Atlantean language

The Atlantean language is a constructed language created by Marc Okrand specially for the Walt Disney Feature Animation film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The language was intended by the script-writers to be a possible mother language, and Okrand crafted it to include a vast Indo-European word stock with its very own grammar, which is at times described as highly agglutinative, inspired by Sumerian and North American Indigenous languages.

Creation

The Atlantean language (Dig Adlantisag) is a historically constructed, artistic language created by Marc Okrand for Disney's 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media. The Atlantean language is based both on historic reconstructions as well as on the fantasy/science fiction setting of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The fictional principles upon which the Atlantean language was created are: Atlantean is the "Tower of Babel language", the "root dialect" from which all languages descended; it has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., in the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present.

To accomplish this, Okrand looked for common characteristics from various world languages and was also heavily inspired by the Proto-Indo-European language. His main source of words (roots and stems) for the language is Proto-Indo-European, but Okrand combines this with Biblical Hebrew, later Indo-European languages such as Latin and Greek, and a variety of other known or reconstructed ancient languages.Murphy, Tab, Platon, David Reyolds, Gary Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Kirk Wise, Bryce Zabel, and Jackie Zabel. Atlantis the Lost Empire: The Illustrated Script [Abridged Version with Notes from the Filmmakers], 55.

Writing systems Atlantean has its own script created expressly for the film by John Emerson with the help of Marc Okrand, and inspired by ancient alphabetical scripts, most notably Semitic. There are, however, different kinds of transliteration into the Roman script.

Atlantean Script

There is no punctuation or capitalization in the native Atlantean Writing System. Okrand based this on ancient writing systems. The Atlantean Script is normally in boustrophedon, that is to say it is written left to right for the first line, right to left the second, and left to right again the third, to continue the pattern. This order was also suggested by Okrand, based on ancient writing systems, and it was accepted because, as he explained, "It's a back-and-forth movement, like water, so that worked."

The Atlantean script includes more characters than are actually employed in the language itself. These letters being c, f, j, q, v, x, z, ch, or th, they were created so that Atlantean might be used as a simple cipher code in the media and for promotional purposes. They are all also based on diverse ancient characters, just like the rest of the alphabet.

Roman Script Apart from the native Atlantean script created for the film, the language can be transcribed using the Roman script. There are two versions for doing so:

Standard Transcription, how the language is transliterated by Marc Okrand himself. Reader's Script, a Berlitz-style notation devised by Okrand, which he hoped would make the Atlantean easier to read for the actors.

Example sentence, broken down:

The following is a table that shows the correspondences between the different modes of transcription and also provides the probable IPA values.

+CorrespondencesStandard Transcriptiona b g d e uw h i y k l m n o p r s shtReader's Scriptah, uh b g d eh, e oo, uw kh ee, ih y k l m n oa, oh p r s sh tIPA[ɑ, ə] [b] [g] [d] [e, ɛ] [u, ʊ][w] [x] [i, ɪ] [j] [k][l][m] [n] [o, ɔ] [p][r, ɾ] [s] [ʃ] [t]

Numerals John Emerson, Marc Okrand, and the filmmakers also created numerals for 0–9. They are stacked horizontally, however, and hold place values of 1, 20, and 400. Their components are based on Mayan numerals and internally composed for the font (example above) like Roman numerals. If used according to the now-offline Official Website's directions, they are used, alternatively, like Arabic numerals.John, David. Atlantis: The Lost Empire: The Essential Guide. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., 2001, 33.

+ Cardinal numbersKurtti, Jeff. Atlantis Subterranean Tours: A Traveler’s Guide to the Lost City (Atlantis the Lost Empire). New York: Disney Editions: 2001, 60. Numeral Atlantean English 1 din one 2 dut two 3 sey three 4 kut four 5 sha five 6 luk six 7 tos seven 8 ya eight 9 nit nine 10 ehep ten 20 dut dehep twenty 30 sey dehep thirty 40 kut dehep forty 50 sha dehep fifty 60 luk dehep sixty 70 tos dehep seventy 80 ya dehep eighty 90 nit dehep ninety

Numeral suffixes Ordinals are formed adding the suffix -(d)lag: sey 'three', seydlag 'third'. The d is omitted if the root ends with an obstruent or nasal consonant: dut 'two', dutlag 'second'.Ehrbar, Greg. Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Milwaukee: Dark Horse Comics: June 2001. Fractions are formed with the suffix -(d)lop: kut 'four', kutlop 'quarter', sha 'five', shadlop 'fifth (part)'. And finally, distributives are formed with the suffix noh: din 'one', dinnoh 'one at a time, one each'.

