Martian English

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Martian English
Mazingels
Native to: Martian Federation
Language family: PIE English
  • Martian English
    • Arcadian English
Early forms: Early Arcadian
  • Late Arcadian
    • Mazingels
Major dialects: Olympian, Arcadian[1], Elysian[1], Hellas[1], Utopian[1], Valley[1]
Writing System
Writing system(s): Latin Alphabet
Official Status
Official language in: Interstellar Governed Space Authority, Martian Federation, Ceres, Phobos
[Source]

Martian English (Mazingels) is a language group native to Mars that is, in the form of Standard Martian English, an official language of the Martian Federation. It is the most dominant language of the planet, slightly exceeding Martian Chinese in its number of speakers.

Examples[edit | edit source]

Official example[edit | edit source]

The IGSA-managed Universal Declaration of Human Rights, like all official IGSA documents, is published in all IGSA official working languages. In formal Martian English, its first two articles are:

  1. Aalhunezer boon ferii enekel indignitii enreits
  2. Eeiiwaanez entaateltu aal dereits enliiberdes zetfars indizDeklaaratan, widno destinksanaf eni kand, saaksaz raas, kala, sesk, langiis, reliizan, palitiigal araade hiipadesiz, palnetaar arsozaloriigen, entaadelmenz, boord araade staatez. Adizonale, nodestinksan saalbii maadon debaasizaf depalitiigal, dzarizdikanal ar iternazanal staatezaf destaat arzon tuwat aparzon belogz, waderidbii iderpenent, tratz, nan-sef-gabrenigar arande eniaade restriksanaf savrentii.

Common names[edit | edit source]

Common contemporary Martian names include Aane, Els, Flaan, Fiibi, Gila, Gotzon, Isanoo, Kayan, Kodan, Lii, Lokaz, Mod, Moogan, Pengo, Sen, Weei, Waarez, and Yaag.

Familial surnames, having steadily disappeared since the late Mazingels and early Ectogens generations (3850's), are now often replaced by the name of a Martian's rearing institution.

Common phrases[edit | edit source]

Following is a list of commonly used Martian English phrases, compared to those used in Commonwealth English.

Mazingels Tranquilan English
Saalutate1 Welcome
Leeo Hello
Haaez yotaasg? How are you?
Yonaamed? What is your name?
Aaneemed... My name is...
Yooriigen? Where are you from?
Aaoriigen... I'm from...
Shinhuwee Pleased to meet you
Tsaoaan Good morning
Wooan Good afternoon
Naagt Good night
Saalutate1 Goodbye
Aaforativ Yes
Naaktiv No
Yolangiis Mazingels? Do you speak Martian English?
Yiidan Yes, a little
Aags Please
Taakyo Thank you

1 Expression is used interchangeably and is context-dependant

Mazingels Tranquilan English
Aa/mii/wii/aaz I/me/we/us
Yo You/your
Se/he/heez She/her/hers
He/hi/hiz He/him/his
Ee/ee/eez1 Genderless personal singular

1 Reformed pronouns, introduced in 3949.

Background[edit | edit source]

Realistically speaking, the languages of the year 4005 would be completely different to the ones spoken today. For comparison (although it is known that languages do not change at a fixed rate), two thousand years in the past English was a western descendent of the Germanic language family, and was mutually intelligible with dialects that'd in the next centuries become German, Dutch, Swedish, Friesian and etc. Obviously, we can't have our characters speaking a future English. But we can at least simulate the effects of varying degrees of mutual intelligibility between the dialects of English that are likely to emerge, particularly between the inhabited planets.

Throughout a millennia of development the language has undergone a significant series of spelling and grammatical changes. Many words have shifted in meaning, some have dropped or have become archaic, and some have been coined, with a significant number of reforms occurring under the technocratic ALIAS regime.

Mars has a variety of native languages descended from those spoken by its first settlers, but ALIAS has slowly been steering the planet to use Martian English (Mazingels) ever since its takeover. Officially, Martian English and Martian Chinese are required to be learned by all Martians, but there have been concentrated efforts in recent centuries to impose the Olympus Mons variety of Martian English as the sole language. This has not been successful so far, but ALIAS seems determined to unify the Martian language in the same way it homogenized the Martian people.

Martian English is possibly the oldest extant form of language developed on another planet, with Martian Chinese developing around the same time. The two official Martian languages are deceptive though in that they contain countless local and regional dialects influenced by millennia of isolation from Earth, and from the mutual influence they have had on one-another. Because of that, they are not mutually intelligible with their mother tongues, and using the terms "Martian English" and "Martian Chinese" is seen as something of a misnomer by many linguists who mostly use their Martian names instead, i.e. "Mazingels" for the former.

The dominant dialect of Martian English on Mars is the Olympian dialect, which is the one most promoted by ALIAS and used at state functions. Other dialects of Martian English include the Valley dialect and the Utopian dialect. Some smaller dialects remain but have shrunk rapidly over the centuries. The sole dialect of Martian Chinese is the Xanthe dialect with the only other smaller dialect being the Aeolis dialect which is quickly disappearing and not in use by any Martians past G11.

Sound changes[edit | edit source]

Martian English has undergone several sound changes since the settlement of the first Martian colonies, including an omitting of diphthongs to be replaced with long vowels, the loss of the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives to become Z/D and S/T, and the frequent metathesis of R’s occurring in the middle of words (e.g. federation > fredasan).

