Common dialect (Shinasthana)
The common dialect (通語, lhong-ngja’, "common language") is a dialect in the Shinasthana family of languages. It is the standard spoken variety of the official language of Themiclesia. It shares the Meng characters (孟字, mrangh-ndzje’), each of which is a logographic character representing a monosyllabic word, with other Shinasthana dialects.
Definition
According to Maroni (1931):
Inasmuch as the "common dialect" is common, it is the phonological structure that makes it common in most parts of Themiclesia; that is, homophonous words will be homophonous, and heterophonous words will also be heterophonous. On the phonetic level there is much variation, but the contrasts are conserved regularly; we attribute this to the common dialect's status as the prestige dialect for education, in turn leading to the consolidation of phonology early in history. In studying the common dialect, we refer to such variations as accentual.
Since the Restored Meng dynasty (543 – 762), the common dialect has been defined as the courtly language of the Meng dynasty as founded in Menghe (192 BCE – 278 CE), though this is unclear whether it is a declaration that the language of the current court is the same as that which preceded it by centuries, or whether there was an active effort to codify speech at that time and to implement it then.
History
Origin
The Common dialect is descended from the literary speech of early Menggok settlers in Themiclesia. Upon historical evidence, linguists sometimes consider the Common dialect a direct descendant of the Meng Dynasty court language, which seems to have been the dialect of Trjung-krjang around the 3rd to 2nd c. BCE. Early poetry supports this conclusion, since their rhyming habits agree with those at the Meng court. However, another language presumed to have descended from the Meng Dynasty lingua franca, the Menghean Gwanhwa, shows that the Common dialect may have been under more dialectal influence than previously suggested. In recent studies, examples of "dialectal influence" has been argued as a stratum that predate the Meng Dynasty itself. According to this view, the Common dialect should be considered an amalgamation of the Meng Dynasty language with contemporary dialects spoken in Themiclesia; such dialects would have diverged from the Old Mengean language before the Meng Dynasty.
The Mengja writing system does not contain phonetic information and non-phonemized. It was thus not initially possible to record actual phonetic information, though early scholars settling in Themiclesia continue the practice of annotating words with homophones or near-homophones. In the 1st century, during the late Hexarchy, the introduction of Buddhism from Maverica altered the situation immensely; inference from the Maverican writing system (which was phonemic) allowed Themiclesian scholars to analyze their language much more closely and develop terminology to describe prefixes, initials, medials, rhymes, and suffixes. During the Hexarchy, it is assumed that, for ease of administration, there would have been linguae francae in each state, and this situation has persisted through the unification of Themiclesia under the Tsjinh dynasty in 265, which did not dissolve regional loci of power. Yet with Tsjinh acknowledged hegemon of Themiclesia, its language began to accumulate prestige above other dialects. Since the 200s, learned immigrants tended to settle in the Tsjinh kingdom. The learned immigrants' language penetrated the Tsjinh lingua franca, forming the foundation of the modern Common dialect. As the Tsjinh bureaucracy grew, their language became fossilized and detached from quotidian speech. Part of this was out of a desire to maintain proper understanding of the older law codes, which would have been committed to writing in the 1st c. BCE and reflect language then.
Official use
The Common dialect has been the lingua franca of the Themiclesian court for an extended period of time. During the Hexarchy, to become a local scribe the recruit had to recite 6,000 words properly and write them from memory in three styles (Great Inscription Script, Small Inscription Script, Clerical Script). To become a scribe in the central government, the standard was 9,000 words. This ensured their aptitude to dictate and copy documents, which formed the basis of the administrative state. Since secondary examinations occurred under the central government, there is very likely a standard pronunciation of characters used in both the central and local examinations, because it seems unlikely candidates would acquire 6,000 words in one dialect, then 9,000 in a different one. In the Hexarchy and before, the scribe was often a hereditary position, as the training process was protracted and economically unrewarding. Some states then went as far as preventing commoners from becoming literate, as it was thought to divert their attention from agriculture and warfare, the two main measures to achieve dominance during a time of constant conflict; in these states, private education was outlawed, and scribal training took place at government schools. It is often asserted that the earliest strata of the Common dialect descended from ancient scribal training.
