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

Most dialects turn flaps into trills after glottal stops.

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/ - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔsəʔ/ - "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/ - sand (from a desert, Thangha' has a different word for beach sand) -> /ˈpfəⁿʂaʂa/ - "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/ - "boss" -> /ˈʂaⁿsəʔdə/ - "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/ - "boss" -> /naⁿˈʂaⁿsəʔ/ - "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/ [ˈwɔʔɖɑ] - "rain" -> /naˈgʷəʔɖa/ [naˈgʷɔʔɖɑ] - "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.)