information, research, and online translation to and from English.
Talossan is the best-known example of the micronational language genre of conlang
. The language is spoken and used in the Kingdom of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossan), a "constitutional monarchy" with its own parliament and a bicameral legislature, founded by Madison on December 26, 1979, and also in the Talossan Republic (La Repúblicâ Talossán), formed in 2004 by ex-citizens of the Kingdom.
Talossan is one of the best-known artistic language
s on the Internet
. It garners perennial interest and respect from online conlanger
s and conlang
aficionados. Of particular interest to them is its large vocabulary—with over 28,000 words in its official dictionary, it is one of the most detailed fictional language
s ever invented.
The language is overseen by the Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ
(CÚG; the Committee for the Use of the Language), a group formed in the Kingdom of Talossa by Madison in the 1980s. This group periodically issues Arestadas (reformations) which describe and document changes in the usage of the language, and to the vocabulary. The CÚG maintains a multi-lingual Website providing access to the recent recommendations of the Committee.
In the Republic the language is kept alive by the Talossan-Language project, which built an online dictionary English-Glheþ, Glheþ-English; and by l'Icastolâ, the School of the Talossan Language in the Talossan Academy of Arts and Sciences, established 9 August 2005.
The language, and its corresponding micronation, are mentioned in the book Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World by Michael R. Solomon, and the language is documented in two published grammars.
The most significant recent development in the language was the issuance of the Arestada of December 12, 2007. This Arestada instituted a rule for stress that allowed many extraneous stressmarks to be omitted, and simplified the vowel set by recognizing certain letters as allophones of other vowels, and respelled a few strange letter combinations. This Arestada is accepted in the Kingdom
, but usage of Talossan in the Talossan Republic often retains pre-Arestada conventions.
, inspired by French
and Occitan, and very naturalistic (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber
sub-tribes of Morocco
was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were "inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers." This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages
. More recently however, words are derived from Romance
roots and given a French
/Provençal feeling to them (some see a Romanian
influence as well), but there is no one set of rules for derivation through which every word can be predicted. The word "Talossa" itself is not Romance
, but Finnic in origin: it comes from the Finnish
word for "inside the house" (Talossa began in Madison's bedroom).
scharfes S (ß
) [known as "eseta" in Talossan], Icelandic thorn (þ), the cedilla-c (ç
), and Icelandic eth (ð
). The eseta can be replaced by the equivalent digraph
ss, and the thorn by the digraph tg. Prior to the 2007 Arestada, the eth was often seen written using the digraph th; the 2007 Arestada recognized the eth as replaceable in modern Talossan by the letter d.
The letters of the modern Talossan alphabet are:
a, ä, b, c, ç, d, ð, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, q, r, s, ß, t, u, ü, v, w, x, z, þ
In alphabetical ordering, c and ç are not distinguished from one another, nor are s and ß, nor any vowel from its marked counterpart.
Through the Arestada of 2007, the vowel system was simplified by the adoption of a default stress rule, which made explicit stress marking necessary only in words that are stressed irregularly. The Arestada further standardized the stress marking system so that the vowels a, e, i, o, and u are stressmarked using acute or grave accents (as in á or à), and the vowels ä, ö, and ü are stressmarked using circumflexes (as in ô and û).
In pre-Arestada Talossan, a number of other vowel forms are retained (such as ê, ë, å, and î), and no stress rule exists. In pre-Arestada Talossan, words are often marked with multiple diacriticals, which often have different meanings, sometimes indicating stress, sometimes a difference in pronunciation, sometimes both, and sometimes the same mark indicates neither. The consonant ñ was also removed by the 2007 Arestada.
In speech, Talossan exhibits a system of consonant mutation
(lenition and eclipsis) very similar to that found in
Irish Gaelic. This system is indicated in orthography only rarely, typically only in prepositional phrases, and even then typically only with pronouns. For example, the pronoun "tu" (meaning "you") experiences lenition
after a vowel to become pronounced "hu" (this mutation is indicated orthographically by spelling the word as "thu"), and experiences eclipsis after a consonant to be pronounced "du" (indicated orthographically as "dtu"). Thus à thu (meaning "to you") and per dtu (meaning "for you").
