Yattano

Introduction

Yattano is a language with transitive-intransitive alignment. Its phonology was inspired by Japanese.

Phonology

The charts under the title "phonology" use the Romanization system, rather than the actual writing system.

Consonants

Yattano has 15 consonants:

Grapheme	IPA Symbol	Description and Notes
k	[k]	Voiceless velar plosive
p	[p]	Voiceless bilabial plosive
t	[t]	Voiceless dental plosive
n	[n]	(Voiced) alveolar nasal. Can be pronounced as [ŋ] before k and g.
m	[m]	(Voiced) bilabial nasal
s	[s]	Voiceless alveolar fricative
j	[j]	Palatal approximant
š	[ʃ]	Voiceless post-alveolar fricative
č	[t͡ʃ]	Voiceless post-alveolar fricative
r	[ɾ]	Alveolar tap
b	[b]	Voiced bilabial plosive
g	[g]	Voiced velar plosive
d	[d]	Voiced dental plosive
đ	[d͡ʒ]	Voiced post-alveolar fricative
z	[z]	Voiced alveolar fricative

Vowels

Yattano has 6 vowels:

Grapheme	IPA Symbol	Description and notes
a	[a]	Open front unrounded vowel
e	[e]	Close mid-front unrounded vowel
i	[i]	Close front unrounded vowel
o	[o]	Close mid-back rounded vowel
u	[u]	Close back rounded vowel
ö	[ø]	Close mid-front rounded vowel

Prosody

Stress

Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable of the word, but it can sometimes be on the last syllable too. Stress usually doesn't change the meaning of a word.

Intonation

• To indicate that a sentence is a question, the pitch of the last syllable sharply rises.
• When there are two or more adjectives modifying a noun, or there is a list of nouns or there is a list of choices, the pitch of the last syllables of all words except that of the last words fall. The final syllable of the last word rises.

Phonotactics

• No words can begin with a consonant cluster
• No words can end with a consonant cluster
• No words can end with a consonant except "-n"
• Root words that have "ö" in one syllable can only have either "e", "i" or another "ö" in their other syllables

Diphtongs

Note that the vowel "ö" is not allowed to form a diphthong.

	A	E	I	O	U
A	aa	—	ia	—	ua
E	—	ee	ie	—	ue
I	ai	ei	ii	oi	ui
O	—	—	io	oo	uo
U	au	eu	iu	ou	uu

Consonant clusters

Group 1 (n-)	Group 2 (j-)	Group 3 (š-)	Group 4 (m-)	Group 5 (double cons.)
nt	jn	št	mp	bb
nd	jt	šk	mb	kk
nk	jk		mj	dd
nj	jm			...
ng	js			(all except r and j)
	jr

Morphology

Nouns

There are 11 noun cases that are marked on the noun in Yattano: transitive, intransitive, abessive, existive or ornative, derivative or inalienable possessive, genitive, equative, postpositional, final or benefactive, interal, distributive. There are also 12 cases that are marked on the verb rather than the noun: locative, dative or terminative, ablative or egressive, illative, causal-final (reason why), causal-final (cause of something), instrumental, cronitive, comitative, translative, adverbial, elative.

Noun cases marked on the noun

Header text	G1 Nouns	G2 Nouns	G3 Nouns
Transitive	—	—	-ru
Intransitive	-n	-n	-ti
Abessive	et(e)-	at(a)-	ot(o)-
Existive/Ornative	ya-	yani-	yaku-
Derivative	-nu	-kasu	-kaa
Genitive	az(i)-	iš(o)-	ay(a)-
Postpositional	s(u)-	aa-	—
Equative	-muu	-kuu	-suu
Final/Benefactive	-šai	-šai	-šai
Interal	čo-	čo-	čo-
Distributive	yo-	yo-	yo-