Parseltogue, how to speak it
written by Raul Plaza
Have you ever wanted to speak parseltongue? Now you can! There is a reconstruction of the language, called "Stilio", which is actually a spoken laguage. With this book, you can learn to speak parseltongue! (The book is not finished, I will be adding more chapters or I will modify some of them, adding extra information or fixing some grammar mistakes)
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
11
Reads
25,088
Phonology 1: introduction to phonology and consonants.
Chapter 2
First of all, you have to understand what phonology is. Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in spoken languages and signs in sign languages. It used to be only the study of the systems of phonemes in spoken languages (and therefore used to be also called phonemics, or phonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset and rime, articulatory gestures, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of language where sound or signs are structured to convey linguistic meaning. A little anecdote is that english phonology for me, as an spanish guy, is so difficult. There are some sounds in English that I can not make it, and that happened me again with parseltongue, which has some phonemes that appeared in the english phonology, but not in the spanish phonology. Because of that, learn to speak parseltongue is easier for english people.
Sign languages have a phonological system equivalent to the system of sounds in spoken languages. The building blocks of signs are specifications for movement, location and handshape.
Snakes have vastly simplified mouths compared to human-beings. We are capable of making every sound they make, though some are easier than others. Snakes have no lips. Their soft-palate is occupied with the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ), which acts as a sense of smell. Snakes have no uvula. Their glottis can move aside when eating.
Sentient and non-sentient snakes hiss their entire volume of air without interruption, so a Parseltongue utterances cannot be longer than about ten seconds. Stops are typically initial, and in a verb. Whatever vocal-cords they are graced with by magic, snakes cannot speak very loudly or vary pitch beyond very low frequencies. Humans speaking above a loud whisper, voicing consonants and vowels, are something like "shouting barbarians" to the snakes we were allowed to interview.
Parseltongue:
Has no labial consonants
Has no uvular consonants
Has no voiced consonants
Has clicks
Has no co-articulated consonants (except nasal clicks)
Prefers to end an utterance with a sibilant/fricative or a vowel
Has ejective forms of the stops (and affricates)
Has ingressive sounds in certain circumstances
There is a non-phonemic sound that snakes are readily capable of making, the trilled 'r'. However, /r/ is a highly erotic sound which no snake would make in polite company!
Non-parselmouths should take care not to "round" any consonants or vowels when speaking to a sentient snake. Snakes have no lips, so this can render one's speech unintelligible. English speakers should take greatest care with words beginning with 'r' or any 'sh' sound.
For all of you, I have found an image of the mouth of a snake, to understand why they can´t make some noises.
https://www.frathwiki.com/File:Snake_mouth.jpg
And now, let´s start studying the consonants of parseltongue. This language has his own alphabet, but it is so similar to the english alphabet. I´m going to introduce the phonetic sound that correspond to each consonant.
Nasal Consonants:
n̪̊ - (m) Dental
n̥ - (n) Alveolar
ɳ̊ - (ṇ) Retroflex
ɲ̊ - (ñ) Palatal
ŋ̊ - (ŋ) Velar
Unaspirated Stop Consonants:
t̪ - (p) Dental
t - (t) Alveolar
ʈ - (ʈ) Retroflex
t͡ʃ~c - (c) Palatal
k - (k) Velar
ʡ~ʛ̥ - (`) Radical
ʔ - (') Glottal
Aspirated Stop Consonants:
t̪ʰ - (ph) Dental
tʰ - (th) Alveolar
ʈʰ - (ʈh) Retroflex
cʰ - (ch) Palatal
kʰ - (kh) Velar
Ejective Stop Consonants:
t̪ʼ - (p') Dental
tʼ - (t') Alveolar
ʈʼ - (ʈ') Retroflex
c - (c') Palatal
kʼ - (k') Velar
Clicks:
ǀ - (pq) Dental
ǃ - (tq) Alveolar
ǁ - (zq) Lateral
‼ - (ʈq) Retroflex
Nasal Clicks:
ᵑ̊ǀ - (npq) Dental
ᵑ̊ǃ - (ntq) Alveolar
ᵑ̊ǁ - (nzq) Lateral
ᵑ̊‼ - (nʈq) Retroflex
Fricative Consonants:
θ̟ - (f) Dental
s - (s) Alveolar
ɬ - (z) Lateral
ʃ~ʂ - (ṣ) Retroflex
ɕ~ç - (ç) Palatal
x - (x) Velar
Approximant Consonants:
l̥ - (l) Lateral
ɻ̊ - (r) Retroflex
j̞̊ - (j) Palatal
ɰ̊ - (w) Velar
ħ - (g) Radical
h - (h) Glottal
Wait, you might be asking: "What is dental? What is retroflex? I don´t understand nothing!" Don´t worry, those are characteristics of the consonants, each one need a position of your mouth to be pronunced, let´s explain all of them:
Dental: tongue against the upper teeth.
Alveolar: tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth.
Lateral: the airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.
Retroflex: tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.
Palatal: the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth).
