Nanyse

Nanyse is my first and only conlang. Although this is far from its first incarnation, I'm hoping to use this version of my project in a science-fiction novel I'm working on. The language, and the culture of those humans who speak it, was created gradually over time as native speakers from different points in Earth's history were kidnapped and forced to work with speakers from other cultures and languages. I'd call the end result - this current incarnation of my conlang - a macro-pidgin, but in the story there are over 14 million native speakers. I hope you enjoy watching me struggle with creating this language. Please, don't hesitate to send any questions my way - especially if I've slipped up and forgotten my own rules or spellings. Thank you for your attentions!

Nanyse
Иφчψѣɔ
Pronunciation	[/nʌ.nɪ.sɛ/]
Created by	–
Native to	Dumun Territories
Native speakers	14,854,447 (2013)
Language family	Multiple Nanyse
Early form	Proto-Nanyse
Dialects	Ohi Kote Jara Yrem
Official status
Regulated by	The Academy of Unu

Introduction

Nanyse is the native language of the Ubaneb Dumun and the official language of trade in the known nabdetam. It is an a posteriori language, with reported origins in ancient Sumerian, Hittite, and Chinese, and employs alphabetic orthography, as well as agglutinative grammar. Nanyse is a consonantic and accusative language. There are four recognized dialects of Nanyse and, of them, the Ohi dialect is considered to be the official pronunciation.

Phonology

The Nanyse alphabet is composed of 52 symbols, with separate symbols denoting either the upper or lower case forms of 26 different sounds. Due to the difficulties of learning the native alphabet, and the relatively wise-spread use of the Roman alphabet on Kisar, it is the Roman alphabet that is used to teach new comers the written form of Nanyse. The native alphabet will be described in another article.

Alphabet

Names

Am

Æp

El

Yc

Is

Ot

Um

Har

Bat

Din

Fæ

Gan

Jen

Ci

Kap

Lun

Mos

Nem

Pan

Rom

Xo

Sel

Vas

Tro

Was

Zap

Upper Case

A

Æ

E

Y

I

O

U

H

B

D

F

G

J

C

K

L

M

N

P

R

X

S

V

T

W

Z

Lower Case

a

æ

e

y

i

o

u

h

b

d

f

g

j

c

k

l

m

n

p

r

x

s

v

t

w

z

Vowels

Vowels
	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i		ʉ		u
Near-close	ɪ				ʊ
Close-mid			ɵ		o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ʌ
Near-open
Open	a

Monophthongs

Monophthongs are pure vowel sounds. Nanyse has four of these: A[ʌ], E[ɛ], Y[ɪ], and U[ʉ]

Diphthongs

Diphtongs are two vowel sounds occurring in the same syllable. Nanyse has three of these: Æ[ɛɪ], I[aɪ], and O[oʊ]

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Palato-Alveolar	Alveolar	Alveolol-Palatal	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m				n				ŋ
Plosive	p / b				t / d				k / g
Affricate				tʃ / dʒ	dz	ʥ
Fricative		f / v	θ / ð		s / z		ʃ / ʒ		x	h
Approximant					ɹ				w
Lateral app.					l			ɭ

Pronunciation

In Nanyse, consonants are pronounced as follows:

H[h] - B[b] - D[d] - F[f] - G[g] - J[dʒ] - C[tʃ] - K[k] - L[l] - M[m] - N[n] - P[p] - R[ɹ] - X[ʃ] - S[s] - V[θ] - T[t] - W[w] - Z[z]

Dialects

As mentioned before, the Ohi dialect is considered to be the proper pronunciation of Nanyse, but, standing at 14% of the population, the Ohi are far from the most numerous speakers of the language. Below is how Nanyse is pronounced among the Kote, Jara, and Yrem.

Kote

Vowels: A[a] - Æ[ʌɪ] - E[ɛ] - Y[ə] - I[ɛɪ] - O[u] - U[ɵ]

Consonants: H[silent] - B[b] - D[d] - F[v] - G[g] - J[ʥ] - C[sk] - K[x] - L[ɹ] - M[m] - N[n] - P[t] - R[h] - X[ʃ] - S[s] - V[f] - T[ð] - W[w] - Z[ʒ]

Jara

Vowels: A[ʌ] - Æ[ɛɪ] - E[ɛ] - Y[ɪ] - I[aɪ] - O[a] - U[ʉ]

Consonants: H[h] - B[p] - D[t] - F[f] - G[dʒ] - J[g] - C[ʃ] - K[k] - L[l] - M[m] - N[n] - P[b] - R[ɹ] - X[tʃ] - S[s] - V[θ] - T[d] - W[w] - Z[z]

Yrem

Vowels: A[ʌ] - Æ[aɪ] - E[ɛ] - Y[ɪ] - I[oʊi] - O[o] - U[u]

Consonants: H[h] - B[b] - D[p] - F[ð] - G[g] - J[dz] - C[dʒ] - K[x] - L[ɹ] - M[m] - N[n] - P[d] - R[ɭ] - X[ʃ] - S[s] - V[v] - T[tʃ] - W[w] - Z[ʒ]

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Nanyse (meaning the number of consonant sounds that may precede or follow a vowel sound) is CCCVCCC (C = consonant, V = vowel), as long as the consonant clusters are an allowed combination. As happens with many languages that are formed over a long period of time from many different sources, there is the occasional word that doesn't fit this format. These words are the exception to the rule and are few in number.

Every syllable has a vowel as its nucleus

A nucleus may stand on its own, or may have one or more consonants before it (onsets) or following it (coda)

If a single consonant is between two vowels, the consonant belongs to the second syllable.

No geminates

No onset /ŋ/

No /h/ in the syllable coda No affricates in complex onsets The first consonant in a complex onset most be an obstruent The second consonant in a complex onset must not be a voiced obstruent If the first consonant in a complex onset is an /s/, the second must be a liquid or a glide If there is a complex coda, the second consonant must not be /ŋ/, /ʒ/, or /ð/ If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, so is the first Non-alveolar nasals must be homorganic with the next segment Two obstruents in the same coda must share voicing

Syllable Structure
Onset				Nucleus		Coda
Any single consonant				Vowel		Any single Consonant
Voiceless plosive + approximant				Vowel		Two voiceless plosives
Voiceless affricate + approximant				Vowel		Two voiceless fricatives
Voiceless fricative + approximant				Vowel		'r' + fricative
's' + nasal, other than 'ŋ'				Vowel		'r' + nasal or lateral
's' + voiceless plosive				Vowel		'r' + plosive or affricate
's' + voiceless fricative				Vowel		Nasal + fricative
's' + voiceless plosive + approximant				Vowel		Approximant + nasal
's' + voiceless fricative + approximant				Vowel		Approximant + fricative
				Vowel		Approximant + plosive or affricate
				Vowel		Nasal + plosive or affricate
				Vowel		Plosive + voiceless fricative
				Vowel		Voiceless fricative + voiceless plosive
				Vowel		Three obstruents
				Vowel		'r' + two consonants
				Vowel		Approximant + two consonants
				Vowel		Nasal + plosive + plosive or fricative

Prosody

Nanyse is atonal, tone does not affect the meaning of the words. Syllable stress is light and penult, meaning that the next-to-last syllable is the one stressed, except in single syllable words, where it is omitted.