Lilledic language

Lilledic language
Ja Lilledelje linge
Pronunciation	[jɑː ˌɫɪɫəˈð̙ɛʎə ˈɫɪŋːə]
Native to	Crylante Navack
Region	Lhedwin
Ethnicity	Asuro-Lhedwinic
Native speakers	ca. 2,000,000 (2018)
Language family	Cataisuran Mydran Fiorentine Northern Fiorentine Lilledic language
Writing system	Fiorentine alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Crylante Navack
Language codes
ISO 639-1	al
ISO 639-2	asl
ISO 639-3	lil

Lilledic, also known as Lilledelic or Asuro-Lhedwinic (pronounced /ˈlɪlədɪk/, Lilledic Lilledelje ling /ˌɫɪɫəˈð̙ɛʎə ˈɫɪŋː/) is a Fiorentine language spoken primarily by the almost two million Asuro-Lhedwinic people of Crylante with a smaller number of speakers in neighbouring Navack. It is the sole member of the Northern Fiorentine subgroup. Though derived directly from Fiorentine, the influence of Lhedwinic has caused major changes to occur to Lilledic, particularly with regards to the pronunciation.

Fiorentines migrated north into the area of modern Crylante as early as the first century BCE, eventually establishing their own identity as Asuro-Lhedwinics separately from the native Lhedwinics of the region. These settlers brought the Fiorentine language with them. As it interacted with Lhedwinic (and to a much lesser extent Nausikaan) and evolved it took on an aspect far different from those Fiorentine languages spoken in contiguous parts of mainland Asura. The area of their settlement was originally named Lilledal "small valley" but this later changed to Lilledel "small part". The Asuro-Lhedwinic people of Crylante adopted this name self-referentially, calling themselves ju Lilledelje poule "the Lilledic people".

History

As the Fiorentine Empire began its decline in the common era a number of the Asurans residing in the Empire began to migrate out of their traditional southern Asuran homelands. A group of Asurans generally referred to as Proto-Asuro-Lhedwinics migrated north, passing through modern Cuirpthe and reaching Lhedwin. This migratory group settled in modern Crylante by the second century CE, largely displacing the local people (relatives or ancestors of the Nausikaans and related groups) in the process. The Asuro-Lhedwinics retained a vulgarised form of the Fiorentine language which was at this point still mutually intelligible with the mainland varieties. A gradual process of linguistic development with a Nausikaan (or similar) substrate until about the seventh century.

During the seventh century the Dalish people originating in northern Lhedwin (modern Glanodel) began to invade south into Crylante, largely pushing the Asuro-Lhedwinic people into the west of the region, ie. Lilledel. Linguistically, by this point the Asuro-Lhedwinics were speaking a far more divergent form of Fiorentine, likely divergent enough to be considered a separate language, though the scarcity of contemporary texts makes this difficult to ascertain. At any rate, the invasions catalysed the evolution of the language, now with an Old Lhedwinic adstrate. This marks the conventional beginning of the Old Lilledic period, as well as the period at which the term "Lilledic" becomes acceptable for the people. Similarly the Dales of Crylante are hence known as "Rigjordic".

Conflict between the Lilledic, Rigjordic and Nausikaan peoples continued into eighth century. Writings from the time mostly concern martial affairs, an example being f° 2 v. of the Codex Nebligae: Inßelagrißurus uöniöund di Boria & nos ixponöund "Nausikaan raiders were coming from the north and killing us". The modern equivalent of this would be isselagressorijes ønyve/øniu de børe e nus espuneu. After the eighth century, there was a degree of peaceful mixing between the groups (primarily between Lilledics and Rigjordics). During this period, an increased proportion of Lhedwinic vocabulary entered Lilledic and the grammar began to shift in a similar way to the contemporary Lhedwinic language. After the eleventh century, there was greater mixing amongst the region's populaces.

From the eleventh century the process of Crylantian unification began, and by the early twelfth century all of mainland Crylante including Lilledel was absorbed into the Duchy of Crylante. During this time Lhedwinic, as the language of the original rulers, was the primary language of government, but Lilledic persisted in non-official contexts. Many legal, political and religious words entered the language from Lhedwinic during the early second millennium as a result. Conversely, Lilledic words for commerce entered Lhedwinic in turn.

In around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Old Lilledic entered the Middle Lilledic phase, around the same time as Old Lhedwinic had begun to differentiate into the modern dialects. The mutual influence is particularly noticeable at this point as it marks the first attestation of the suffixed definite article to Lilledic, already well established by the Old Lhedwinic period in that language group, as in f° 1 r. of the Alexandrian Edict: Se schijt chin de honchora novu Hertoghil ius Ducaatil Crylanti est Alexander Hertog "Let it be known that the new Duke of the Duchy of Crylante is Duke Alexander". The emphasised forms are definite. The modern translation of this would be vol se skire ke nunde noue hertoge jus Ducåte Crylante e Alexander Hertog".

Crylante remained united and independent until 1557, when it came under the control of Llewellyn V of tir Lhaeraidd. Although Crylante was given a large degree of liberty at first, the Lhaeraidd rulers began to assert more control and in 1726 was merged with Vrnallia into a single administrative entity, the Kingdom of Crylante-Vrnallia. During this entire period Lhaeraidd was the primary source of linguistic borrowing both for the languages of Crylante as well as Vrnallian. There was limited contact between Lilledic and Vrnallian, with a small number of words passing between the two languages. During this time the Modern Lilledic period began, and the widespread adoption of moveable type led to greater consistency in the spelling of Lilledic.

