Wistanian: Difference between revisions
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{| class="wikitable" style="float:right;" width="35%" | {| class="wikitable" style="float:right;" width="35%" | ||
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| colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background-color:#ffffff; font-size:2em;" | '''Wistanian'''<br />[[File: | | colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background-color:#ffffff; font-size:2em;" | '''Wistanian'''<br />[[File:Aningali.png|350px]]<br />[ən̻iːn̻ɡəl̻i] | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''Spoken in:''' || Wistania | | '''Spoken in:''' || Wistania | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''Conworld:''' || | | '''Conworld:''' || Vaal | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''Total Speakers:''' || ~ 50,000,000 | | '''Total Speakers:''' || ~ 50,000,000 | ||
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| Taliv<br /> - Taliv-Nati Pidgin<br /> '''''- Wistanian''''' | | Taliv<br /> - Taliv-Nati Pidgin<br /> '''''- Wistanian''''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Writing System:''' || Taliv Alphabet<br/>Bwolotil Alphabet<br/>Nati Abugida | ||
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| colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background-color:#ffffff; font-size:18px;" | '''Created by:''' | | colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background-color:#ffffff; font-size:18px;" | '''Created by:''' | ||
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<span style="color:red;">'''Update update (27/8/2019): A brand new grammar sketch is currently in the works. Soon after that gets written, I plan for this page to be officially updated. I'm keeping it as is for now, however, because I am still using it as a reference. It's not completely obsolete, just a couple things have changed (e.g., re-labels, more details, plus there are conjunctions now). I hope to update this here very very soon. Thanks for your patience.'''</span> | <span style="color:red;">'''Update update (27/8/2019): A brand new grammar sketch is currently in the works. Soon after that gets written, I plan for this page to be officially updated. I'm keeping it as is for now, however, because I am still using it as a reference. It's not completely obsolete, just a couple things have changed (e.g., re-labels, more details, plus there are conjunctions now). I hope to update this here very very soon. Thanks for your patience.'''</span> | ||
<span style="color:red;">'''Update update update (20/3/2020): Updates to this page have begun, but they are not finished. Do not trust everything you read here.</span> | |||
<span style="color:red;">Headers that are currently correct: Intro, Phonology, Consonants, Vowels, Syllable Structure, Prosody, Romanization . . .</span> | |||
'''Wistanian''' (IPA: /wɪˈsteɪniən/), natively known as '''aningali''' (IPA:[ən̻iːn̻ɡəl̻i]) and often nicknamed '''Wisto''', is an ''a priori'' artistic constructed language . Its development began in January 2017 for use in a WIP novel series by prominent characters who are monolingual or bilingual in the language. It is currently on "Version 9.1," having received several edits, updates, and an occasional total rehaul during its development. | |||
[ | |||
In universe, Wistanian is spoken by groups of fictional peoples on a large tropical island on a planet called Vaal (IPA: [veːl̻]). It is a decendant of the Taliv language after having merged with the Nati language during the Wistanian War. These two language communities worked together against the Bwolotil people who were seeking complete possession of the land. This war eventually ended with the signing of a peace treaty between four people groups, the Taliv, Nati, Bwolotil, and the Katapu who remained mostly separated from much of the fighting. About half a decade later, a fifth people group, the Uzin, joined the Wistanian union. The creole that arose from the Taliv-Nati alliance grew in popularity and loaned a large number of terms from the other languages. During the time of the novels, Wistanian has become the ''lingua franca'' of the island. It is considered the language of government, economy, and education, and it is mandatorily taught in most schools. There are approximately 50 million speakers, comprising of 95% of the island's population. Of that number, 60% are native in the language and 20% speak it monolingually. | |||