Velar: the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Radical: with the root of the tongue (the back part).
Glottal: the glottis as their primary articulation.
And now, let´s explain the others characteristics of the consonants:
---Nasal: the air comes out through the nose but not through the mouth, as it is blocked by the lips or tongue.
---Unaspirated Stop: expulse the air while you are saying the sound, and don´t aspirate at all.
---Aspirated Stop: aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.
---Ejective Stop: hey tare pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream.
---Clicks: The dental click (pq) is used in the English "tsk tsk tsk", while the lateral click (zq) is used to spur on a horse. The alveolar click (tq) is made by placing the tongue at the top of the mouth and then letting it slap down. The African version of this click - where the mouth produces an overly loud, hollow sound - should be avoided. The retroflex click (ʈq) is made by curling the tongue tip backwards and then sucking in. Because there are ingressive, ʈq and nʈq are sui generis and not normally parts of words, but only exclamatory interjections and ideophones.
Clicks are most often "pre-nasalized", in which case they are written with the letter n before hand (i.e. npq, ntq, nzq, and nʈq). In practice, the nasal quality may match the click in place of articulation or more often be the velar nasal ŋ. Such difference are not phonemic, so all version are spelled with an 'n'.
---Nasal Clicks: click consonants pronounced with nasal airflow.
---Fricative: produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, the back of the tongue against the soft palate, or the side of the tongue against the molars.
---Approximant: they are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence.
Stop Harmony.
Most verbs in Parseltongue begin with a stop (in the indicative). These stops are most often underspecified. That is, they conform in place of articulation to the nasal, fricative, or approximant of the subject's classifier.
The names of the three classes of stops are calques of the Parseltongue names themselves. Underspecified stops are as a T with the class symbols as a small superscript, e.g. ŋaTʰaṣo = ŋakhaṣo
Ingressive.
There are a small number of ingressive words in Parseltongue, mostly interjections, ideophones and onomatopoeias. There is no special notation for these words: they are either italicized or set off in down-arrows before and after (e.g. ↓kss↓). The retroflex clicks (i.e. ʈq and nʈq) are ingressive, but not marked as such in any way.
Allophony.
The lateral approximant and fricative seemingly do not care where they are articulated, capitulating left and right. The following patterns all apply whether l/z comes first or second:
p/f/m + l > /l̪/
ʈ/ṣ/ṇ + l > ḷ
c/ç/ñ + l > /ʎ/
k/x/ŋ + l > /ɫ̥/
p/f/m + z > /ɬ̟/
ʈ/ṣ/ṇ + z> /ɬ̢/
c/ç/ñ + z > /ʎ̝̊/
k/x/ŋ + z > /ʟ̝̊/
Nasals assimilate place of articulation before stops and clicks. Two hetrorganic nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the first.
Germination.
English does distinguish between geminate and non-geminate consonants (cp. "his zeal" vs. "his eel") but it is often irrelevant. In Parseltongue, however, it is of great import. Stops cannot be geminated.
Sign languages have a phonological system equivalent to the system of sounds in spoken languages. The building blocks of signs are specifications for movement, location and handshape.
Snakes have vastly simplified mouths compared to human-beings. We are capable of making every sound they make, though some are easier than others. Snakes have no lips. Their soft-palate is occupied with the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ), which acts as a sense of smell. Snakes have no uvula. Their glottis can move aside when eating.
Sentient and non-sentient snakes hiss their entire volume of air without interruption, so a Parseltongue utterances cannot be longer than about ten seconds. Stops are typically initial, and in a verb. Whatever vocal-cords they are graced with by magic, snakes cannot speak very loudly or vary pitch beyond very low frequencies. Humans speaking above a loud whisper, voicing consonants and vowels, are something like "shouting barbarians" to the snakes we were allowed to interview.
Parseltongue:
Has no labial consonants
Has no uvular consonants
Has no voiced consonants
Has clicks
Has no co-articulated consonants (except nasal clicks)
Prefers to end an utterance with a sibilant/fricative or a vowel
Has ejective forms of the stops (and affricates)
Has ingressive sounds in certain circumstances
There is a non-phonemic sound that snakes are readily capable of making, the trilled 'r'. However, /r/ is a highly erotic sound which no snake would make in polite company!
Non-parselmouths should take care not to "round" any consonants or vowels when speaking to a sentient snake. Snakes have no lips, so this can render one's speech unintelligible. English speakers should take greatest care with words beginning with 'r' or any 'sh' sound.
For all of you, I have found an image of the mouth of a snake, to understand why they can´t make some noises.
https://www.frathwiki.com/File:Snake_mouth.jpg
And now, let´s start studying the consonants of parseltongue. This language has his own alphabet, but it is so similar to the english alphabet. I´m going to introduce the phonetic sound that correspond to each consonant.
