Jakvalat

Introduction

Goals

To create an aesthetically pleasing, yet easily pronounceable (for me, anyways), language for the setting of a habitable alternative Venus.

Setting

The setting is a Venus with a thinner crust which enables convection of heat within the planet's core and, despite Venus' slower rotation, the subsequent generation of a magnetic field sufficient to prevent the loss of the planet's oceans.

Lanakwa (Often called Common Venerian in English) is the predominant lingua franca spoken on Venus (Ln: Lhinla). It originated from the environs of the mercantile city of Suliriyal on the continent of Yehadramit.

Phonology

A. Orthography

Native Alphabet	Practical Orthography	IPA
⟨o⟩	⟨p⟩	/p/
⟨ɵ⟩	⟨ph⟩	/f/
⟨c⟩	⟨b⟩	/b/
⟨ɔ⟩	⟨m⟩	/m/
⟨s⟩	⟨w⟩	/w/
⟨v⟩	⟨t⟩	/t/
⟨ʌ⟩	⟨th⟩	/θ/
⟨w⟩	⟨d⟩	/d/
⟨ʍ⟩	⟨n⟩	/n/
⟨x⟩	⟨s⟩	/s/
⟨ɴ⟩	⟨r⟩	/ɹ/
⟨ɛ⟩	⟨x⟩	/ɬ/
⟨ɜ⟩	⟨l⟩	/l/
⟨n⟩	⟨k⟩	/k/
⟨u⟩	⟨kh⟩	/x/
⟨m⟩	⟨ɡ⟩	/ɡ/
⟨ɯ⟩	⟨q⟩	/ŋ/
⟨ʜ⟩	⟨y⟩	/j/
⟨z⟩	⟨h⟩	/h/

NOTES:

1. The native alphabet was ultimately derived from an ancient featural abugida.

2. The practical orthography was devised by the first terrestrial linguists to reach Venus. It has since become the default scheme of romanisation for Lanakwa.

3. The spelling of both the native alphabet and the practical orthography is morphophonemic in that the spelling is phonemic but does change to reflect morphophonemic changes.

4. The following punctuation marks are in use in the native alphabet:

⟨.⟩ = short pause, equivalent to a comma or semi-colon. ⟨:⟩ = long pause, equivalent to a colon or full stop.

Punctuation marks occur immediately after the last word of a clause and never occur consecutively.

5. Any given word is separated from any following word by a space. There are no equivalents to parentheses, quotation marks, exclamation marks or questions marks.

1. Consonants

	Labial	Central Coronal	Lateral Coronal	Dorsal	Glottal
Plosive
-voiceless	/p/	/t/		/k/
-voiced	/b/	/d/		/ɡ/
Fricative
-sibilant		/s/	/ɬ/
-spirant	/f/	/θ/		/x/
-aspirate					/h/
Sonorant
-nasal	/m/	/n/		/ŋ/
-lateral			/l/
Approximant
-rhotic		/ɹ/
-semivowel	/w/			/j/

Notes:

1. All coronals are alveolar except for /ɬ/ which is postalveolar.

2. Lanakwa has 19 consonants which, according to the World Atlas of Language Structures, is an average inventory. The most notable features, according to WALs, are the presence of a lateral obstruent, the initial velar nasal and a dental fricative.

2. Vowels

	Front	Back
High	/i/	/u/
Low	/ɛ/	/ɑ/

Notes:

1. /ɑ/ is the result of a merger between earlier /*o, *a/.

2. Lanakwa has 4 vowel qualities which, according to WALS, is a small inventory. The consonant-vowel ratio is 4.75 which is a moderately high ratio.

C. Allophony

1. /p, t, k/ are realised as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] when the only consonant in the onset of a stressed syllable.

2. In intervocalic position and when the onset of an unstressed syllable, /b, d, ɡ/ are realised as [v, ð̠, ʒ].

3. Onset /s, ɬ/ is realised as [z, ɮ] after a coda of /b, d/.

4. Coda /s, ɬ/ are realised as [z, ʒ] before an onset of /b, d, ɡ/.

5. The consonant clusters /ɬɹ, ɬw, ɬj/ are realised as [ʃɹ, ʃw, ʃj].

6. The consonant clusters /mm, nn, ŋŋ, ll/ are realised as [bm, dn, ɡŋ, dl].

7. /i, u/ are realised as [ɪ, ʊ] in closed syllables.

