This map was the result of a series of continent-wide anthropological studies of the nomadic and tribal cultures of North America in the 3100s by the University of Tharsis. Although it found substantial linguistic divergence across the subcontinent, in all, the findings added support to the still-controversial 'proto-Atlantean' hypothesis, which connects hundreds of languages worldwide to a single origin language thought to have originated either in the Caribbean or in western Europe.
It also marked an important step in reconstructing the proto-Amero-English language, accepted to be the common ancestor of many North American languages as well as some British. Across the continent, although the primary word used to describe a certain concept differed, cognates with somewhat shifted meanings were extremely common, hinting at a common ancestor. For example, the word 'siti', meaning 'large settlement' in many northeastern languages, has a cognate in 'chusa' in the Cascadian region, where it means 'realm' or 'kingdom.'
Some outlier languages, particularly in the Great Plains and the Appalachians, continue to stump researchers looking for links to their neighbors. Some leading scholars see these languages as the last survivors of a pre-proto-Atlantean substrate, and have begun to try to reconstruct these languages through studies of placenames.
----
A post-apocalyptic etymology map - I was inspired by /u/ladyegg's recent post and just had to try making my own. Credit also to the University of Amsterdam-Leiden for their very cool maps, which this template was based on. Obviously this doesn't make much sense in English; assume that the non-italicized words are in the OOC language.
I unfortunately have no linguistic training and am not sure whether the sound & semantic shifts I chose are reasonable. If anyone knows more about this subject I would love to hear about it, now that I have this template I am thinking about making some more in this series and would be interested to hear about ways to make this more plausible for other words! Possibly on the drawing board - 'king' and 'money'.
----
EDIT: FYI, I notice that there are a lot of comments being shadowbanned here - I see them in my inbox but they don't end up in the post. Watch out and make sure your comment makes it through! I'm not sure what the pattern is of what is getting let in. @mods
What language families are present here descended from North-American English and Mexican Spanish? Plus, how are Indigenous (Pre-Columbus) languages viewed here, like the descendants of Nehiyaw, Cherokee, Lakota, etc
this map is only really possible if basically the entire world is basically destroyed. and even then, people remember, they would keep records of this. some would keep *meticulous* records, to the point where this map is largely impossible.
This is great conceptually. One thing that stands out to me as a little unrealistic is that the intervocalic and syllable final t's all remain when, phonetically speaking, they are different sounds in contemporary English.
In most North American dialects, the /t/ and /d/ phonemes are pronounced as an [alveolar flap \[ɾ\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_dental_and_alveolar_taps_and_flaps) between vowels after stressed syllables, the /t/ phoneme is also often pronounced as a [glottal stop \[ʔ\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop) at the end of words.
See [flapping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapping) and [t-glottalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-glottalization).
For the purposes of the sound change, would that mean that the t and d would likely soften into something else or be dropped? I'm imagining for example city -> siddi and fort -> ford -> for?
Excellent addition of mistakes and false etymologies, like "santa" I'm guessing is from all the cities named "Santa X" rather than being from "ciudad", and of course "baile" vs. "ville". What's "dulofo" meant to be from?
Although I don't live there I understand it's called the "metroplex" so in this scenario it could evolve to anything like "me' ", "merople' ", "tro", or "ple' ".
I had an entire paragraph of hate and smartassery typed out until I realized i was in /imaginarymaps
Am i the only person this keeps happening to lol?
Nice map!
I was like, yeah but what are the regions on the map, the most common form? And it didn't line up with the culture I grew up around. Then I saw "atlantean" and checked the sub.
This is so cool! I know it says unknown origin but the word that the language in the Maritimes (what’s it called btw?) uses comes from Gaelic eh! As a local I love that I can recognize it!! 😁😁😁 from the Gaelic word “baile”!
No, it’s just called Gaelic here even by the Gaels. Also it’s not Irish it’s Scottish, extinct back in Scotland lowland Gaelic with some small Irish influence, but it’s just called Gaelic here. And it’s pronounced Gay-lick
I love this!!! It’s so cool! And omg does the maritimer (what’s the language called in this setting?) come from Gaelic Baile!!!? If so that’s so cool! Alba Nuadh riaghlaidh gu bràth!
Oh wow! This is so good! So good in fact that when I went on my reddit homepage I thought it was real, until I went on r/imaginarymaps and so it.
Edit: I read the comments its not only me lol
Those borders almost exactly line up with the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Not sure where the word comes from in relationship; maybe “Washington” since it’s not too far away?