In 1799, after three days of independence, Crylante joined the United Kingdom of Lhedwin and Lhedwinic once again became the standard language of the Lilledic people. Crylante was divided into numerous sovereign states after the Great War, with Lilledel becoming the Duchy of West Crylante. From this point, continuing even after Crylantian reunification in 1915, the Lilledic language had equal status to the other languages of Crylante, Rigjordic and Nausikaan.

Classification

Lilledic is classified as the sole member of the Northern Fiorentine subbranch of the Fiorentine branch of the Mydran subfamily of the Cataisuran language family. This makes Lilledic a close relative to languages such as Midrasian, Veleazan and Aquidish (other Fiorentine languages), a more distant but still near relative of extinct Mydran languages such as Oskish and Umbraic, and a very distant relative of all other Cataisuran languages including the Lhedwinic languages, Chalcian, Sclavonic languages and so on.

As a distinct Fiorentine branch, the mutual intelligibility between Lilledic and the other Fiorentine languages is far less than between, say, Aquidish and Midrasian, both in the spoken and written forms. Compare the following simple sentence across the three languages, meaning "a living fish swims in the water":

• Li. Ne nate pisk nå i acke [nəˈnɑːdə pɪsk noː ʔiː ˈʔagə]
• Aq. Un pesce vivo nuota in l'acqua [un ˈpeʃʃe ˈviːvo ˈnwoːta in ˈlakkwa]
• Mi. Un poisson vivant nage dans l'eau [œ̃ pwaˈsɔ̃ viˈvɑ̃ naʒ dɑ̃ lo]

Although all three languages are pronounced very differently, the written Aquidish and Midrasian sentences are more readily understandable in comparison to each other due to a more consistently common lexicon and the same word order throughout (the Lilledic word nate "alive" is related to nato and né meaning "born", while the verb nare derives from a different Fiorentine root than nuotare and nager).

Although Lilledic has been profoundly influenced by Lhedwinic, the two languages are in fact not related.

Phonology

Consonants

A phonemic inventory of the consonants of Lilledic is presented below. Entries in italics are allophonic.

Lilledic consonant phonemes

	Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b	t d		k g		ʔ
Fricative	f v	s z	ɕ		ʁ	h
Affricate		t͡s	t͡ɕ
Approximant	w ʋ β̙	l ɫ r ð̙	j ʎ	ɣ̙

• The consonants [ɲ ʎ] occur for most speakers as variants of the clusters /nj lj/ respectively: rænj "principality" [ʁɛɲ]; elj "elk" [ʔɛʎ]. Around Haverslev, these clusters simplify to [n l] word finally: [ʁæn] and [ʔæɫ].
• The consonant [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ before a velar consonant. However, most speakers convert the sequence /ng/ into a tense nasal, losing any plosive element: linge "the language" [ˈlɪŋːə].
• Voiceless plosives are generally aspirated in the onset of a syllable, especially a stressed syllable: poul "people" [pʰɑu̯ɫ]; temper "time" [ˈtʰɛmbɑ]; catt "cat" [kʰat̚]. At the end of a word, as the last example shows, these tend to be unreleased, especially after nasals: student "student" [stʉːˈdɛn]. After vowels, voicing (partial or complete) is common: catte "the cat" [ˈkʰadə].
• The voiced plosives /b d g/ have a tendency to lenite to the approximants [β̙ ð̙ ɣ̙] after vowel, much as in Lhedwinic: parabel "story" [pʰəˈʁɑːβ̙əɫ]; modd "law, rule" [mʊð̙]; nigre "black" [ˈnɪɣ̙ʁə].
• In central dialects the clusters /mb nd/ and sometimes /ng/ tend to become the glottalised nasals [mˀ nˀ ŋˀ]: omber "evil spirit" [ˈʔɔmˀɑ]; ammend "loving" [ˈʔamənˀ]; ling "language" [ɫɪŋˀ]. After this change glottalisation may be lost entirely.
• [z] is an allophone of /s/ which occurs for most speakers between vowels: casse "the house" [ˈkʰazə]. Additionally, the cluster /st/ is frequently entirely voiced to [zd] between vowels: vistor "watcher" [ˈvɪzdɑ].
• The phoneme /t͡s/ is entirely limited to loanwords, but is consistently distinguished: zuck "marrow" [t͡sʉ̞k̚] from Aquidish zucca.
• [w] is limited to a small number of words where it may vary with [β̙]: Neblige "Nebligen" [ˈnɛwlijə]. It also occurs in some interjections such as oaa! "wah! (an anguished cry)".
• [ʋ] and [r] tend to replace /v/ and /ʁ/ in western dialects: væl "fjord" [ʋæl]; regtor "ruler" [rɛkˈtʰuːr].
• [ɫ] is the usual pronunciation of /l/ in all positions for all speakers, though older western speakers may use a clear [l] in all positions. Dialects from Dybøll south to Vestby retain the clear pronunciation before front vowels: lack "lake" [ɫak̚] but ling "language" [lɪŋː].

