単亜語

Dan'a'yo
単亜語
Writing	w:新字体
Region:	w:East Asia
Genders:	0
Cases:	0
Proto-language:	w:Sinosphere
Typology:	Analytic
Word-Order	SVO
Languages:	w:Korean language, w:Japanese language, w:Chinese language w:Vietnamese language
Population:	1500 million
Africa: SEDES • Middle Semitic • Kintu • Guosa Central Asia: Jalpi • Caucas • Zens • Dravindian • Neo-Sanskrit Europe: Intralingua • Folksprak • Interslavic • Balkan • Samboka Far East: Dan'a'yo • IM • MSEAL

単亜語(단아요) is a zonal auxlang intended to be quickly learnable, readily comprehensible, and mutually communicative between persons of the East Asian cultural sphere. It has an underlying foundation of Chinese characters for every word, with some glyphs being simplified according to the 新字体(신지테) standards of Japan. The Hangǔl alphabet is presented at the same time (whenever possible), and is also used for phonetic transcription. It is not tonal, mostly analytic, SVO, topic-prominent, uses classifiers, is pro-drop, copula-drop, and uses postpositions.

Anthropology

Main article: 単亜語/Anthropology

Dan'a'yo returns a shared world of the w:East Asian cultural sphere. The ancient w:Imperial examination (科挙(콰교)) created a common experience across the region. Everyone read the same w:Chinese classics and learned the same law codes. Peoples from various language families were united and could communicate. With the advent of the internet and Unicode, there is an avenue for peaceful interaction, a reunification of shared cultural and linguistic norms. By taking w:Classical Chinese and updating it, Dan'a'yo can serve as a bridge for those who have drifted apart.

The language communities that Dan'a'yo seeks to incorporate and unify are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and to a lesser extent, Vietnamese. Korea and Japan have long formed a sprachbund already, and have many calques and grammatical features in common. They even share some vocabulary. (There are those who think they are genetically related, but that has yet to be conclusively proven.) There will be some additional similarities that must occur with southern Sino-Tibetan languages, but that is not a design goal, merely a consequence. There is no proto-language which all our source languages are supposedly descended from. Our ancient form is Classical Chinese, which is well-known and actually exists in documented form.

Phonologies

Korean has a tense/lax system which is completely unknown to the others in the region. Japanese alone contrasts voiced/unvoiced, instead of aspirated/un-aspirated like the rest. The Chineses have contour tones which are much more complicated than JK pitch accent system. All these features must be ignored, as they have no common parallels. Korean has the most robust phonotactics, with CVC syllables allowing many kinds of consonants in the coda, and Cantonese is a close second. Mandarin has only /n/ and /ŋ/ in the coda. Japanese has gemination – which doubles the next voiceless stop, and a homorganic nasal – which can be /m/, /n/, or /ŋ~ɴ/. In short, a rough compromise is possible, with everyone having to learn something, but nothing like what it would take to learn any other language.

Chinese characters have roughly stayed the same for 1,000 years, but some changes have crept in. The most overreaching is the Simplified characters of mainland China, which are utterly dependent upon Mandarin pronunciation and incompatible with the region as a whole. Korean uses ancient versions, which are sometimes grossly out of date and far more obtuse than what others write. A strong, compromise position is to use Japanese Shinjitai, which has mild updates and simplifications to some characters. A phonetic alphabet is hard to agree upon. Japanese hiragana and katakana are not capable of indicating precise coda consonants. Korean Hangǔl is generally well-suited, though one coda off-glide requires abuse of notation.

Multilingual dictionary sources – such as Wiktionary – already document much of the vocabulary in common across the Far East Asian region. Selection of a limited number of Chinese characters must involve a kind of voting process. Japan is well-positioned to begin education of Dan'a'yo at an early age. Korean politics are unfortunately embroiled over a senseless debate about the national character of learning Chinese characters, a holdover from the war and the product of pride. Chinese standard education frowns upon teaching grammar, but there is a revival of Classical education. Many teaching resources are still needed.

Phonology

単亜語 has 5 vowels and 16 consonants.

