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Poporan Alphabet
Poporan alphabet and language Table of the 28 letters, both capital and minuscule, in the Poporan alphabet. |
First appeared | 1867, Ethelorian Gulf |
Countries | |
Languages | English, Español, Poporan English, Español Poporano |
Scripture | Left to right, top to bottom |
Originated from | English, Spanish |
Influenced by | Greek, Gulf Latin, Proto-Poporan |
Language Family | Thalassian |
Language Subfamily | Romanic |
Full language family | Thalassian Romanic Proto-Grecian, Gulf-influenced |
Used by | 100-110 million |
The Poporan alphabet is a series of 28 letters used to convey the Spanish, English, and Poporan variants of those in the República Poporana, as well as Poporan communities in other countries, and Poporo-influenced communities in the Ethelorian Gulf and north-eastern Thalassia. Hailing from the Ethelorian Gulf, the Proto-Poporan tribes have marched northeast towards current Poporo, leaving remnants and influence of their language in their path.
The alphabet originated in the southern Ethelorian Gulf, as Proto-Poporan tribes made contact with the Nova Roman settlers, going as far as to fight alongside the IF in the War of Settlement. This heavily influenced the alphabet, adding the ć, φ, and ñ graphs, all of them originating from the Roman language. Furthermore, the now-deceased Nova Roma also adopted some characteristics of the Poporan language, such as the S at the end of a word, which is now unused in Poporan linguistics, or the use of uppercase φ (Φ). The S remains in the Poporan alphabet due to the extremely occasional non-Poporization of loanwords.
The script is written left to right and top to bottom. On the Poporan dialect of English, adjectives are placed before the noun (i.e. "amariććic flag", meaning yellow flag. The word for flag is unchanged, the word for yellow being "amariććic", pronounced amarissic and coming from the Spanish word "amarillo".)
However, on the Poporan dialect of Spanish, adjectives come after the noun, exactly like in Spanish: a yellow flag (bandera amarilla) would be a "bandera amariććic", with the word for flag remaining unchanged. Due to the nature of Poporan dialects, one can be spoken for every language the speaker knows, but the usage of dialects other than English and Spanish is almost zero.
In English, the Poporan alphabet is used to write English words. The phrase "Poporo is in Thalassia" becomes "Poporo is in Thalaććia", with the ć replacing the s. If a J is present, there can be multiple interpretations:
1. If the sound is soft, as in "jug", the J becomes a Y: "yug".
2. If the sound is strong, as in the Spanish word "jugar", the J becomes a φ: "φugar"
3. If the sound is a /g/ sound, the J becomes a G.In Spanish, the Poporan alphabet is used to write Spanish words. The phrase "En Poporo se juega mucho fútbol" becomes "En Poporo će φuega mucho fútbol", with a φ replacing the hard j, and a ć replacing the s.
In Poporan variants of English and spanish, some words are changed to Poporan words, whilst others are written in the origin language (English or Spanish, normally) using the Poporan alphabet. Poporan dialect words are mainly adjectives and verbs. As such, "There was a yellow flag, but now it's red" becomes "There habić an amariććic flag, but now it'ć roφumć", replacing the words "was", "yellow", and "red", as well as using Poporan writing.
In Spanish, the same scenario is had: "Había una mesa verde" becomes "Habić una meća verdićum", replacing "había" (was) and "verde" (green). The Roman influence can clearly be seen in the Poporan word for green.
Poporan pronounciation is quite simple: words are pronounced as they would in Spanish or English, depending on the language being spoken. The ć is pronounced like an S, and the φ like a voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/), like in Spanish words "jugar" or "Jerez".
The Poporan alphabet is not used and pronounced the same everywhere: a small list of differences has been compiled below.
In northeast Poporo, the φ is a voiceless velar fricative (/x/) instead of a voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/).
In the southern Ethelorian Gulf, communities that use the Poporan alphabet do use an S at the end of the word, which was brought from standard Poporan but is now exclusive to the Gulf.
In northern Poporo, the ć is pronounced as a voiceless dental fricative (/θ/) instead of a voiceless alveolar sibilant (/s/). This phenomenon is called "ceeing" by Poporans.
In the Ethelorian Gulf, φ is also used for a /dʒ/ sound.
The Poporan microlanguages or dialects, as explained above, are dialects of existing languages using some Poporan words. Due to the nature of these, any language can have a Poporan dialect. However, only English and Spanish are taught and somewhat used: Poporan Italian and Poporan French are examples of fringe used Poporan dialects or microlanguages, and every other variant is technically possible but either not observed or almost nonexistent, if not nonexistent completely.