While the post-unification Tsjinh was often remarked as a period of decentralization, mounting pressure demanded an official standard. In the wake of exhaustive warfare to bring the Hexarchy to and end, rural communities were rapidly depopulated, leaving land for survivors and the urban clans to take. Hence, after the extreme centralization and dissolution of local landlords that characterized the late Hexarchy, prominent clans quickly acquired massive tracts of land and tenants in the late 200s that the Tsjinh monarch had no choice but to seek a truce with them, announcing the Law of Officials in Nine Classes, which some jurists have considered the first constitution of Themiclesia, as it defined the extent and rights of the enfranchised class and some basic tenets about political participation. Now that the government lost dominance in education, it was necessary to publish a standard about the proper reading of characters and grammar; hence, in the early 300s, the first dictionaries were issued and used as guides to assess the aptitude of scribal recruits and elected officials. While there is no evidence of any policy to popularize the lingua franca beyond the courtly bureaucracy, mastery of its phonological structure became necessary on paper, if not in speech: poetry was a major component in testing a recruit's merits, and, as an objective standard, rhyming was judged through the lingua franca. Hence, even if a recruit could not speak the lingua franca, he often took to memorizing rhyming characters by rote. It is thought that the Common dialect became wholly codified (detached from quotidian langugaes) by the mid-4th century at the latest.
Curricularization
Prior to the introduction of compulsory education, understanding of the Common dialect was an elementary subject for aspiring scholars. In the first years of their education, lecturers introduced them to the rhyming categories and required them memorize the names of the rhymes and a small nubmer of their characters by rote. The names of the rhymes survive into the modern day as a non-repeating sequence of 240 characters, frequently used for creating lists, like the Alphabet's function in Tyrannian. Students would also have learned to pronounce words according to canonical phonetic values as given by ancient rhyming guides. In the 19th century, the government took steps to shift focus from rhyming to its use in day-to-day communication and as a vehicle for acquisition of knowledge in other subjects. This was meant to convenience teachers moving between regions, so they did not need to learn the local dialect to teach. Though successful in this role, it never displaced local dialects completely. Unlike many other national languages, there is no official body that governs its use; rather, the "accustomed usage" is accepted by independent textbook publishers.
Phonology
Consonants
The common dialect has 32 consonants, of which 30 can stand in initial position.
| Initials | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Velar labialized |
Glottal | Glottal labialized | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Lenis | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | ʔʷ | |
| Asper | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | kʰʷ | ||||
| Voiced | b | d | g | gʷ | ||||
| Nasals | Voiced | m | n | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||
| Voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ŋ̥ | ŋ̥ʷ | ||||
| Affricate | Lenis | t͡s | ||||||
| Asper | t͡sʰ | |||||||
| Voiced | d͡z | |||||||
| Fricative | Unvoiced | s | h | hʷ | ||||
| Voiced | ɦ | ɦʷ | ||||||
| Liquid | Voiced | r̥ | ||||||
| Voiceless | r̥ | |||||||
| Approximants | Voiced | (w) | l̥ | j | w | |||
| Voiceless | l̥ | |||||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a |
Syllable structure
The syllable structure of the Common dialect is sometimes analyzed as CCCCVCCT, with a maximal example being 頌 /sgljuŋs/ "to praise with meter". Phonologists concur that, in the syllable onset, one prefix is permitted, followed by a compulsory initial. Two glides, traditionally termed "medials", are permitted after the initial; the first may be either /r/ or /l/, and the second, if present, is always /j/. The vowel follows. In the coda, voicing and aspiration is non-constrative. The second element, which is optional, may surface segmentally or suprasegmentally. When -s occurred after nasals, it is vocalized as [s] by most speakers, typically with a descending tone; this has led some analysts to consider -s vestigial, and the tone phonemic. When *-s occurred after other segments, it is weakened to [h] or dropped; in either case, it gives rise to the departing tone. Hence, it may be said that tone is subphonemic in the former, but phonemic in the latter. *-ʔ is reflected as the rising tone, which is phonemic in all contexts.
Grammar
Writing systems
Logographic
Transcription
Sylvanization of the Common dialect follows long-established conventions of the phonological structure of the language, with some modifications made by modern scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries that improve and rationalize the paradigm. The de facto standard transcription scheme was adopted by the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Themicleiensis, in 1947. This scheme, though similar to and is derived from, the one that Sylvanizes Shinasthana, serves a different purpose. This transcription is meant to make a phonological record of each word that is present in the vocabulary of the Common dialect as it is employed, while the one for Shinasthana in general is meant to give each character (rather than word) a distinct identity so as to convenience discussion. Hence, the latter provides more information about the diachronic phonological status relative to Proto-Menghean, the source of both Shinasthana and Menghean, rather than that in any coherent dialect.
