Francillian language

Francillian
Spoken in	Francisville
Total speakers	Unknown
Family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Franconian dialects Francillian
Type	Artlang

Not to be confused with its descendant, Francillish.

Francillian (Frankséilsch; Francillish: Franciliensch; French: Francillien) is a constructed language spoken in Francisville. It is classified as a Central Franconian dialect. Francillian is historically related to Old Francillian and its descendant, Francillish.

Classification

Francillian is based on the Central Franconian languages. It is loosely classified as a Moselle Franconian dialect with significant similarities to Luxembourgish. It is also related to Francillish through the common historical influence of Old Francillian.

Geographic distribution

Currently, Francillian is mainly spoken in Wasserbrueck, the only canton of Francisville where it has official recognition. However, considering its development as a quintessentially Francillian language (as opposed to a language of Wasserbrueck), many citizens of Francisville outwith Wasserbrueck are making efforts to learn the language, and as such, it has spread into other cantons as well.

Varieties

There are different varieties of Francillian spoken in different cantons, differing mainly in phonology, with occasional differences in vocabulary (due in part or mainly due to code-switching) and grammar. Two varieties of Francillian have so far been observed.

• Standard Francillian – The original variety of the language, as has been (and is being) developed by the authorities developing the language (currently the Government of Wasserbrueck). This variety is used in formal contexts, and is generally the variety taught to new learners of the language. It also serves as a basis from which other dialects have developed.
• Rudnan Francillian – The variety of Francillian used in Rudno, it exhibits some features recognisable from Ripuarian and German, while being free of some features of Standard Francillian stemming from Scots and English. For example, the /t/ and /d/ phonemes are never realised as glottal stops or alveolar taps, while the /o/ phoneme is almost always realised as the diphthong /oʊ/. Furthermore, diphthongs ending in schwa (apart from /oːə/), are mostly monophthongised, such that /aːə/ → /a/, /ɛːə/ → /ɛ/, and /iːə/ → /i/.

History

The history of the language can be traced back to the development of Old Francillian in 2009. Old Francillian took influence from the High German languages but did not fit into any particular dialect group. The use of the language sharply declined and it became virtually extinct by spring 2010 before a newer Francillian dialect was revived. Modern Francillian was shaped by the increasing influence of Luxembourgish and Moselle Franconian during this period. The roots of Old Francillian evolved irregularly and most have subsequently become lost. Despite lacking official language status in the Democratic Duchy of Francisville, Francillian became accepted as the national language and was frequently used by governmental institutions.

The revival of Francillian was coincident with the early development of Francillish, which exhibits a stronger influence of Old Francillian. Since 2011, Francillian has gone through a process of standardisation as interest in its use has increased. It continues to be heavily influenced by other languages, primarily French, Scots and Luxembourgish. Attempts are also being made to study its relationship with Francillish and both languages mutually influence each others evolution. A Francillian Language Research Group has been proposed at the University of Francisville.

Phonology

Vowels

Francillian has a vowel system consisting of approximately 12 standard vowels and an extensive number of diphthongs. Vowel length is distinctive in Francillian and usually signals a difference in meaning.

Monophthongs Spelling IPA Example a ʌ Kapp, aféi1 aː lafen aa waarm ä æ schwätzen e ə 2 helpen e eng é dénken ee eː deem i ɪ sitzen iː siwen ii Kiirch o ɔ Sonn oː jo oo Fooss u ʊ gudd uː mulen uu Duuscht

Diphthongs Spelling IPA Example ae aːə Fraen ai ai mai au au Haus äe ɛːə äessen äi ɛːi Schäin éi ei béi ie iːə3 Lied oe oːə doen oi ɔi Moien ou ou Kou

1. All vowels are short in unstressed syllables. (ɛ) is exceptional, being reduced even further and realised as a Schwa (ə).
2. As in German the Schwa (ə) is considered a complementary allophone with (ɛ) which occurs in unstressed sylabbles. If it is followed by a sonorant in the syllabic coda, the schwa vanishes and the consonant becomes syllabic e.g. Stoppen [ʃtɔpn̩] 'to stop'.
3. <ie> can represent both the /iːə/ diphthong as in luxembourgish or the long vowel sound /iː/ as in german. Both pronunciations are considered acceptable.

Consonants

The consonant system of Francillian is similar to those of Standard German and Luxembourgish. Francillian consonants are outlined in the table below. Where symbols appear in pairs, the left represents a voiceless consonant and the right represents a voiced consonant.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p  b1		t  d1, 2			k  g1	ʔ2
Affricate			t͡s	t͡ʃ  d͡ʒ
Fricative		f  v	s  z1	ʃ  ʒ1	ç	x	h
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Approximant			ɹ		j	w
Lateral approximant			l

1. Francillian exhibits terminal devoicing so these pairs do not form minimal pairs in word final position e.g. klég 'soul (of a shoe)' and kléck 'click' have identical pronunciation. Description of fortis-lenis pairs in Francillian is, however, controversial.
2. The /t/ phoneme is often realised as a glottal stop before a syllabic consonant e.g. bitten [bɪʔn̩] 'to ask'. Similarly, /d/ is sometimes realised as an alveolar tap e.g. räiden [ɹɛːiɾn̩] 'to ride'.

Grammar

Nouns, Case, and Gender

Francillian nouns are inflected into:

• one of four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
• one of three genders: Masculine, feminine, and neuter.
• two numbers: singular and plural

Number, case, and gender must be taken into account in the declension of nouns and adjectives. As in German, there is no gender distinction in plural declension. Nouns are capitalised in Francillian orthography.

