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Hel·lesà or hel·leu, pronounced [əɫɫə'za] or [əɫ'ɫɛw] in Hellesan, and Hellesan ['hæɫəzæn] or Hellean ['hæɫiæn] in English, is a Megadelanean language of the Hellesid branch, the national language of the Aisens Hel·leus "Hellean Countries", a nation placed in the Hellesan Archipelago, in the east of the Megadelanean sea, in the world of Taura.

Contents 1 History 2 Classification 3 Linguistic area 4 Dialects 5 Inventory of phonemes and orthography 5.1 Oclusives 5.2 Nasals 5.3 Laterals 5.4 Rhotics 5.5 Fricatives 5.6 Affricates 5.7 Palatalized 5.8 Approximants 5.9 Vowels 6 The dialectal variants 6.1 Sescar-Feregian 6.2 Gabalean 6.3 Mindheledean 6.4 Caledian 6.5 Garmancean 6.6 Maidandese 6.7 Malvanese 6.8 Sardegou 6.9 Morençan 6.10 Tavissance 6.11 Zarese 7 Final notes about some phonemes 8 The syllable 8.1 The stress and its rules

History

Hellesan is a direct descendant of Peran, an old language spoken by the Peran people.

Classification

Megadelanean languages

• Hellesian languages
  • Peranian languages
    • Hellean

Linguistic area

Nowadays Hellesan is spoken by about 55 million persons in:

• The Hellesan Confederacy.
• Seven city-states around the Eastern Megadelanian sea: Rodígamis, s'Alveç, Aranja, Sabatem, Mascanoula, Cassòldiga and Micazha.
• The autonomous region of Tassalada, a group of five valleys on the Enolian peninsula.

Hellesan is official in all these territories, with the exception of Tassalada, where is co-official with Tassalot, the proper language of the country.

Dialects

Hellesan is divided into two major dialect blocks: Western Hellesan and Eastern Hellesan. This division is based on the vocalic system: where the Eastern dialects have atonic a /a/ and e /e/ the Western ones only show /ə/ for a and e, and where the Eastern dialects have atonic o /o/ and u /u/ the Western ones only have /u/ for o and u.

Inventory of phonemes and orthography

A summary of Hellesan phonemes, their graphemes and allophones.

Oclusives

• /p/ p.
• /t/ t.
• /k/ c before a, o, u; ch before e, i. Labialized is qu /kʷ/.
• /b/ b. Between vowels is /β/. At the end of words is /p/.
• /d/ d. Between vowels is /ð/. At the end of word is /t/.
• /g/ g before a, o, u; gh before e, i. Between vowels is /ɣ/. Labialized is gu /gʷ/.

Nasals

• /m/ m.
• /ɱ/ v, though not in all dialects. Also as an allophone of /m/ or /n/ before /f/ or /v/.
• /n/ n. In Sescar-Feregain, for nh.
• /ɲ/ nh and ny.
• /ŋ/ as an allophone of n before velars, represented nc(h) and ng(h).

Laterals

• /ɫ/ l. There's also l·l, which is pronounced doubled, /ɫɫ/. In Sescar-Feregain for lh.
• /l/ l. As a lenited version of /ɫ/ in intervocalic position. In some dialects is the only sound for l.
• /ʎ/ lh and ll.

Rhotics

• /r/ rr between vowels; r at the beggining of word.
• /ɾ/ r between vowels. r at the end of word (if not muted).

Fricatives

• /β/ b between vowels. Also v, but not in all dialects.
• /f/ f.
• /v/ v, although not in all dialects.
• /ð/ d between vowels.
• /s/ s at the beggining or at the end of word; ss between vowels.
• /z/ z in all positions; s between vowels.
• /ʃ/ sy at the beggining of word or between vowels. At the end of word is ys.
• /ʒ/ g before e, i; j before all vowels; zh in all dialects except Sescar-Feregian.
• /ɣ/ g(h) between vowels.
• /h/ h, although this grapheme is also mute in many words.

Affricates

• /ts/ ts.
• /dz/ tz, ds.
• /tʃ/ tsy at the beggining of word or between vowels, yts at the end of word; ig at the end of word; th in all dialects except Sescar-feregian (but not at the end of word).
• /dʒ/ dj; tg before e or i. Also g (before e or i) and j in the Morençan dialect; dh in all dialects except Sescar-Feregian.

Palatalized

• /tʲ/ th, only in Sescar-Feregian (but not at the end of word).
• /dʲ/ dh, only in Sescar-Feregian.
• /zʲ/ zh, only in Sescar-Feregian.

Approximants

• /j/ i at the beggining of word (followed by a vowel), between vowels, at the end of word (preceded by a vowel).
• /w/ u at the beggining of word (followed by a vowel), between vowels, at the end of word (preceded by a vowel).