The status of the glottal stop as a distinct phoneme is questionable. For most speakers outside of the most western dialects, the glottal stop is a regular occurrence word-initially before vowels: år "church" [ʔoːɑ̯]. However, what is more variable is whether the glottal stop persists when prefixes are added to a word. Thus contreår "blasphemy" has the possible pronunciations [ˈkʰʊndʁəˌʔoːɑ̯] with a glottal stop and [ˈkʰʊndʁoːɑ̯] without a glottal stop.

The phoneme /ʁ/ has a number of variant pronunciations. A uvular fricative [ʁ] is the most common pronunciation, though a uvular trill [ʀ] is occasionally heard in eastern dialects while an alveolar trill [r] is normal in the west and occurs in some northern dialects also. After a vowel, vocalisation tends to occur, with the rhotic becoming an approximant usually transcribed as [ɑ̯] although the precise value may be different: tor "chair" [tʰuːɑ̯]. In southern dialects for example the pronunciation is a more central [ə̯]: [tʰuːə̯]. After phonemic /ɑː/ there is usually no discernible phonetic difference: car "car" [kʰɑː]. After a schwa, the usual pronunciation is a clear vowel [ɑ]: cantator "singer" [kʰənˈtʰɑːdɑ]. Additionally, in more "archaic" styles of speech as might be heard on stage, the pronunciation of [r] in all contexts predominates, reflecting the earlier standard.

Vowels

A phonemic inventory of the vowels of Lilledic is presented below.

Lilledic vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	iː ɪ yː ʏ	ʉː ʉ̞	uː ʊ
Close-mid	eː øː øy̯~øi̯	ə	oː
Open-mid	ɛː~ɛə̯ ɛ(~æ) œ		ɔ
Open		a	ɑː ɑu̯~ou̯

Most vowels can be broken down into pairs of long and short or, more accurately, tense and lax vowels. Orthographically, each pair attaches to one letter. The pairs are as follows:

Orthography	Tense	Lax
i	/iː/	/ɪ/
y	/yː/	/ʏ/
u	/ʉː/	/ʉ̞/
e	/eː/	/ɛ/1
ø	/øː/	/œ/
o	/uː/	/ʊ/
æ	/ɛː~ɛə̯/	/ɛ/2
a	/ɑː/	/a/
å	/oː/	/ɔ/

The orthography uses two letters to write /ɛ/ depending on whether the variant pronunciation of [æ] can occur. The letter <e> can never be pronounced this way, but the letter <æ> can (in some dialects, this can happen due to a particular merger of these sounds). Usage of [æ] is somewhat rare. Some western dialects use it in all situations, and therefore clearly distinguish the lax values of <e> and <æ>. Northern speakers, however, tend to only use [æ] before nasal consonants and /l/. Thus the words cæn "dog" and kesærri "long hair" have the following pronunciations:

	Western	Northern	Central-Eastern
cæn	[kʰæn]		[kʰɛn]
kesærri	[kʰəˈsæriː]	[kʰəˈzɛʁiː]

The diphthongs written <øy> and <ou> have variant pronunciations. For the former, the pronunciation of [øy̯] is still widespread amongst older speakers in all areas, as well as normal in western dialects. Elsewhere, [øi̯] predominates. For the latter, the usual pronunciation is [ɑu̯] while eastern and some northern dialects have [ou̯] instead.

Lax vowels frequently experience reduction in unstressed positions. Typically the result is the schwa. The precise rules for this reduction are unclear, as some vowels are never reduced, such as the diminutive ending -it which always contains the vowel [ɪ]. Additionally, some occurrences of schwa can never be pronounced with a "full" pronunciation, and most such occurrences are written with <e>. An example of such is the definite suffix -e: catte "the cat" [ˈkʰadə].

Stress

Generally in native words stress falls on the penultimate syllable, though there are many exceptions to this even within the inherited vocabulary. Antepenultimate stress is common before the definite plural suffix -ejes: lingejes "the languages" [ˈɫɪŋːijəs]. Final stress is also common with many suffixes, such as the agent suffix -tor (though there are exceptions with penultimate stress): regtor "ruler" [ʁɛkˈtʰuːɑ̯] but vistor "watcher" [ˈvɪzdɑ]. Stress is almost never indicated orthographically, though some loanwords such as café "coffee" show it with a diacritic: [kʰaˈfeː].

The positioning of stress is largely due to historical factors, and thus is mostly unpredictable in the modern language. Certain inflections may be always stressed or unstressed, but often even this must be seen as a tendency rather than a rule. The suffix -tor for example is almost always stressed when suffixed to a first or third conjugation verb (exceptions include cantator "singer" with penultimate stress) but when attached to a second conjugation verb has no clear tendency to be stressed or unstressed.

Across phrases, function words are not usually stressed. In the phrase isje hick es mi cæn "this is my dog" the primary phrasal stress occurs on the first and last syllables only, both being content words, with a secondary stress on hick which although serving a grammatical function is part of the prosodic unit isje hick "this". Of the entirely unstressed es and mi the greater stress falls on the latter word. Thus: [ˈˈʔɪɕjə ˈhɪkəsˌmiː ˈˈkʰæn].

