Faiten

Faiten
Fae Tan Fah or 飛談話
Pronunciation	[fᴀi̯ tᴀn fᴀ]
Created by	Nathan Xu
Date	2009
Native to	Faitonia
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Faiten
Official status
Official language in	Faitonia
Regulated by	共產媈唐人民共和國政府 or Kaung Shan Fai Tang Hnin Bin Gong Var Quoc Jieng Fu

Introduction

Faiten Language (also known as Tan Language) is a constructed language with its roots in the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is primarily spoken in the region of Faitonia and holds a community of 4 million speakers (4.5 million including in Faitonian diaspora). While Faiten initially gained popularity as a tool to circumvent government censorship on the internet, it has also evolved into a fully-fledged spoken language. Faiten's linguistic structure draws influences from mainly Chinese and in some cases Vietnamese.

Phonology

Vowel inventory

	Front		Back
Close	i	y	ɨ	u
Middle	e	ø	ə	o
Open	ɛ	œ	ᴀ	ɔ

Diphthongs

Palatal		Labial
i̯a	ai̯	u̯a	au̯
i̯e	ei̯	u̯e	eu̯
ɨ̯ə	əi̯	u̯ə
i̯o		u̯o	ou̯
y̯ø	øy̯
i̯u

Consonant inventory

		Labial	Dental	Velar	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal
Stop	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	kʰ	t͡sʰ	ʈ͡ʂʰ	t͡ɕʰ
	Tenuis	p	t	k	t͡s	ʈ͡ʂ	t͡ɕ
	Voiced	b	d	g
Fricative	Tenuis	f		h	s	ʂ	ɕ
	Voiced	v			z	ʐ	ʑ
Resonant	Nasal	m	n	ŋ
	Liquid	w	l				j

Correspondences From Middle Chinese

• 

  Faiten Initials

• 

  Faiten Open Rimes

• 

  Faiten Nasal Rimes

Notes:

• Labialisation of initials 幫 滂 並 明 only occur in independent rimes 嚴 元 殷 庚 凡 文 廢 微 幽 as well as Chongniu-B rimes 祭 支 脂 宵 鹽 侵 仙 真 清 as well as Closed mouth III rimes 戈 陽 蒸.
• Rimes 魚 虞 are realized as back vowels /u o/ in initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟, and front /y ø/ for the initials 章 昌 禪 書 船, and /i̯o i̯u/ for the rest.
• Before initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟 the mixed III finals lose their palatal glide as they merge with division II.
• The initials 曉 匣 are both realized as /h/. But in closed mouth syllables they labiodentalise into /f v/ which lose their -u̯- glide.
• Before initials 端 透 定 泥 精 清 從 心 邪 they lose their palatal glide while retaining their vowels.
• In initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟 the vowels /e i/ become /ə ɨ/.
• In initials 見 溪 羣 疑, Chongniu-B rimes loses it’s palatal glide while Chongniu-A rimes retains the -i- glide.

Orthography

Faiten utilises two scripts in it's literature: Latin and Hanzi. Occasionally, these two scripts intertwine, although primarily in informal or conversational contexts. However, the Latin script used in Tan lacks a rigid standard set of letters to render certain phonemes and tends to exhibit inconsistency in orthography. In Faiten a grapheme becomes a vessel for multiple phonemes, and conversely, multiple phonemes find expression within a single grapheme.

Initials

Initials		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar
Stop	Aspirated	pʰ p, hp, ph	tʰ t, ht, th	t͡sʰ tz, ch	t͡ɕʰ q	ʈ͡ʂʰ kr, gr	kʰ k, hk, kh
	Tenuis	p p, b	t t, d	t͡s ts	t͡ɕ j	ʈ͡ʂ tr, dr	k k, c, g
	Voiced	b b, bh	d d, dh				g g, gh
Fricative	Tenuis	f f		s s	ɕ x	ʂ sh	h h
	Voiced	v v		z z	ʑ r	ʐ zh
Resonant	Nasal	m m, hm	n n, hn				ŋ ng, gn
	Liquid		l l, lh, hl
	Glide				j i, y		w u, w

Finals

Plain Rime	Front		Back
	Flat	Round	Flat	Round
Close	i i, ee	y u, uu, ue	ɨ z, ze, y	u u, oo, ou
Middle	e e, ay, ai, eh, er	ø eu, eo, oe, oeu	ə e, o, a	o o, aw, au, oh, or
Open	ɛ e, ay, ai, eh, er	œ eu, eo, oe, oeu	a a, aa, ah, ar	ɔ o, aw, au, oh, or

As noticeable in this table, the vowels [e ɛ] [ø œ] [o ɔ] are merged in orthography and share the same graphemes, however in spoken Faiten these sounds are distinguished with context disambiguating the graphemes semantic value. For instance <ke> is either pronounced [ke] "fake", [kʰe] (classifier), [kɛ] "family", or [kʰɛ] "cash".

