Thangha'

Thangha' is another language spoken in my far future Antarctic conworld (after runaway global warming has melted most of the ice but made most of the rest of the world uninhabitable). It is spoken by nomads who inhabit the centre of the continent.. Because each group of nomads speak their own dialect, Thangha' is a Pluricentric language. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Thangha's has become a lingua franca across much of East Antarctica (through other ethnic groups trading with the nomads). To give an example of the diversity, the initial consonant in the name of the language can be pronounced as [tˤ], [θˤ], [θ], [tsˤ], [sˤ], [tʰ], [tsʰ] or occasionally [ts]. The consonant that begins the second syllable is usually prononuced [x], but a few dialects pronounce it as as [χ], [ħ] or [h].

Phonology

Vowels

In stressed syllables, most dialects distinguish 5 plain oral vowels /a/, /iː/, /uː/, /e/, /o/, two nasal vowels /aⁿ/ and /əⁿ/, and one glottalised vowel /əʔ/. The difference between /iː/ vs. /e/ is more dependent on length than height. For example, a short [i] is more likely to be heard as /e/ than /iː/, and a long /eː/ is more likely to be heard as /iː/ than /e/. The back vowels /uː/ and /o/ are similar in this regard.

In unstressed syllables, the plain oral vowels /iː/, /uː/, /e/ and /o/ (i.e. all of the plain oral vowels except /a/) merge to /ə/ (which is still distinct from /əʔ/.

In non-word final syllables, it is very common for nasal vowels to unpackinto a sequence of oral vowel + nasal consonant (which is homorganic with the following consonant). For example, the vowel of the first syllable in the language name Thangha' is phonemically /aⁿ/, but is usually heard as [aŋ] (or [aɴ] for speakers who use a uvular fricative instead of a velar fricative).

Thangha' is well on the way to developing a second phonemic glottalised vowel /aʔ/, from coalesence of the sequence /a/ + Stop + /əʔ/ (unstressed). For example, in careful speech, Thangha' is heard as /ˈtˤaⁿxapəʔ/, however in normal conversation it is almost always contracted to /ˈtˤaⁿxaʔ/.

Consonants

There is considerable variation between dialects here:

	Labial	Pal. Labial	Dental / Alveolar	Lab. Dental	Alveolo-Palatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Lab. Velar	Lab. Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	mʲ ~ mj	n	nʷ ~ nw			ɲ ~ nj
Voiced Stop / Affricate	b	bʲ ~ bj	d	dʷ ~ dw	dʑ	ɖ	ɟ ~ gj	g		gʷ ~ gw ~ gb
Voiceless Stop	p	pʲ ~ pj	t	tʷ ~ tw		ʈ	c ~ kj	k	q	kʷ ~ kw ~ kp	qʷ ~ kf ~ qp	ʔ
Voiceless Affricate			ts ~ tɬ		tɕ
"Aspirated" Consonant	pˤ ~ pʰ		tˤ ~ θˤ ~ θ ~ tsˤ~ sˤ ~ tʰ ~ tsʰ ~ ts				cç ~ kɕ ~ ks
Fricative	f	fʲ ~ fj	s	sʷ ~ sw	ɕ	ʂ	ç ~ ɬ	x ~ χ ~ ħ ~ h		xʷ ~ χʷ ~ ʍ ~ ɸ
Flap / Trill					ɾʲ	ɽ			ʀ		ʀʷ ~ ⱱ
Lateral							ʎ		ɫ		ɫʷ ~ ɫw
Semivowel							j			w

The uvular trill is most commonly pronounced as an approximant [ʁ].

Flaps usually become trills after glottal stops.

Clusters of glottal stop followed by stops, fricatives or affricates coalesce to become geminates e.g. /ˈwəʔɖa/ - "rain" [ˈwɔɖːɑ]

The "aspirated" consonants were originally aspirated stops, and a very small number of dialects preserve this pronunciation, however in the vast majority of dialects these have undergone sound shifts.

A few dialects merge the aspirated dental consonant into the voiceless alveolar affricate. In these dialects, Thangha' would be pronounced [ˈtsaŋxaʔ].

Some dialects merge /ɫʷ/ into /ɫ/.

Labialised labial consonants /mʷ/, /bʷ/, /pʷ/ (and sometimes /fʷ/~/ɸ/) occur as separate phonemese in a few dialects. But most dialects have merged these with the plain labials.

Some dialects merge /xʷ/ into /f/ (or /ɸ/ in one dialect that treats this as a distinct phoneme to /f/).

Stress

Syllable stress is not fixed, and can occur on any syllable of a word. However, as mentioned earlier, the range of vowels that can occur on unstressed syllables is limited.

