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. It is also Æ-xenic.

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

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) (2/5)	B (glottal stop coda) (1/5)	C (fricative coda) (1/5)	D (voiceless stop coda) (1/5)
Modal initial (3/8)	33 (a)	212 (a̬)	22 (a̱)	35 (á)
Breathy initial (3/8)	31 (a̖)	15 (a̗)	343 (â)	15 (a̗)
Creaky initial (2/8)	51 (à)	44 (ā)	11 (a̱̱)	55 (ā̄)

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.