Niagaran Dialects

Comparison

Colonial Niagaran, Mainland Niagaran (including both written forms: XXX, the most common standard form; and YYY) and Frigan are all descended from the same dialect of Niagaran which emerged centuries ago in what is now Greater Niagara. Thus, they are closely related, and largely mutually intelligible. The largest differences are found in pronunciation and language-specific vocabulary, which may severely hinder mutual intelligibility in some dialects. Additionally, some dialects are closer than others. For instance, the version of Mainland Niagaran spoken in the ACS is closer to Frigan than the version spoken in Greater Niagara. All dialects of Colonial Niagaran, Mainland Niagaran, and Frigan form a dialect continuum.

Mutual Intelligbility

Generally, speakers of the three languages (Colonial Niagaran, Mainland Niagaran and Frigan) can read each other's languages without great difficulty. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences is in verbal pronunciation. According to a scientific study of the three groups, Mainland Niagaran speakers generally understand the other languages the best, while Frigan speakers understand the least. Colonial Niagaran and Mainland Niagaran are especially comprehensible to one another, owing to much less linguistic drift between composite parts of the Niagaran empire versus the independent Inglaterra, where Frigan originates. In general, Colonial Niagaran and Mainland Niagaran speakers will be able to understand the other's language after only a little instruction or exposure compared to Frigan. However, Colonial speakers generally do not understand Mainland Niagaran as well as the extremely similar written norms would lead one to expect. Many Mainland Niagaran speakers – especially in Greater Niagara itself – also have problems understanding Colonial Niagaran at times due to the pronunciation differences between the two dialects. Antarctic speakers of Mainland Niagaran generally have a better grasp of Frigan than both other Mainland Niagaran speakers. This is thought to be due to the exposure to Frigan media the ACS undergoes which Greater Niagara does not.

Sample text

Mainland Niagaran (moderate XXX): I 1877 forlot Jans Nørdhavn og bosatte seg i Sjøkant. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde imidlertid at det ble ubehagelig for ham å oppholde seg i Onsland, og i 1883 vendte han tilbake til Nørdhavn, der han ble møtt av en helt ny gruppe forfattere og tenkere, som var ivrige etter å motta ham som sin leder. Det viktigste av hans senere arbeider er hans verk om klassisk forfatterskaps historie, som ble oversatt til fluvansk av Charles Archer, og som straks ble anerkjent.

Mainland Niagaran (YYY writing): I 1877 forlet Jon Nørdhavn og busette seg i Sjøkant. Dei politiske synspunkta hans gjorde likevel at det vart ubehageleg for han å opphalde seg i Onsland, og i 1883 vende han tilbake til Nørdhavn, der han vart møtt av ei heil ny gruppe forfattarar og tenkjarar, som var ivrige etter å få han som leiaren sin. Det viktigaste av hans seinare arbeid er verket hans om klassisk forfatterskaps historie, som vart omsett til fluvansk av Charles Archer, og som straks vart anerkjent.

Colonial Niagaran: I 1877 forlod Jens Nørdhavn og bosatte sig i Havskant. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde dog, at Onsland blev ubehagelig for ham at opholde sig i, og han vendte i 1883 tilbage til Nørdhavn, hvor han blev mødt af en helt ny gruppe af forfattere og tænkere, der var ivrige efter at modtage ham som deres leder. Det vigtigste af hans senere arbejder har været hans værk om klassisk forfatterskabs historie, der blev oversat til fluvansk af Charles Archer og med det samme blev anerkendt.

Frigan: År 1877 lämnade Johann Nordishamn och bosatte sig i Havskant. Hans politiska åsikter gjorde emellertid det obehagligt för honom att uppehålla sig i Onsland och år 1883 återvände han till Nordishamn, där han mötte en helt ny grupp av författare och tänkare, som var ivriga att anta honom som sin ledare. Det viktigaste av hans senare arbeten är hans verk om klassisk skrifts historia, som översattes till fluvanska av Charles Archer och som med det samma vann erkännande.