Orthography

The Lilledic alphabet consists of the following letters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z Æ Å Ø. The additional letters W Þ Ð can occur in loanwords, primarily from Newreyan (W) and Lhedwinic (Þ Ð), such as weekend “weekend” /ˈviːkɛnˀ/, þing /ˈtɪŋˀ/ and Truaði “Truathi” /ˈtʰʁuːədiː/. Generally however these are replaced with V T D respectively (vikend, ting, Truadi).

Many letters have various possible pronunciations depending on their position in relation to surrounding letters. The following table gives the various pronunciations. There are frequently exceptions to any given rule:

Letter	Environment	Pronunciation	Example
A	Before two consonants	[a]	mank "useless" [maŋ]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		man "hand" [man]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[ɑː]	dare "to give" [ˈdɑːʁə]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		fan "forest shrine" [fɑːn]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	parabel "story" [pʰəˈʁɑːβ̙əɫ]
Aa	When stressed	[ɑː]	paas "peace" [pʰɑːs]
	When unstressed	[ə]	Nausikaa "Nausikaa" [ˈnɑu̯zɪgə] or [ˈnou̯zɪgə]
Au	Always	[ɑu̯] or [ou̯]
B	After a vowel (except immediately before a stressed vowel)	[β̙]	notabel "significant" [nʊˈtʰɑːβ̙əɫ]
	After a vowel in a minority of loanwords	[w]	Neblige "Nebligen" [ˈnɛwɫijə]
	After <m>	[ˀ]	gamb "leg of an animal" [gamˀ]
	Elsewhere	[b]	bou "cow, bull" [bɑu̯]
C	Before <e i y>	[s]	concert "concert" [kʰʊnˈsɛɑ̯]
	Word-initially and before a stressed syllable	[kʰ]	catt "cat" [kʰat̚]
	Word-finally	[k̚]	lack "lake" [ɫak̚]
	After a vowel or after <n>	[g]	sacrificat "sacrifice" [ˌsagʁɪfɪˈkʰɑːt̚]
Ci	Before a vowel	[ɕj]	officiator "civil servant" [ˌʔʊfɪɕjəˈtʰuːɑ̯]
D	After a vowel (except immediately before a stressed vowel)	[ð̙]	modd "law, rule" [mʊð̙]
	After <n>	[ˀ]	ammend "loving" [ˈʔamənˀ]
	Elsewhere	[d]	domm "community" [dʊm]
Dj	Always	[ɕj]	djødes "twelve" [ˈɕjøːð̙əs]
Ð	Always	Identical to <d>	Truaði "Trúathi" [ˈtʰʁ̥uːəˌð̙iː]
E	Before two consonants	[ɛ]	cent "hundred" [sɛn]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		es "out of" [ʔɛs]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[eː]	egere "to want" [ʔəˈgeːʁə]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		sen "old person" [seːn]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	regre "to rule" [ˈʁɛɣ̙ʁə]
	In suffixes containing -eje-	[i]	lingejes "the languages" [ˈɫɪŋːijəs]
Eg	Irregular pronunciation in the pronoun eg	[aj]	eg "I" [ʔaj]
Ei	Before a vowel	[eːj]	leie "the structure, the system" [ˈɫeːjə]
	Elsewhere	[eː]	lei "structure, system" [ɫeː]
F	Always	[f]	fast "permitted by religion" [fazd]
G	Before <t>	[k]	regte "ruled" [ˈʁɛktə]
	After a vowel (except immediately before a stressed vowel)	[ɣ̙]	nigre "black" [ˈnɪɣ̙ʁə]
	After <n>	[ː] or [ˀ]	þing "council" [tʰɪŋː] or [tʰɪŋˀ]
	Elsewhere	[g]	gæs "happy" [gɛːs]
H	Always	[h]	hæ regte "has ruled" [hɛːˈʁɛktə]
I	Before two consonants	[ɪ]	isje "that" [ˈʔɪɕjə]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		bis "twice" [bɪs]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[iː]	Lentine "Lentini" [lɛnˈtʰiːnə]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		fin "end" [fiːn]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	regering "government" [ʁəˈgeːʁəŋː]
J	Always	[j]	jacre "suggest, propose" [ˈjagʁə]
K	Word-initially and before a stressed syllable	[kʰ]	kimp "five" [kʰɪm]
	Word-finally	[k̚]	Bok "Trúathi holy book" [buːk̚]
	After a vowel or after <n>	[g]	arke "the arch" [ˈɑːgə]
Kj	Always	[ɕj]	kju "food" [ɕjʉː]
L	Always	[ɫ] or [l]	cell "room" [sɛɫ] or [sɛl]
Lj	Always	[ʎ]	Lilledelje "Lilledic" [ˌɫɪɫəˈdɛʎə]
M	Always	[m]	mort "death" [mɔɑ̯]
N	Before <k g> and velar <c>	[ŋ]	anker "anchor" [ˈʔaŋgɑ]
