Edebro/Style Registers

Edebro has four main style registers, which vary in both phonological and grammatical details. The differences between them and a brief description of their uses are described below.

Ceremonial
The most formal register, it sounds very archaic and its use is largely relegated to ceremonial uses, such as marriages, funerals, and coronations.

Phonologically, this register is distinguished by its preservation of historical diphthongs, which are typically lost in the standard dialect (though some other dialects also maintain them in more typical speech), and the preservation of /a/ and /s/ before /r/, which otherwise triggered deletion of the former sounds.

Grammatically, the ceremonial register is distinguished by maintaining Old Edebro's more complex verbal structure, including person and animacy agreement on auxiliary verbs. In the present tense, these are: da udjo/nidjo/madjo, mes uro/niro/maro, kas uku/niku/maku, gon uge/nige/mage, osi uti/niti/mati, ki/dsjas u/ni/ma, ru/dsa ure/nire/mare. Additionally, there is an additional remote past tense that is not typically used in lower registers of the language, formed as umo/nimo/mamo. (When combined, the tense suffix follows the agreement suffix.) Furthermore, demonstratives can not stand alone as pronouns as they do in the modern standard variety of the language, requiring a noun to stand with.

Formal/Consultative
The unmarked register, this style is used with strangers and most acquaintances, in contexts such as business transactions, newscasts, and classroom lessons.

This register is the form represented in the documentation here on CWS, with the exception of the use of certain simplifications in translations: the T/V distinction between kas and gon, respectively, is levelled in favor of the informal register's ne for most instances of "you" in translations; the animacy distinction in demonstratives is also levelled, opting for the inanimate ru and dsa over the animate ki and dsjas; and the three-degree system of deixis, ru vs dsa vs ti, is simplified to a two-degree system.

Informal
The second-most commonly encountered register style, the informal is used between friends, in casual situations.

Phonologically, the informal register is marked by a reduction of the standard affricates /p͡f/ and /k͡x/ to mere fricatives /f/ and /x/, as well as the palatalized series becoming true palatal consonants.

Grammatically, the informal is distinguished by the lack of a T-V distinction and an animacy distinction, as noted above; the regularization of word order to SOV (in contrast with the formal's topic-comment system); some auxiliary verbs (especially ni and ma) being dropped; the shift of tense marking to the lexical verbs in clauses with dropped auxiliaries; and stative verbs becoming true adjectives, enabling them to directly modify nouns.

Intimate
The intimate register is relegated to use between family members, romantic partners, and some particularly close friends, and is often heard only in the home.

Phonologically, in addition to the changes noted in the informal register, the intimate register differs most prominently by its deletion of unstressed final /a/, and the reduction of final /m/ to nasalization on the preceding vowel.

Grammatically, in addition to those differences from the formal found in the informal, pronouns become proclitics on the following verb, unless stressed; telicity becomes marked by the serial verb pun 'finish' rather than reduplication (though reduplication's function of marking intensity is unaffected), and plurality is marked with bo 'many' instead of reduplication.