Western Imaguan Creole

Imaguan Creole
Halwaskeol
Region	Imagua and the Assimas
Native speakers	1 million (2011) L2: TBD
Language family	Ostisk-based creole Imaguan-Vano Pidgin Imaguan Creole
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	iak

Imaguan Creole (halwaskeol) is the most common language spoken in Imagua and the Assimas. Developed during Ordennyan rule over Imagua and the Assimas, during which time it was attached to Eldmark, Imaguan Creole continued evolving following the end of Ordennyan rule over the islands, as it passed through control of several countries, including Etruria and Estmere. This left a lot of foreign influences on the language.

It is most closely related to the Vano Creole, spoken on the Eldish island of Vano.

History

While there has been evidence of earlier contact languages during Caldish rule, when Ordennya took present-day Imagua and the Assimas and attached them to present-day Eldmark, Ostisk-speaking settlers started to flow into the area. This led to the development of a pidgin language between the Ostisk settlers and the indigenous Arucian population.

By the late seventeenth century, the pidgin started to develop as a creole language, especially by the surviving Arucians, and the halvras population. However, when Estmere conquered Imagua and the Assimas in 1658, the creole began to spread, partially as slaves brought in adopted the creole, as it was the mother tongue used by the majority of the population at that time, but partially because of the continued economic ties to Eldmark, despite the fact that colonizers often tried to block trade with Eldmark.

While other pidgin languages were being formed on the islands, as various colonizers each tried to rule over Imagua and the Assimas, what would become Imaguan Creole was incredibly dominant, primarily due to the trade with Eldmark. This allowed the creole to be widely used by both slaves and sailors.

In the nineteenth century, as Etruria and Estmere colonized Imagua and the Assimas, they began to implement policies to crack down on the creoles and pidgins, and instead require that they learn Etrurian and Estmerish respectively. This led to a situation of diglossia, which continues to persist to this day, where Imaguan Creole became known as a language of low prestige, while Estmerish and Etrurian were seen as the more prestigious languages, being used in media, in education, and by government.

After independence, Imaguan Creole was still looked down upon, as it was viewed as being less prestigious than either Estmerish or Etrurian. Well into the 1980s, Imaguan Creole was not taught in schools, and policies were made to prohibit its use in schools and in the media.

Since the 1980s, however, this attitude has been changing: Imaguan Creole is starting to be used in television interviews, on radio, and is even being used in education.

Phonology

The phonology of Imaguan Creole is simpler than the phonology of the Ostisk language, which served as the lexifier language for Imaguan Creole.

To this end, unlike the Ostisk language, which has seventeen vowel phonemes, Imaguan Creole only has eight vowel phonemes, those being /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /a/, /o/, /ʊ/, /ʊ/, /ʏ/, and /œ/, with no vowel lengthening or shortening.

Consonant-wise, the phonology is exactly like that of the Arucian languages spoken in the area, indicating that Imaguan Creole had been vastly simplified compared to Ostisk.

Grammar

The grammar of Imaguan Creole is largely based off the native Arucian languages spoken by the indigenous Arucians. Thus, the grammar follows the Arucian verb-subject-object (VSO) order.

However, it is substantially simpler than the Arucian languages. While the Arucian languages, such as Nadi and Imaguan had up to seven possessive prefixes, there are four possessive prefixes in the Imaguan Creole, those being da- for my, ba- for your, wa- for our, and de- for either his or him, her, or their.

For verbs, all verbs are in the simple present tense, and with the simplification from the old Arucian languages, it has resulted in there being only na- for I, ba- for the singular you, ha- for he, she, they, or them, and wi- for we and the plural you.

An example is the sentence meaning "they are fishing." While in Ostisk, it would be written as "de fiskar," in Imaguan Creole, it would be written as "hafiska."

Orthography

The most commonly used orthography for writing Imaguan Creole was one based off the Estmerish language, devised by Edwin Wensley in 1911. While he wanted to create an orthography that was "as similar to Estmerish as possible" in order to get children to learn Estmerish more easily, he also wanted to make it simple so that "one can understand what sounds go to which letter," if only for the benefit of colonial officials.

While there were some orthographies developed around the same time, most notably the orthography developed by Ulberto Perro in 1906, with the aim of Etrurifying the language, after the end of the Solarian War, the Wensley orthography became the de-facto standard for writing Imaguan Creole, and by the 1970s, linguist Addolorata Viale reported that "with the exception of diary entries of some old people in the Assimas, Creole is written with the Wensley orthography everywhere."

Vocabulary

Estmerish loanwords

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Etymology
bas	buss	bus	from Estmerish "bus"
komputa	dator	computer	from Estmerish "computer"
lit	hiss	lift or elevator	from Estmerish "lift"
masin	maskin	machine	from Estmerish "machine"
napi	blöja	diaper or nappy	from Estmerish "nappy"
peni	penny	pence or penny	from Estmerish "penny"
siling	shilling	shilling	from Estmerish "shilling"
tali	spårvagn	streetcar or trolley	from Estmerish "trolley"
tasi	taxi	taxi	from Estmerish "taxi"
tiwi	tv	television	from Estmerish "TV"