Fluvan translation: In 1877 John left Nordhagen and took up residence in Seekant. However, his political views made Onsland an uncomfortable place to live, and in 1883 he returned to Nordhagen, where he was met by a completely new group of writers and thinkers, who were eager to accept him as their leader. The most important of his later works is his work about the history of classical writing, which was translated to Fluvan by Charles Archer and received recognition immediately.

Writing System

Mainland Niagaran and Colonial Niagaran

Generally, Mainland Niagaran orthography is more simplified and regularized and closer to actual pronunciation than Colonial Niagaran. As a rule, the graphic differences between the two languages do not reflect actual differences in pronunciation; while there are significant phonetic and phonological differences, they are rarely expressed in writing. The few exceptions are noted below.

• In writing, Colonial Niagaran uses either the letter e or the letter æ to signify the short vowel /ɛ/. Mainland Niagaran almost exclusively uses e. Example: Colonial Niagaran lægge (to lay), sende (to send) versus Mainland Niagaran legge, sende.
• Colonial Niagaran regularly, although not always, uses the letter combinations nd, ld instead of the double consonant letters nn, ll. In most cases this is not etymologically justified. In Mainland Niagaran and Frigan, only the etymologically justified spellings occur. Example: Colonial Niagaran kende, denne (this /common gender/) and sende (to send) versus Mainland Niagaran kjenne, denne; Colonial Niagaran ilde (bad), ville (to want) and holde (to hold) versus Mainland Niagaran ille, ville.
• Unlike Mainland Niagaran, Colonial Niagaran often uses ds instead of double s. Example: ridse (to scratch) but visse (certain plural) versus Mainland Niagaran risse, visse. Likewise in some other contexts, Colonial Niagaran bedst (best), sidst (last) versus Mainland Niagaran best, sist.
• Unlike Mainland Niagaran, Colonial Niagaran does not use double consonants at the end of words. Example: Colonial Niagaran vis can signify both the adjective pronounced /viːˀs/ (wise) and the adjective pronounced /ves/ (certain), even though the plural forms of the adjectives, where the consonant occurs medially, are distinguished in writing by means of a double s in the second word (vise versus visse). In contrast, Mainland Niagaran does distinguish between vis and viss in the same way as between vise and visse.
• Colonial Niagaran preserves the above rule both before inflexional and derivational endings, beginning in a consonant, and in compounding. Mainland Niagaran, too, prohibits word-final double consonants before inflexional endings, beginning in a consonant, (unless homography needs to be avoided), but not before derivational endings and in compounding. Example: Colonial Niagaran al (all /common gender/) – alt (all /neuter gender/) – alle (all /plural/) – altid (always, literally "all time"); Mainland Niagaran all – alt – alle, but alltid.
• Mainland Niagaran has preserved the spellings gj, kj, and skj in the beginning of words when followed by e, æ, ø, while modern Colonial Niagaran has simply g, k and sk. Today, this in part reflects the fact that these words are also pronounced differently in the two languages, see below. Examples: Colonial Niagaran gemme (keep, hide), kær (dear), skønt (wonderful, lovely) versus Mainland Niagaran gjemme, kjær, skjønt.
• A pair of diphthongs are spelled as ej and øj in Colonial Niagaran, but as ei and øy in Mainland Niagaran. The exact pronunciation of these diphthongs is also somewhat different in the two languages, see below, and the different spellings are phonetically justified at least for the second diphthong. Examples: Colonial Niagaran vej (way), løj (lied /past tense/) versus Mainland Niagaran vei, løy.
• In the oblique case forms of the 1st and 2nd person pronouns and of reflexive pronouns, the ei/ej diphthong is spelled ig in Colonial Niagaran, but eg in Mainland Niagaran: mig, dig, sig versus meg, deg, seg.
• In Colonial Niagaran, the preposition af "of, from" is spelled with f (pronounced [æ] or, in compounds, [ɑw]), whereas Mainland Niagaran has av with v like Frigan.
• In loanwords, Colonial Niagaran generally has tended to partly preserve the spelling of the source language, whereas Mainland Niagaran traditionally usually has adapted the spelling to its own rules in order to reflect the expected pronunciation. Examples: Colonial Niagaran bureau (bureau), chauffør (chauffeur), information (information), garage (garage), centrum (centre), zone (zone) versus Mainland Niagaran byrå, sjåfør, informasjon, garasje, sentrum, sone.
• Traditional Colonial Niagaran punctuation requires that a comma be placed before and after every dependent clause, and although two recent reforms permit, optionally, the dropping of a comma before the dependent clause, the old system is still in general use.[5] In contrast, Mainland Niagaran only requires a comma after the dependent clause; a comma is placed before it only if the clause is parenthetic (the same rule as in Fluvan, but Fluvan also does not put a comma after a non-parenthetic clause). Frigan uses the same rule as Fluvan: a comma is not required before or after a non-parenthetic clause. Example where the dependent clause is parenthetic – Mainland Niagaran: John, som hadde sett mannen, visste hvordan han så ut (Fluvan: John, who had seen the man, knew what he looked like).
• Colonial Niagaran capitalizes all words in multi-word proper designations, but Mainland Niagaran and Frigan only capitalize the first word: Det Hvide Hus (Colonial) – Det hvite hus (Mainland XXX) – Det kvite huset (Mainland YYY) – Vita huset (Frigan) – the White House (Fluvan).

