Got Circumflex?

[Éovart Andrinescù]

I've been reading around, and I've seen a lot of words where vowels have circumflexes above them. In Talossan, what difference does the circumflex over a vowel make? What is the difference in pronunciation between Cosa and Cosâ, for example?

[Lüc da Schir]

I'm quite sure that Cosâ is the pre-2007 Arestada version of Cosa. This means that Cosa and Cosâ have the same pronounciation; I think the A circumflexed was removed because it was just an unnecessary stress mark. I think the right pronounciation is /kósə/

[Hooligan]

Azul Éovart --

Perhaps you would be interested in joining the Talossan language course I am instructing over in the University board! This subject will definitely be covered in depth there.

The circumflex has had a tortured history in Talossan (and I don't just mean from 2007 forward). Let's see how briefly I can go through it....

Note first that during the years 2007-2012, some Talossan writers (especially those involved in the breakaway Talossan Republic) chose not to follow the recommendations of 2007, and continued using the "PRE-2007" conventions.

Note second that the information in the table below is subject to being corrected by people like Cresti Siervicül and Miestrâ Schivâ. While it may sound like I know what I'm talking about, I may be mistaken in some points.

And note third that, as you're about to see, what a circumflex meant depended on which vowel it appeared above. The circumflex (except for between 2007 and 2012) has never indicated the same kind of modification being made to whichever vowel it was used on. When used now [writers of the "traditional style" use it, writers of the "simplified" style do not], the circumflex means a completely different thing on the vowel a than it means on o, and neither of those meanings is anything close to what a circumflex means when used on i, or on u....

So, all that said, here we go:

MARK	PRE-2007	2007-2012	2012+
â	This mark was originally ӑ (that is, using a breve mark, rather than a circumflex). Long long ago, the Committee for the Use of the Language recommended that it become â, since â is more available on standard keyboards. This mark, as Lüc said, indicates the phonological "schwa" sound of an unstressed final -a as in English sofa, cola, or soda. It therefore was used on tons and tons of Talossan words — virtually every word ending in an unstressed letter -a (and, of course, in the plural of those words, -âs, as in cosâs). In all such words, the mark also indicated that the word was feminine in its gramatical gender. For example, apâ indicated the feminine noun meaning "water" while apa (though pronounced identically) indicated the masculine noun meaning "grandfather". For whatever reason, â was never seen anywhere else than at the end of a word. That is, it is never seen in the middle of a word, or to begin a word. For example, although the a in a word like picalour is that same kind of schwa phoneme, that a was never marked with the circumflex. Given this, you could conclude that â was more a "feminine gender mark" than it was a "schwa phoneme mark".	The Arestada of 2007 recommended that â be no longer used for this purpose, since the sound of unstressed a naturally, phonologically, devolves to a schwa anyway, and needs no marking to indicate this. In support of this decision, the Committee also felt that indication of grammatical gender by the writing system was something that should be eschewed, especially since this was the only instance of such a thing in the entire language. So instead of the use described to the left, the Arestada of 2007 recommended that â be used to indicate the vowel ä taking irregular stress. (See below the table for more on this.)	The Arestada of 2012 acknowledges two "writing systems" in use. In the "traditional" or "classic" style, â is used as described in the "PRE-2007" column. [In fact, the Arestada of 2012 actually also re-recognised the original ӑ (using the breve mark) as a fully equivalent alternative that is sometimes seen in "traditional style".] In the "reformed" or "simplified" style, â is not used at all (and words like cosâ are written cosa). (Again, see the discussion of û for how the 2007-2012 use of â was dealt with in 2012.)
ê	This mark was used to indicate stress on the vowel ë (which, in pre-2007 Talossan...apart from a special and completely different use it also had and that we won't go into here, since this is about ê, not ë...represented a phoneme of e, similar to how â had, pre-2007, represented a phoneme of the vowel a).	The Arestada of 2007 recommended that both ë (and therefore ê, its stressmarked form), be removed from the language, and that all uses of the vowel ë simply be written e. (As discussed above, the Committee felt that marks which indicated natural phonology should be removed.)	My belief (subject to correction by the people listed above) is that through the Arestada of 2012, the recommendations of 2007 were accepted by all Talossan writers, and ê is no longer in current use. However, ë, its unstressed form, is still used (without Committee recognition) in certain words by users of the "traditional style. For example, për (= for) is the traditional style for the simplified style per. [And, in a whole other area, estarë (= to be) is seen used, though not recommended by the Committee, by traditional style writers where a simplified style writer would use estarh. But like I say, that's off-topic; this is about the circumflex, not the umlaut.]
î	This letter had two meanings. First, it was used in the word-ending -înd, which is akin to the English ending -ing. But, defying logic, the letter was pronounced as if it were the letter a. Second, in all other words it appeared in, î indicated a whole separate vowel sound, a sound that a particular Russian language vowel makes. It's a sound that is difficult for English speakers to get their mouths around, and therefore it was often a subject of "should we just get rid of î, since people aren't pronouncing it anyway?" discussions, even in the pre-2007 Committee which included Ben Madison, the creator of the language.	The Arestada of 2007 recommended that all instances of î be respelled to other vowels (usually i, but sometimes e or even other vowels), depending on the way people were actually pronouncing the word, and the etymological root of the word). This action was recommended and made, since the Committee worked under the evidence that even Ben had indicated that î was not workable and that he had "grown tired" of it. (Note that the -înd ending became -ind, but that this ending is still, as ever, pronounced irregularly, as if it were spelled -ant.)	Some Talossan writers (especially members of the former Talossan Republic) resisted the 2007 recommendation, and many continue to use î for both of the pre-2007 uses described to the left. The Arestada of 2012 accepted the use of î as a mark seen in the "traditional" writing style in the word-ending -ind. That is, you may see the word marschind (= walking; this is the "simplified" style) written marschînd (that is the "traditional" style). However, the Arestada of 2012 did not re-recognise the other meaning of î (the true separate Russian-born vowel sound). So, while this is not currently recommended by the Committee, some writers who adhere to pre-2007 conventions may still be seen to write tîmp for the word temp (= time; in "simplified" style).
ô	This mark was used to indicate stress on the vowel o.	The Arestada of 2007 recommended that stress marks be made consistent, and therefore that the vowel o be marked for stress using the accent mark, ó, like the other vowels. This Arestada went on, then, to recommend that ô be used to indicate stress on the vowel ö. (See below the table for more on this.)	My belief is that through the Arestada of 2012, the recommendations of 2007 were accepted by all Talossan writers, and ô is no longer in current use. (Again, see the discussion of û for how this worked.) However, I also believe that the Arestada recognises that ô is a fully acceptable and equivalent alternative to ó, that may be seen used in the "traditional" style.
û	This mark had two uses. One was that it appeared in the vowel combination oû, which is simply pronounced as the single vowel u. The other was used to indicate a phoneme of the vowel u (the phoneme heard in words like English mutt).	The Arestada of 2007 recommended that the vowel combination oû be simplified in writing to ou and that the other use of û, being phonological, be deprecated. Instead, the Committee recommended that û be used as the stressmarked form of the vowel ü.  (See below the table for more on this.)	Many users of the "traditional" style continue to use û for both of its pre-2007 meanings, but in the Arestada of 2012, the Committee only re-recognised one of these, indicating that û is seen used in the vowel combination ou by writers using the "traditional" style (i.e., oû).

