Tchwerian
| Tchwerian | |
|---|---|
| Wieber-Müđel | |
| Pronunciation | [/jiʔ˨ mɔŋ˩˧/] |
| Created by | IlL |
| Setting | Hussmauch |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qwb |
Tchwerian (Wieber-Müđel (jidd moon) or Reber-Müđel (lidd moon)) is a Wiebian dialect continuum that includes varieties of Modern Standard Wiebian. It is often simply called "Wiebian" in-universe. Tchwerian is intended to be "12-tone Chinese gibberish".
Numbers
- 1: wahm /jɛŋ21/
- 2: disser /tʂɨ41/
- 3: narg /nɛʔ33/
- 4: đauf /ǃy41/
- 5: säl /si21/
- 6: stuhm /tʂɔŋ55/
- 7: rut /ʔɔʔ11/
- 8: lerz /laː41/
- 9: pfarb /pʰɛʔ44/
- 10: kier /kʰiː55/
Historical phonology
Middle Wiebian
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Click | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | voiceless | /m̊/ | /n̊/ | /ɳ̊/ | /ŋ̊!/ | /ŋ̊/ | |
| voiced | /m/ | /n/ | /ɳ/ | /ŋ!/ | /ŋ/ | ||
| Stop | tenuis | /p/ | /t/ | /ʈ/ | /ǃ/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /ʈʰ/ | /ǃʰ/ | /kʰ/ | ||
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɖ/ | /ɡǃ/ | /ɡ/ | ||
| Spirants | voiceless | /f/ | /θ/ | /ɧ/ | /x/ | /h/ | |
| voiced | /ð/ | /ɧ̬/ | /ɣ/ | ||||
| Sibilants | voiceless | /s/ | /ʂ/ | ||||
| voiced | /z/ | /ʐ/ | |||||
| Approximant | voiceless | /ʍ/ | /l̥/ | ||||
| voiced | /w/ | /l/ | |||||
| 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:
- (-p m)
- (-p b)
- (-p g)
- (+p m)
- (+p b)
- (+p g)
Final changes
- Vowels lengthen before ŋ: ɑŋ æŋ eŋ iŋ oŋ øŋ uŋ yŋ > ɑːŋ æːŋ eːŋ iːŋ oːŋ øːŋ uːŋ yːŋ
- -ŋ! > -ŋ
- stops > ʔ; nasals > ŋ
Retroflex/slender split
- ɑ merger with ɔ, ɑː merger with aː
- ai ~ iː > iː in open syllables, aː in closed syllables
- a(ː) ~ ja(ː) > a(ː)
- e ~ je/i > i
- əː ~ eː > eː
- au ~ ay > ɔ(ː)
- o(ː) ~ ø(ː) > o(ː)
- u(ː) ~ y(ː) > u(ː)
- u(ː)a ~ y(ː)a > u(ː)a
- uo ~ yø > uo
- aiɐ ~ iːa > ja
- auɐ ~ oyɐ > wa
- ʔ > ʔ / r
- k > k / t͡ɕ
- ʈ > k / tʂ
- θ > ʂ / t
- ! > ! / |
- ɧ > r / r
- t > tʂ / ts
- p > p / pj
- n > ɳ / n
- ɳ > ŋ
- l > l / l or j depending on dialect
- r > l
Phonemic inventory
Initials
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Click | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | dental | retroflex | ||||||||
| Nasal | /m/ | /mʲ/ | /n/ | /ŋǀ/ | /ŋ!/ | /ŋ/ | |||||
| Stop/Affricate | tenuis | /p/ | /pʲ/ | /ts/ | /t/ | /ʈʂ/ | /ǀ/ | /ǃ/ | /tɕ/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | /pʰ/ | /pʰʲ/ | /tsʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /ʈʂʰ/ | /ǀʰ/ | /ǃʰ/ | /tɕʰ/ | /kʰ/ | ||
| Fricative | /f/ | /s/ | /ʂ/ | /ɕ/ | /h/ | ||||||
| Approximant | /w/ | /l/ | /j/ | ||||||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | /i/ | /iː/ | /y/ | /yː/ | [ɨ] | [ɨː] | /u/ | /uː/ |
| Mid | /ɛ/ | /œ/ | /ɔ/ | |||||
| Open | /a/ | /aː/ | ||||||
/i/ and /y/ retract to [ɨ] after retroflexes and retroflex clicks.
Allowed finals -w, -j, -ʔ, -ŋ; øj, øw > øy
Tones
Reber Wiebian has 11 tones.
| Modal final | Breathy final | Glottalized final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless initial | -creaky | 55 | 53 | 44 |
| +creaky | 424 | 35 | 33 | |
| Voiced initial | -creaky | 21 | 41 | |
| +creaky | 231 | 13 | 11 | |
Orthography
231 13 11 = n v b
21 41 = n z
424 35 33 = l f p/d
55 53 44 = Ø s t
Reber initials:
/m//mʲ//n//ŋ!//ŋǀ//ŋ/ -> m mj n ny ncy ng
/p//pʲ//t/, /ts//ʈʂ//ǃ//ǀ//tɕ//k//ʔ/ = p pj t c cs ty cy cj k q
sorry, those should be aspirated
unaspirated: b bj d dz dzs gy dzy dzj g q
/f//s//ʂ//ɕ//h/ -> f sz s szj h
/w//l//j/ -> w l j
Morphology
Nouns
Adjectives
Verbs
Accents and dialects
- Standard
- Advanced HRJ
- Jüngerriems
- Lerzkorren
- Frintermien
- Keime
Jüngerriems accent of Reber: retroflex ->alveolar
so ʈʂ, ʈʂʰ, ʂ pronounced as ts, tsʰ, s
Lerzkorren accent: like the Jüngerriems accent but click free
clicks -> uvulars as in bruusing
Frintermien: retro and click merge
into click
/ʂ/ -> sje
tone mergers: Jüngerriems and Lerzkorren have something funny going on with tones (retroflexes cause a tone change)
the Keimian accent would be the weirdest
vowel + ng -> nasalized vowel
unaspirated stops are voiced
(and sometimes become fricatives)
vowel + m -> nasalized vowel + w
or maybe no w
clicks become semitic style emphatics
it's perhaps the hardest accent to pull off for someone from HRJ
sorry, vowel + m,n,ng -> nasal vowel + m,n,(optional ng)
vowels get uniformly tensed
ɛ, œ -> e,ø
/i/ can sound like an apical vowel
(think mandarin)
then vocab differences (Etz vs Jeng ...)
keimian tone mergers:
1 2 3 4 5 6-> high falling, mid level, mid falling, mid falling, low level, low level