	Elsewhere	[n]	nou "nine" [nɑu̯]
Nj	Always	[ɲ]	linj "fireplace" [ɫɪɲ]
O	Before two consonants	[ʊ]	coll "throat" [kʰʊɫ]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		mos "soon" [mʊs]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[uː]	sole "alone, the sun" [ˈsuːɫə]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		sol "sun" [suːɫ]
	Before <r> when lax	[ɔ]	pork "pig" [pʰɔɑ̯k̚]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	ockult "mysterious" [əˈkʰʉ̞ɫt̚]
Ou	Always	[ɑu̯] or [ou̯]	poul "people" [pʰɑu̯ɫ] or [pʰou̯ɫ]
P	Word-initially and before a stressed syllable	[pʰ]	paas "peace" [pʰɑːs]
	Word-finally	[p̚]	mapp "paper" [map̚]
	After a vowel or after <m>	[b]	coppe "also" [ˈkʰʊbə]
Q	Except before and a vowel	Identical to <k>	qat "khat" [kʰɑːt̚]
Qu	Always	[kv]	quæstor "financier" [kvɛzˈduːɑ̯]
R	Before a vowel	[ʁ]	ru "grave" [ʁʉː]
	After tense <a>	[ː]	car "car" [kʰɑː]
	After a vowel	[ɑ̯]	tor "chair" [tʰuːɑ̯]
S	Between vowels	[z]	kesærri "long hair" [kʰəˈzɛʁiː]
	After a vowel, before <t> and a vowel or word boundary		fast "permitted by religion" [fazd]
	Elsewhere	[s]	sperare "to suppose, to assume" [spəˈʁɑːʁə]
Si	Before a vowel	[ɕj]	vision "vision" [vɪˈɕjuːn]
Sj	Always		isje "that" [ˈʔɪɕjə]
T	Word-initially and before a stressed syllable	[tʰ]	temper "time" [ˈtʰɛmbɑ]
	Word-finally after <r>	[-]	mort "death" [mɔɑ̯]
	Word-finally	[t̚]	catt "cat" [kʰat̚]
	After a vowel or after <n>	[d]	catte "the cat" [ˈkʰadə]
Ti	Before a vowel	[ɕj]	action "action" [ʔakˈɕjuːn]
Tj	Always		tjår "shawl, headscarf" [ɕjoːɑ̯]
Þ	Always	Identical to <t>	þing "council" [tʰɪŋː]
U	Before two consonants	[ʉ̞]	culp "throat" [kʰʉ̞ɫp̚]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		mul "much" [mʉ̞ɫ]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[ʉː]	luce "the light" [ˈɫʉːsə]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		pur "clean" [pʰʉːɑ̯]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	mentiu "was pretending" [mɛnˈtʰiːə]
V	Always	[v]	væl "fjord" [vɛɫ]
W	Always	Identical to <v>	weekend "weekend" [ˈviːkɛnˀ]
X	Always	[ks]	exerst "mob" [ʔɛkˈsɛɑ̯zd]
Y	Before two consonants	[ʏ]	yngre "to join" [ˈʔʏŋgʁə]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		ys "divine will" [ʔʏs]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[yː]	ydis "judge" [ˈʔyːð̙ɪs]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		yr "law court" [ʔyːɑ̯]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	cylinder "cylinder" [səˈɫɪnˀɑ]
Z	Always	[t͡s]	zuck "marrow" [t͡sʉ̞k̚]
Æ	Before two consonants	[æ] or [ɛ]	ætt "noble bloodline" [ʔæt̚] or [ʔɛt̚]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		tæl "such" [tʰæɫ] or [tʰɛɫ]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[ɛː] or [ɛə̯]	cæl "sky" [kʰɛːɫ] or [kʰɛə̯ɫ]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		hæ "have (done)" [hɛː] or [hɛə̯]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	jus cænnureje "of the dogs" [jʉ̞s kʰəˈnʉːʁijə]
Å	Before two consonants	[ɔ]	ånd "ghost" [ʔɔnˀ]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		låt "joke" [ɫɔt̚]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[oː]	mål "apple" [moːɫ]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		jåt "was going" [ˈjoːt̚]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	jus åndureje "of the ghosts" [jʉ̞s ʔəˈnˀʉːʁijə]
Ø	Before two consonants	[œ]	øffre "to oink" [ˈʔœfʁə]
	Before a single consonant in some monosyllables		løn "maple tree" [ɫœn]
	Before a single consonant followed by a vowel	[øː]	djødes "twelve" [ˈɕjøːð̙əs]
	Before a single consonant in most monosyllables		møn "wall" [møːn]
	In unstressed syllables	[ə]	øffeu "was oinking" [ʔəˈfeːə]
Øy	Always	[øy̯] or [øi̯]	nøys "our" [nøy̯s] or [nøi̯s]

