Difference between revisions of "Letto-Ruhnese"

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  | label10 = Regulated by|data10 = The Ruhn-i-Lehtese Speech Committee
 
  | label10 = Regulated by|data10 = The Ruhn-i-Lehtese Speech Committee
 
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'''Letto-Ruhnese''' (''Leto-Juonieshu''), also known as Ruhnese Latvian or Finnic Latvian, is the official language of The Ruhn-i-Lehtese States. There are about 276 million native speakers of the language in Ruhn-i-Leht (78% of the population), with 4 million speakers abroad.
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'''Letto-Ruhnese''' (''Leto-Ljuonieshu''), also known as Ruhnese Latvian or Finnic Latvian, is the official language of The Ruhn-i-Lehtese States. There are about 276 million native speakers of the language in Ruhn-i-Leht (78% of the population), with 4 million speakers abroad.
  
 
Letto-Ruhnese is very closely related to Latvian. They are practically mutually intelligible.  
 
Letto-Ruhnese is very closely related to Latvian. They are practically mutually intelligible.  
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In 1986, Letto-Ruhnese became an official language of the Republic of Ruhnu.
 
In 1986, Letto-Ruhnese became an official language of the Republic of Ruhnu.
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== Dialects ==
 
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Letto-Ruhnese has 3 dialects - English, Modernized and Latvianized.
 
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=== Anglo-Lettish ===
 
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Anglo-Lettish is the English dialect of Letto-Ruhnese. This dialect mostly changes words, like, for example, box (kaste to bokse). This dialect also brings in the letter 'Y' and 'W' into the language, like, for example, world (pasaule to woljde) and York (Joljka to Yoyka).
 
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=== Modernized Letto-Ruhnese ===
 
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Modernized Letto-Ruhnese is a dialect of Letto-Ruhnese, though disputed, as this dialect is even more popular than traditional Letto-Ruhnese. This dialect fully changes the writing system of '''Latvian diphthongs''', as usually these diphthongs are written differently then the two letters that make them. For example, the Latvian letter "Ī" is a Latvian diphthongs in the Letto-Ruhnese language, which traditionally is written as ü, is modernized to ii.
 
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This dialect is so popular because some of the Latvian diphthongs can not even be written on many devices, and it is easier to learn for Latvians.
 
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=== Latvianized Letto-Ruhnese ===
 
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Latvianized (also known as Speechless) Letto-Ruhnese removes all changes to speech. Latvianized Letto-Ruhnese and Latvian are fully mutually intelligible. All this dialect affects is the letter 'R', which is brought back into the alphabet, as well as in writing. So, for example, seal is normally written as "Jonis", but, when Latvianized, "Ronis".
 
  
 
== Grammar ==
 
== Grammar ==
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a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p s t u v z
 
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p s t u v z
  
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All of the letters in the alphabet are unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet (letters R, Q, W, X, Y). The 11 modified letters of the Latvian alphabet are replaced by the Latvian diphthongs aa (ā), ch (č), ee (ē), gj (ģ), ii (ī), kj (ķ), lj (ļ), nj (ņ), sh (š), uu (ū) and zh (ž).
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=== Writing ===
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Any word can be created by starting with the Latvian word for what you want to translate and then completing just 4 steps:
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== Examples of the language ==
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==== Letters with multiple pronounciations ====
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Some letters have multiple pronounciations in Latvian: these pronounciations result in unique translations when tranfering a word to Letto-Ruhnese.
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|-
 
|-
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! English !! Latvian !! Traditional Letto-Ruhnese !! Modernized Letto-Ruhnese !! Anglo-Lettish !! Latvianized Letto-Ruhnese
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! Pronounced !! Written in Latvian !! Written in Letto-Ruhnese !! Example
 
|-
 
|-
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| Good morning! || Labrīt! || Labjüt! || Labjiit! || Labyiit! || Labriit!
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| /ɔ/ || o || o || p'''o'''licija -> p'''o'''licija
 
|-
 
|-
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| Let's play! || Uzspēlējam! || Uzsp₠l₠jam! || Uzspeeleejam! || Uzpleeyeejam! || Uzspeeleejam!
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| /ɔ:/ || o || oo || m'''o'''ls -> m'''oo'''ls
 