In addition to this system of consonant mutation, Talossan exhibits some other unusual consonant combinations, including c'h, gn (which prior to the 2007 Arestada was seen gñh), glh, rh, tx, and xh.
".
Extensive learning material is also available online.
's Ode to the West Wind
translated into el glheþ Talossan:
Post-Arestada:
Pre-Arestada:
English:
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
created by R. Ben Madison in 1980 for the micronation
Micronation
Micronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are entities that claim to be independent nations or states but which are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations...
he founded, the Kingdom of Talossa.
The Association of Talossan Language Organisations (ATLO) maintains talossan.com, a Website describing the language for new learners, providing language information, research, and online translation to and from English.
Talossan is the best-known example of the micronational language genre of conlang
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
. The language is spoken and used in the Kingdom of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossan), a "constitutional monarchy" with its own parliament and a bicameral legislature, founded by Madison on December 26, 1979, and also in the Talossan Republic (La Repúblicâ Talossán), formed in 2004 by ex-citizens of the Kingdom.
Talossan is one of the best-known artistic language
Artistic language
An artistic language is a constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure. Unlike engineered languages or auxiliary languages, artistic languages usually have irregular grammar systems, much like natural languages. Many are designed within the context of fictional worlds, such as J. R. R....
s on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. It garners perennial interest and respect from online conlanger
Conlanger
A conlanger is a person who invents conlangs .-Professional conlangers:Conlangers who have been hired to create languages.* Marc Okrand - Klingon, Atlantean* David J. Peterson - Dothraki language...
s and conlang
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
aficionados. Of particular interest to them is its large vocabulary—with over 28,000 words in its official dictionary, it is one of the most detailed fictional language
Fictional language
Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. Fictional languages are intended to be the languages of a fictional world and are often designed with the intent of giving more depth and an appearance of plausibility to the fictional worlds with which they are associated, and...
s ever invented.
The language is overseen by the Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ
Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ
La Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ is the official regulatory body for the Talossan language. The function of the CÚG is to recognize and recommend modifications in the vocabulary, grammar, and use of Talossan...
(CÚG; the Committee for the Use of the Language), a group formed in the Kingdom of Talossa by Madison in the 1980s. This group periodically issues Arestadas (reformations) which describe and document changes in the usage of the language, and to the vocabulary. The CÚG maintains a multi-lingual Website providing access to the recent recommendations of the Committee.
In the Republic the language is kept alive by the Talossan-Language project, which built an online dictionary English-Glheþ, Glheþ-English; and by l'Icastolâ, the School of the Talossan Language in the Talossan Academy of Arts and Sciences, established 9 August 2005.
The language, and its corresponding micronation, are mentioned in the book Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategies for a Branded World by Michael R. Solomon, and the language is documented in two published grammars.
The most significant recent development in the language was the issuance of the Arestada of December 12, 2007. This Arestada instituted a rule for stress that allowed many extraneous stressmarks to be omitted, and simplified the vowel set by recognizing certain letters as allophones of other vowels, and respelled a few strange letter combinations. This Arestada is accepted in the Kingdom
Talossa
Talossa is the name of at least two micronations, the Kingdom of Talossa and the Republic of Talossa.The Kingdom was founded in 1979 by 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison of Milwaukee, and as such is one of the oldest micronations still in existence. It was one of the first to get a website , and...
, but usage of Talossan in the Talossan Republic often retains pre-Arestada conventions.
Classification
Talossan is a constructed Gallo-Romance languageGallo-Romance languages
The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages include French and the other langue d'oïl dialects, Occitan , Catalan, Franco-Provençal, Gallo-Italic, and other languages - Other possible classifications :...
