Eleven years ago, when I was learning Latin at school, I dreamt of inventing a language of my own; a language as rarely spoken nowadays as Latin, yet not dead, but in a way very alive. I started by inventing a simple grammar, and borrowing my vocabulary from any language I knew.
Over the years, the grammar became more complicated; more and more words (some still borrowed, most invented) were added; all I needed now was a place where this language would be spoken.And I created countries, then continents; and every country, every continent needed its own languages. And since I started to have all my role-playing set on Ancallon, it needed more: History. Geography. People. Stories. And more.
And now I decided that it also needs a place on the World Wide Web. ;-)
(Thanks for encouraging me go to: Jeffrey Hennings, and his Model Languages Page.)
Ancallon is a continent of about five million square kilometres, on the nothern hemisphere of an earth-like planet. It is surrounded by oceans that cannot be crossed by Ancallonian ships. (It is said that there are invisible borders hindering the ships, but I suspect they are just not fit for high seas. :-))
There are other continents on this planet, but more about these later.
The continent Ancallon in these days consists of ten countries: An-Bynnwr, Ancallon Westlands, Carraig, Connamore Island, Darkýn, Dolmainn, Drakh, Éanlais, Lands of Temebrae and the United Empire of Sandor-Kan. History: A long time ago the Continent Ancallon had been one country. Its capital was Cáladwn, a magnificent town built completely of stone, situated north of the Central Mountains (Cairn Lárnach). Cáladwn was destroyed by the armies of Sandor-Kan, and the Kingdom Ancallon broke into four countries: The Southern Empire, The Ancallon Westlands, The Lands of Temebrae and Darkýn, and Dolmainn. Language: The official language of Ancallon is New Ancallún (this is similar to an older form of English); However most of its countries are bilingual; they have a language of their own that can be quite different from New Ancallún. Many of the languages are derived from Old Ancallún, the language spoken when Ancallon was one kingdom.
- New Ancallún:
- Official language in all ten countries of Ancallon. Originally spoken only in the Empire; but after the fall of Cáladwn, this language spread over the whole continent. It is similar to a mix between Modern and Shakespearian English.
- Ancallún:
- The original language of Ancallon, was replaced by New Ancallún after the fall of Cáladwn. Ancallún has many words from Celtic languages, but its grammar is quite different (more like romanic languages).
- Andarkin:
- The language the main part of the Ancallon Web Site will be written in. ;-)
Andarkin is spoken in Darkýn, the Eastern Lands of Temebrae and on the southeastern coast of An-Bynnwr. It is an inflecting language; its grammar often reminds of Latin. Of all my languages, Andarkin is the one developed furthest. One day I will post an English - Andarkin dictionary here, or rather German - Andarkin, for I fear I won't be able to do it in English (resp. New Ancallún), which is not my mother tongue.
For some sample sentences, go to http://members.aol.com/ancallon/ancallon.htm. Yes I know there are no translations there. Commented samples will follow later. ;-)
- Draccan:
- The people in Drakh speak a language that is very similar to Welsh.
- West Ancallún:
- The few speakers of West Ancallún speak a language that is similar to Modern Irish.
- Banrok:
- Spoken in Éanlais and some parts of the Empire, this is a language that is not related to any of the other Ancallonian languages. It is an ergative language, with word order OSV (or rather patient - agent - verb), not inflecting, but agglutinating using prefixes. It strongly distinguishes between masculine and feminine words, using two different alphabets.
Some sample Banrok sentences.
- Konamoata (aka. Maratian):
- This is an isolating VSO language with syllable structure CV or V (yes, it sounds a bit like Hawaiian. :-)).
Some sample Konamoatan sentences.
- Dolmany:
- This language is spoken by the priests of Dolmainn. It uses an alphabet of its own, while all other Ancallonian languages use the alphabet you might have noticed on the homepage. BTW, I have the Ancallonian alphabet as True Type Font, and will make this available for download later. :-)
- Language of the North:
- Spoken in the mountains of Carraig. Of all living Ancallonian languages, this is the one closest to the original Ancallún. Unfortunately, there are only about 200 speakers left.
- There are more languages spoken on Ancallon, but these are of lesser importance and will be described later.
- And then, there are many languages, some of them already with grammar and some vocabulary, spoken on other continents on that same planet.
- And then, there are some more languages I invented, for stories I've written that take place far, far away from Ancallon.....
More information will follow later. Sorry..... I have all this information available on my hard disk, but it's in German. So, do you rather want to read this in German, or wait until I have found the time to translate it into English...? :-)
Any comments to this question go HERE.