Dialects of Wistanian are broadly split into three categories: the Standard Dialect, spoken in the central mountains, major cities, and among the Taliv and Nati people groups; The Western Dialect, spoken by a majority of Bwolotil and many Uzin speakers; and The Northern Dialect, spoken by the Katapu and some Uzin. Each dialect is mutually intelligible, although some variations have diverged enough to be confusing to the standard listener. These dialects vary in pronunciation, lexicon, and sometimes syntax. Aulwin Wistanian is a mostly unintelligible variety spoken on a small island off Wistania's northwest shore. | |||
Typologically, Wistanian is a verb-initial and heavily isolating language with around 1.2 morphemes per phonological word. Its phonology is fairly small including an entirely voiced fricative set and no round vowels. Verbs conjugate for perfective, imperfective, and stative aspects with an additional irrealis form for each. Count nouns are declined for plural number only if its number is higher than five. Wistanian has a large collection of grammatical particles, honorifics, and conjunctions (which are sensitive to switch-reference), but no distinctive lexical category for adpositions, adjectives, or adverbs. The language is primarily written using the Talivian Alphabet (which has horizonal RtL and vertical UtD variants). Some alternate scripts do exist, namely the Diwa Alphabet and Nati Abugida. | |||
==Phonology== | ==Phonology== | ||
Derived from the Taliv language, trimmed down by Nati influence, Wistanian has 16 consonants and 5 vowel phonemes. All vowels are almost completely unrounded in the standard dialect, and there's a heavy trend toward voiced fricatives and plosives. Allophony is rather sparse in standard speech, however, it becomes more common in certain dialects. Syllable structure is CCVC, although onsets are restricted to single consonants or fricative-semivowel clusters and codas do not include /w/, /j/, or /ɦ/. There are three varieties of stress that are defined by vowel quality and volume. Despite clear trends, stress is irregular and lexical. | |||
===Consonants=== | |||
The consonants are as follows (allophones are in [brackets]): | |||
The consonants are as follows (allophones are in | |||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
! colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | | ! colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | | ||
! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Labial | ! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Labial | ||
! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Alveolar | ! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Alveolar<sup>1</sup> | ||
! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Palatal | ! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Palatal | ||
! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Velar | ! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Velar | ||
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| style="text-align: center;" | n | | style="text-align: center;" | n | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | | | style="text-align: center;" | | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | | | style="text-align: center;" | [ŋ]<sup>2</sup> | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | | | style="text-align: center;" | | ||
|- | |- | ||
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| style="text-align: center;" | z | | style="text-align: center;" | z | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | ʒ | | style="text-align: center;" | ʒ | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | | | style="text-align: center;" | [ɣ]<sup>3</sup> | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | ɦ | | style="text-align: center;" | ɦ | ||
|- | |- | ||
! colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Liquid | ! colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Liquid | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | w ~ βʷ | | style="text-align: center;" | w ~ βʷ<sup>4</sup> | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | ɾ ~ r | | style="text-align: center;" | ɾ ~ r<sup>5</sup> | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | j | | style="text-align: center;" | j | ||
| style="text-align: center;" | | | style="text-align: center;" | | ||
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|} | |} | ||