Lilledic possesses numerous homonyms, and as a result there are various alternative spellings of words which add diacritics for disambiguation. For example, the sentence i i i "he goes in" can be written î í į, while one can also distinguish ês "out of" from és "is" and so on. In general, except where there would otherwise be a misunderstanding or in exceptional instances such as i i i, these diacritics are never written. They do not affect the pronunciation at all, and which diacritic to use is dependent entirely on historical factors and is not predictable (the acute for example is used in words formerly containing /t/: est → és and it → í "goes"). Often some words will bear diacritics while others will not, since only identifying certain parts of a phrase is necessary to allow context to determine the rest: i í i ei e i í ê ei "it goes into it and it goes out of it" (ê is a variant of ês).

Grammar

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns in Lilledic inflect for direct and genitive cases, singular and plural numbers and definiteness. Nouns also possess either masculine or feminine gender. The five major declension classes of Fiorentine have been collapsed into two main paradigms in Lilledic, which tend to match up with the gender of the noun. The following table shows the declensions of catt "cat" (first declension, masculine) and ling "tongue, language" (second declension, feminine).

	catt				ling
	Indefinite		Definite		Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct	ne catt	cattes	(ju) catte	(jus) cattijes	ne ling	linges	(ja) linge	(jas) lingejes
Genitive	de ni catte	de catture	jus catte	jus cattureje	de ni linge	de lingåre	jus linge	jus lingåreje

The direct definite forms only require the article when an adjective is inserted: catte "the cat" but ju bonne catte "the good cat". Articles in other forms are mandatory.

It is not always the case that first declension nouns are masculine while second declension nouns are feminine. For example, the first declension noun fåv "beech" is feminine (jus mænnåre fåvureje "of the big beech trees") while the second declension noun nout "sailor" is masculine (jus mænnure noutåreje "of the big sailors").

The genitive case is used to mark possession on a noun: cåde de ni catte "the tail of a cat"; cåde jus catte "the tail of the cat". In all other situations the direct form is used: eg peddattue catte "I kick the cat" (direct object); eg stå pedde pær catte "I stand on the cat" (preposition).

A number of nouns have irregularities. For example, the noun mann "group" has the indefinite genitive plural mannu [maˈnʉː] rather than *mannure while the (poetic) noun homme "person" has the stem houn-. These irregularities can usually, though not always, be traced back to the Fiorentine third and fourth declensions. In some instances there has been a shift towards regularisation, such as with houn replacing homme in most circumstances today.

Adjectives inflect for the same forms as nouns, but with most adjectives agreeing in gender with the noun they modify. The declension of the regular adjective bonn "good" is given below. An adjective with no ending attached is in the predicative form: ne bonne catt "a good cat" but catte es bonn "the cat is good". For all regular adjectives the predicative form has no ending.

	Masculine				Feminine
	Indefinite		Definite		Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct	bonne	bonnes	bonne	bonnos	bonne	bonnes	bonne	bonnås
Genitive		bonnure	bønni	bonnure		bonnåre	bønnæ	bonnåre

Note the two endings which cause ablaut. This change is consistent amongst adjectives of this common paradigm: bonne but bønni, pure "clean" but pyri, påle "small" but pøyli, nate "alive" but næti and so on. However, this generally does not apply to borrowed adjectives: sacrosant "sacrosanct" does not give *sacrosænti but rather sacrosanti.

Some adjectives, such as present participles, do not agree in gender, or put differently make no distinction between masculine and feminine forms. The declension of the present participle ammend "loving". This also demonstrates the different declension of the present participles in general.

	Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct	ammende		ammende	ammendes
Genitive			ammendes	ammendi

Verbs

Verbs in Lilledic inflect for two primary tenses (present and imperfect), with periphrastic constructions providing additional tense-aspect-mode (TAM) forms. Features such as mood and voice are expressed entirely periphrastically. There are also a number of non-finite forms. Regular verbs fall into one of three conjugational classes, with the Fiorentine second and third conjugations having been mostly conflated in Lilledic. Irregular verbs are numerous as well.

Verbs are generally cited in their infinitive form, which for first declension verbs ends in -are and third declension verbs in -ire. For second declension verbs the ending is just -re though for euphonic reasons this can sometimes become -ere (such as in strennere "to spread", root stren-). The second declension is also the declension of all verbs with roots ending in vowels, such as batture "to wed" (root battu-), which can lead to some differences when suffixes are added. Irregular verbs may have the ending -re (ire "to go", visre "to watch") or may not (esse "to be").

The present tense is generally formed by replacing the infinitive ending with -e. After a short vowel a spelling change may occur: amare "to love" but eg amme "I love". Irregular verbs do not follow this rule: ire → i, visre (lax vowel) → vise (tense vowel), esse → es. For monosyllabic first declension roots such as dare "to give" or stare "to set", the present ending is instead -å: då, stå.

The imperfect tense is formed with a slightly different suffix for each conjugation class. First conjugation verbs replace the infinitive ending with -åve, second conjugation verbs replace it with -eu and third conjugation verbs replace it with -yve (eastern dialects) or -iu (western dialects). In all such forms, graphic <u> is generally pronounced as a schwa, and in casual speech may be dropped entirely. Irregular verbs often have completely unpredictable imperfect forms: ire → jåt (rarely jø or jøt), visre → visøy, esse → fyt.

There is also a non-tense-marked passive-impersonal form. This always ends in -er and is sometimes redundantly called the "-er passive" to contrast with the more usual periphrastic passive. This form invariably uses the infinitive stem as its basis and is therefore always predictable. Note however that first conjugation verbs experience a vowel change before this ending. Stress falls on the ending in the second conjugation and for some irregular verbs, and on the penultimate syllable elsewhere.

Synthetic verb constructions

	First conjugation	Second conjugation	Third conjugation	Irregular
Infinitive	amare "love" sperare "suppose" jøckare "play"	regre "rule" åsre "dare" strennere "spread"	mentire "pretend" ådire "hear" sælire "stand up"	esse "be" ire "go" visre "watch"
Present	amme spere jøcke	regge åse strenne	mente åde sælle	es i vise
Imperfect	amåve speråve jøckåve	regeu åseu strenneu	mentyve/mentiu ådyve/ådiu sælyve/sæliu	fyt jåt/jø(t) visøy
Passive	amæer speræer jøckæer	reger åser strenner	mentier ådier sælier	esser ier visser

Differences in the inflection of second conjugation verbs after a vowel are given in the table below.