Phonotactics

Only CCV syllables are permitted (this assumes that nasal and glottalised vowels are distinct phonemes). Furthermore, the only permissible consonant clusters (that are not affricates / cases of secondary articulation in at least some dialects) are /pf/, /tf/ and /pç/~/ps/~/pɬ/.

Vowel Allophony

The vowels of Thangha' have a number of different allophones depending on what consonants they are adjacent to. These are described in the table below. Note that a "lowering" consonant is defined as a pharyngealised, retroflex or uvular consonant (labialised or non-labialised, including /ɫ/). If two sounds are listed, the first occurs in stressed syllables, and the second in unstressed syllables:

Phoneme	/a/	/iː/	/uː/	/e/	/o/	/aⁿ/	/əⁿ/	/əʔ/	/ə/	/aʔ/
Default	[a]	[iː]	[uː]	[e]	[o]	[aⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[əʔ]	[ə]	[aʔ]
Adjacent to a Palatal or Palatalised Consonant	[æ]	[iː]	[ʉː]	[i]	[ɵ]	[ɛⁿ]	[eⁿ]	[ɪʔ]	[ɪ]	[ɛʔ]
Adjacent to a Lowering Consonant (Non-Labialised)	[ɑ]	[eː]	[oː]	[ɛ]	[ɔ]	[ɑⁿ]	[ʌⁿ]	[ʌʔ]	[ʌ]	[ɑʔ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Consonant (Non-Lowering)	[a]	[yː]	[uː]	[ø]	[u]	[aⁿ]	[oⁿ]	[ʊʔ]	[ʊ]	[ɔʔ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ɒ]	[øː]	[oː]	[œ]	[ɔ]	[ɒⁿ]	[ɔⁿ]	[ɔʔ]	[ɔ]	[ɒʔ]
Between a Lowering Consonant and a Labialised Consonant	[ɒ]	[øː]	[oː]	[œ]	[ɔ]	[ɒⁿ]	[ɔⁿ]	[ɔʔ]	[ɔ]	[ɒʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Consonant (Non-Lowering)	[ɞ]	[yː]	[ʉː]	[y]	[ʉ]	[œⁿ]	[øⁿ]	[ʏʔ]	[ʏ]	[œʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ɐ]	[øː]	[oː]	[ø]	[o]	[ɐⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[ɵʔ]	[ɵ]	[ɐʔ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Lowering Consonant (Non-Labialised)	[ɐ]	[eː]	[oː]	[e]	[o]	[ɐⁿ]	[əⁿ]	[ɘʔ]	[ɘ]	[ɐʔ]

Nouns

Plurals

Additive Plural

This is formed by reduplicating the last syllable of the noun e.g. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəsːaʔ] - "bosses". However, in Thangha', pluralisation is optional. So /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ could mean either "boss" or "bosses". In general, the plural is only used to emphasise that there is a large number / quantity of something. It can even be used for uncountable nouns e.g. /ˈpfəⁿʂa/ [ˈpfʌɲʂɑ] - sand (from a desert, Thangha' has a different word for beach sand) -> /ˈpfəⁿʂaʂa/ [ˈpfʌɲʂɑʂɑ] - "large amount of desert sand / dune sea".

Associative Plural

Distinct from the additive plural, this means "X and company", "X and his/her mob" etc. (similar to Japanese -tachi). It is formed by suffixing /-də/ to the noun e.g.

/ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔdə/ [ˈʂɑnsədːə]- "the boss and his lot"

Note that this is distinct from the additive plural discussed before. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔsəʔ/ refers to a group of bosses, while /ˈʂaⁿsəʔdə/ refers to a boss with a group of other people associated with him (who by no means need to be bosses, and could well be the boss's subordinates).

Case

Thangha' has three cases, Absolutive (unmarked), Ergative (marked with the suffix /-ɟa/) and Genitive.

The Genitive case is normally marked with the prefix /naⁿ-/ e.g. /ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss" -> /naⁿˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [naɳˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "of the boss", /ˈpfəⁿʂa/ [ˈpfʌɳʂɑ] - "sand" -> /naⁿˈpfəⁿʂa/ [namˈpfʌɳʂɑ] "of the sand". However, if the initial consonant of the noun is /ʔ/, /j/ or /w/, then these are replaced with /nag-/, /naɟ-/ and /nagʷ-/ respectively. e.g. /ˈʔaba/ - "ash" -> /naˈgaba/ - "of the ash", /ˈjiːtəʔ/ - "food" -> /naˈɟiːtəʔ/ - "of the food", /ˈwəʔɖa/ [ˈwɔɖːɑ] - "rain" -> /naˈgʷəʔɖa/ [naˈgʷɔɖːɑ] - "of the rain".

Possession

Like most Antarctican languages, Thangha' uses different constructions for alienable and inalienable possession.