, inspired by French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Occitan, and very naturalistic (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
sub-tribes of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were "inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers." This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
. More recently however, words are derived from Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
roots and given a French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
/Provençal feeling to them (some see a Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
influence as well), but there is no one set of rules for derivation through which every word can be predicted. The word "Talossa" itself is not Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, but Finnic in origin: it comes from the Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
word for "inside the house" (Talossa began in Madison's bedroom).
| Latin | Sic enim Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam æternam. |
|---|---|
| Talossan (Post-Arestada) | Cair Díeu sa ameva el mundeu, qe O zoneva sieu Figlheu viensplet, qe qissensevol créa in Lo non pieriçarha, mas tischa la vida eternal. |
| Talossan (Pre-Arestada) | Cair Dïeu så ameva el mundeu, që O zoneva sieu Figlheu viensplet, qe qissensevol créa în Lo non pieriçarha, más tischa la vidâ eternál. |
| French | Car Dieu a tellement aimé le monde, qu'il a donné son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse point, mais qu'il ait la vie eternelle. |
| Provençal | Car Diéu a tant ama lou mounde que i'a douna soun Fiéu soulet, per que tout ome que crèi en éu noun perigue, mai ague la vido eternalo. |
| Catalan | Car talment ha estimat Déu el món, que donà son Fill unigènit, a fi que tot el qui creu en ell no es perdi, ans tingui vida eterna. |
| Spanish | Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que cree en él, no perezca, más tenga vida eterna. |
| Portuguese | Porque assim amou Deus ao mundo, que lhe deu seu Filho unigénito, para que todo o que crê nêle não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna. |
| Italian | Infatti Dio ha talmente amato il mondo da dare il suo Figliuolo unigenito, affinchè chiunque crede in Lui non perisca, ma abbia la vita eterna. |
| Romanian | Fiindcă atât de mult a iubit Dumnezeu lumea, că a dat pe singurul Lui Fiu, pentru că oricine crede în El, să nu piară, ci să aibă viaţǎ eternǎ. |
| Rhaeto-Romance | Perche cha Deis ha tant amâ il muond, ch'el ha dat seis unigenit figl, acio cha scodün chi craja in el non giaja a perder, ma haja la vita eterna. |
| English | For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. |
| Interlingua | Proque tanto Deo amava le mundo que ille dava su Filio unigenite a que quicunque crede in ille non va perir ma va haber vita eterne. |
Writing system
The Talossan alphabet is Roman, but contains some letters not (or no longer) found in English—including the GermanicGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
scharfes S (ß
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
) [known as "eseta" in Talossan], Icelandic thorn (þ), the cedilla-c (ç
Ç
is a Latin script letter, used in the Albanian, Azerbaijani, Ligurian, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Kurdish and Zazaki alphabets. This letter also appears in Catalan, French, Friulian, Occitan and Portuguese as a variant of the letter “c”...
), and Icelandic eth (ð
Ð
A Latin capital letter D with a stroke through its vertical bar is the uppercase form of several different letters:*D with stroke , used in Vietnamese, some South Slavic , Moro and Sami languages...
). The eseta can be replaced by the equivalent digraph
Digraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
ss, and the thorn by the digraph tg. Prior to the 2007 Arestada, the eth was often seen written using the digraph th; the 2007 Arestada recognized the eth as replaceable in modern Talossan by the letter d.
The letters of the modern Talossan alphabet are:
In alphabetical ordering, c and ç are not distinguished from one another, nor are s and ß, nor any vowel from its marked counterpart.
Through the Arestada of 2007, the vowel system was simplified by the adoption of a default stress rule, which made explicit stress marking necessary only in words that are stressed irregularly. The Arestada further standardized the stress marking system so that the vowels a, e, i, o, and u are stressmarked using acute or grave accents (as in á or à), and the vowels ä, ö, and ü are stressmarked using circumflexes (as in ô and û).