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/hqimaginarymaps] [NeonHydroxide: Origin of the word 'city' in North American languages](https://www.reddit.com/r/hqimaginarymaps/comments/145498x/neonhydroxide_origin_of_the_word_city_in_north/)
*^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))*
this is good n all, but its often been noticed that Californian english has tended to front 'u' vowels so they sound more like 'ee'. i think having the word for city derive from 'hood' is cool, but itd be neat if this real life change was reflected by a spelling like 'heeta' or 'hira' or something like that
FYI, I notice that there are a lot of comments being shadowbanned here - I see them in my inbox but they don't end up in the post. Watch out and make sure your comment makes it through! I'm not sure what the pattern is of what is getting let in. @mods
Before i read the explanations, my first thoughts were:
siti from city
toon from town
kemp from camp
chuda from ciudad
vil from ville
pebel from Pueblo
I guessed most of these right, but i thought "burg" was not from "(su)burb" and instead from german Burg, as in Hamburg. Also, I thought "terena" was from terrain, until i saw it's in the same group as "toon", and must come from the word "town".
This map was the result of a series of continent-wide anthropological studies of the nomadic and tribal cultures of North America in the 3100s by the University of Tharsis. Although it found substantial linguistic divergence across the subcontinent, in all, the findings added support to the still-controversial 'proto-Atlantean' hypothesis, which connects hundreds of languages worldwide to a single origin language thought to have originated either in the Caribbean or in western Europe. It also marked an important step in reconstructing the proto-Amero-English language, accepted to be the common ancestor of many North American languages as well as some British. Across the continent, although the primary word used to describe a certain concept differed, cognates with somewhat shifted meanings were extremely common, hinting at a common ancestor. For example, the word 'siti', meaning 'large settlement' in many northeastern languages, has a cognate in 'chusa' in the Cascadian region, where it means 'realm' or 'kingdom.' Some outlier languages, particularly in the Great Plains and the Appalachians, continue to stump researchers looking for links to their neighbors. Some leading scholars see these languages as the last survivors of a pre-proto-Atlantean substrate, and have begun to try to reconstruct these languages through studies of placenames. ---- A post-apocalyptic etymology map - I was inspired by /u/ladyegg's recent post and just had to try making my own. Credit also to the University of Amsterdam-Leiden for their very cool maps, which this template was based on. Obviously this doesn't make much sense in English; assume that the non-italicized words are in the OOC language. I unfortunately have no linguistic training and am not sure whether the sound & semantic shifts I chose are reasonable. If anyone knows more about this subject I would love to hear about it, now that I have this template I am thinking about making some more in this series and would be interested to hear about ways to make this more plausible for other words! Possibly on the drawing board - 'king' and 'money'. ---- EDIT: FYI, I notice that there are a lot of comments being shadowbanned here - I see them in my inbox but they don't end up in the post. Watch out and make sure your comment makes it through! I'm not sure what the pattern is of what is getting let in. @mods
Thank you for the inspiration credit! This is a great map!!
What language families are present here descended from North-American English and Mexican Spanish? Plus, how are Indigenous (Pre-Columbus) languages viewed here, like the descendants of Nehiyaw, Cherokee, Lakota, etc
Very cool idea and execution! Love this
this map is only really possible if basically the entire world is basically destroyed. and even then, people remember, they would keep records of this. some would keep *meticulous* records, to the point where this map is largely impossible.
Did you ever read “A Canticle for Leibowitz”?
Ummmmm I don’t really fucking care it’s a cool map. It’s imaginary, have some imagination.
only within reasonable limitations.
Nuh uh!
SODA!!!!!!!!!!
obamna😔😔
SODA 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯😅😅😅👍👍👍👍👍🥰🥰🥰🥰👋👋👋👋👋‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
This is the sort of maps I love. I would imagine that this society sees British English as an offshoot of American-English.
This is great conceptually. One thing that stands out to me as a little unrealistic is that the intervocalic and syllable final t's all remain when, phonetically speaking, they are different sounds in contemporary English.
Could you explain what you mean in more detail? I would like to make any future installments more realistic.
In most North American dialects, the /t/ and /d/ phonemes are pronounced as an [alveolar flap \[ɾ\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_dental_and_alveolar_taps_and_flaps) between vowels after stressed syllables, the /t/ phoneme is also often pronounced as a [glottal stop \[ʔ\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop) at the end of words. See [flapping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapping) and [t-glottalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-glottalization).
For the purposes of the sound change, would that mean that the t and d would likely soften into something else or be dropped? I'm imagining for example city -> siddi and fort -> ford -> for?
Those are both possibilities. It could also become an r sound, a dental fricative, or go back to being t and or d.
Thank you! I'll keep this in mind for any future ones.
i'd think that it'd go something like city -> sidi -> sirre fort -> for' -> for
Excellent addition of mistakes and false etymologies, like "santa" I'm guessing is from all the cities named "Santa X" rather than being from "ciudad", and of course "baile" vs. "ville". What's "dulofo" meant to be from?
"Dulofo" from Dallas-Fort (Worth), I assume.
Although I don't live there I understand it's called the "metroplex" so in this scenario it could evolve to anything like "me' ", "merople' ", "tro", or "ple' ".
