User:Slastine/sandbox

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Lapine
Ethnicity	Rabbits
Language family	Unknown Lapine
Dialects	Foreigner Talk Hedgerow
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mis

Classification

Lapine is a universal lingua franca among rabbits, existing with minimal dialectal variations between warrens and regions. While the linguistic history of Lapine is both unknown and unrecorded, some variation of it has likely existed since the beginning of rabbit society. This is enforced by the fact that the religious folk heroes of rabbits appear to speak Lapine, or some variation of it.

History

The history of Lapine is unknown, given that it developed entirely as a spoken language and does not have much in the way of documentation or a writing system. According to rabbit religion, all rabbits are descended from the legendary El-ahrairah, giving a likely source for the origins of Lapine. However, in a more secular sense, it is more likely that Lapine originated in one warren of rabbits, spreading through natural travel and migration.

Geographic distribution

The story takes place in Southern England, around the county of Berkshire. It is unknown whether rabbits beyond this region speak Lapine, though it is likely, given the fact that all other warrens encountered by the main characters appeared to speak the same language as they did. However, it is unknown whether Lapine exists at all in rabbit populations beyond the British isles.

Official status

Lapine exists as a de facto lingua franca throughout all known rabbit society, albeit holding no official status or regulation.

Dialects/Varieties

Rabbits of different warrens are noted to have different cadences, styles of speaking, and occasionally alternate vocabulary. However, all dialects of Lapine appear to be mutually intelligible.

Derived languages

Hedgerow is a lingua franca used between rabbits and animals of other species, although it is unknown just how much of its vocabulary is derived from Lapine.

Lapine Foreigner Talk is a Lapine-based pidgin language, used to facilitate communication between rabbits and other species. Unlike Hedgerow, Lapine Foreigner Talk is merely an extremely simplified version of Lapine. In the book, it is used by a seagull to communicate with the rabbits of Watership Down.

Sounds/Phonology

The phonology of Lapine is often seen as “fluffy,” containing a great number of Labial consonant clusters. Lapine has a relatively consistent structure within words, with most word beginning with a consonant or consonant cluster, followed by a vowel, and ending with another consonant or cluster. Lapine also includes some consonant clusters that are unseen in English, such as hl, hr, and pf. A great number of words also begin with the glottal consonant ‘h.’

Grammar

With most knowledge of Lapine restricted to single words and phrases, it is difficult to discern more particular aspects of grammar, morphology, and syntax. While it can be inferred that Lapine is synthetic, its status as fusional or agglutinative is unknown.

Morphology

Some basic aspects of Lapine morphology can be inferred through the existence of certain words. For example, it is known that plurals in Lapine are formed through dropping the last vowel of a noun and replacing it with the plural suffix il. In addition, it is known that the diminutive is formed through the addition of -roo to the end of a word.

Writing system

Lapine exists entirely as a spoken language and has no formal system of orthography.

Examples

Lapine Singular	Lapine Plural	English Meaning	Notes
Hlessi	Hlessil	Warrenless rabbit, rabbit who lives above ground
Homba	Hombil	Fox
Lendri	Lendril	Badger
Marli	Marlil	Literally: Mother; Figuratively: Doe rabbit
Pfeffa	Pfeffil	Cat
Yona	Yonil	Hedgehog
N/A	Elil	Predators, animals that eat rabbits, "the thousand enemies"	An example of Plurale tantum in the Lapine language
Frith	N/A	The sun, also a deity among rabbits