So, you ask, what about the use that the marks â, ô, and û were put to from 2007-2012 (to wit: indicating stress on umlaut-marked vowels), and — since those marks were given "back" to their pre-2007 uses in 2012 — how are umlaut-marked vowels marked for stress today?? What an excellent question.  Well, I'll tell you.

First of all, you need to know that before 2007, the Talossan stress situation was...stressful.  For example, the word acü (= acute) had no stress mark, and yet it was stressed in speech on the final vowel. See, before 2007, despite all of the various marks being used, Talossan had no stress rule — you just had to "know" how each word was stressed, because the marks were very inconsistent. With the institution of a stress rule in 2007, the location of "default" stress on all words became determinable. Under the 2007 stress rule, though, the final ü in acü did not fall in the "default" stress position of that word, and so that vowel needed to be marked somehow to indicate that it should be stressed in speech. The Arestada of 2007 recommended û for this purpose, and the word became spelled acû for those years.

Similarly, â and ô were recommended in 2007 for the similarly rarely-needed irregular stress marking of the vowels ä and ö.

The Arestada of 2012 changed the recommendation concerning how irregular stress on ä, ö, and ü is to be marked. In those rare words that it would even be called for, the Committee recommends that the umlaut simply be topped with an accent mark.

However, the Committee also recognised that the number of words that would call for such a mark under the updated stress rule is so very small that the mark is often simply left off in writing and the word's irregular stress is understood. [The only truly common such word out of the honestly only nine or ten words in this situation is säparh (= to know), which is stressed on the ä even though it is not in the "default" stress position by rule (the other a is) and is not stress marked.]

(The example word given in the table, acü, no longer needs a stress mark, due to the update of the stress rule concerning how to locate "default" stress in a word.)

So that's the past and present of the Talossan circumflex.  As for its possible (or at least one theoretical) future....

Firstly, note that writers using the "traditional style", while now embracing the stress rule, often choose to explicitly mark default stress, especially on certain word endings, such as -éir, which (under the stress rule accepted by all, technically does not need the stress mark, and is usually seen written -eir in the "simplified style").  Given this, and the fact that both -ind and -our are stressed endings...