Etrurian loanwords

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Etymology
abika	fabrik	factory	from Etrurian fabbrica
ako	äreport	triumphal arch	from Etrurian arco, meaning arch
esta	fest	party or feast	from Etrurian festa
mamo	marmor	marble	from Etrurian marmo
otostada	motorväg	motorway	from Etrurian autostrada
lepublika	republik	republic	from Etrurian repubblica
sitadin	medborgare	citizen	from Etrurian cittadino or citidina
uniwesita	universitet	university	from Etrurian università
wila	plantage	plantation	from Etrurian villa, meaning manor

Indigenous vocabulary

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Etymology
pepiti	orkan	hurricane	from Imaguan pepeito, meaning hurricane or wind
hewe	orm	snake	from Imaguan hewe, meaning snake
Imakua	Imagua	Imagua	from Nadi Imagua, meaning little middle place
kuweki	papegoja	parrot	from Imaguan kureweki, meaning parrot
minkun	potatis	potato	from Imaguan minkon, meaning potato
muna	hydda	hut	from Imaguan muna, meaning house
wadanalu	flygande fisk	flying fish	from Imaguan adanaru, meaning flying fish
wato	brand	fire	from Imaguan wato, meaning fire
wupu	att gömma	to hide	from Imaguan wupu, meaning mountain
woli	mor	mother	from Imaguan woryi, meaning woman

Ostisk vocabulary

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Notes
abet	arbete	work
ban	barn	child
bot	båt	boat
buka	bruka	farm
bebi	bebis	baby
buk	bok	book
bul	bror	brother
dak	dag	day
dop	dop	naming, christening, or baptism	Ostisk word for naming is namngivning
er	ö	island
em	hem or hus	home or house	Ostisk word for house is hus
ha	far	father
ham	hamn	port
hatu	fartyg	ship
hawel	adjö	bye	from Ostisk farväl, farewell
hes	häst	horse
Hey	Hej	Hello or Hi
hika	kyrka	church
hikoko	kyrkogård	graveyard or cemetery
hukita	förgifta	poison
bek	kulle	hill or mountain	from Ostisk berg, meaning mountain
kwito	kvitto	receipt
Kud	Gud	God
lud	flod	river or stream	Ostisk word for stream is ström
makna	marknadsföra or marknad	market or mall	Ostisk word for mall is köpcenter
mat	måltid	meal or food	from Ostisk mat, meaning food
sista	syster	sister
skate	skatter	taxes
sku	skog	forest or jungle	Ostisk word for jungle is djungel
skula	skola	school
stad	huvudstaden	capital city	came from Ostisk for city
stand	strand	beach
wan	vagn	wagon or carriage
wek	väg	road
yob	jobb	job

Other loanwords

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Etymology
bat	låda	box	from Gaullican boîte
ekan	skärm	screen	from Gaullican écran
he	chef	boss	from Gaullican chef
kala	vän	friend	from Caldian cara
kitambi	branding	branding	from weRwizi chitambi, meaning stamp
latin	badrum	bathroom	from Gaullican latrine
met	slavägare	slave owner	from Gaullican maître, meaning "master"
nekikepe	förvisning	banishment	from weRwizi nechikepe, meaning "to sail"
watu	bil	car	from Gaullican voiture
ue	att slå	to beat up	from Gaullican fouet, meaning whip

Numbers

The numbers for one and two in Imaguan Creole come from the Imaguan, while all numbers from three upwards come from Ostisk. From ten upwards, it is organized, with the word for ten, twenty, et cetera being placed prior to the number. Thus, eleven is tiyu-aban. From one hundred upwards, the word unda is placed before the number, so 159 would be unda-hemti-niyu. From the thousands, tuse is placed before the numbers: thus, 2019 would be bian-tuse-tiyu-niyu, and so on.

Creole	Ostisk	Estmerish	Etymology
aban	ett	one	from Imaguan aban
bian	två	two	from Imaguan bian
tele	tre	three	from Ostisk tre
hula	fyra	four	from Ostisk fyra
hem	fem	five	from Ostisk fem
sis	sex	six	from Ostisk sex
hu	sju	seven	from Ostisk sju
ota	åtta	eight	from Ostisk åtta
niyu	nio	nine	from Ostisk nio
tiyu	tio	ten	from Ostisk tio
huko	tjugo	twenty	from Ostisk tjugo
teti	trettio	thirty	from Ostisk trettio
oti	fyrtio	fourty	from Ostisk fyrtio
hemti	femtio	fifty	from Ostisk femtio
sisto	sextio	sixty	from Ostisk sextio
huti	sjuttio	seventy	from Ostisk sjuttio
oti	åttio	eighty	from Ostisk åttio
niti	nittio	ninety	from Ostisk nittio
unda	hundra	hundred	from Ostisk hundra
tuse	tusen	thousand	from Ostisk tusen
milyun	miljon	million	from Ostisk miljon

Common phrases

Creole	Ostisk	English	Notes
Bahunkik?	Är du hungrig?	Are you hungry?
...bapata?	Pratar du...?	Do you speak...?
Du bama?	Hur mår du?	How are you?	Commonly shortened to Bama?
Dekosta wad?	Vad kostar det?	How much is it?
Kalad niya!	Gott nytt år!	Happy New Year!
Koti namakna.	Jag ska gå till marknaden.	I'm going to the market.
Kosta tiyu silingi.	Det kostar tio shilling.	It costs ten shillings
Lont a...?	Hur långt är...?	How far is...?
Wa latin o?	Var är badrummet?	Where is the bathroom?