Gylian English

Gylian English (French reformed: Anglaise gylienne), also known as Engylish (French reformed: Angylaise; Gylic transcription: Engyliş) refers to the dialects of English spoken in Gylias.

English is an official language of Gylias, alongside French. Its emergence as a common language is a recent phenomenon, dating back to the Free Territories. Gylian varieties of English are distinctive in Tyran, being influenced by existing linguistic diversity and language policy, of which the Gylian languages reform of 1958–1959 is a famous example.

Overview

Gylias has a long tradition of ethnolinguistic diversity, and French came into use as a lingua franca during the Gylian ascendancy and in Alscia. As a result, Gylians are commonly bilingual or multilingual, and speak using code-switching. These factors have shaped the vocabulary and pronunciation of Gylias' English dialects.

Significant sources of anglophone migrants have been Schottia, Allamunnika, Shalum, and Ossoria. Pop culture has similarly been influential on Gylian use of English, particularly the music of the Beaties.

The standardisation and use of the Gylic alphabet as a learning tool makes eye dialect common among Gylian English speakers. Gylic speakers in particular are prone to writing English with the Gylic alphabet rather than standard spelling.

Phonology

A defining feature of Gylian English dialects is the tendency to adapt English to their native phonotactics.

Gylian English by default uses the "broad" vowels [a], [e], [i], [o], and [u], leading some linguists to comment that it resembles English before the Great Vowel Shift. Monophthongisation is also strongly present — thus downtown is pronounced [dantan], house [has], bowl [bol] — as a result of Gylic languages' stricter CV and CVC phonotactics.

Elision is extensive, and the Gylic languages' "floating y" is also used to break up consonant clusters. Gemination is absent.

Most Gylian dialects are non-rhotic; linking R is common, and sometimes epenthetic R appears as well.

Gylic languages lack the mid central vowel, and this sound has been identified as a particular problem for Gylic learners of English. Many speakers replace it with the close central unrounded vowel or approximate it with the [aɨ] diphthong.

Although [θ] is present in Gylic languages, Gylian English speakers instead pronounce the th as [f] or [ɸ] — making "three" and "free" homonyms.

Vocabulary

Singular they is used as the standard third-person pronoun due to its epicenity. To distinguish the two, verbs are pluralised with a [ts] sound: "They went to the store" versus "They wents to the store".

Several second-person plural pronouns are in use, depending on area. They include yalls ([iolɨz] — derived from "you alls"), yous ([iuz] — borrowed from Schottian) and yinz ([jinɨz] or [jɨnɨz] — derived from "you ones").

"Need" sentences are formulated using a past participle. Examples include "The bike needs washed" and "the bill needs paid". The same principle applies to "want" and "like" sentences. One notable exception refers to watering as a verb: the predominance of languages where "water" as a verb and "wet" as an adjective have the same form produces the sentence "The plants needs wet."

Gylians favour spellings and loanwords that resemble or are borrowed from French: colour, labour, theatre, manoeuvre; apartment instead of flat, and so forth. Diminutives are mostly created with the French suffixes "-ette" (cyclette) and "-elle" (tabelle for "table").

"Man", pronounced [man] or [mɨn] depending on dialect, is commonly used as a pronoun — "man's got arrested", "man's gen' upset" — and sometimes as an epicene compound with gendered words — husbandman, wifeman, ladyman.

Gylian slang tends to appropriate the names of certain famous Gylians to refer to qualities most associated with them. Thus, "ludmila" can be used as a noun or adjective to describe a polymath, "asuka" to refer to an "appealing braggart" quality, "şari" to refer to being rich, "myjeli" to refer to great success accompanied by respect, and "rauna" to connote irresistible sex appeal. In politics, "beatrice" is used to refer to a politician who inspires wide respect among voters but nevertheless fails to achieve comparable success at the ballot box.

As a result of historic conflicts with monotheist religions, Gylian English profanity is strictly secular, and deals almost exclusively with sex and bodily functions. Even swears that allude to deities or spirits still refer to genitalia, bodily functions, or sexual dysfunction.

Some words are repurposed to distinguish between different degrees or connotations: "wicked" versus "evil" and "adversary" versus "enemy", for example.

"Foresitter", a cognate of Dutch voorzitter and German Vorsitzende (both meaning "chairperson") is commonly used instead of "leader", particularly in legislative and political party contexts.

Grammar

The use of -s as a regular plural leads to hypercorrection in appending [s], [ts], or [d͡z] to the end of words even if already pluralised: feets, fishes, childrens, mices, mens, womens.

Present participles ending in -ing tend to get elided, visually represented with an apostrophe: getting → gen'; going → gon' (pronounced [gɨn], as opposed to gon' as an abbreviation of "gonna", which is pronounced [gon]); walking → woin'.

Double negatives appear for emphatic effect, as most Gylic languages have negative concord.

Dialects and accents

Regional variations and dialects are numerous, depending on the demographics of a region and thus what languages can influence it.

The Arxas accent, most associated with The Watts, is marked by lenition of [t] to [ts] ("Bucket T" is rendered [baketsi]) and strong non-rhoticity ("friend" becomes [fen], with the "d" only appearing as a linking consonant).

Dialects of the former Alscia have a pronounced Italian influence, but also demonstrate phonetic idiosyncrasies: back vowels tend to be raised ([o] becomes closer to [u], [u] is closer to [ɨ]), the soft C becomes [ʃ] (an extension of the Cacertian dialect turning it to [s]), while "r" is often raised to [r̝].

The Vilêna dialect has been influenced by Lusitan, and is well-known for its strong fortition and vowel raising, earning the nickname "Vilêna lockjaw".

West Gylic speakers, particularly Rezakan, Tomesian, and Erlan, are known for strengthening [s] to [z], and [ts] to [d͡z].