Kuam

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Kuam

Talk:

Kuam /ˈθiːən/ (Zzean: Zzea kī̄ /θiə̯˧ ki˥/) is an analytic monosyllabic tonal language with 11 tones: 5 level tones and 6 contour tones. It is head-final and SVO. Zzean belongs to a small family called the Zzeic languages but otherwise has no known relatives. Kuam is inspired by East and Southeast Asian tonal languages, Ojitlán Chinantec, Toda, and Saanich.

Phonology

The following is the phonology of Standard Zzean.

Phonotactics

A morpheme is almost always monosyllabic. A syllable always has the structure IR^T, where I = initial, R = rime, and T = tone. Kuam has 33 initials, 9 rimes, and 11 tones, making 3267 possible syllables.

Rimes

i/e/ə/ɑ/ej/əj/ɑj/iə̯/ɨə̯

i/e/ə/a/ey/əy/ay/ea/ua

Notes

• /ɑ/ and /ɑj/ are phonetically [a̠] and [a̠j].
• /ɨə̯/ is commonly monophthongized to [ɨ] or [ɨ̞].

Initials

		Labial	Lamino-dental		Apico-alveolar		Subapical		Palatal(ized)	Velar	Glottal
			nonsib.	sib.	nonsib.	sib.	nonsib.	sib.
Nasal		m /m/	nh /n̪/		n /n/		nr /ɳ/
Stop		p /p/	th /t̪/	tz /t̪s̪/	t /t/	ts /ts̠/	tr /ʈ/	tsr /ʈʂ/		k /k/	/ʔ/
Fricative		f /f/	zz /θ/	z /s̪/	ss /θ̠/	s /s̠/		sr /ʂ/	x /ʃ/	kh /x/	h /h/
Resonant	central	w /w/	zh /ð̞/		r /ɾ/		rr /ɻ/		y /j/	g /ɰ/
	lateral		lh /l̪/		l /l/		lr /ɭ/			lg /ʟ/

Tones

Tones have low functional load in Zzean relative to other major Angaian languages.

Rom.	IPA	English name	Example	Description
ā̄	/˥/ (55)	top	kā̄ /kɑ˥/ 'short'	Often marked by stiff voice.
ā	/˦/ (44)	high	kā /kɑ˦/ 'coat'
a	/˧/ (33)	mid	ka /kɑ˧/ 'to take'
a̱	/˨/ (22)	low	ka̱ /kɑ˨/ 'to breathe'
a̱̱	/˩/ (11)	bottom	ka̱̱ /kɑ˩/ 'to burn (intrans.)'	Often marked by vocal fry.
a̗	/˩˥/ (15)	bottom-rise	ka̗ /kɑ˩˥/ 'roof'	Often begins with vocal fry. May be realized as [˩˦] (14), or even [˨˦] (24) in rapid speech.
á	/˧˥/ (35)	mid-rise	ká /kɑ˧˥/ 'fencepost'
à	/˥˩/ (51)	top-fall	kà /kɑ˥˩/ 'crow, raven; (ideophone) caw'	May be realized as [˥˧] (53).
a̖	/˧˩/ (31)	mid-fall	ka̖ /kɑ˧˩/ 'finger'
a̬	/˨˩˨/ (212)	dip	ka̬ /kɑ˨˩˨/ 'oil, fat, grease'	Often realized as [˩˨] (12) in rapid speech.
â	/˧˦˧/ (343)	peak	kâ /kɑ˧˦˧/ 'to imprint, to stamp'	May be [˨˧˨] (232). Often realized as [˦˩] (41) or [˦˨] (42) in rapid speech.

Tone box

	A (null or resonant coda) (2/6)	B (glottal stop coda) (1/6)	C (fricative coda) (1/6)	D (voiceless stop coda) (1/6)	E (voiced stop coda) (1/6)
Modal initial (3/8)	33 (a)	212 (a̬)	22 (a̱)	35 (á)	11 (a̱̱)
Breathy initial (3/8)	31 (a̖)	15 (a̗)	343 (â)	15 (a̗)	343 (â)
Creaky initial (2/8)	51 (à)	44 (ā)	11 (a̱̱)	55 (ā̄)	51 (à)

Awkwords input

C: m/nh/n/nr/p/th/tz/t/ts/tx/tr/tsr/k//f/zz/z/ss/s/x/sr/kh/h/lh/zh/l/r/lr/rr/lg/g/y/w

R: ā̄/ā/a/a̱/a̱̱/a̗/á/à/a̖/a̬/â/ā̄y/āy/ay/a̱y/a̱̱y/a̗y/áy/ày/a̖y/a̬y/ây/ē̄/ē/e/e̱/e̱̱/e̗/é/è/e̖/e̬/ê/ē̄y/ēy/ey/e̱y/e̱̱y/e̗y/éy/èy/e̖y/e̬y/êy/ē̄a/ēa/ea/e̱a/e̱̱a/e̗a/éa/èa/e̖a/e̬a/êa/ī̄/ī/i/i̱/i̱̱/i̗/í/ì/i̖/i̬/î/ə̄̄/ə̄/ə/ə̱/ə̱̱/ə̖/ə́/ə̀/ə̗/ə̬/ə̂/ə̄̄y/ə̄y/əy/ə̱y/ə̱̱y/ə̖y/ə́y/ə̀y/ə̗y/ə̬y/ə̂y/ū̄a/ūa/ua/u̱a/u̱̱a/u̖a/úa/ùa/u̗a/u̬a/ûa

Orthography

Zzean is written in the Zzean script and uses a very deep orthography, like Tibetan.