Tuesday 15 March 2016

Lilliputian language: terms, phrases, names, and words and their approximate translations

(?) - approximate, guessed

Lilliput - (name of a country, enemy of Blefescu) : Part 1, Chapter 1 (1,1)
Tolgo phonac - Fire the arrows (?) : 1,1
Hekinah degul - Amazing (?) : 1,1
Langro dehul san - Tie him up (?) : 1,1
Borach mevolah - Keep away! (?) : 1,1
Hurgo -  Great Lord : 1,1
Peplom selan - tend to him (?) : 1,1
Lumos kelmin pesso desmar lon Emposo - [You are to] swear peace between yourself and the Emperor of Lilliput, and towards his Empire : 1,2 ; 1,7
Imprimis - Greetings / Salutations : 1,2
Quinbus Blestrin, Quinbus Flestrin - Great Man-Mountain : 1,2
Ranfulo - breeches : 1,2
Clefrin Frelock - (name of an official) : 1,2
Marsi Frelock - (name of an official) : 1,2
Flimnap - (name of a treasurer) : 1,3
Reldresal - (name of a principal secretary for private affairs) : 1,3
Skyresh Bolgolam - (high admiral) : 1,3
Galbet - admiral of the realm : 1,3
Golbasto Momaren Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue - (name of the contemporary Emperor of Lilliput) : 1,3
blustrug - (a unit of length; 5,000 blustrugs, the size of Lilliput, is 12 miles in circumference, corresponding to 19 kilometres) : 1,3
Belfaborac - (a royal palace in Lilliput) : 1,3
Mildendo - (the capital of Lilliput) : 1:4
drurr - (1/14 of an inch, or around 1.8 millimetres) : 1,4
Tramecksan - high heels : 1,4
Blefuscu - (name of a county, enemy of Lilliput) : 1,4
Lustrog - (name of a prophet) : 1,4
Blundecral - (sacred book of the Lustrogist Lilliputians) : 1,4
glumgluff - (6 feet, or 1.8 metres) : 1,5
nardac - (a high rank in the Lilliputian Empire's government) : 1,5
glumglum - (a rank lower than a nardac) : 1,6
Limtoc - (name of a general) : 1,7
Lalcon - (name of a chamberlain) : 1,7
Balmuff - (name of a grand judiciary official) : 1,7

Lilliputian appears to be influenced by Jonathan Swift's native English, Latin, and possibly Hebrew (as in "Tolgo phonac", "Hekinah degul", and "Borach mevolah").



So, the possible phonemes of Lilliputian are:

Vowels

ae, i, o, u (which also stands for /ʌ/ and /u/)

a/ah, as in "Flimnap" or "Galbet", can be sometimes pronounced as /æ/ when unstressed. It can also be pronounced as /a/ in words such as "phonac", "Golbasto", and others.

At the end of a word or a name, as in "Mully Ully", i is spelled as -y.

u, as in "blustrug", "glumglum", "glumgluff", or "Balmuff", may be pronounced as /ʌ/ or /ə/. Perhaps it, and the doubled consonants after it, may indicate that an unstressed u will be pronounced as such.

In other cases, such as "dehul", "degul", "Hurgo", "Lumos", "drurr", and "Blefuscu", u is pronounced as /u/.

Possible diphthongs are:

y (as in "Skyresh"), /ɛj~aj/: however y also represents i at the end of a word or a name, such as "Mully Ully".

ue (as in "Gue"), /y~ju/

Consonants:

b, c/-ck/k, chd, f/ph, g, h, l, m, n, p, qu ("kw"), r, s, sh, t, v

Considering that "Flestrin" is also "Blestrin", b might be pronounced as /v/ or /β/, as in Modern Greek and Spanish.

c, -ck, and k are pronounced as /k/. c and ck at the end of a sentence or elsewhere; k before /e/, /i/, or y, or after s. This reflects the contemporary form of English transcription used in Gulliver's time, which he uses to allow readers to pronounce them more carefully, as the International Phonetic Alphabet was not invented yet.

ch (appearing in "Borach") is possibly pronounced as /x/, as in Modern Greek and Hebrew.

f and ph are pronounced as /f/

g is pronounced as /g/

qu is pronounced as /kw/

From the spelling of "drurr", it may hint that r is pronounced as a trill, /r/

sh is pronounced as /ʃ/

Doubled consonants may indicate gemination, or longer consonants, unless when they are spelled at the end, which may instead indicate unstressed syllables or preceding long vowels (such as drurr).

Consonant clusters:

bl, cks, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, lb, lc, ld, ldr, lf, lg, ll, lm, mn, mp, mpr, mt, nb, nd, nf, ngr, pl, rd, rg, rs, sk, sm, ss, tr, vl,

Phonotactics:

Lilliputian words end with either a vowel or: c/ck, ff, g, h, l, m, n, p, rrr, s, sh, or t.

c/ck, l, m, or n tend to be the more common final consonants of words or names.

(This information is gathered from "Gulliver's Travels", by Jonathan Swift, from a copy published by Collins Classics.)

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