Voltan language

Voltan
Voltaern
Native to	Volta
Native speakers	30,000,000
Language family	Creole
Writing system	Voltan alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Volta
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

The Voltan language, also known as Voltan Creole, is a Dolch-based creole language spoken in Volta. It is the most commonly spoken language in Volta, and is also one of the two official languages in the country. The language started developing during the 17th century, after Dolchland initially colonized the region.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	(Dental)	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	Voiceless	p		t			k	(ʔ)
	Voiced	b		d			ɡ
Affricate	Voiceless			t͡s	t͡ʃ
	Voiced				(d͡ʒ)
Fricative	Voiceless	f		s	ʃ	ç		h
	Voiced	v		z	(ʒ)
Approximant						j
Tap/trill				r
Approximant				l

• [ŋ] is merged with [n].
• [p͡f] is replaced with either [p] or [f].
• [θ] and [ð], only present for loanwords in Dolch, are dropped entirely and replaced with either [t] or [d].
• [x] pronounced after back-vowels (and allophonic with [ç]) is replaced with [h].
• /j/, realized in Dolch as either the approximant [j] or fricative [ʝ], is only realized as the approximant [j].
• The Dolch /r/, realized in some dialects as the alveolar [r], uvular [ʀ], or uvular [ʁ], is only realized as the alveolar [r].
• The [t͡ɬ] present in Tlaloc languages is not present in Voltan.

Vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː					u	uː
Close-mid	e	eː	ø	øː	(ə)		o	oː
Open					a	aː

• [ɪ] is replaced with [i].
• [ʊ] is replaced with [u].
• [œ] is replaced with [ø].
• [y] and [yː] are merged with [ø] and [øː] respectively.
• [ɛ] is replaced with [e].
• [ɛː] is merged with [eː].
• [ɔ] is replaced with [o].
• [ə] only exists as a reduced form of other vowels, such as the /a/ in /volta/ (pronounced [voltə]).

Diphthongs

	Ending point
	Front	Back
Open-mid	oi̯
Open	ai̯	au̯

• The standard Dolch diphthong [ɔʏ̯] became [oi̯] in Voltan rather than [oø̯] because many of the original Dolch speakers in Volta spoke a Dolch dialect where the Standard Dolch diphthong [ɔʏ̯] was actualy pronounced [ɔi̯].
• Much of the Dolch phonetic diphthongs where a speaker vocalizes /r/ to [ɐ̯] are dropped entirely and instead replaced with long vowels.

Grammar

Definite and Indefinite Articles

Like Dolch, Voltan does have both a definite and indefinite article. However, unlike Dolch these articles are not inflected based upon gender and case. All of the Dolch definite articles have been merged into a single article die (pronounced [diː]), and the indefinite article is the word se (pronounced [se]). Se is derived from the Tlaloc word ce, meaning the number 1, which is sometimes used as an indefinite article in Tlaloc.

Definite	Indefinite
die	se

However, the indefinite article se is considered optional, and is omitted by some speakers.

Verbs

Verb conjugations in Voltan have been vastly simplified. The difference between the Dolch strong and weak verbs are not present in Voltan, with the entire category being simplified into a single class, with the exception of a handful of irregular verbs.

Tenses

There are only 3 tenses without auxiliary verbs in Voltan: present, future, and preterite. These tenses are marked with suffixes.

Voltan Tenses
Base verb	Present	Future	Preterite
brinen ("to bring")	brinen [brinen]	brins [brins]	brinte [brintə]
leben ("to live")	leben [le:ben]	lebs [le:bs]	lebte [le:btə]
essen ("to eat")	essen [esən]	esses [esəs]	esste [estə]

Subject marking

Voltan borrows a feature from Tlaloc in that it marks the subject within the verb. However, unlike Tlaloc and like Dolch, it does not mark the object within the verb. The subject is marked by various prefixes attached to the verb.

Voltan verbal subject markers
Subject	Marking	Notes	'Examples
1st person singular	ni-	n- before a vowel	nibrinen (I bring), nessen (I eat)
2nd person singular	du-	d- before a vowel	dubrinen (You bring), dessen (You eat)
3rd person singular	e-	er- before a vowel	ebrinen (He/she/it brings), eressen (He/she/it eats)
1st person plural	vi-	v- before a vowel	vibrinen (We bring), vessen (We eat)
2nd person plural	i-	ir- before a vowel	ibrinen (You[plural] bring), iressen (You[plural] eat)
3rd person plural	si-	s- before a vowel	sibrinen (They bring), sessen (They eat)

These prefixes always come at the start of the verb, before any other prefixes.