Phonology Consonants + IPA chart of Atlantean consonants Bilabial Alveolar (Alveolo-)palatal Velar Nasal Plosive Fricative Approximant Trill

Vowels Atlantean's phonetic inventory includes a vowel system with five phonemes. Most vowels have two prominent allophonic realizations, depending on whether it occurs in a stressed or unstressed syllable.

+IPA chart of Atlantean vowels Front Central Back Tense Lax Tense Lax Tense Lax High Mid Low

Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, is realized as or in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, is realized as or , and so on. There are three diphthongs, namely ay, ey, oy.

Aside from the stressed-syllable-based vowel system, the only other example of prominent phonological phenomenon seems to be a special kind of sandhi occurring in verbs, when the pronoun is combined with the aspect marker.

When the suffix for the first person singular -ik combines with tenses that employ -i, -o (Past and Future tenses), it becomes -mik. bernot-o-ik → bernot-o-mik

But when combined with suffixes that feature -e (Present tenses), the same suffix becomes -kik. bernot-e-ik → bernot-e-kik

Grammar Atlantean has a strict subject–object–verb word order, with no deviations from this pattern attested. Adjectives and nouns in the genitive case follow the nouns they modify, adpositions appear only in the form of postpositions, and modal verbs follow the verbs that they modify and subsequently take all personal and aspectual suffixes. However, adverbs precede verbs. The language includes the use of an interrogative particle to form questions with no variation in word order.

Some sentences appear to employ some kind of particles sometimes termed "sentence connectors". These particles are of obscure meaning but are theorized to relate two clauses in a logical yet idiomatic manner. The exact meaning and usage of these particles is not known, but without them sentences are difficult to reconcile with their translations.

In the example above there is no actual mention of the consequences for outsiders, yet the subtitle in the movie translates it as a warning even without any mention of living or dying. A possibility exists that, in order to match the lip movement of the characters in the movie and the time of the dialogue, the language had to be shortened, often leaving out key parts of the sentence. It is known that the Atlantean lines in the movie were ad-libbed afterwards.

In this example the sentences seem to be better connected, and the particle is rendered as almost "but, yet". It is difficult to reconcile the two, however.

Nouns Atlantean has seven cases for nouns, five for pronouns and two for numbers.

Grammatical cases + Grammatical Cases Name Suffix Example English Gloss Nominative no suffix yob the crystal (subject). Accusative -tem yobtem the crystal (object). Genitive -ag yobag of the crystal Vocative -top Yobtop O Crystal! Instrumental -esh yobesh using crystal Essive -kup yobkup (as, composed of, being) crystal Dative -nuh yobnuh (for, to, on behalf of) crystal

Notes:

Other suffixes + Other Noun Suffixes Grammatical Function Suffix Example English Gloss Plural -en yoben crystals Augmentative -mok Yobmok The Great Crystal

Nouns are marked as plural with the suffix -en. Case suffixes never precede the -en plural suffix. "-Mok" occurs after it.

Pronouns + Independent Pronoun Singular Plural 1st person kag gwis 2nd person moh gebr gabr 3rd person tug tuh tok sob + Suffix Singular Plural 1st person -ik -kem 2nd person -en -eh 3rd person -ot -toh

There are five cases for pronouns.

Grammatical cases + Grammatical Cases Name Suffix Example English Gloss Nominative no suffix kag I Accusative -it kagit me, whom was (sent), etc. Dative -ib kagib (to) me Genitive -in kagin my (my heart, karod kagin) Instrumental -is kagis by my means, with (using) me, via me, etc.

Notes:

Verbs Verbs are inflected with two suffixes, one for tense/aspect and the next for person/number.

Tense/aspect suffixes OBLG:obligatory mood POSB:possible + Tense/Aspect suffixes Name Suffix Example Other Examples Present Simple Present -e Present Perfect -le Present Obligatory -se Past Simple Past -i Immediate Past -ib Past Perfect -li Future Simple Future -o Future Possible -go Future Perfect -lo Future Obligatory -so

Mood and Voice suffixes + Mood suffixes Name Suffix Example English Gloss Imperative Mood Singular no suffix bernot!, nageb! bring!, enter! Imperative Mood Plural -yoh bernot.yoh!, nageb.yoh! (you all) bring!, (you all) enter! Passive Voice -esh pag.esh.e.nen, bernot.esh.ib.mik you are thanked (thank you), I was just brought Infinitive -e bernot.e, wegen.e, gamos.e to bring, to travel, to see

In other media Apart from its use in the Atlantis franchise, the Atlantean script is used to encode some English in the video game Disney Dreamlight Valley, mainly in the notes written in the diary of the valley's ruler (the player).

Atlantean language

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