	Nominative/Accusative				Dative
	Singular			Plural	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Femenine	Neuter		Masculine	Femenine	Neuter
Definite	den	de	d'	de	dem	der	dem	den
Def.emphatic	deem	déi	dat	déi	deenem	deener	deenem	deenen
Demonstrative	dest	dies	dest	dies	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Indefinite	en	eng	een	-	engem	enger	engem	-
Negative	Keen	Keng	Keen	Keng	kengem	kenger	kengem	kengen

Like other German dialects, Francillian makes a distinction between attributive and predicative adjectives. Predicative adjectives, which are separated from the noun by verbs such as sien 'to be', are not declined:

• Den Mann ischt grouss
• De Fra ischt grouss
• D'Auto ischt grouss
• De Mäis sidd grouss

Attributive adjectives are declined by a single set of adjectival endings as such:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	schäin(e)s	schäin	schäin(e)t	schäine
Accusative	schäin(e)s	schäin	schäin(e)t	schäine
Dative	schäinem	schäiner	schäinem	schäinen
Genitive	schäin(e)s	schäine	schäin(e)s	schäinen

The Comparitive is formed synthetically as in German by adding the suffix -er. Comparitive sentences are formed using the conjunctions as or wéi:

• Den Mann ist klénger as/wéi säi Papp.
• D'kléngert Auto

The superlative is formed by adding the suffix -ste. Unlike German, the superlative has no predicative-attributive distinction. The superlative always takes the emphatic article, and no further adjectival endings are added:

• Den Mann ist deem kléngste
• Déi kléngste Fra

The following tables give the forms of personal pronouns and possessive adjectives:

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Reflexive
1sg	ech	met	mir	mech
2sg	du	det	dir	dech
3sg(m)	hen	het	him	sech
3sg(f)	sen	set	hir	sech
3sg(n)	et	et	him	sech
3(Gen.)	ons	ais	iech	iech
1pl	wir	uns	wiech	wiech
3pl	sie	sie	hinne	sech

	Nominative/Accusative				Dative
	Singular			Plural	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Femenine	Neuter		Masculine	Femenine	Neuter
1sg	mäi	meng	mäi	meng	mengem	menger	mengem	mengen
2sg	däi	deng	däi	deng	dengem	denger	dengem	dengen
3sg(m)	säi	seng	säi	seng	sengem	senger	sengem	sengen
3sg(f)	hire	hir	hirt	hire	hirem	hirer	hirem	hiren
3sg(n)	säi	seng	säi	seng	sengem	senger	sengem	sengen
3(Gen.)	onst	onst	onst	onst	onstem	onster	onstem	onsten
1pl	äise	äis	äist	äiste	äisem	äiser	äisem	äisen
3pl	hire	hir	hirt	hire	hirem	hirer	hirem	hiren

Possessive pronouns can be formed by combining the emphatic article with the appropriate possessive adjective. An -n suffix is also added to adjectives such as mäi and däi:

• D'Auto ist dat mäin ma de Kat ist déi deng.

Verb inflection

Like verbs in other Germanic languages, Francillian verbs may be classified as either strong, exhibiting vowel gradation (ablaut), or weak. The inflection of verbs is conditioned by class, number, person, mood, and voice. Francillian has two non-compound tenses (present, preterite) and four compound tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future, future perfect). Verb inflection follows the following endings:

	1sg	2sg	3sg	3(Gen.)	1pl	3pl
Present	-e	-s	-t	-t	-en	-en
Preterite		-t		-st	-ten	-ten
Conjunctive	-t	-t	-t	-ts	-ten	-ten

The preterite is archaic and now only survives in a small number of strong verbs such as sien 'to be' (ech war), hann 'to have' (ech hut), and kommen 'to come' (ech kam). The conditional mood is formed either through the use of the subjunctive or through the do-form using the subjunctive form of doen (to do) as an auxiliary:

• Wiert ech moed, schléfft ech.
• Wiert ech moed, déit ech schloffen.

As in German, separable prefixes appear in final position. In infinitive phrases using a, the a is placed between the word and its prefix to form a single word, likewise with ge- in the past participle:

• Den Mann kamt am Haus an
• De Fra ischt am Haus angekommt
• Ech musse d'Wecker regelen em opastoen.

Word order

The word order of Francillian is less rigid than English but slightly more so that German. Francillian exhibits verb second word order and word order is distinct for main and subordinate clauses.

• The finite (main or auxiliary) verb appears in second position in declarative clauses and wh-questions.

Ech wolle een näit Buuch

Wat wolls du?

• The case structure of Francillian allows for some flexibility in declarative clauses for emphasis or style. The verb always appears in second position:

Den Mann goft mir am Haus d'Buuch.

also: d'Buuch goft mir am Haus den Mann.

also: d'Buuch goft den Mann mir am Haus.

• The finite verb appears in first position in interrogative and imperative clauses:

Wolls du en Kofféi?

Géi du am Haus!

• When auxiliary or modal verbs are present, the finite verb appears in standard second position and the infinitive or participle appears at the end of the sentence:

Ech han en Kofféi gekaaft.

Du solls necht vill Alkohol drinken.

• The finite verb appears in final positive in subordinate clauses:

Ech dénke dat du moed biss.

Hen kénnt dat du d'Buuch gekaaft has.