Wirne

Nàu m̌ dwēig Qěi-Mēung. 'I don't speak Wirne.'

Introduction

Wirne (Ŧaƨƨen-Müđel; pronounced Qěi-Mēung /qʰaɪ212 mɔʏŋ55/, dialectally Qě-Mēung /qʰeː31 mɔʏŋ24/) is a relatively conservative Wiebian lect descended from Middle Wiebian. It is a tonal language inspired by German and Buyang.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Dental		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		plain	labialized	plain	labialized	plain	labialized	plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal		m /m/	mw /mʷ/	n /n/	nw /nʷ/	nj /ɲ/		ng /ŋ/	ngw /ŋʷ/
Stop	tenuis	b /p/	bw /pʷ/	d /t/	dw /tʷ/	dsch /tʃ/		g /k/	gw /kʷ/	ġ /q/	ġw /qʷ/	/ʔ/
	aspirated	p /pʰ/	pw /pʷʰ/	t /tʰ/	tw /tʷʰ/	tsch /tʃʰ/		k /kʰ/	kw /kʷʰ/	q /qʰ/	qw /qʷʰ/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/		z /θ/	zw /θʷ/	sch /ʃ/	schw /ʃʷ/	ch /x/	chw /xʷ/	r /χ/	rw /χʷ/	h /h/
	voiced			s /ð/	sw /ðʷ/
Approximant	voiceless								hw /ʍ/
	voiced			l /l/		j /j/			w /w/

Vowels

Wirne vowels

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	ie /iː/	ü /ʏ/	ü, üh /yː/			u /ʊ/	u, uh /uː/
Mid	e, ä /ɛ/	e, ee, eh, ä, äh /eː/	ö /œ/	ö, öh /øː/	e /ə/		o /ɔ/	o, oo, oh /oː/
Near-open					-r /ɐ/
Open					a /a/	a, aa, ah /aː/

Diphthongs: au /aʊ/ äu, eu /ɔʏ/ ei /aɪ/

for vowels I might keep MW vowels except /æ æː/ and /ɑ ɑː/ merge into /a aː/

i have to reinterpret /ja je iːa jaː wa wo uːa waː ɥa ɥø yːa ɥaː/ into Vr

> err, irr, ier, ehr, orr, urr, uhr, ohr, örr, ürr, ühr, öhr?
what about /əː/?
i'll merge it with /aː/

i might write the /aː/ from /əː/ as <ahr>

/j/ /w/ <-j -w> (ai and au are true nuclei)

qei sounds good
Partartian will have breathy voice btw
i'll give the rzaimy-like language a different name
final fricative > breathy (with compensatory lengthening) > falling tone
Qêi

there's no glottalized tone class unlike in RW (treated the same as breathy tone)
(high, low ) x (modal, breathy) = 4 tones

nice
maybe 4 tones as in mandarin

high modal = tone 2, high breathy = tone 3; low modal = tone 4, low breathy = tone 1