Palatal		Labial
i̯a ia, ya, iar, iah, yar, yah	ai̯ ae, ay	u̯a oi, oa, war, waa, wah	au̯ ao, aw, aou
i̯e ie, ye, iae, yae	ei̯ ey, ei, ay, ai	u̯e we, way, wai, oue, oui	eu̯ ew, aeo, eow, aio, iew
ɨ̯ə eau, uea, ea	əi̯ aoe, aei, oie, eur, eor, uer	u̯ə our, ua, wa
i̯o iau, io, iao, yau, yao, yo		u̯o uo, wo, wau	ou̯ ow, ou, aw, au
y̯ø ieu, iue, ieo, yeu, yue, yeo	øy̯ eui, eoi, ui, uei, uy, oei
i̯u iou, iu, you, yoo, yu, ioo

Table 2.4: Codas
m m, me, mp, mme, lm, chm, gm, mn, mh, sme,	p̚ p, pe, mp, lp, b, mpe, f, ph, pt, ft, bp, lf, be
n n, ne, nt, l, lt, hn, nne, ll, le, sne, nne,	t̚ t, te, nt, lt, d, tt, th, nte, st, tch, dt, de, the,
ŋ ng, nn, gne, gn, nh, nc, ngh, nque,	k̚ k, ke, que, c, ch, g, nk, lk, ct, ck, gk, gh, ge

Grammar

Faiten Language is an analytic nominative-accusative language with free word order and a head-initial structure. This means that the language relies on word order and context to convey meaning, rather than inflectional endings on words. In Faiten, the subject of a sentence is marked in the nominative case, while the object is marked in the accusative case. The language also has a head-initial structure, which means that the head of a phrase (such as a noun or verb) comes before any modifiers. This allows for flexibility in word order, as modifiers can be placed before or after the head without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Personal Pronouns

Table 3.1	Singular	Plural
1st Person	吾[ŋu], 我[ŋa], 余[y], 俺[em], 台[i], 朕[dɨm], 阮[ŋi̯on], 咱[t͡san], 剌[lat̚], 僕[buk̚], 婢[bi̯e], 偶[u], 厓[ge], 祽[t͡so̯u], 偔[ŋak̚]	Singular Pronoun + 曹[zau̯]
2nd Person	汝[ni̯o], 爾[nen], 尓[ni̯e], 迺[nai̯], 叒[ni̯ak̚], 君[ki̯un], 卿[kʰi̯aŋ], 農[nɔŋ], 恁[nim], 儕[ʐə], 子[t͡si], 倷[nə], 㑚[nɐ], 英[i̯aŋ], 眉[mi]
3rd Person	伊[i], 人[nin], 佢[kʰøy], 諾[nak̚], 佗[dɔ], 亓[gi], 厥[ki̯ut̚], 渠[gi̯o], 夫[vu], 㞢[t͡ɕi], 伢[i̯a], 夷[i], 它[tʰa], 亳[bak̚], 㑢[kʰi̯ak̚]

Demonstrative Pronouns

Table 3.2	Proximal	Distal
Singular	這[an], 此[t͡sʰe], 箇[ka], 葛[kat̚], 益[i̯ek̚], 遮[t͡ɕi̯a], 是[de], 斯[se], 茲[zi], 茊[ʑi], 者[ta], 只[t͡ɕi̯e], 拓[tʰak̚], 邇[ni̯e], 即[t͡sik̚], 呢[ni]	那[na], 彼[fe], 其[gu], 兀[gu̯ot̚], 個[kɔ], 許[hi̯o], 介[kei̯], 乢[kap̚], 艾[ŋai̯], 埃[ai̯], 改[kai̯], 該[kɛ], 嚀[neŋ], 遐[ha], 兜[tou̯], 箕[kɨ]
Plural	Singular Proximal/Distal + 等[toŋ]