In pre-Arestada Talossan, a number of other vowel forms are retained (such as ê, ë, å, and î), and no stress rule exists. In pre-Arestada Talossan, words are often marked with multiple diacriticals, which often have different meanings, sometimes indicating stress, sometimes a difference in pronunciation, sometimes both, and sometimes the same mark indicates neither. The consonant ñ was also removed by the 2007 Arestada.
In speech, Talossan exhibits a system of consonant mutation
Consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is when a consonant in a word changes according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment.Mutation phenomena occur in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all modern Celtic languages...
(lenition and eclipsis) very similar to that found in
Irish initial mutations
Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions...
Irish Gaelic. This system is indicated in orthography only rarely, typically only in prepositional phrases, and even then typically only with pronouns. For example, the pronoun "tu" (meaning "you") experiences lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
after a vowel to become pronounced "hu" (this mutation is indicated orthographically by spelling the word as "thu"), and experiences eclipsis after a consonant to be pronounced "du" (indicated orthographically as "dtu"). Thus à thu (meaning "to you") and per dtu (meaning "for you").
In addition to this system of consonant mutation, Talossan exhibits some other unusual consonant combinations, including c'h, gn (which prior to the 2007 Arestada was seen gñh), glh, rh, tx, and xh.
Lexicon
The full dictionary of Talossan has over 28,000 words. Talossan requires only a single word (fieschada) to say "love at first sightLove at first sight
Love at first sight is a common trope in Western literature, in which a person, character, or speaker feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them...
".
Criticism
Criticism of Talossan includes:- That the vocabulary and grammar are invented and have no regular derivation from LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, belying the claim that Talossan is a Romance language. Supporters, however, claim that although Germanic and Celtic influences are certainly also seen (a trait explained by the mythical migratory nature of the language), this argument is refuted by consistent obvious similarities between Talossan words and cognate words from many Ruman languages and languages of Romance descent. - The use of too many unnecessary accents and letter combinations, although a series of revisions by the 2007 Arestada (see above) has served to remedy this problem.
State of the language
The most extensive study of Talossan is given by the English language edition of the book A Complete Guide to the Talossan Language (Ün Guizua Compläts àl Glheþ Talossan), first published in 2008 and in a revised second edition in 2011. An earlier grammar (La Scúrzniâ Gramáticâ del Glhetg Talossán), last revised in 1996, has been put offline by its author.Extensive learning material is also available online.
Example of the language
The following are the first two tercines of the first stanzas of Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
's Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was published in 1820 by Charles and James Ollier in London as part of the Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems collection...
translated into el glheþ Talossan:
Post-Arestada:
- Oh traversa salvatx, tu and d'Otogneu s'eßençù,
- Tu da qissen presençù unvidat els listopätsilor
- Sint driveschti com'els spiritzen d'iens encanteir escapind,
- Vermel, es negreu, es brançéu, es roxh gripesc,
- Pestidonça-cünsütats plenitüds! Oh tu,
- Qi apoartás à lor auscür þivereu lict.
Pre-Arestada:
- Ô traversâ salvátx, tú ånd d'Otogñheu s'eßençù,
- Tú da qissen presençù ûnvidat els listopätsilor
- Sînt driveschti, com'els spiritzen d'iens encantéir escapînd,
- Vermél, és negreu, és brançéu, és roxh gripesc,
- Pestidonça-cünsütats plenitüds! Ô tú,
- Qi apoartás à lor auscür þivereu lict.
English:
- O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
- Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
- Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
- Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
- Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
- Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
External links
- Talossan.com (Language Information, Reference, Online Translation, and Resources)
- "It's Good to Be King" by Alex Blumberg. WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
8.03 (March 2000). - Website of The Committee for the Use of the Talossan Language
- Kingdom of Talossa
- Republic of Talossa
- The Republic's Talossan Language Reference Page
- The Talossan-Language project (with dictionary)
- The 2007 Arestada
- The 2010 Arestada (in Talossan) (in English)