Vowels

Every dialect has its own vocalic system. This is a resume of all the Hellesan vowels.

• Front: /i/, /y/, /e/, /ɛ/, /œ/, /æ/, /a/.
• Near-front: /ɪ/, /ʏ/.
• Central: /ə/, /ɐ/.
• Near-back: /ʊ/.
• Back: /u/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/, /ɒ/.

The dialectal variants

The Hellesan dialects have their greatest differences in the pronounciation of vowels. Vocalic sounds aren't distributed in the same way in every dialect. Bearing in mind this we note that:

• 1) The way of opposing the opening degrees isn't the same in all dialects.
• 2) Not all dialects oppose the same opening degrees in the tonic vocalic system.
• 3) Not all dialects do the aftermentioned neutralizations in the atonic vocalic system.

Now, we can see an outline of the different dialectal realizations of the tonic and atonic vocalic systems:

Sescar-Feregian

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/ /y/
• Atonic: /ə/ /i/ /u/

Gabalean

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /ə/ /i/ /u/

Mindheledean

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /ə/ /i/ /u/

Caledian

• Tonic: /a/ /a:/ /ɛ/ /ɛ:/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /ɔ:/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /ə/ /i/ /u/

Garmancean

• Tonic: /ə/ /a/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /ə/ /i/ /o/ /u/

Maidandese

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /u/ /ʊ/
• Atonic: /a/ /ɑ/ /e/ /i/ /u/ /ʊ/

Malvanese

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɒ/ /o/ /u/ /ʊ/
• Atonic: /a/ /ɑ/ /œ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /u/ /ʊ/

Sardegou

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɒ/ /o/ /u/ /ʊ/
• Atonic: /a/ /ɑ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/ /ʊ/

Morençan

• Tonic: /a/ /æ/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/

Tavissance

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/

Zarese

• Tonic: /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/
• Atonic: /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/

Other features mark the differences among dialects, but these are treated in the dialectology chapter.

Final notes about some phonemes

• 1. All vowels are short, but some sounds that in certain dialects are represented by a single phoneme in other dialects are represented by a similar phoneme, but long.
• 2. Letter a only admits grave accent. Letters e and o admit grave and acute accents, depending on the more opened or closed phoneme they represent. Letters i, y and u only admit the acute accent.
• 3. Many consonantal sound are modified by the presence of what Hellerans name saules feilhes "weak vowels" (e and i). The other vowels: a, o, u and y are named saules cardes "strong vowels" and don't modify consonantal sounds.
• 4. Letter y can work as a vowel and is pronounced /y/ or /i/, depending on dialects. But is also used as a "consonant" in order to form some clusters with palatal sounds: ny /ɲ/; sy or ys /ʃ/, and tsy or yts /tʃ/.

The syllable

In Hellesan a syllable has a core, which can be represented by a sole vocalic sound and some optional sounds around the core, named syllabic edges.

Vowels i and u in contact with other vowels

The syllable is formed by the core and, optionally, the syllabic edges. If these edges are consonantal phonemes the syllable doesn't show any special conduct. But if the syllabic edges are an i or a u the syllable is structurated in a different way: i and u doesn't work as vocalic phonemes but as semivocalic:

• [j] if i precedes or follows the syllabic core.
• [w] if u precedes or follows the syllabic core.

Diphtongs

A diphtong is constituted by a vowel, which is a syllabic core, and another vowel (i or u) which sounds as a semivowel. Depending on the position of these semivocalic phonemes we talk about increasing and decreasing diphtongs. In Hellesan we have the following:

• Decreasing diphtongs: ai, ei, oi, ui, au, eu, iu, ou, uu.
• Increasing diphtongs: ia, ie, io, iu, ua, ue, ui, uo.

Note that ou can also be pronounced /ʊ/; it depends on dialects. On the other hand, ôu is pronounced /w/ and only used at the beggining of a word.

The stress and its rules

In Hellesan exist two types of stress: the grave one, used above a, e and o, and the acute one, used above e, o, i, u and y.

These are the stress rules of Hellesan:

• 1. Every single word must have only one stressed vowel. If the word is a compound it will have one stress only if the compound words are tied together, but it will show all the graphic stresses if the compound words are tied together with hyphens.
• 2. Monosyllabic words aren't stressed, with the exception of those that have more than one meaning, in order to differentiate them.
• 3. All the words with the stress in the last syllable are stressed if they end in à, è, é, í, ò, ó, ú, ý, às, ès, és, ís, òs, ós, ús, ýs.
• 4. All the words with the stress in a middle syllable aren't stressed, with the exception of all the words that doesn't end in any of the terminations cited in the preceding rule.
• 5. All the words with the stress in the first syllable are stressed.