Second conjugation vowel stem inflection

	/e/	/u/	/y/
Infinitive	egere "want"	batture "wed"	scryre "write"
Present	egeie	battue/battuve	scrye/scryve
Imperfect	egejø	battujø	scryjø
Passive	ege(i)er	battuer	scryer

Additional TAM forms can be formed periphrastically. The perfect or preterite tense is formed using the present tense of the verb håre (from "to have"), hæ, with the past participle of a verb. All regular verbs form their past participle by replacing the -re of the infinitive ending with -te, although a number of second conjugation verbs experience other unpredictable changes besides: strennere → strante. Using the past tense of håre, håt provides the pluperfect tense.

The future tense can be expressed using the present form, but it is more commonly expressed with the present tense of the verb vell (from "to want"), vol, with the infinitive. Many irregular verbs possess distinct future forms such as fit from esse, but in speech the use of vell is more common: vol esse. Additionally, the use of the past tense of vell, vølleu, forms a future-of-past tense: eg vølleu jøckare "I was going to play".

The habitual present is formed with je and the present participle, which for all regular verbs is formed with the ending -end: eg je mentend esse ne myller pær interrete "I pretend to be a woman on the internet". The habitual past is formed either with je and the past participle or with fyt je and the present participle: eg je yte a ne scol i Lillehaune or eg fyt je jend a ne scol i Lillehaune "I went to a school in Lillehavn". The combination fyt je is frequently pronounced as a single word: [ˈfyːɕjə].

Conditionals are formed using the particle djø (from "should") before the apodosis: si tu egeie ne catt, djø dei sølle retinnere "if you want a cat, you should save up some money". This can be used before any form of a verb: si eg egejø ne catt, djø retinneu sølle "if I wanted a cat I would've been saving money"; djø vølleu sølle retinnere "...I would've saved (started to save) money".

Periphrastic verb constructions

	First conjugation	Second conjugation	Third conjugation	Irregular
Perfect/preterite	hæ amate hæ sperate hæ jøckate	hæ regte hæ åste hæ strante	hæ mentite hæ ådite hæ sælite	hæ fæte hæ yte hæ visse
Pluperfect	håt amate håt sperate håt jøckate	håt regte håt åste håt strante	håt mentite håt ådite håt sælite	håt fæte håt yte håt visse
Future of present	vol amare vol sperare vol jøckare	vol regre vol åsre vol strennere	vol mentire vol ådire vol sælire	fit/vol esse våt/vol ire vol visre
Future of past	vølleu amare vølleu sperare vølleu jøckare	vølleu regre vølleu åsre vølleu strennere	vølleu mentire vølleu ådire vølleu sælire	vølleu esse vølleu ire vølleu visre
Habitual present	je ammend je sperend je jøckend	je reggend je åsend je strennend	je mentend je ådend je sælend	je essend je jend je visend
Habitual past	je amate/fyt je ammend je sperate/fyt je sperend je jøckate/fyt je jøckend	je regte/fyt je reggend je åste/fyt je åsend je strante/fyt je strennend	je mentite/fyt je mentend je ådite/fyt je ådend je sælite/fyt je sællend	je fæte/fyt je essend je yte/fyt je jend je visse/fyt je visend

Lilledic is generally a verb-framed language, with motion verbs primarily showing the direction of the movement rather than manner. Manner is specified using adverbs, typically participles of manner-motion verbs: eg hæ æde corrend entrate "I entered the building running" for "I ran into the building" instead of the less natural-sounding *eg hæ i æde corte. In this case "run in" is translated by corrend entrare rather than the more literal corre(re) i.

Pronouns

Pronouns are exceptional in Lilledic as they retain as many as four distinct cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. However, only the first and second person singular pronouns have separate genitive and dative forms; other pronouns merge them. Additionally, only those pronouns and the third person masculine singular pronoun have an accusative distinct from the nominative. Regardless, the cases are not identical to common nouns as the genitive-dative is always used after prepositions rather than the nominative-accusative. Lastly, the third person pronouns include a neuter singular form i which may be used for inanimate reference regardless of gender. In colloquial speech this pronoun is replacing the masculine is.

Lilledic personal pronouns

			Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
Singular	First person		eg	me	mei	mi
	Second person		tu	te	tei	ti
	Third person	Masculine	is (i)	ju (i)	ei
		Feminine	ja
		Neuter	i
Plural	First person		nus		nøys
	Second person		ous		øys
	Third person	Masculine	jus		jure
		Feminine	jas		jåre

Syntax

Lilledic has a normal word order of subject-verb-object (SVO). Unlike Lhedwinic, Lilledic is not a V2 language, and there is no limit to the number of elements which may precede the verb. In certain construction, an order of SOV is commonly though optionally used, such as in perfective constructions:

• Eg vise ne film "I am watching a movie" (SVO)
• Eg hæ ne film visse "I watched a movie" (SOV, more common)
• Eg hæ visse ne film "I watched a movie" (SVO, less common)

Unlike in Rigjordic, the argument(s) preceding the verb need not be in any way pragmatically marked. However, like in Rigjordic a question word must always occur first in the clause. This often leads to OVS order, and very rarely SOV:

• Tu amme ja "You love her" (SVO)
• Ke amme tu? "Whom do you love?" (OVS, normal)
• Ke tu amme? "Whom do you love?" (OSV, rare)
• Ki amme ja? "Who loves her?" (SVO)
• Ki ja amme? "Who loves her?" (SOV, rare)

Adjectives always precede their head noun in Lilledic, never follow: ne mænne keryle mar "the big blue sea". Attributive adjectives agree with their head in gender, number and case. Adjectives used predicatively after esse "to be" do not agree, instead taking the unmarked predicative form: ne mar es mænn e keryl "the sea is big and blue".