|-
 
|-
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| Lebanon || Libāna || Lebanona || Lebanona || Lebanona || Lebanona
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| /uɔ/ || o || uo || k'''o'''st -> k'''uo'''st
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|-
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| /ɛ/ || e || e || n'''e'''zinu -> n'''e'''zinu
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|-
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| /æ/ || e || ae || c'''e'''na -> c'''ae'''na
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|-
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| /ɛ:/ || ē || ee || m'''ē'''s -> m'''ee'''s
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|-
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| /æ:/ || ē || aee || l'''ē'''ca -> l'''aee'''ca
 
|}
 
|}
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==== Modified letters ====
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Excluding the letter "ē", there are ten other modified letters, which have to be switched:
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* ā -> aa;
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* ī -> ii;
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* ū -> uu;
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* ģ -> gj;
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* ķ -> kj;
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* ļ -> lj;
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* ņ -> nj;
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* č -> ch;
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* ž -> zh;
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* š -> sh (if 'š' is the last letter of a word, 'shs' is written instead of 'sh').
  
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In the table, you can see that, depending on the dialect, many changes can happen to the words.
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==== The letter 'r' ====
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The letter r also has to be translated for historical reasons, and so, it transfers like this:
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The first row holds 'Good morning!', which, in Latvian, is 'Labrīt!'. Traditionally, 'r' is replaced by 'j' and 'ü' replaces 'ī'. When modernized, 'ī' is replaced by 'ii', and 'r' is replaced with 'j', again. In Anglo-Lettish, 'r' is replaced by 'y' and 'ii' is used to replace 'ī'. When Latvianized, the only change is that 'ī' is replaced by 'ii'.
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* if r is surrounded by consonants, it is replaced with 'ji' (ex. stip'''r'''s -> stip'''ji'''s);
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* if r isn't surrounded by consonants, it is replaced with 'lj' (ex. k'''r'''usa -> k'''lj'''usa).
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The second row holds 'Let's play!', which, in Latvian, is 'Uzspēlējam!. Traditionally, 'ē' is replaced by '₠'. When modernized or latvianized, 'ē' is replaced by 'ee'. The biggest changes happen in Anglo-Lettish, where the word 'to play' translates to 'pleeyeet' not 'speeleet'. This change means, that the word only keeps the begginning (uz-) and the ending (-jam), as 'speelee'/'sp₠l₠' is replaced by 'pleeyee'.
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The third row holds the nation of Lebanon, which translates to 'Libāna' in Latvian. Here is an example of the term '''angljievedums''', which means, that a word is translated from a language that isn't Latvian. Here, the word 'Lebanona' is made from the word 'Lebanon' not 'Libāna'. Also, this word is written in the same way in all 3 dialects of the language and the traditional language.
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==== Fake sounds ====
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If, when a word is translated, two letters have merged into a sound, which was not created on purpose, that sound is a "fake sound". It makes the Latvian word and the Letto-Ruhnese word sound differently. An apostrophe is needed to seperate these letters and remove such a fake sound. An example of that is the word "ikrs", which, when translated, turns into "ikjis". The problem is that the two letters "kj" end up merging into one sound (the Latvian "ķ"), which makes the pronounciations sound differently. Because of that, an apostrophe is inserted between the two letters. Now, "ikrs" translates to "ik'jis".  
  
 
[[Category:Languages]]
 
[[Category:Languages]]
 
[[Category:Ruhn-i-Leht]]
 
[[Category:Ruhn-i-Leht]]

Revision as of 08:54, 16 April 2016

Letto-Ruhnese
Native to Ruhn-i-Leht, Northern Courland
Native speakers 276 million (2015 est.)
Language family

Indo-European

  • Balto-Slavic
  • Baltic
  • East Baltic
  • East Baltic Finnic
Writing system Latin
Official status
Official language in Zila.png Ruhn-i-Leht
Regulated by The Ruhn-i-Lehtese Speech Committee

Letto-Ruhnese (Leto-Ljuonieshu), also known as Ruhnese Latvian or Finnic Latvian, is the official language of The Ruhn-i-Lehtese States. There are about 276 million native speakers of the language in Ruhn-i-Leht (78% of the population), with 4 million speakers abroad.

Letto-Ruhnese is very closely related to Latvian. They are practically mutually intelligible.

Classification

The classification of Letto-Ruhnese is disputed, and multiple opinions have been expressed.

Indo-European

Officially, Letto-Ruhnese belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. This means, that this is the third Baltic language, that isn't extinct, with the other two being Latvian and Lithuanian. Here it is in the language tree.

Uralic

Some believe that Letto-Ruhnese belongs to the Baltic Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. This means, that the language is put closer to languages like Estonian and Finnish, but this opinion is very unpopular due to the fact, that Letto-Ruhnese and Latvian are mutually intelligible languages. Here it is in the language tree.

