Western Imaguan Creole

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For the other creole language spoken on Imagua with the same name, see Eastern Imaguan Creole.

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

Western Imaguan Creole (imakuakeol), commonly known as Imaguan Creole is the most common language spoken in Imagua and the Assimas. Developed during Blostlander rule over Imagua and the Assimas, during which time it was attached to Eldmark, Western Imaguan Creole continued evolving following the end of Blostlander 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

File:ImaguanCreoles.png

Map of the distribution of Western and Eastern Imaguan Creoles in 1911 by Edwin Wensley

While there has been evidence of earlier contact languages during Caldish rule, when Blostland took present-day Imagua and the Assimas and attached them to present-day Eldmark, Blostlandic-speaking settlers started to flow into the area. This led to the development of a pidgin language between the Blostlander 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 Western 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, which would help fuel its continuing use in Imagua.

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 Vespasian and Estmerish respectively. This led to a situation of diglossia, which continues to persist to this day, where Western Imaguan Creole became known as a language of low prestige, while Estmerish and Vespasian were seen as the more prestigious languages, being used in media, in education, and by government.

After independence, Western Imaguan Creole was still looked down upon, as it was viewed as being less prestigious than either Estmerish or Vespasian. Well into the 1980s, Western 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: Western Imaguan Creole is starting to be used in television interviews, on radio, and is even being used in Nursery and Reception classes, as well as special education classes in both primary and secondary courses, while classes are offered at both the University of Cuanstad and the Università di San Pietro in Western Imaguan Creole since the 1990s.

Phonology

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

Consonants

Consonant-wise, the phonology is exactly like that of the Nati languages, which was spoken as a lingua franca for trade within the West Arucian Sea prior to Euclean colonisation. There are twelve consonant phonemes in Western Imaguan Creole.

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	Voiced	b	d
Fricative			s			h
Nasal		m	n
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j

Vowels

Unlike the Blostlandic language, which has seventeen vowel phonemes, Western Imaguan Creole only has six vowel phonemes, those being /a/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ʊ/, and /ʏ/, with no vowel lengthening or shortening. This is as many as the Nati language, which has six phonemes.

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	ɪ	ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid				o
Open-mid	ɛ
Open			a

Grammar

The grammar of Western 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 Western 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 Blostlandic, it would be written as "de fiskar," in Western Imaguan Creole, it would be written as "hafiska."

Orthography

The most commonly used orthography for writing Western 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 Western 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	Blostlandic	Estmerish	Etymology
bas	buss	bus	from Estmerish bus
Esme	Östmer	Estmere	from Estmerish Estmere
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

Vespasian loanwords

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

Indigenous vocabulary

Creole	Blostlandic	Estmerish	Etymology
adanalu	flygande fisk	flying fish	from Imaguan adanaru, meaning flying fish
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
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

Blostlandic vocabulary

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

Other loanwords

Creole	Blostlandic	Estmerish	Etymology
bat	låda	box	from Gaullican boîte
ekan	skärm	screen	from Gaullican écran
he	chef	boss	from Gaullican chef
kala	vän	friend	from Ghaillish cara
Kalika	Galia	Gaullica	from Solarian Gaullia via Gaullican
Kitian	Östland	Caldia	from Ghaillish Glítteann
kitambi	branding	branding	from Rwizi chitambi, meaning stamp
kowsa	koiatska	Coian	from Ziba gauza zebiumhi via Estmerish gowsa
latin	badrum	bathroom	from Gaullican latrine
met	slavägare	slave owner	from Gaullican maître, meaning "master"
nekikepe	förvisning	banishment	from Rwizi 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 Western Imaguan Creole come from the Imaguan, while all numbers from three upwards come from Blostlandic. 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	Blostlandic	Estmerish	Etymology
aban	ett	one	from Imaguan aban
bian	två	two	from Imaguan bian
tele	tre	three	from Blostlandic tre
hula	fyra	four	from Blostlandic fyra
hem	fem	five	from Blostlandic fem
sis	sex	six	from Blostlandic sex
hu	sju	seven	from Blostlandic sju
ota	åtta	eight	from Blostlandic åtta
niyu	nio	nine	from Blostlandic nio
tiyu	tio	ten	from Blostlandic tio
huko	tjugo	twenty	from Blostlandic tjugo
teti	trettio	thirty	from Blostlandic trettio
oti	fyrtio	fourty	from Blostlandic fyrtio
hemti	femtio	fifty	from Blostlandic femtio
sisto	sextio	sixty	from Blostlandic sextio
huti	sjuttio	seventy	from Blostlandic sjuttio
oti	åttio	eighty	from Blostlandic åttio
niti	nittio	ninety	from Blostlandic nittio
unda	hundra	hundred	from Blostlandic hundra
tuse	tusen	thousand	from Blostlandic tusen
milyun	miljon	million	from Blostlandic miljon

Common phrases

Creole	Blostlandic	Estmerish	Notes
Abet naha.	Jag jobbar här.	I work here.
Ba insi na.	Jag älskar dig.	I love you.
Bahunkik?	Är du hungrig?	Are you hungry?
...bapata?	Pratar du...?	Do you speak...?
Bo naha.	Jag bor här.	I live here.
Dahan...	Jag är från...	I am from...
Danam...	Mitt namn är...	My name is...
Dapata...	Jag talar...	I speak...
Du bama?	Hur mår du?	How are you?	Commonly shortened to Bama?
Dekosta wad?	Vad kostar det?	How much is it?
Hodyu!	God Jul!	Merry Christmas!
Kalad niya!	Gott nytt år!	Happy New Year!
Keol nepata.	Jag talar inte kreolsk.	I do not speak creole.
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...?
Tuka bati?	Tyckte du om din vistelse?	Did you enjoy your stay?
Wa bahan?	Var kommer du ifrån?	Where are you from?
Wa latin o?	Var är badrummet?	Where is the bathroom?
Wad banam?	Vad heter du?	What is your name?	Commonly shortened to Banam?