Lyaateq

Lyaateq/Classical

Lyaateq/Camánreh

Lyaateq/Hosne'éh

Lyaateq/New Urban

Lyaateq/Wordlist

Lyaateq/Swadesh list

Lyaateq/Names

Lyaateq
Sowaazh dasheg
Pronunciation	[/sʊ̀wɑ̌ːɻ tɑ̀ʂɛ́k/]
Created by	IlL
Setting	Tricin
Language family	language isolate
Official status
Official language in	Sowaazhp'í (de facto)
Regulated by	none

Lyaateq (English: soo-WAHR; Amisheg: Sowaazh da·shég /sʊ̀wɑ̌ːɻ tɑ̀ʂɛ́k/, gloss: Sowaazh 3pl-language-INAL) is the dominant language in Sowaazhp'i in Verse:Tricin/Txapoalli. Sowaazh is a non-configurational polysynthetic language with a complex verbal morphology.

Lyaateq forms a single dialect continuum and is otherwise an isolate.

Go back to the nontonal Navajo + Polish aesthetic

External history

Sowaazh is made for a Japan- and Britain-inspired country in Tricin but is intended to be very different from Japanese or English. It is aesthetically inspired mainly by Navajo, and secondarily by Hmong and Vietnamese. On the other hand, its grammar is Inuit-inspired.

Internal history

The name Sowaazh literally means "good people" (from so- 'good' + waár, an obsolete root meaning 'people'; some draw a connection to Proto-Quame *kwarom).

Some speculate that Lyaateq is related to the Quame languages.

Todo

• Badly irregular ablaut like Navajo
• Some really short roots
• Should be different from Navajo and Roshterian but still polysynthetic
• Some Quame-ish words

Phonology

The following describes Amisheg (Standard Sowaazh) phonology.

Consonants

Amisheg has a large consonant inventory of 40 consonants:

Consonant phonemes in Amisheg

		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n̪/	nr	ny /ɲ/
Stop	tenuis	b /p/	d /t̪/	dr		g /k/	' /ʔ/
	aspirated	p /pʰ/	t /t̪ʰ/	tr		k /kʰ/
	ejective		t' /t̪ʼ/	tr'		k' /kʼ/
Affricate	tenuis		j /t̪s̪/	jh /tʂ/	jy /tɕ/
	aspirated		c /t̪s̪ʰ/	ch /tʂʰ/	cy /tɕʰ/
	ejective		c' /t̪s̪ʼ/	ch' /tʂʼ/	cy' /tɕʼ/
Fricative			s /s̪/	sh /ʂ/	sy /ɕ/	kh /x/	h /h/
Approximant		w /w/	l /l/	zh /ɻ/	y /j/

Notes

All consonants in Amisheg are long, compared to English and other Sowaazh dialects: with plain stops the hold is longer, with aspirated stops the aspiration is longer, and with affricates the frication is longer. The voice onset time of the aspirated and ejective stops is twice as long as that found in most other languages.

Vowels

Amisheg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length.

Amisheg oral vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	ii /iː/	o /ʊ/	oo /uː/
Open	e /ɛ/	ee /ɛː/	a /ɑ/	aa /ɑː/

Phonotactics

Sowaazh allows no initial clusters.

Accents

Main article: Sowaazh/Accents

There are two dimensions of linguistic variation in Sowaazh:

• Vocabulary and grammar: Standard Sowaazh (He'aásreg) and regional dialects. New Urban Sowaazh is a koiné consisting of a mixture of the two, with register changes.
  • He'aásreg itself is a mixture of a local dialect and Classical Sowaazh.
• Accent: Even when speaking Standard Sowaazh (not a regional dialect), one is usually expected to keep a regional accent. Having no regional accent at all is associated with being upper class. An Amisheg speaker will speak in Standard Sowaazh, but the converse is not usually true.

Orthography

All varieties of Sowaazh are written in the Sowaazh alphabet, which was originally developed as a phonetic notation system like the IPA. Amisheg spelling is based on Conservative Amisheg.

• no dot: mid tone
• one dot below: high tone
• two dots below: low tone (unpronounced)

Sandhi

All Sowaazh lects have extensive sandhi systems. The following describes Standard Sowaazh sandhi.

Morphology

Main article: Sowaazh/Morphology

Sowaazh has a large number of noun-like constructions which appear on the surface to be phrases, but which are fixed in both meaning and morphology.