Eurasiatic

Many people put Letto-Ruhnese to simply be a Eurasiatic language. Eurasiatic combines Uralic and Indo-European, as well as Macro-Altaic languages. Whilst many people do think that this is a logical opinion, the language is still too close to Latvian, which makes many people frustrated that the language would be so far away from Latvian in the language tree. Here it is in the language tree.

Dialect

Though, notably, many believe Letto-Ruhnese isn't even a language, as many consider it a dialect of the Latvian language. Mutual intelligibility is often named to be the reason. This theory also explains why Letto-Ruhnese is often called Ruhnese Latvian / Finnic Latvian. Though, the fact, that Letto-Ruhnese itself has dialects, pushes many people away from agreeing to this opinion.

History

Letto-Ruhnese as a language developed in the 20th century by the Latvians who moved to Ruhnu. As the Latvians did not know Estonian, they thought how to simplify the language, so that it would be easier for the Estonians to understand the Latvians, and to make it easier for Estonians to learn Latvian. This thought developed the writing system that Letto-Ruhnese uses these days. Notably, at that time, schools in Ruhnu were not that developed, and notably, many of the newborn kids were not able to even spell some letters. This caused the removal of the letter 'R' from the alphabet. That remained to be the only change made to speech.

In 1977, Sandis Kristiāns Pavlovs created the official Letto-Ruhnese language, and was the first president of the Ruhnese (today - Ruhn-i-Lehtese) Speech Comittee, made to protect the Letto-Ruhnese language.

In 1986, Letto-Ruhnese became an official language of the Republic of Ruhnu.

Grammar

Letto-Ruhnese is an inflecting language with many analytical forms. Primary word stress, with a few exceptions, is on the first syllable. There are no articles in Latvian, however definiteness is expressed by inflection of adjectives. Basic word order in Letto-Ruhnese is subject–verb–object; however, word order is relatively free.

Nouns

There are two grammatical genders in Letto-Ruhnese (masculine and feminine) and two numbers, singular and plural. Nouns and adjectives decline into seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. There are six declensions.

Verbs

There are three conjugation classes in Letto-Ruhnese. Verbs are conjugated for person, tense, mood and voice.

Ortography

Letto-Ruhnese is based upon the Latvian and English alphabets. This alphabet only consists of letters, that are in both - Latvian and English alphabets, excluding the letter 'R'. The Letto-Ruhnese standard alphabet consists of 21 letters:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P S T U V Z

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p s t u v z

Writing

Any word can be created by starting with the Latvian word for what you want to translate and then completing just 4 steps:

Letters with multiple pronounciations

Some letters have multiple pronounciations in Latvian: these pronounciations result in unique translations when tranfering a word to Letto-Ruhnese.

Pronounced Written in Latvian Written in Letto-Ruhnese Example
/ɔ/ o o policija -> policija
/ɔ:/ o oo mols -> mools
/uɔ/ o uo kost -> kuost
/ɛ/ e e nezinu -> nezinu
/æ/ e ae cena -> caena
/ɛ:/ ē ee mēs -> mees
/æ:/ ē aee lēca -> laeeca

Modified letters

Excluding the letter "ē", there are ten other modified letters, which have to be switched:

  • ā -> aa;
  • ī -> ii;
  • ū -> uu;
  • ģ -> gj;
  • ķ -> kj;
  • ļ -> lj;
  • ņ -> nj;
  • č -> ch;
  • ž -> zh;
  • š -> sh (if 'š' is the last letter of a word, 'shs' is written instead of 'sh').

The letter 'r'

The letter r also has to be translated for historical reasons, and so, it transfers like this:

  • if r is surrounded by consonants, it is replaced with 'ji' (ex. stiprs -> stipjis);
  • if r isn't surrounded by consonants, it is replaced with 'lj' (ex. krusa -> kljusa).

Fake sounds

If, when a word is translated, two letters have merged into a sound, which was not created on purpose, that sound is a "fake sound". It makes the Latvian word and the Letto-Ruhnese word sound differently. An apostrophe is needed to seperate these letters and remove such a fake sound. An example of that is the word "ikrs", which, when translated, turns into "ikjis". The problem is that the two letters "kj" end up merging into one sound (the Latvian "ķ"), which makes the pronounciations sound differently. Because of that, an apostrophe is inserted between the two letters. Now, "ikrs" translates to "ik'jis".

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