Nasal Consonants:
n̪̊ - (m) Dental
n̥ - (n) Alveolar
ɳ̊ - (ṇ) Retroflex
ɲ̊ - (ñ) Palatal
ŋ̊ - (ŋ) Velar
Unaspirated Stop Consonants:
t̪ - (p) Dental
t - (t) Alveolar
ʈ - (ʈ) Retroflex
t͡ʃ~c - (c) Palatal
k - (k) Velar
ʡ~ʛ̥ - (`) Radical
ʔ - (') Glottal
Aspirated Stop Consonants:
t̪ʰ - (ph) Dental
tʰ - (th) Alveolar
ʈʰ - (ʈh) Retroflex
cʰ - (ch) Palatal
kʰ - (kh) Velar
Ejective Stop Consonants:
t̪ʼ - (p') Dental
tʼ - (t') Alveolar
ʈʼ - (ʈ') Retroflex
c - (c') Palatal
kʼ - (k') Velar
Clicks:
ǀ - (pq) Dental
ǃ - (tq) Alveolar
ǁ - (zq) Lateral
‼ - (ʈq) Retroflex
Nasal Clicks:
ᵑ̊ǀ - (npq) Dental
ᵑ̊ǃ - (ntq) Alveolar
ᵑ̊ǁ - (nzq) Lateral
ᵑ̊‼ - (nʈq) Retroflex
Fricative Consonants:
θ̟ - (f) Dental
s - (s) Alveolar
ɬ - (z) Lateral
ʃ~ʂ - (ṣ) Retroflex
ɕ~ç - (ç) Palatal
x - (x) Velar
Approximant Consonants:
l̥ - (l) Lateral
ɻ̊ - (r) Retroflex
j̞̊ - (j) Palatal
ɰ̊ - (w) Velar
ħ - (g) Radical
h - (h) Glottal
Wait, you might be asking: "What is dental? What is retroflex? I don´t understand nothing!" Don´t worry, those are characteristics of the consonants, each one need a position of your mouth to be pronunced, let´s explain all of them:
Dental: tongue against the upper teeth.
Alveolar: tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth.
Lateral: the airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.
Retroflex: tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.
Palatal: the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth).
Velar: the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Radical: with the root of the tongue (the back part).
Glottal: the glottis as their primary articulation.
And now, let´s explain the others characteristics of the consonants:
---Nasal: the air comes out through the nose but not through the mouth, as it is blocked by the lips or tongue.
---Unaspirated Stop: expulse the air while you are saying the sound, and don´t aspirate at all.
---Aspirated Stop: aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.
---Ejective Stop: hey tare pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream.
---Clicks: The dental click (pq) is used in the English "tsk tsk tsk", while the lateral click (zq) is used to spur on a horse. The alveolar click (tq) is made by placing the tongue at the top of the mouth and then letting it slap down. The African version of this click - where the mouth produces an overly loud, hollow sound - should be avoided. The retroflex click (ʈq) is made by curling the tongue tip backwards and then sucking in. Because there are ingressive, ʈq and nʈq are sui generis and not normally parts of words, but only exclamatory interjections and ideophones.
Clicks are most often "pre-nasalized", in which case they are written with the letter n before hand (i.e. npq, ntq, nzq, and nʈq). In practice, the nasal quality may match the click in place of articulation or more often be the velar nasal ŋ. Such difference are not phonemic, so all version are spelled with an 'n'.
---Nasal Clicks: click consonants pronounced with nasal airflow.
---Fricative: produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, the back of the tongue against the soft palate, or the side of the tongue against the molars.
---Approximant: they are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence.
Stop Harmony.
Most verbs in Parseltongue begin with a stop (in the indicative). These stops are most often underspecified. That is, they conform in place of articulation to the nasal, fricative, or approximant of the subject's classifier.
The names of the three classes of stops are calques of the Parseltongue names themselves. Underspecified stops are as a T with the class symbols as a small superscript, e.g. ŋaTʰaṣo = ŋakhaṣo
Ingressive.
There are a small number of ingressive words in Parseltongue, mostly interjections, ideophones and onomatopoeias. There is no special notation for these words: they are either italicized or set off in down-arrows before and after (e.g. ↓kss↓). The retroflex clicks (i.e. ʈq and nʈq) are ingressive, but not marked as such in any way.
Allophony.
The lateral approximant and fricative seemingly do not care where they are articulated, capitulating left and right. The following patterns all apply whether l/z comes first or second:
p/f/m + l > /l̪/
ʈ/ṣ/ṇ + l > ḷ
c/ç/ñ + l > /ʎ/
k/x/ŋ + l > /ɫ̥/
p/f/m + z > /ɬ̟/
ʈ/ṣ/ṇ + z> /ɬ̢/
c/ç/ñ + z > /ʎ̝̊/
k/x/ŋ + z > /ʟ̝̊/
Nasals assimilate place of articulation before stops and clicks. Two hetrorganic nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the first.
Germination.
English does distinguish between geminate and non-geminate consonants (cp. "his zeal" vs. "his eel") but it is often irrelevant. In Parseltongue, however, it is of great import. Stops cannot be geminated.
