Name of Valdyan: Ilaini

I've finally figured out what the Valdyans call their language:
Ilaini "the languages", a collective plural form, analogous to _arli_
"the realities" meaning "the world, the universe".

I'll change it in the relay lineup :-) (not on my webpage yet,
though; there's a major update in the works and I don't want to make
little changes right now).

In spite of the spelling with -ai-, it's pronounced [i'lani]. The
-ai- is only to show that this is an /a/ that keeps stress in any
position. Valdyan words *ending* in -ain have [aj], but whenever
there's something after it (like an inflectional ending) it reverts
to [a]. This was originally long [a:], lost in the Great Valdyan
Vowel Shift, about four hundred years ago, which also caused the
original nine noun cases to conflate to four to six depending on noun
class, and the short form of the name "Vegelin" to be "Valain".

The only exceptions to the ai -> a rule are _tain_ "god" and _rain_
"hand", which have [aj] all the time.

   Irina

--
           Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@valdyas.org (myself)     http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas

Reply