Kimow
| Kimow | |
|---|---|
| Kimau[1] | |
| kimow | |
| Pronunciation | [kʰím.ǒʊ] [kʰǐm.ɑ̄w] |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2024 |
| Native speakers | 7.7 million(total) (2024) Kimo: 3.96 million Wakki: 3.74 million |
language isolate
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Dialects |
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Kimow(/kiːmoʊ/, kimow; Kimow: [kʰím.ǒʊ] or [kʰǐm.ɑ̄w]), also(but less commonly) called Kimau,[1] is a language isolate that is notorious for the fact that the majority of its words are homonyms, meaning they have various meanings. For example, the name of the language, Kimow, can mean "Kimow"(adj.), "the Kimow language", "the Kimow people", "an ethnic Kimow", "a Kimow speaker(so not necessarily an ethnic Kimow)", "a member of the Kimow diaspora", "Kimow food" or "a Kimow city". There are also only two main dialects, the Kimo and the Wakki, and their homonymic meanings differ greatly at times, making mutual understanding difficult. Tone and phonology vary slightly as well, though not as greatly and are thus more mutually intelligible.
Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
Aside from Wakki dialects using [w] as a replacement for [u] and [ʊ], consonants do not vary at all between Kimow speakers.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar/ Labial-velar |
Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pulmonic | c ɟ | q ɢ | ʔ | ||||
| aspirated | pʰ bʱ | tʰ dʱ | kʰ gʱ | |||||
| ejective/glottalised[3] | pʼ bʼ p͡ʔ b͡ʔ |
tʼ t͡ʔ |
qʼ ɢʼ q͡ʔ ɢ͡ʔ |
|||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Fricative | pulmonic | f v | s z | ç | h ɦ | |||
| ejective/glottalised[3] | fʼ vʼ f͡ʔ v͡ʔ |
sʼ zʼ s͡ʔ z͡ʔ |
||||||
| Approximant | normal | w[4] | ||||||
| lateral | l | ɫ | ||||||
Ejective controversy
There is an ongoing debate on whether the doubled consonants of Kimow(kk, gg and so forth) are ejective consonants or diphthongs with a glottal stop. Previous studies have tried to link the two sets of different sounds to dialectical difference between Kimo and Wakki, but no correlation was found between use of glottal diphthongs or ejectives on dialectic differences alone. Subsequent studies on less spoken dialects, such as Kemhu Kka and Mukku found no correlation either. Thus, the theory that use of ejectives or glottal diphthongs depends on dialect is now generally considered outdated and disproven, though a replacement theory with substantial evidence has yet to be found. Until such a theory is proposed, the linguistic community has agreed that the differences are completely arbitrary and are sometimes up to the speaker.
Vowels
Red sounds are exclusive to Kimo dialects, while blue sounds are exclusive to Wakki dialects. Green sounds are exclusive to Igkin dialects, which although are a subset of Kimo dialects, do have some different sounds. Black sounds are in all sets of dialects.
| Front | Central | Near-close | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɯ[5] u[4] | ||
| Near-close | ʊ[4] | |||
| Close-mid | e ø | ɘ[6] ɵ[6] | o | |
| Open | a œ[7] | ɑ[8] |
Prosody
Stress
Tone
Use of tone in Kimow is not indicated in the orthography and varies by Kimo and Wakki dialects, though within their own subsets they tend to conform to one standard tone system.
Table
| Tone | |
|---|---|
| Kimo | Wakki |
| high tone [˦ ] |
rising tone [˩˥] |
| rising tone [˩˥] |
mid tone [˧] |
| falling tone [˥˩] |
low rising tone [˩˨] |
| rising-falling tone [˧˦˧] | |
| extra low tone | |
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Syntax
Constituent order
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Example texts
Other resources
- ^ a b Original exonym of the language before widespread English-based romanisation, now only used in German in the form of *kimauisch*.
- ^ Mostly extinct, some elderly speakers still exist.
- ^ a b See Kimow#Ejective controversy.
- ^ a b c In Wakki dialects, the [u]/[ʊ] is substituted by [w] in most cases.
- ^ Allophone of [m] in initial position.
- ^ a b Both are variants of [e] and [ø] in Kimo and Wakki dialects.
- ^ Alternative allophone of /ø/, though [ø] is still more widely used.
- ^ Wakki variant of Kimo [o].