単亜語 Consonants

Consonants
	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasals	ㅁ /m/		ㄴ /n/	ㅇ /ŋ/
Aspirates	ㅍ /pʰ/	ㅌ /tʰ/	ㅊ /t͡ɕʰ~cʰ/	ㅋ /kʰ/
Voiced	ㅂ /b~p/	ㄷ /d~t/	ㅈ /dʑ~tɕ/	ㄱ /g~k/
Fricatives		ㅅ /s ~ ɕ/		ㅎ /h ~ ɦ ~ x/
Sonorants	w /w/	ㄹ /l ~ ɾ/	y/j/

(W and Y are achieved with special glyphs.) While there is a great deal of consonantal allophony (see the table), every language's speaker will experience some sounds as difficult, especially in achieving consistency.

単亜語 Vowels

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	이 /i ~ ɪ/		우 /u ~ ɯ/
Mid	어 /e ~ e̞/		오 /o ~ o̞/
Low	아 /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! Long vowels do not exist, per se, even if the Latin transcription appears as though they do. 웃/'uu and 의/'ii are actually said as /uʊ/, /uu̵/, or /uǝ/; and /iǝ/ or /ii̵/ respectively. Additionally, there is an epenthetic vowel, which varies considerably among the target nations. It's written as 으 and transcribed as ǔ, and it may be pronounced /ɯ/, /ɯ^β/, /ɨ/, /ǝ/, or /ʊ/. This is only used in transcribing foreign words.

Tone/Prosody

Even for speakers of a tonal language, learning a new set of tones is difficult. Therefore, syllabic tones are not phonemic in Dan'a'yo. However, to easy listening and to distinguish the boundaries between words, the following intonation principles are used:

• The main (finite) verb of an utterance should be the highest point of it.
• The head of a phrase should be the highest point of it.
• The main vowel of a syllable should be the highest point of it.
• The first character's syllable of a compound word should be the highest point of it.

This can be helpful in distinguishing 大(대) 学生(학상) 'big student' from 大学生(대학상) 'college student', as the first is H HL, while the second is HLL.

Pitch cannot be used to indicate a question. Please use the SFP 乎(호) to make a polar-question.

Phonotactics

Maximally, a Dan'a'yo syllable consists of an ONSET consonant, an ON-GLIDE, a VOWEL, and an OFF-GLIDE or CODA CONSONANT. The ONSET can be ø or any consonant except ŋ, the ON-GLIDE can be ø, y, or w, the VOWEL must exist, and the CODA CONSONANT can be ø, y, w, b, d, g, m, n, or ng. Each syllable has no effect upon the next.

For a complete chart of all possible Hanmun syllables, see 単亜語/Syllables.

Syntax

Like Chinese and Vietnamese (and unlike Japanese and Korean), 単亜語 is SVO, subject-verb-object. The subject of an intransitive verb and the actor of transitive verb come early in the sentence (before the verb), and the accusative argument must come after. There are no particles to mark subject or object.

Relationship	Particle	English	Mandarin	Cantonese	Japanese	Korean	Vietnamese
Topic		as for	-	-	は wa	은/는 (n)ǔn	cái
Vocative	哉(재)	O		ya	yeo	야
Dative	于(우)	to	-	-	に	에게	đến
Genitive	之(티)	of	的	嘅	の	의	của
Instrumental	以(이)	by	用	用	で	로/으로
Locative	於(오)	in, on, at	在	喺	に	에
Comitative	共(굥)	together with
Assoc. Pl.	等(둥)	et. al.	們	哋	たち	들	tôi/tao/
Perfective	已(이)	-ed	了	咗	た/だ	았/었	đã
Progressive	中(중)	-ing				아/어
Nominalizer	物(묻)	-ed
Nominalizer	事(지)	-ing			こと	~기, ~는 것, ~음/ㅁ
Adnominalizer	之(티)				の	의
Adverbializer	様(양)	-ly	地/一點/得		く/に	-히/-게
NP And	与(오)	and	和 hé	及 kap6	と	와/과	và
VP And	而(니)	and	以及/yǐjí		そして	그리고	và

Pronouns

		Singular	Plural
Casual	First	我(아)	我等(아둥)
	Second	君(군)	君等(군둥)

Classifiers

Counting is not done with numerals as adjectives before the noun phrase, but with special classifiers + numerals after the noun phrase, as adverbs.

