frath.net > Languages > Ibran
Ibran, also known as Ivran or Ivre, is a Romance language spoken in North America.
In 1625, a group of Ibran colonists travelled to New Netherland and built a settlement on Manhattan Island. Their city, Nuif Roes (anglicized as New Royce), is today the largest city in New Netherland and one of the largest cities in North America.
The language of the Ibrans is certainly a Western Romance language, closely related to French and Spanish; however, the history of the Ibrans themselves is obscure and filled with inaccuracies.
The Ibrans call themselves Eures /&/.rV/ (sing. Eure /&/:r/) and their language Eurane /"&/.rA:n/.
Sub-pages: Ibran Lexicon, Ibran Verbs, Ibran Sound Changes.
For a more up-to-date version of this language, see FrathWiki's page on Ibran.
Ibran is a Western Romance language. Nouns are declined for number, verbs are conjugated for person, number, and tense. Unmarked word order is SVO; noun phrases are head-final; prepositions.
There are two major dialects of Ibran: the dialect of New Royce ("NRC") and the dialect of the surrounding area, called paysane /"paIzA:n/, which means "from the country".
NRC dialect is more deviant from its roots than paysane is, but it is the speech of the majority. People who speak in paysane are often looked down on as backward outsiders.
Some differences between NRC and paysane | ||
| Phoneme | NRC | Paysane |
|---|---|---|
| /C/ | [Z], [S] | [j\], [C] |
| /x/ | [R], [X] | [h] |
| /r/ | [Rr], [Xr], Ø | [r] |
| /a/ | [&] | [a] |
| /E:/ | [j&] | [E:] |
| /O:/ | [wA] | [O:] |
| /o:/ | [wO] | [o:] |
| /3/ | Ø | [3] |
| /VH/ | [O:] | [Vj] |
| /AE_^/ | [Aj] | [AE_^] |
| /OE_^/ | [Oj] | [OE_^] |
| /eI/ | [e] | [eI] |
| Front-round vowels | Unrounded | Rounded |
| /i/ in closed syll | [E] | [I] |
The phonemic system used here to represent Ibran is an attempt to represent both dialects with the same phoneme map. This involves using representations of words that if pronounced literally are somewhat out of date. More information on how to actually pronounce Ibran will come later.
Ibran has two different methods of spelling words. The first is Lurscrite 'book script', which is more etymological at the cost of being difficult to spell. It is used for published works and in formal contexts.
The second method, Puiblarcrÿt 'people's script' is more phonetic to NRC speech. It is also commonly believed to be faster and easier to read, which is part of why it is used in everyday contexts such as menus, road signs, and web pages.
Puiblarcrÿt was developed in the early years of the twentieth century, and is already somewhat out of date. It was given government approval and its use was mandated; but the librarians and the publishers flat-out refused to adopt it. Because of this, there are now no public libraries in New Royce, all the publishing houses have moved out of the city, and schools out of necessity must teach both writing systems to children.