Example:

Sowaazh tash la'dat'ooweyiid

/sʊ̀wɑ̌:ɻ tʰɑ̀ʂ lɑ̀ʔtɑ̀tʼǔ:wɛ̀jì:t/

Sowaazh da-hasr la'-da-t'oó-e-iid

Sowaazh 3PL.AN-for "all directions"-3PL.AN-radiate/REG-REG=NOMZ.AN (REG = TAM for "regularly does something, as in a job")

Sowaazh Broadcasting Corporation

Literal translation: "those who regularly send things out in all directions for the Sowaazh people"

Syntax

Word order

Amisheg is non-configurational. Noun phrases are head-final.

Clitics

Most conjunctions obey Wackernagel's law; they come after the first syntactic phrase or the first stressed word in a clause.

Nominalizers

Nominalized relative clauses are formed by attaching the nominalizing clitic =in after the clause.

Examples:

• lisdrój /lɪ̀ʂtʂʊ́c/ = 'I love you' > lisdrójeh /lɪ̀ʂtʂʊ́ceh/ = 'the fact that I love you'
• sriilohóokh = 'they pile up forming a line' > sriilohóokhin = (a type of scale used in Sowaazh music)

Vocabulary

Sowaazh vocabulary is nearly exclusively native. A sparse number of words are from Naquic and Tsimulh languages, and recently, Skellan. Borrowed words are almost all nouns.

For example:

Khópab daSóol = Clofabolocin (via Skellan Clofab)

glah → gakháh /kaxah/

Hnawcas Amlad → Náwokas Ámkhad

Iña's Moh > Íikhasmoh

To abbreviate words, Sowaazh uses clipping.

Transliterating Skellan

Consonants:

• /m n ŋ/ = m n n
• /p t k/ = b d g
• /pʰ tʰ kʰ/ = p t k
• /ts tʃ/ = c c
• /f θ ç χ h/ = p d x kh h
• /v ð j/ = w d y
• /s ʃ/ = s x
• /z ʒ/ = s x
• /w r r̥ ʟ/ = w r sh kh

Vowels:

• /i y ə u e~ɛi ø~œy o~ɔu ɛ œ a ɔ/ = ii ii a oo i/eyi i/eyi o/awo e e a a
  • /e ø o/ = i i o for Skellan Eevo, eyi/ewi/awo for Fyxoomian Eevo
• /ai ui au ɛu iu iə yə uə/ = ayi owi awo ewo iyo iya iya uwa'
• Fyxoomian: /õˁ ẽˁ~ø̃ˁ ɛ̃ˁ~œ̃ˁ ɔ̃ˁ ãˁ/ = oN iN eN aN aN
• Skellan: /iɤ yɤ uɤ eɤ øɤ oɤ ɛɤ aɤ ɔɤ/ = iwa iwa owa iwa ewa owa ewa awa awa

Study by non-native speakers

Due to the popularity of Sowaazh pop culture across the globe, Sowaazh is commonly learned by Sowaazhophile otakus. Sowaazh is considered one of the most daunting languages for speakers of most Northern languages, due to its morphological complexity and high degree of diglossia.

Poetry

Sowaazh poetry uses quantitative meters, like Sanskrit.

(LLLLSLLSSSSSSLLSLLSLL)

(LLLSSLSLSSSLLLSLLSL)

Lyoóshaant’ ólo·sjecyida'eéch’ óna da·sk’onyáad shéb (LLSLSSSLSSLSLL)
Gáadeéncyok’ oon·táshojyekaad wehacóozh bijháalyin (LLSLSSSLSSLSLL)

Phrasebook

• 'Áa'weh khéh = Welcome ("good place")
• Mehonol'é? = Hello! (gloss: good place, 2SG-CONT-peaceful-INTERR lit. "Are you in peace?")
• Khahonolíi. = reply to Mehonol'é? (gloss: 1SG-CONT-peaceful-TVF "Yes, I am in peace.")
• Lihosdróy = I love you.
• Nótr'ahgará be'saambój. Khooh 'ésjol be'saambojáyee'. = "All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others."

Sample Texts

UDHR

Nórkhantóo...

all=human 3PL-GNOM-be-born 3SG.INAN-from GNOM-STAT-free, 3PL-STAT-PASS-honor=NOM=also and 3PL-GNOM-STAT/deserve=NOM 3INAN-GNOM-STAT/equal

Literally: All people from being born are free; their dignity and rights are equal. They-can-TELIC-think=NOMZ and they-can-know-good=NOM, they can use it, they must thus move themselves in the face of each other as if they were brothers.

Serenity

Literally: May I be at peace with what I cannot change, boldly change what I can change, and by thinking wisely, tell the two situations apart.