Classifier	Use
人(닌)	people (general)
名(밍)	people (polite)
台(대)	machines (computers, cars, etc)
匹(핃)	animals (all animals, worms, fish, horses, etc.)
冊(착)	books, magazines, etc.
杯(뵈)	cups of some drink
枚(뫼)	flat objects (pizzas, paper, etc.)
条(조)	long objects (pencils, noodles, etc.)
段(돤)	periods of time (seconds, years, ages, etc.)
束(쇽)	bundles (groups, bouquets, bales, etc.)
個 ka	anything else

Plants, animals and things that may have hanji beyond our corpus or are nation-specific, should be spelled out phonetically, but appended with a "determiner", a hanji that shows what class of being the creature is. This is helpful, as it gives a hint to those unfamiliar with the being.

Determiner	Use	Example
阿(아)	name, endonym	盧(로)泰愚(태우) 是(서) "노터우" (阿(아))
蛙(와)	amphibians	蠑螈(용원) (蛙(와))
鳥(촛)	birds	Japanese quail ウズラ = 우주라 (鳥(촛))
魚(요)	fish	ネコギギ = 너코기기 (魚(요))
虫(중)	invertebrates, bugs, snakes	蛞蝓(칻유) (虫(중))
獣(슈)	mammals	狐猿(호온) (獣(슈))
龍(룡)	reptiles	暴龍(복룡) = 티란노삿루스 (龍(룡))
花(화)	flowers	Venus flytrap = 디오나어아 (花(화))
草(찻)	grass, herb	basil = 바지르 (草(찻))
木(목)	trees, bushes	redwood = 서쾨아 (木(목))
服(북)	clothes	きもの = 키모노 (服(북))
飯(본)	meals, food	비빔밥 (飯(본))
機(긔)	device, tool	iPad = 애파드 (機(긔))
義(위)	idea, movement	ubuntu = 우분투 (義(위))
構(곳)	building	Burj Khalifa = 부르즈 카리파 (構(곳))

Demonstratives and indefinite

Demonstratives occur in the 此(처), 其(기), and 彼(비) series. The first (proximal) series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the medial series for things closer to the hearer, and the distal series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With 何(하), demonstratives turn into the corresponding interrogative form.

	Proximal (此(처))	Medial (其(기))	Distal (彼(비))	Interrogative (何(하))	Cyclic (毎(뫼))	Existential (某(못))	Universal (皆(겨))
Act (事(지)	此事(처지) this	其事(기지) that	彼事(비지) yon	何事(하지) what	毎事(뫼지) for each	某事(못지) something	皆事(겨지) everything
Object (物(묻))	此物(처묻) this one	其物(기묻) that one	彼物(비묻) yon one	何物(하묻) which	毎物(뫼묻) for each one	某物(못묻) something	皆物(겨묻) everything
Person (人(닌))	此人(처닌) him/her	其人(기닌) him/her	彼人(비닌) him/her	誰(셰) who	毎人(뫼닌) per person	某人(못닌) someone	皆人(겨닌) everyone
Place (処(초))	此処(처초) here	其処(기초) there	彼処(비초) yonder	何処(하초) where	毎処(뫼초) per place	某処(못초) somewhere	皆処(겨초) everywhere
Time (時(시))	此時(처시) now	其時(기시) then	彼時(비시) that other time	何時(하시) when	毎時(뫼시) per time	某時(못시) sometime	皆時(겨시) always
Manner (様(양))	此様(처양) in this manner	其様(기양) in that manner	彼様(비양) in that other manner	何様(하영) how	毎様(뫼영) each manner	某様(못영) somehow	皆様(겨영) in all ways
Quantity (多(다))	此多(처다) this many	其多(기다) that many	彼多(비다) yon many	何多(하다) how many	毎多(뫼다) per quantity	某多(못다) some amount	皆多(겨다) all amounts
Kind (類(뤼))	此類(처뤼) this kind	其類(기뤼) that kind	彼類(비뤼) yon kind	何類(하뤼) what kind	毎類(뫼뤼) totally	某類(못뤼) some kind	皆類(겨뤼) every king