# Alveolars (except /ɾ ~ r/) are pronounced [[w: laminal_consonant|laminally]]. | |||
# n > ŋ / _[velar] | |||
# ɦ > ɣ / #_, [stress]_ | |||
# /w/ is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while /βʷ/ is spoken in quick speech. Whenever immediately following a consonant, this is always pronounced as /w/. In the Western Dialect, it is always pronounced as /w/. | |||
# /r/ is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while /ɾ/ is spoken in quick speech. In some words, the trilled is preferred even in quick speech; for example, '''ggarauni''' (large) is almost always pronounced [kərɑni]. | |||
===Vowels=== | |||
The following table features the five distinct monophthongs of Wistanian, /i e a ɑ ɯ/, in each form of phonological stress. With primary stress, they are long and tense; with secondary stress, they are short and tense; with tertiary stress, they are short and lax (/e/ and /ɑ/ never recieve tertiary stress). Wistanian's one diphthong /a͡i/ | The following table features the five distinct monophthongs of Wistanian, /i e a ɑ ɯ/, in each form of phonological stress. With primary stress, they are long and tense; with secondary stress, they are short and tense; with tertiary stress, they are short and lax (/e/ and /ɑ/ never recieve tertiary stress). Wistanian's one diphthong /a͡i/ has no lax form, therefore only taking on primary or secondary stress. (Secondary stress is only observed in polysyllabic perfective verbs). | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
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* All vowels become breathy after /ɦ/. | * All vowels become breathy after /ɦ/. | ||
* /ɯ/ and /ɑ/ shift to [u] and [ɒ] after /w~βʷ/. | * /ɯ/ and /ɑ/ shift to [u] and [ɒ] after /w~βʷ/. | ||
===Syllable Structure=== | |||
Wistanian has a (C<sub>1</sub>/FA)V(C<sub>2</sub>) syllable structure. (C<sub>1</sub>) can be any phoneme that is a consonant, (FA) can be any fricative (/v/, /z/, /ʒ/, or [ɣ]) immediately followed by an approximate (/w/ or /j/), V is any vowel, and (C<sub>2</sub>) is any consonant that is not an approximate (/w/ or /j/) or /ɦ/. | |||
(C/FA) refers to the optional syllable onset which can either be any consonant or a fricative/approximate cluster (/vj/, /vw/, /zj/, /zw/, /ʒj/, /ʒw/, [ɣj], [ɣw]). V refers to the required syllable nucleus which must be any vowel. (N) is an optional coda, which can be any consonant except /j/, /w ~ βʷ/, or /ɦ/. For example, legal syllables are /vjan/, /pe/, /ai̯l/, and /ɑ/, but syllables like /bjaw/, /zpe/, /ild/ and /r/ are not legal. | |||
===Prosody=== | ===Prosody=== | ||
Wistanian speakers are usually soft and clear, as politeness and simplicity are important values in many of their cultures. In most Talivian villages, speaking loudly is considered rude and is therefore looked down upon. In the Southwest, the volume is typically louder. Speed also varies as the Northeast prefers slow and careful speech while the Northwest prefers fast-paced speech. | |||
===Orthography=== | ===Orthography=== | ||
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====Romanization==== | ====Romanization==== | ||
Wistanian employs its own script, but it is romanized with a system that reflects the script and its spellings. The romanization rules are as follows: | Wistanian employs its own script, but it is romanized for Earthlings with a system that reflects the script and its spellings. The romanization rules are as follows: | ||
* /m/, /n/, /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /v/, /z/, and /l/ are represented with the corresponding IPA symbol. | * /m/, /n/, /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /v/, /z/, and /l/ are represented with the corresponding IPA symbol. | ||
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* /ɑ/ and [ɒ] is represented by ⟨au⟩. | * /ɑ/ and [ɒ] is represented by ⟨au⟩. | ||
===Script=== | |||
====Script==== | ====Script==== | ||
Wistanian has an alphabet which represents the different sounds in Wistanian. The alphabet was inspired by Latin, IPA, and Greek, but is often described as Armenian-looking. The font, based on [[w: Cambria_(typeface)|Cambria]], was created using [https://sketchbook.com/ Autodesk Sketchbook] for the iPad and converted into a font using [https://www.calligraphr.com/en/ Calligraphr] and [https://www.cr8software.net/typelight.html TypeLight]. | Wistanian has an alphabet which represents the different sounds in Wistanian. The alphabet was inspired by Latin, IPA, and Greek, but is often described as Armenian-looking. The font, based on [[w: Cambria_(typeface)|Cambria]], was created using [https://sketchbook.com/ Autodesk Sketchbook] for the iPad and converted into a font using [https://www.calligraphr.com/en/ Calligraphr] and [https://www.cr8software.net/typelight.html TypeLight]. |