After the year 3815, with the dawn of the Mazingels generation, ALIAS has formalised the "Mazingels Language Reform", which forced all arms of state, public relations and hospice, and retroactively all stored text (not including permitted historic documents and literature) to adhere to a swath of new spelling conventions. In later generations, the language was also stripped of much of its gendered and individualistic vocabulary. The latest significant reform occurred during the Egg generation of 3949, which saw to a final elimination of gendered pronouns in common language.

Written in post-reform spelling, Martian English's dominant sound changes are as so: Key (words affected by):

  • Red - Early Martian English
  • Orange - Diphthong loss
  • Yellow - Rhotic loss & r-metathesis
  • Green - Dental fricative & nasal consonant loss
  • Cyan - Voiced consonant shift, shortening of some long vowels & some short vowel changes
  • Blue - Voiceless postalveolar fricative loss, additional metathesis formalised
Original 25th cent. 26th cent. 32nd cent. 33rd cent. 35th cent. 39th cent.
Solar English Martian English Early Arcadian English ... ... Late Arcadian English Mazingels
Mars, Federation, Through, Cloud, Bright, Destroy, Governing, Example, Commando Maars, Federashan, Thruu, Klaud, Brait, Destroi, Guverning, Egsaampl, Komaando Maars, Federashan, Thruu, Klaad, Braat, Destroo, Guverning, Egsaampl, Komaando Maas, Fredashan, Thruu, Klaad, Braat, Destoor, Guvrening, Egsaampl, Komaando Maas, Fredashan, Truu, Klaad, Braat, Destoor, Guvrenig, Egsaampl, Komaando Maz, Fredashan, Tru, Klaad, Braat, Deztoor, Gabrenig, Egsaampl, Komaando Maz, Fredasan, Tru, Klaad, Braat, Deztoor, Gabrenig, Egsaampl, Komaadno

Shown here is a general outline, with numerous smaller and far less widespread changes not included.

Grammatical changes[edit | edit source]

While still an analytic language like other languages descended from Pre-Interstellar Earther English, in the millennia since the settlement of Mars, some dialects of Martian English have acquired a sporadic number of new elements.

Arcadia saw the first significant change through the cementing of a proto-evidentiality, born initially through its elite culture of materialism and evidence-based dialogue, with phrases like "I assume", "I did it" or "I saw it" eventually becoming the modern postpositions of "zoom", "died", "sored" and et cetera. With the taming of the frontier and the rise of the Borealis Ocean, Arcadian English spread far across the central Martian highlands, bringing its evidentiality (and phonemes and reformed spelling) with it, becoming the later dialects of Olympian, Elysian, Valley and Utopian. The inhabitants of the continental regions surrounding the Hellas Sea - which was south of the central martian deserts and inhabited by a significant minority of domesticated frontiersmen - was the least inclined to absorb these new elements, with only a small number of these postpositions (particularly the kinaesthetic ones such as "I felt", "I saw", "I tasted" and etc.) embedding themselves into the new Arcadian-influenced Hellas English that later evolved.

The various lower socio-economic regions of Mars - particularly in the desert and algae flat-dominated Meridani Planum, the culturally backward Hellas Sea region, and the tundra-dominated Planum Australe - whose cultures found themselves dominated by the Martian working class, were the most resistant to the stifling rules of Arcadian Martian dialects, and not only forced the hand of newer spelling for sound changes, but also saw the rise of a habitual tense. Similar to the pre-existing tense in various Earther English dialects, and its parallel development in some Saturnian English languages, habitual actions were identified by the use of the copula "be", in contrast to the present "is", past "was", future "will" and so fourth. This tense has since died out with the extinction of their associated dialects.

Following the rise of ALIAS, the planet-spanning command AI has force-shifted the now dominant Olympian dialect into an agglutinative form, with helper words, adjectives and adverbs becoming fixed to the words they augment. Noun gender, a feature more typical of the Germanic languages that predate PIE English, but still prevalent in the form of gendered pronouns, has also disappeared completely following the full institution of genderless pronouns in 3949.

Moods[edit | edit source]

An unusual grammatical element present in Martian English is its frequent use of mood postpositions for evidentiality. Moods are considered subjective and are often dropped when there's sufficient context.

Realis mood indicates that something is actually the case or a certain situation or action is known to have happened.

  • died - Evidential, committed, e.g. "I did it myself"
  • sored - Evidential, sight-derived, e.g. "I saw it"
  • gered - Evidential, hearing-derived, e.g. "I heard it"
  • selted - Evidential, smell-derived, e.g. "I smelt it"
  • taased - Evidential, touch-derived, e.g. "I touched it"
  • teesed - Evidential, taste-derived, e.g. "I tasted it"
  • ketaan - Inferential strong, e.g. "I have very strong evidence for it to be true"
  • soom - Inferential medium, e.g. "I have some evidence for it to be true"
  • zoom - Inferential weak, e.g. "I assume it to be true"
  • maagt - Inferential uncertain, e.g. "It might be true"

Irrealis mood, which indicates that something is not actually the case or a certain situation or action is not known to have happened, uses the above postpositions preceded by the negative prefix naaktid (lit. "not").

Examples:

  • Aa sum naazfud teesed - "I ate some nice food"
  • Aa naaktidgered - "I didn't hear it"
  • Idd sazheer sored desib doogtat despaatebevaat dizmoorgt soom - "It says here the ship docked the space elevator this morning"
  • Zeeint zidwaai zoom - "They probably went this way"

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Extinct dialects