Lexica

Main article: Dan'a'yo/Lexicography

Dan'a'yo forcibly limits the number of Chinese characters which can be used to around 2,592 (as of 2024). This is done by only drawing characters from the standard lists of each country (CJK). Characters that are inventions of anyone country as banned. Characters which are not common or strictly necessary are banned. Similar characters are sometimes lumped together, especially if they are obscure. The "weight" of any character is determined by its place in the following national lists:

• China: The HSK (漢語水平考試). There are six sub-section to this list.
• Japan: The 常用漢字 (Jōyō), including 6 grades, a high school list, plus a name list. Most every character is allowed. We also include Extended Shinjitai.
• Korea: The 敎育用基礎漢字 (교육용 기초 한자), including middle school, and high school lists. The list of characters allowed in names is profligate (as more than one scholar has noted) and is often curtailed.

Each character is like a letter and may or may not be a word on its own. Characters which are not words have a two-character word which is deemed to be the same as the solo character. Every character – in theory, all 45,000 Chinese characters which have ever been used – is assigned to one of five categories:

1. Common - (常用字) These 1931 characters are the bedrock of the language and may be used freely. They are further divided into six levels, solely for the purpose of aiding learning.
2. Variants - (異体字) These are disallowed ways of writing a given character, mainly arising from national and font differences. It is also a way of appropriating many, many additional characters into simply being aliases of established characters. Only the Shinjitai, listed form of the character is "correct".
3. Advanced (先進字) These 276 characters are useful for situations when Dan'a'yo needs to function like a native language, and speak on any topic, but are considered extra learning. Their usage is restricted in international and cosmopolitan situations, which are intended to be maximally inclusive.
4. Name (名字) These are 385 characters that detail the specific names of species and municipalities, which must always be safeguarded with a determiner, which identifies them as such.
5. Illegal (違法字) Finally, there are some characters which are the provenance of one country only, and are therefore banned in Dan'a'yo. There are about 372 of these, though most have been out of circulation for centuries, if they ever were.

Word lists

• 単亜語/Swadesh

Sample

• 単亜語/218 sentences - Sentences to test syntax
• 単亜語/道徳経 - The Tao Te Ching, or 닷둑겅
  1. 単亜語/論語 - The Analects of Confucius
  2. 単亜語/大学 - Great Learning (not 'college!)
  3. 単亜語/中庸 - The Doctrine of the Mean
  4. 単亜語/孟子 - Mencius
• 単亜語/孫子兵法 - Sun Tzu's Art of War
• 単亜語/荘子 - Zhuangzi
• 単亜語/英雄 - Hero

Links

1. CJKV Auxlang Facebook Group

Bibliography

Linguistics

Holm, John A. Pidgins and Creoles: Volume 1, Theory and Structure . Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988-1989.

---. Pidgins and Creoles: Volume 2, Reference Survey . Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988-1989.

McWhorter, John. Language A to Z. Columbia University. The Great Courses, 2013. CD and booklet.

Chinese

Kroll, Paul W. A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese. Bilingual ed. Amersfoort, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Pub, 2014.

Miller, Roy A. Dictionary of Spoken Chinese. Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1966

Rouzer, Paul. A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

Japanese

Vaccari, Orsete, and Mrs Enko Elisa Vaccari. Complete Course of Japanese Conversation-Grammar (Entirely Reset, Greatly Enlarged) 24th Edition. Japan: Dai Nippon Printing Company, 1973.

Korean

Martin, Samuel E. Reference Grammar of Korean: a Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language. Revised, ed. Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2006.

新活用玉篇. Seoul, Korea: Dong-a Publishing and Printing Co., 1975

Language Construction

Okrent, Arika. In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010.

Rosenfelder, Mark. The Language Construction Kit. Chicago: Yonagu Books, 2010.

---. The Planet Construction Kit. Chicago: Yonagu Books, 2010.

---. Advanced Language Construction. Chicago: Yonagu Books, 2012.

---. The Conlanger's Lexipedia. Chicago: Yonagu Books, 2013.