Tonuao

Tonuao is a zonal auxlang intended to be quickly learnable, readily comprehensible, and mutually communicative between persons of the w:East Asian cultural sphere. It uses Chinese characters for much of its writing, with some forms being simplified according to the w:Shinjitai/新字体 standards of Japan. The Japanese syllabary w:Katakana is used for all other sounds. It is not tonal, mostly analytic, SVO, topic-prominent, uses classifiers, is pro-drop, copula-drop, and uses postpositions.

Phonology

Tonuao has 5 vowels and 10 consonants.

Tonuao Consonants

Consonants
	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	m /m/		n /n/
Plosives	p /p/	t /t/			k /k/
Fricatives			s /s ~ ɕ/		h /h ~ ɦ ~ x/
Liquids			l /l ~ ɾ/
Approximants	w /w/			y /j/

While there is a great deal of consonantal allophony (see below), every language speaker will experience some sounds as difficult, especially in achieving consistency.

Tonuao Vowels

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	i /i ~ ɪ/		u /u ~ ɯ/
Mid	e /e ~ e̞/		o /o ~ o̞/
Low	a /a ~ ä/

Again, a great deal of tolerance is required when listening to others. Non-Mandarin speakers will have the hardest time being patient with Chinese vowels, but accents are part of being international!

Phonotactics

The three allowable syllable structures are V, CV, Cya, and CVn. There are gaps in all these series, and allophony.

Simple Syllables
ø	a /a/	e /e ~ je ~ ə/	i /i ~ ji/	o /o ~ wo/	u /u ~ wu/
p	pa	pe	pi	po	pu
t	ta	te	ti	to	tu
k	ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
m	ma	me	mi	mo	mu
n	na	ne	ni	no	nu
s	sa	se	si /si ~ ɕi/	so	su
h	ha	he	hi	ho	hu
l	la	le	li	lo	lu
w	wa /wa ~ ʋa ~ va/
y	ya			yo /jo ~ joʊ̯/	yu

Katakana
ø	ア	エ	イ	オ	ウ
p	パ	ペ	ピ	ポ	プ
t	タ	テ	チ	ト	ツ
k	カ	ケ	キ	コ	ク
m	マ	メ	ミ	モ	ム
n	ナ	ネ	ニ	ノ	ヌ
s	サ	セ	シ	ソ	ス
h	ハ	ヘ	ヒ	ホ	フ
l	ラ	レ	リ	ロ	ル
w	ワ
y	ヤ			ヨ	ユ

Hangŭl (for reference)
ø	아	에	이	오	우
p	바	베	비	보	부
t	다	데	디	두	도
k	가	게	기	고	구
m	마	메	미	모	무
n	나	네	니	노	누
s	사	세	시	소	수
h	하	헤	히	호	후
l	라	레	리	로	루
w	와
Y	야			요	유

Complex Syllables
	ya	an	en	in
ø		an	en	in
p	pya	pan	pen	pin
t	tya /tja ~ t͡ɕa/	tan	ten	tin
k		kan	ken
m	mya	man	men	min
n	nya	nan	nen	nin
s	sya /sja ~ ɕa/	san	sen /sen ~ ɕen/	sin
h		han	hen
l	lya	lan	len	lin
w		wan
y		yan

Katakana
	ya	an	en	in
ø		アン	エン	イン
p	ピャ	パン	ペン	ピン
t	チャ	タン	テン	チン
k		カン	ケン
m	ミャ	マン	メン	ミン
n	ニャ	ナン	ネン	ニン
s	シャ	サン	セン	シン
h		ハン	ヘン
l	リャ	ラン	レン	リン
w		ワン
y		ヤン

Hangŭl (for reference)
	ya	an	en	in
ø		안	엔	인
p	뱌	반	벤	빈
t	댜	단	덴	딘
k		간	겐
m	먀	만	멘	민
n	냐	난	넨	닌
s	샤	산	센	신
h		한	헨
l	랴	란	렌	린
w		완
y		얀

The complex syllables of Tonuao are clearly much more limited.

Derivation

Middle Chinese (MC) had much more complex syllables than were possible in any of the language influenced by it. Tonuao tries to be equal to CJKV languages by taking an average derivational position. First, it considers the initial consonant in MC

Correspondences of initial consonants

Middle Chinese		Sino-Vietnamese	Sino-Korean	Sino-Japanese			Tonuao
				Go-on	Kan-on	Tōsō-on
Labials	幫 p	p > b	p/ph	ɸ > h	ɸ > h	ɸ > h	p
	滂 ph	pʰ, b > b/ph/v
	並 b			b
	明 m	m > m/v	m	m	b	m	m
Dentals	端 t	t > đ	t/th	t	t	t	t
	透 th	tʰ > th
	定 d	d > đ		d
	泥 n	n	n	n	d	n	n
	來 l	l	l	r	r	r	l
Retroflex nasal	娘 ɳ						ny
Retroflex stops	知 tr	ʈ > tr	c/ch	t	t	s	t
	徹 trh	ʂ > s
	澄 dr	ɖ > tr		d
Dental sibilants	精 ts	s > t		s	s		s
	清 tsh	ɕ > th
	從 dz	s > t		z
	心 s		s	s
	邪 z			z
	俟 ʒ						sy
Retroflex sibilants	莊 tsr	ʈ > tr	c/ch	s
	初 tsrh	ʂ > s
	崇 dzr			z
	生 sr		s	s
Palatals	章 tsy	c > ch	c/ch
	昌 tsyh	tʃ > x
	禪 dzy	ɕ > th	s	z
	書 sy			s
	船 zy			z
	日 ny	ɲ > nh	z > ∅	n	z	z	ny
	以 y						y
Velars	見 k	k > c/g	k/h	k	k	k	k
	溪 kh	kʰ > kh
	群 g	ɡ > c	k	g
	疑 ng	ŋ > ng	h		g	g	ø
Laryngeals	影 ʔ	ʔ > y	∅	∅	∅	∅
	曉 x	h	h	k	k		h
	匣 h			ɣ > g/w
None	云 ø						ø

Syntax

Like Chinese and Vietnamese (and unlike Japanese and Korean), Tonuao is SVO, subject-verb-object. The subject of an intransitive verb and the actor of transitive verb come before early in the sentence, and the accusative argument must come after the verb. There are no particles to mark subject or object. Tonuao tries to have the verb be second-to-last, comparable but backwards to the Germanic w:V2 word order. Like most Asian languages, Tonuao has two verbs corresponding to European "is", 乃 and 有. The first "to be equal to", the second is "to have" or "to exist". Only 乃 may be dropped, and it usually is.

In the East Asian style, Tonuao is very topic-prominent. The topic is marked with the postposition 者, spelled サ/sa phonetically. Typically, if present, it will come first in the sentence. The dative argument may be unmarked, if easily discernable from context, but is more often marked with the postposition 於, spelled オ/o phonetically. A genitive relationship is marked with 之, spelled シ/ši phonetically.

Relationship	Sino	Sound	English	Chinese	Japanese	Korean	Vietnamese
Topic	者	サ - sa	as for		は - wa	은/는 - (n)ǔn	cái
Dative	於	オ - o	to		に - ni	에게 - ege	đến
Genitive	之	シ - ši	of	的/之	の - no	의 - ǔi	của
Perfective	了	ル = lu	-ed	了	た/だ - ta/da	았/었 - att/ǒtt	đã

Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First	我
Second	你
Third

Lexica

• 東亜語/JK - Character list based on the 1800 list of hanja for Koreans and 2136 list of kanji for Japanese