Tchwerian
Tchwerian (Wieb-Muts or Reber-Muts) is a Wiebian dialect continuum that includes varieties of Modern Standard Wiebian. It is often simply called "Wiebian" in-universe. Tchwerian is aesthetically inspired by Chinese.
Historical phonology
Middle Wiebian
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Click | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | voiceless | /m̊/ | /n̊/ | /ɳ̊/ | /ŋ̊!/ | /ŋ̊/ | /ɴ̊/ | |
| voiced | /m/ | /n/ | /ɳ/ | /ŋ!/ | /ŋ/ | /ɴ/ | ||
| Stop | tenuis | /p/ | /t/ | /ʈ/ | /ǃ/ | /k/ | /q/ | /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /ʈʰ/ | /ǃʰ/ | /kʰ/ | /qʰ/ | ||
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɖ/ | /ɡǃ/ | /ɡ/ | /ɢ/ | ||
| Spirants | voiceless | /f/ | /θ/ | /ɧ/ | /x/ | /χ/ | /h/ | |
| voiced | /ð/ | /ɧ̬/ | /ɣ/ | /ʁ/ | ||||
| Sibilants | voiceless | /s/ | /ʂ/ | |||||
| voiced | /z/ | /ʐ/ | ||||||
| Approximant | voiceless | /ʍ/ | /l̥/ | |||||
| voiced | /w/ | /l/ | ||||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | /i/ | /iː/ | /y/ | /yː/ | /u/ | /uː/ | ||
| Mid | /e/ | /eː/ | /ø/ | /øː/ | /əː/ | /ɔ/ | /oː/ | |
| Open | /æ/ | /æː/ | /ɑ/ | /ɑː/ | ||||
Diphthongs: /ai au oy ja je iːa jaː wa wo uːa waː ɥa ɥø yːa ɥaː aiɐ auɐ oyɐ/
Tones (allophonic)
- (-p m)
- (-p b)
- (-p g)
- (+p m)
- (+p b)
- (+p g)
Inventory
Consonants
Vowels
a aa e i o ö u ü
ai au ei eu iu öi oi ou ui
Tones
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns inflect for two cases, nominative and genitive. The genitive derives from the Ancient Wiebian dative.
Definite article ein (an)
| Number | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine |
| Nominative | ein (an) | eine (an-L) | einen (na-N) | einer (na-L) |
| Genitive | eines (an-H) | einer (na-L) | einens (na-H) | einen (na-N) |