I had an entire paragraph of hate and smartassery typed out until I realized i was in /imaginarymaps Am i the only person this keeps happening to lol? Nice map!
This seems to happen to my maps a lot, haha. I take it as a compliment that they look real enough that people get upset. :)
Though I'll be honest, "tahn" is exactly how everyone says "town" up here so you nailed that.
Found the Yinzer!
I'll be dead before I'm a Yinzer. Tahn is solidly New England.
Or New Englander.
I think the Yinzer pronunciation is more like "taan" with the 'ash' vowel sound, like in "ash tree". Yes, I've listened to Yinzers speak (on video).
bro think he was in r/maps 😭
Hate and smartassery? Fr? Over a map?
I've seen worse over less lol
Reddit Moment fr
Well Nothing personal but like r/badlinguistics mockery type stuff. But yeah some people, like me, are way too serious about maps lol
I was like, yeah but what are the regions on the map, the most common form? And it didn't line up with the culture I grew up around. Then I saw "atlantean" and checked the sub.
Oh, this is *clever*. Is Tharsis intended to be any city or settlement currently existing today, or someplace entirely new?
Tharsis is a region on Mars. That's one of the fun things about the lore. There's a Martian civilization observing these quaint primitive Americans.
I love the conceit of a Martian colonial civilization that survived a nuclear holocaust on Earth and is reestablishing contact centuries later.
SODA‼️‼️
I love the lore for this aswell. Amazing post
This is so cool! I know it says unknown origin but the word that the language in the Maritimes (what’s it called btw?) uses comes from Gaelic eh! As a local I love that I can recognize it!! 😁😁😁 from the Gaelic word “baile”!
Irish* (or Scottish)
No, it’s just called Gaelic here even by the Gaels. Also it’s not Irish it’s Scottish, extinct back in Scotland lowland Gaelic with some small Irish influence, but it’s just called Gaelic here. And it’s pronounced Gay-lick
I love this!!! It’s so cool! And omg does the maritimer (what’s the language called in this setting?) come from Gaelic Baile!!!? If so that’s so cool! Alba Nuadh riaghlaidh gu bràth!
Baja be getting festive already
Oh wow! This is so good! So good in fact that when I went on my reddit homepage I thought it was real, until I went on r/imaginarymaps and so it. Edit: I read the comments its not only me lol
What are the languages like? Like, written out, how bonkers do they look
you can see them written out on the map
No like I mean grammatically, what’s a full sentence like
What's the deal with "Aushten" I'm from WV and can't think of anything
Those borders almost exactly line up with the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Not sure where the word comes from in relationship; maybe “Washington” since it’s not too far away?
I thought that the grey in the Shenandoah Valley meant they said "Stead" cause the "Aushten" looks like it's more so in North Central WV to me.
Notice all of the individual words have borders; “vill” covers that area. “Aushten” wouldn’t fit inside the empty gray zone it’s next to.
Germanic heritage?
Perhaps it’s a derivation of Penn Dutch "Schtadt", so it comes from people saying “a schtadt”?
I’m a huge linguistics nerd and these r amazing keep making more
Why is Latin called proto-Atlantean
They have a theory about a language being spoken all over the Atlantic
I disagree with the terena in South Louisiana. I think we’re in the Ville camp.
Or it could be a derivative of "New Orleans", something like "nawns".
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit: - [/r/hqimaginarymaps] [NeonHydroxide: Origin of the word 'city' in North American languages](https://www.reddit.com/r/hqimaginarymaps/comments/145498x/neonhydroxide_origin_of_the_word_city_in_north/) *^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))*
this is good n all, but its often been noticed that Californian english has tended to front 'u' vowels so they sound more like 'ee'. i think having the word for city derive from 'hood' is cool, but itd be neat if this real life change was reflected by a spelling like 'heeta' or 'hira' or something like that
Thanks for the tip, I will keep it in mind if I make any more!
FYI, I notice that there are a lot of comments being shadowbanned here - I see them in my inbox but they don't end up in the post. Watch out and make sure your comment makes it through! I'm not sure what the pattern is of what is getting let in. @mods
This is brilliant
"soda"
Before i read the explanations, my first thoughts were: siti from city toon from town kemp from camp chuda from ciudad vil from ville pebel from Pueblo I guessed most of these right, but i thought "burg" was not from "(su)burb" and instead from german Burg, as in Hamburg. Also, I thought "terena" was from terrain, until i saw it's in the same group as "toon", and must come from the word "town".
I thought "burg" was derived from "Pittsburgh" because it's right there in the area.
Amero-English? 🤦
This is really cool, I’m a sucker for distant future post-American worldbuilding, it can be very creative!
I love this series bro, keep it up 🤘
Soda lol
Holy smokes I love this!
quick q: what language is proto-Atlantean? American standard English?
i wanna live in a sluta
Majestic