1. Should writers of the traditional style choose to use ӑ (the re-recognised breve), rather than â, to indicate the feminine and/or schwa meanings discussed above, this would allow the then-disused â to perhaps eventually be seen put to use as an alternate form of the simple stress-marked a (that is, â would perhaps someday become just an alternative to á).
   
   
2. With ê already deprecated from the language, there is nothing barring it from being recognised as simply an alternate form of the stress marked e (that is, ê could perhaps be recognised and used as just an equivalent alternative to é).
   
   
3. Should writers of the traditional style ever abandon the Russian-vowel-indicative meaning of î, and adopt the 2007 re-spellings for the words in which it appears (that is, temp rather than tîmp for "time", etc.), this would mean that î would typically be seen only the word-ending -înd.  This is a stressed ending, which means that î could someday be recognised as simply an alternative to stress marked i.  (Note that, whether marked for its default stress or not, the -ind ending, as ever, is still pronounced irregularly, of course.)
   
   
4. The mark ô is already recognised as wholly equivalent to ó.
   
   
5. The re-recognition of the use, in the traditional style, of û in the vowel combination oû (which almost invariably occurs when that consonant combination is taking stress, and by far most commonly in the stressed word-ending -oûr) means that û can perhaps already be viewed as simply an alternative to the simple stress mark on u, since -oú (-oû) is recognised already as the stress marked form of the vowel combination -ou.
   

...so in one possible future, the circumflex in Talossan could eventually be nothing more than a different way to write an accent mark above any and every vowel!  Which means that it's at least remotely possible that with only a few turns of the pages of linguistic use and evolution, the circumflex may actually come to mean the same thing when used over any of the vowels, and that we would be able to say that á=â=à and that é=ê=è, etc.

Hm.  I meant that to be much shorter.  But I guess I can now copy/paste it into the University class as part of some upcoming lecture, huh?

Time well spent!  (Yeah, right.)

Hool

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

The Circumflex was a common accent in French, which is slowly being eliminated by the French academy.

In French, the circumflex is used to indicate a pseudo-silent S removed from the word.

For example, Château (Castle) used to be Chasteau but the S was removed and a circumflex added.

It is my favorite accent, because it is an historical. It is also the second most logical (after the cedila).

And yet, it is being eliminated in French.

One of the reasons I used to love Talossa was the heavy use of the Circumflex.... so I take this news rather badly. I am mourning the impeding loss of my favorite accent in both languages I see.

[Lüc da Schir]

Jul 11, 2013 13:10:43 GMT -6 Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H. said:

The Circumflex was a common accent in French, which is slowly being eliminated by the French academy.

In French, the circumflex is used to indicate a pseudo-silent S removed from the word.

For example, Château (Castle) used to be Chasteau but the S was removed and a circumflex added.

It is my favorite accent, because it is an historical. It is also the second most logical (after the cedila).

And yet, it is being eliminated in French.

One of the reasons I used to love Talossa was the heavy use of the Circumflex.... so I take this news rather badly. I am mourning the impeding loss of my favorite accent in both languages I see.

Methinks you can still use it in Traditional Pre-Arestada Talossan.

[Hooligan]

Jul 11, 2013 13:30:16 GMT -6 Lüc da Schir said:

Methinks you can still use it in Traditional Pre-Arestada Talossan.

Yep, as discussed above in my big post, if you like writing Talossan in the "traditional style", â and others are still there for you. And if that one possible theoretical future I laid out takes place from where we are, who knows?...maybe everyone everywhere, "traditional" or "simplified" style writers both, will use circumflexes for all stress marks in Talossan. Time will tell.

I wouldn't call it "pre-Arestada Talossan", though (except, I suppose, in the case of the use of î for the Russian vowel sound; that specific use is indeed something the Committee has not re-recognised since the Arestada of 2007). By the Arestada of 2012, which Cresti keeps not publishing, the uses of â, î in the ending -ind, ô, and û in the vowel combination ou are all Committee-approved as things seen used by writers of the "traditional style".

Hool

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

Jul 11, 2013 3:40:41 GMT -6 Lüc da Schir said:

I'm quite sure that Cosâ is the pre-2007 Arestada version of Cosa. This means that Cosa and Cosâ have the same pronounciation; I think the A circumflexed was removed because it was just an unnecessary stress mark. I think the right pronounciation is /kósə/

Actually, it's pronounced /kózə/. The s is pronounced /z/ in the combination -osa.

[Éovart Andrinescù]

That is... VERY informative. Thanks all for the responses!

[Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun]

Jul 11, 2013 13:30:16 GMT -6 Lüc da Schir said:

Methinks you can still use it in Traditional Pre-Arestada Talossan.

I love you, for you have deployed the archaic "methinks".