Multi-Language Hypothesis versus the Dialect Hypothesis

There is a certain amount of debate regarding the Niagaran dialects and whether or not these differing dialects are truly unique languages (Multi-Language Hypothesis) or dialects of a single common language (the Dialect Hypothesis). Proponents of the multi-language hypothesis point to the presence of false friends or completely different words as signs as to the uniqueness of each individual language. Additionally, the presence of the letters Ø and Æ do not exist in Frigan while the letters Ä and Ö do not exist in Colonial or Mainland Niagaran but do exist in Frigan. This had led to the more moderate and alternative hypothesis that the Colonial and Mainland Niagaran dialects are one language while Frigan is a different, albeit extremely similar, language. Professor of linguistics at Boston University XXX YYY writes;

The presence of additional letters in the Frigan alphabet versus the Basic Niagaran one is clearly indicative of a completely different language. There is no reason to consider these the same language at all other than pure tradition. While one could make an arugment that the Colonial and Mainland dialects are similar enough to be considered the same language, the Frigan language should not be included whatsoever. While there are differences and similarities, we characterize the extremely mutually intelligble Inith and Naossian languages to be different. Whether or not you believe it should or should not be this way, culture plays a huge factor in characterizing languages and we would be remiss to not recognize the differences between the culture of Inglaterra versus that of Niagara.

However, other linguists point to the near total mutual intelligiblity between the three languages and assert that many of the differences of Frigan versus Mainland or Colonial Niagaran is no more different than the dialects of Fluvan found in Fluvannia versus Fluvan found in The Furbish Islands. Other, and more politically charged, proposals have described the attempt to push the multi-language hypothesis to be the result of politics. Professor of political science at Camille University, Olivier Astier, writes;

The attempt to characterize Frigan or even Colonial Niagaran as being a different language from Mainland Niagaran is one based off of politics. Many Niagarans or Antarcticans would rather not remember that they share a common history, culture, and language with Inglaterra. Colonial Niagaran is in much the same situation. Is it any wonder the pale populations of Antarctica and Niagara do not wish to speak the same language as the majority non-white populations that speak Colonial Niagaran? While the actions of the Inglaterran government are despicable there is no need to commit academic negligence simply because one wishes to forget unsavory members of the family. There is especially no need to commit academic negligence simply for, or what I feel at least are, racist reasons.