Inalienable Possession

In this case, the word order is Possessed - Possessor, with the Possessor marked with the genitive case e.g.

/ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ naⁿ-kʷəʔˈta/

[ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ naŋkʷʊʔˈta]

bone GEN-dog

The dog's bone (in it's body)

Alienable Possession

The construction for alienable possession is completely different. The word order is Possessor - Possessed (the reverse of inalienable possession) and the Possessor is marked with the Ergative case e.g.

/kʷəʔˈta-ɟa ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/

[kʷʊʔˈtæ-ɟæ ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ]

dog-ERG bone

The dog's bone (that it is chewing / burying etc.)

Demonstratives

Like English, Thangha' makes a two-way distance contrast in demonstratives, and there is no distinction between pronominal demonstratives and adnominal demonstratives (which precede the noun, like in English). Unlike English, there is no singular vs. plural contrast in demonstratives:

This / These: /ˈjəʔɲəʔ/ [jɪʔɲɪʔ]

That / Those: /ˈjəʔtʷəʔ/ [ˈjʏʔtʷʊʔ]

Prepositional Clitics

In Thangha', prepositions are clitics that attach phonologically to the following word (whether that is a noun, demonstrative, numeral or adjective). The pronunciation of the last vowel in a preposition is affected by the first consonant in the following word e.g.

/saⁿpʲəⁿ/ [sɛmpʲeⁿ] - "next to"

/ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "boss"

/saⁿpʲəⁿ=ˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ [sɛmpʲəɳ=ˈʂɑnsəʔ] - "next to the boss"

Contractions

If a preposition ends with /-əʔ/, and the following word begins with /ʔ/, /j/ or /w/, then the combination of the two words is often abbreviated by deleting the last vowel of the preposition and the first consonant of the following word e.g.

/ʔatasəʔ/ - "above"

/ˈjiːtəʔ/ - "food"

/ʔataˈsiːtəʔ/ - "above the food" ( the uncontracted form /ʔatasəʔ=ˈjiːtəʔ/ is grammatical but almost never heard).

Sometimes, an initial /j/ or /w/ is not deleted entirely, but survives as secondary articulation on the last consonant of the preposition e.g.

/ˈwəʔwa/ [ˈwʊʔwa] - "animal fat"

/ʔataˈsʷəʔwa/ [ʔataˈsʷʊʔwa] - "above the animal fat"

/pəⁿtˤakəʔ/ [pʌntˤɑkəʔ]- "on top of"

/pəⁿtˤaˈkʷəʔwa/ [pʌntˤɒˈkʷʊʔwa] - "on top of the animal fat"

/pəⁿtˤaˈciːtəʔ/ [pʌntˤɐˈciːtəʔ] - "on top of the food"

Pronouns

Thangha' makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive "we". Unlike the rest of the language which has ergative-absolutive alignment, pronouns have nominative-accusative alignment.

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1PS Singular	/ˈʔəʔkʷa/ [ˈʔʊʔkʷa]	/ˈʔacəⁿ/ [ˈʔæceⁿ]	/kʷo/ [kʷu]
1PS Plural Exclusive	/kaˈmʲəʔ/ [kæˈmʲɪʔ]	/ˈʔəʔmʲəⁿ/ [ˈʔɪʔmʲeⁿ]	/ˈnəʔmʲəⁿ/ [ˈnɪʔmʲeⁿ]
1PS Plural Inclusive	/ˈtəʔxʷa/ [ˈtʊʔxʷa]	/ˈʔəʔtəⁿ/ [ˈʔəʔtəⁿ]	/ˈnəʔtəⁿ/ [ˈnəʔtəⁿ]
2PS Singular	/jəʔˈko/ [jɪʔˈko]	/jəʔˈxʷo/ [jʏʔˈxʷu] ~ [jʏʔˈɸu] ~ [jɪʔˈɸo]	/mo/ [mo]
2PS Plural / Polite	/kaˈxʷo/ [kaˈxʷu]	/jəⁿˈxʷo/ [jøŋˈxʷu] ~ [jømˈɸu] ~ [jemˈɸo]	/ɲəⁿˈxʷo/ [ɲøŋˈxʷu] ~ [ɲømˈɸu] ~ [ɲemˈɸo]
3PS	/səʔ/ [səʔ]	/ˈkəʔɲəʔ/ [ˈkɪʔɲɪʔ]	/ɲəʔ/ [ɲɪʔ]

The genitive pronouns are used for both alienable and inalienable possession. In both cases, they precede the noun they possess e.g. /kʷo ˈʀʷəʔtʷəʔ/ [kʷu ˈʁʷɔʔtʷʊʔ] - "my bone" (either in my body, or in my possession).

The second person plural pronouns can also be used to refer to a single person, if the speaker desires to express respect to that person. This is similar to French tu vs. vous.