Verse:Mwail/Qua
- This concerns one of many timelines for Angai.
Qua (natively Qua kī̄ /qɨɑ̯˧ ki˥/) is an analytic monosyllabic tonal language with 12 tones: 5 level tones, 3 rising tones, 3 falling tones, and 1 glottalized tone. It is head-final and SVO.
Qua is inspired by East and Southeast Asian tonal languages, Ojitlán Chinantec, Toda, and Saanich.
The native Qua orthography is a deep one (like Tibetan's).
Phonology
The following is the phonology of Standard Qua.
Phonotactics
A morpheme is almost always monosyllabic. A syllable always has the structure IRT, where I = initial, R = rime, and T = tone. Qua has 43 initials, 9 rimes, and 11 tones, making 4257 theoretical syllables. However, not every rime-tone combination is actually allowed.
Rimes
i/e/ə/ɑ/ej/əj/ɑj/iɑ̯/ɨɑ̯
i/e/ə/a/ey/əy/ay/ea/ua
- Notes
- /ɑ/ and /ɑj/ are phonetically [a̠] and [a̠j].
- /ɨə̯/ is commonly monophthongized to [ɨ] or [ɨ̞].
Initials
43 initials
| Bilabial | Linguolabial | Lamino-dental | Apico-alveolar | Subapical | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nonsib. | sib. | nonsib. | sib. | nonsib. | sib. | |||||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | mʌ /n̼/ | nh /n̪/ | n /n/ | nr /ɳ/ | |||||||||
| Stop | p /p/ | pʌ /t̼/ | th /t̪/ | tz /t̪s̪/ | t /t/ | ts /ts̠/ | tr /ʈ/ | tsr /ʈʂ/ | tx /tʃ/ | c /c/ | k /k/ | q /q/ | /ʔ/ | |
| Fricative | f /ɸ/ | fʌ /θ̼/ | zz /θ/ | z /s̪/ | ss /θ̠/ | s /s̠/ | sr /ʂ/ | x /ʃ/ | ch /ç/ | kh /x/ | qh /χ/ | h /h/ | ||
| Resonant | central | w /w/ | ʌ /ð̼/ | zh /ð̞/ | r /ɾ/ | rr /ɻ/ | y /j/ | g /ɰ/ | ||||||
| lateral | lʌ /l̼/ | lh /l̪/ | l /l/ | lr /ɭ/ | ly /ʎ/ | lg /ʟ/ | ||||||||
Tones
(Todo: make non-level tones weirder)
| Rom. | IPA | English name | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ā̄ | /˥/ (55) | top | qā̄ /qɑ˥/ 'short' | Often marked by stiff voice. |
| ā | /˦/ (44) | high | qā /qɑ˦/ 'coat' | |
| a | /˧/ (33) | mid | qa /qɑ˧/ 'to take' | |
| a̱ | /˨/ (22) | low | qa̱ /qɑ˨/ 'to burn (intrans.)' | |
| a̱̱ | /˩/ (11) | bottom | qa̱̱ /qɑ˩/ 'to exhale' | Often marked by vocal fry. |
| a̗ | /˨˦/ (24) | mid-rise | qa̗ /qɑ˨˦/ 'roof' | |
| á | /˧˥/ (35) | high-rise | qá /qɑ˧˥/ 'fencepost' | |
| à | /˥˧/ (53) | high-fall | qà /qɑ˥˧/ 'crow, raven; (ideophone) caw' | |
| a̖ | /˧˩/ (31) | low-fall | qa̖ /qɑ˧˩/ 'finger' | |
| ạ | /˩˨/ (12) | low-rise | qạ /qɑ˩˨/ 'oil, fat, grease' | |
| â | /˦˨/ (42) | mid-fall | qâ /qɑ˦˨/ 'to imprint, to stamp' | |
| ả | /11ʔ/ (11) | stop | qả /qɑ11ʔ/ 'Ulva lactuca' |
Tone box
| A (null or resonant coda) (2/5) | B (glottal stop coda) (1/5) | C (fricative coda) (1/5) | D (voiceless stop coda) (1/5) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creaky initial (2/8) | 53 (à) | 44 (ā) | 11 (a̱̱) | 55 (ā̄) |
| Modal initial (3/8) | 33 (a) | 12 (ạ) | 22 (a̱) | 35 (á) |
| Breathy initial (3/8) | 31 (a̖) | 24 (a̗) | 42 (â) | 11ʔ (ả) |