Initials
Initials follow the traditional sequences for the most part but analyzes various consonant clusters that result from prefixation.
| Initials | Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | Velar labialized |
Glottal | Glottal labialized | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Lenis | p (pang) | t (ton) | k (kêns) | kw (kwan) | ’ (’rjang) | ’w (’wreng) |
| Asper | ph (phang) | th (thun) | kh (khê) | khw (khwi) | |||
| Voiced | b (bjêng’) | d (ding’) | g (gjin’) | gw (gwjin) | |||
| Nasal | Voiced | m (mrjêng) | n (nii) | ng (ngje) | ngw (ngwrje’) | ||
| Voiceless | hm (hme’) | hn (hnal) | hng (hngja’) | hngw (hngwaih) | |||
| Affricate | Lenis | ts (tsjêng) | |||||
| Asper | tsh (tshjêng) | ||||||
| Voiced | dz (dzjung) | ||||||
| Fricative | Unvoiced | s (sjem) | x (hjaw) | xw (hwal) | |||
| Voiced | h (hjang’) | hw (hwrjen) | |||||
| Liquid | Voiced | r (re’) | |||||
| Voiceless | rh (hrjung’) | ||||||
| Lateral | Voiced | l (le’) | |||||
| Voiceless | lh (hluh) | ||||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ i | /u/ u | |
| Mid | /e/ ê | /ə/ e | /o/ o |
| Open | /a/ a |
Use
In schools
Traditionally, classical texts are introduced to students in mixed language. The corpus itself would be chanted in the Common dialect, but all explanatory discourse, including translations, definitions, and questions about the text, was done in the local vernacular. The Common dialect, which was called the "orthodox tongue" (雅言, ngra'-ngjan) in educational settings, was purported to ease comprehension of ancient ideas and a emotional grasp of the received texts by listening to and reciting them in a language said to be ancient. School subjects felt to be unconnected with the nation's literary tradition were taught in the vernacular. Until about 1970, this situation seems to have been pervasive in Themiclesia. In 1973, the new Progressive government sanctioned introduction to literature in the vernacular, which caused a serious backlash amongst teachers; this decision has since been controversial. Arguments for generally state that using the vernacular reduced barriers to understanding the received texts, which a greater cultural awareness is estimated to follow; arguments against stipulated anything from classics instructors losing their tenures and (less-demonstrated) classical language facilitating inter-dialectal communication.
In the arts
The contrast between the Common dialect and regional vernaculars has been a staple in the performing arts. Some forms of theatre, such as Yellow Plum Tune (Themiclesia), are invariably and purely in the Common dialect. There is no demonstrated correlation between the choice of dialect and the origin of the theatrical style. Some teatrical styles assign particular dialects as archetypes in stock characters, and the Common dialect has been the archetypical speech for anything from infants to merchants. It has also been a characteristic, in northern theatres, of oppressive magistrates, who were thought (somewhat inaccurately) to flaunt their mastery of an arcane and prestigious dialect. In traditional music, the Common dialect is used to sing received hymns, especially at court. In popular music, many artists consider the mastery of writing lyrics in the Common dialect an asset. Themiclesian musical group Flo is a example of a group that pen a considerable portion of their lyrics in the Common dialect, though those typically are accompanied by canonical poetic metres; in Flo's case, as in many others, the joint appearance of those elements show influence from older forms of theatre and music.
On television shows and similar forms of entertainment meant for national consumption, it has become usual to have dialogue penned in whatever dialect the writer found convenient or natural but have the actual speech done in the Common dialect. This was initially thought highly unorthodox, as the Common dialect was in the earlier part of the 20th century heavily associated with classical texts and formal discourse, but it proved the only way to produce a film economically and internally consistently in terms of pacing and style.
In media
When radio broadcasts first began in Themiclesia, readers used whatever vernacular they usually spoke in or whatever the broadcasting service required. Since early broadcasts spanned only shorter distances, generally within the geographic scope of a single vernacular, it was not deemed a problem. In fact, after national radio became common, listening to broadcasts in the vernacular was considered a natural part of local programming on all channels. In the 20s, when speeches by politicians were aired, they were aired first in the Common dialect, such as they would have when delivered at court, and then re-read in the vernacular; in 1927, recorded speeches would be dubbed with the local vernacular, and this practice survives into the modern day in some situations. Since dialectal variation in Shinasthana extends to vocabulary, grammar, and even speed, and accounting for the terse and prosodic style of formal speeches in the Common dialect, what was an oration done in two minutes could extend to as much as ten minutes when finally aired in the vernacular. This was not a problem at court because speeches would be printed and distributed before delivery.
On television, this became less of a problem. The earliest broadcasting standard, laid down in 1937, did not provide for subtitles, and transmission techniques were duplicated from radio broadcasts. In 1945, provision for subtitles were established. Whenever subtitles could be flashed on screen as a speech was delivered, it was customary not to dub in the vernacular; for live broadcasts, however, it was still common in the 40s and 50s to hear a secondary narrator interpreting speeches, live, as picture was transmitted.