D. Phonotactics

1. Syllable template: C(C)V(C).

2. Permitted syllable codas:

/t, k, b, d, s, ɬ, θ, x, m, n, ŋ, l/.

3. /s, ɬ, l/ do not occur as codas in word-final position.

4. /θ, x/ only occur as codas in word-final position.

5. Permitted Syllable Onset Consonant Clusters:

	R	W	Y
T	tr	tw	ty
K	kr	kw	ky
B	br	bw	by
D	dr	dw	dy
S	r	sw	sy
X	xr	xw	xy
TH	thr	thw	thy
KH	khr	khw	khy
M	-	mw	-
Q	-	-	qy

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

6. Permitted Syllable Boundary Consonant Clusters:

P

T

K

B

D

G

S

X

PH

TH

KH

M

N

Q

L

R

T

-

-

-

-

-

-

ts

tx

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

K

-

-

-

-

-

-

ks

kx

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

B

-

-

-

-

-

-

bs

bx

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

D

-

-

-

-

-

-

ds

dx

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

S

sp

st

sk

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

X

xp

xt

xk

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

M

mp

-

-

mb

-

-

-

-

mph

-

-

mm

-

-

-

-

N

-

nt

-

-

nd

-

ns

nx

-

nth

-

-

nn

-

nl

nr

Q

-

-

qk

-

-

qg

-

-

-

-

qkh

-

-

qq

-

-

L

lp

lt

lk

lb

ld

lg

ls

lx

lph

lth

lkh

lm

ln

lq

ll

lr

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

7. No consonant cluster may have more than two segments.

8. Consonant clusters do not occur within the syllable coda.

9. Vowel sequences do not occur.

10. /i/ may not occur after onset /j/.

11. /u/ may not occur after onset /w/.

12. Most native roots are disyllabic with monosyllabic roots being restricted to pronouns. Most particles are monosyllabic.

E. Prosody

1. Primary stress falls on the first syllable of the root.

2. Secondary stress is borne on every odd-numbered syllable after the primary stress.

3. Rhythm type is trochaic.

F. Morphophonology

1. When two-segment consonant clusters result from affixation, they are treated as per the table below:

P

T

K

B

D

G

S

X

PH

TH

KH

H

M

N

Q

L

R

W

Y

T

ph

th

kh

p

t

k

ts

tx

ph

th

kh

th

nt

nt

nt

lt

tr

tw

ty

K

ph

th

kh

p

t

k

ks

kx

ph

th

kh

kh

qk

qk

qk

lk

kr

kw

ky

B

ph

th

kh

p

bd

bg

bs

bx

ph

th

kh

w

mb

mb

mb

lb

br

bw

by

D

ph

th

kh

p

t

k

ds

dx

ph

th

kh

r

nd

nd

nd

ld

dr

dw

dy

TH

ph

th

kh

p

t

k

s

x

ph

th

kh

nth

nth

nth

nth

lth

thr

thw

thy

KH

ph

th

kh

p

t

k

s

x

ph

th

kh

kh

qkh

qkh

qkh

lkh

khr

khw

khy

M

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

nx

mph

nth

qkh

w

mm

nn

qq

nl

nr

mw

qy

N

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

nx

mph

nth

qkh

r

mm

nn

qq

nl

nr

mw

qy

Q

mp

nt

qk

mb

nd

qg

ns

nx

mph

nth

qkh

y

mm

nn

qq

nl

nr

mw

qy

Notes:

a. The practical orthography is used here for clarity.

b. First segment of cluster runs along left of table.

c. Second segment of cluster runs along top of table.

2. When a three-segment consonant clusters result from affixation, the first consonant in the cluster is deleted.

Morphology

Lanakwa morphemes fall into the following classes:

1. Particles.

These do not bear any inflection, have little semantic content and comprise such things as temporal or locative adverbs, conjunctions, interjections and anything else that isn't a root.

2. Roots.

These do bear inflection and contain much of the semantic content of an utterance. Roots are divided into nouns and verbs. Verbs are further divided into transitive and intransitive categories.