Questions with interrogative words are formed as discussed above. In other questions, the focus of the question is placed into the initial position. Typically this is the finite verb. When a non-finite form is fronted, it is permissible for no other change to occur. However, a cleft construction is frequent in speech:

• Scrye tu misse? "Are you writing the letter?"
• Scryjø tu misse? "Were you writing the letter?"
• Misse scrye tu? "Is it the letter you're writing?" (inversion)
• Es misse ke tu scrye? "Is it the letter you're writing?" (cleft)

Note that periphrastic verbal constructions place the finite verb first and the non-finite verb last in the clause: hæ tu misse scryte? "did you write the letter?"

Passive expressions have two forms, paralleling the two Lhedwinic forms. The most common involves the use of the verb mænere with the past participle:

• Misse mæn mitte "The letter is (being) sent"
• Misse hæ måsse mitte "The letter has been sent"
• Misse vol måsse mitte "The letter will be sent"

An alternative, which parallels the passive in -s of Lhedwinic, is the passive in -er. This form is unmarked for tense, but is usually nonpast: misse mitter "the letter is/will be sent". Often there is an implication with this form that something must happen, ie. "the letter must be sent". This form can also be used as an impersonal, but this is a vanishing usage: jø ier sol å criminæles "only criminals go there", literally "it is only gone to there by criminals". The more frequent way to express this is jø sol criminæles i or sol criminæles i jø.

Vocabulary

The core vocabulary of Lilledic is inherited from Fiorentine, and covers a wide variety of semantic spheres. This set includes: basic terms for humans and animals such as hommen "man", myller "woman" and cæn "dog"; geographical terms such as soll "ground", issel "island" and rip "river"; core verbs such as ire "to go", fasigare "to work" and egere "to want"; grammatical words such as i "in", a "to" and enter "between"; family terms such as patter "father", mæter "mother" and fii "son"; basic social relations such as mik "friend", rei "king" and laurator "worker"; basic descriptive adjectives such as cordos "kind", keryl "blue" and lent "slow" and so on. An overall majority of the vocabulary of Lilledic is inherited directly, including the vast majority of the most-used words.

Reborrowings from Fiorentine are also numerous, though less so than the Fiorentine languages of mainland Asura. These are largely technical and learned words such as convent "assembly" and makin "machine", but a number of basic words are also loaned from Fiorentine, such as trib "clan", which forms a doublet with try "one of the three peoples of Crylante" and spaci "outer space".

Much of the learned vocabulary, especially in the fields of government and law, are borrowed from dialects of Lhedwinic. Examples of such words include einhed "unity", vall "election" and domstold "legal court". Many basic words from Lhedwinic have also entered general use in Lilledic such as crop "body" and butik "shop", with eastern dialects possessing a greater number of loans. For example eastern dialects may use the word skamm "shame" while the standard language uses the more widespread ørkund.

Similarly, during the period where Crylante was ruled by tir Lhaeraidd, the Lhaeraidd language supplanted Lhedwinic as the language of politics. As a result, numerous terms entered from that source, such as reifel "rifle" and penkennel "governor".

A small proportion of vocabulary is borrowed from Nausikaan, primarily nautical terminology such as kirven "rowing boat" and aar "oar". An even smaller proportion of nautical, especially fishing, terminology is derived from Vrnallian such as reckis "harpoon".

Numerals

Lilledic	Fiorentine	Translation
une	ūnus -a -um	one
do(s)	duo	two
tri(s)	trēs	three
catter	quattuor	four
kimp	quīnque	five
se(s)	sex	six
sett	septem	seven
otte	octō	eight
nou	novem	nine
dess	decem	ten
ynes	ūndecim	eleven
djødes	duodecim	twelve
treddes	tredecim	thirteen
catjøres	quattuordecim	fourteen
kydes, kynes*	quīndecim	fifteen
sedes	sēdecim	sixteen
setendes	septendecim	seventeen
ogtødes	octōdecim (duodēvīgintī)	eighteen
nøndes	novendecim (ūndēvīgintī)	nineteen
ynte	vīgintī	twenty
trinte	trīgintā	thirty
cadrænte	quadrāgintā	forty
kimpænte	quīnquāgintā	fifty
sesænte	sexāgintā	sixty
setænte	septuāgintā	seventy
ogtønte	octōgintā	eighty
nunænte	nōnāgintā	ninety
cent	centum	hundred
docent	ducentī	two hundred
tricent	trecentī	three hundred etc
mil	mīlle	thousand

* The form kynes is archaic and not common today. It was replaced with kydes to avoid confusion with ynes.