Interrogative Pronouns

Table 3.3
What	何, 啥, 麼, 乜, 淡, 奚, 曷, 底
Who	誰, 疇, 孰, 誰人, 何人, 何者, 阿誰, 哪𠰻, 啥儂, 底儂,
When	曷, 何時, 幾時, 哪久, 底時, 何時節, 當, 曷
Why	何為, 何以, 何故, 何居, 何意, 何由, 緣何, 胡, 奚, 曷, 哪,
Where	何處, 何許, 何方, 安, 選, 哪, 狃, 阿裡, 佗位, 哪搭, 邊
How	何其, 如何, 奈何, 若何, 仰仔, 按怎, 做呢, 訾那, 焉, 咋,

Nouns

In Faiten, the noun system is characterized by its simplicity and lack of inflection. Nouns in Faiten do not undergo changes to indicate case, gender, or number. Unlike many other languages, where nouns can take on different forms depending on their role in a sentence or their grammatical characteristics, Faiten nouns remain constant. This means that the same noun form is used regardless of whether it is the subject, object, singular, or plural. To indicate the number of the noun, Faiten incorporates the use of quantifier particles to specify the quantity or provide detailed counting of nouns. These particles are essential for indicating the number associated with a particular noun. Instead of relying on inflection or morphological changes within the noun itself, Faiten speakers utilise quantifier particles to convey precise numeric information.

Examples of Faiten Nouns:

1. 龍 [loŋ] - dragon
2. 蓮花 [lɛn fa] - lotus flower
3. 古琴 [ku gim] - ancient musical instrument
4. 山水 [ʂan ɕy] - landscape
5. 書法 [ɕy fap̚] - calligraphy
6. 古董 [ku tuŋ] - antique
7. 酒坛 [dan t͡su] - wine jar
8. 紅袍 [huŋ bau̯] - red robe
9. 琉璃 [li̯u li̯e] - glass
10. 丹鳳眼 [tan bi̯uŋ ŋan] - phoenix eye (a type of precious stone)
11. 筆架 [fit̚ ke] - pen holder
12. 羅漢床 [la han ʐaŋ] - Luohan bed (traditional Chinese wooden bed)
13. 碧玉 [piak̚ ŋio̯k̚] - jade
14. 金魚 [kim ŋi̯o] - goldfish
15. 羽毛扇 [vu mau̯ ɕi̯en] - feather fan

In Faiten, there is an evident lack of inherent distinction between the singular and plural forms of nouns through infliction. Instead, to indicate whether a noun is singular or plural, it is necessary to specify the quantity or number of items involved. A key element in this process is the use of measure words, which are added between the number and the noun. Quantifiers assist in making the noun countable and provide clarity regarding the quantity being referred to. Unlike English, where measure words are primarily used to isolate individual parts of collective nouns (e.g., a piece of paper, a pair of pants, a drop of water), Faiten takes a unique approach. In Faiten, every noun, whether collective or not, is accompanied by a specific measure word. This distinctive feature of the language treats all nouns as if they were collective nouns, necessitating the use of measure words to define the grammatical number of a word. Consequently, Faiten extensively employs measure words to provide clarity and precision when indicating the quantity or number associated with a noun. Fortunately, all measure words or classifiers in Faiten tend to cognate a lot with Mandarin as well as Cantonese.

An average noun phrase follows the pattern,

Number/Quantifier + Classifier + Noun

To indicate similarity, the number 壹 is used in place of the quantifier, followed by the Classifier then the Noun. Quantifiers can also be omitted leaving the classifier following the noun, to convey singularity although it’s used colloquially.

壹 + Classifier + Noun (Standard Singular Noun Phrase)

or

Classifier + Noun (Informal Singular Noun Phrase)

E.g:

壹層烤寬麵條
壹	層	烤寬麵條
it̚	zɔŋ	kʰu kʰu̯an men deu̯
1	CL	lasagna
"1 layer of lasagna" or "a layer of lasagna"

門專業
門	專業
wun	t͡ɕøn ŋi̯ap̚
(1)CL	major
"1 major" or "a major"

For the plural nouns, the numbers 貳 higher, or quantifiers (for indefinite plural) is used to imply that the noun comes in a pair or multiple instances of the noun. Naturally Quantifiers are plural and they convey an indefinite plural.

Number (貳 or higher) / Quantifiers + Classifier + Noun

With demonstratives, the demonstrative comes before the number or the quantifier.

Demonstrative Pronouns + Number/Quantifier + Classifier + Noun