Kuyugwazian

Kuyugwazian
kŭyŭgwažen toohlŭžŭn kŭyŭgwažennŭ
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|[[kɯjɯɡˈwaʒɛn ˈtoːxlɯʒɯn] [kɯjɯɡˈwaʒɛnnɯ]]]]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Jun 2018
Setting	Calémere
Ethnicity	Kŭyŭgwaž (kŭyŭgwažüülŭn)
Native speakers	16,300,000 (6424)
Language family	Kenengyry languages Northern Central Kenengyry Kuyugwazian
Official status
Official language in	Kŭyŭgwažtow

Kuyugwazian, natively kŭyŭgwažen toohlŭžŭn or simply kŭyŭgwažennŭ, is a Calémerian language spoken on Márusúturon. It belongs to the Northern Central branch of the Kenengyry languages (kenengŭri toohlŭžüül), and is the ethnic language of the Kŭyŭgwaž people (kŭyŭgwažen haalyŭn or kŭyŭgwažüülŭn), being the majority language in their country, Kŭyŭgwažtow, as well as being spoken in the sizable ethnic Kŭyŭgwaž community in the Chlouvānem Inquisition (amounting to about 45% of all Kuyugwazian speakers).

It is closely related to the most widespread of the Kenengyry languages, Soenjoan (soyŭnyaan toohlŭžŭn in Kuyugwazian), however it is more conservative in its morphology.

Phonology

Orthography

Kuyugwazian, like many languages of that area of Vīṭadælteh in the former Kaiṣamā, has been natively written in the last 60 years in an adapted version of the Chlouvānem abugida, with a few adapted glyphs to better accomodate the phonemes of Kuyugwazian not found in Chlouvānem. Chlouvānem loanwords are, in the most formal registers, written etymologically, as they are in Chlouvānem, while in less informal styles they are written according to Kuyugwazian pronunciation.

Consonants

Kuyugwazian has an average consonant inventory consisting of 23 phonemes, none of them particularly rare cross-linguistically:

→ PoA ↓ Manner		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasals		m m	n n
Plosives	Voiceless	p p	t t		k k
	Voiced	b b	d d		g g
Affricates	Voiceless		c ts	č tʃ
	Voiced		dz dz	dž dʒ
Fricatives	Voiceless	f f	s s š ʃ		h x
	Voiced	v v	z z ž ʒ
Laterals			l l
Trill			r r
Approximants				y j	w w

Vowels

The Kuyugwazian vowel inventory consists of 15 monophthongs (7 long-short pairs and one lone quality) and three diphthongs, one of them only found in loanwords. All vocalic phonemes are oral.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ü ii üü i y iː yː	ŭ ɯ	u uu u uː
Mid	e ee ö öö ɛ eː œ øː		o oo ɔ oː
Low		a aa a aː
Diphthongs	ay ai̯ ey ei̯1		aw au̯

1. In Chlouvānem loanwords only.

Morphology

Consonant reduction

A common morphophonological feature in many Kenengyry languages is consonant reduction after long vowels, quite similar to the phenomenon of consonant gradation in Uralic languages. In Northern Central Kenengyry languages, such as Kuyugwazian and Soenjoan, this process happened after long vowels (not short ones nor diphthongs, but after a short high vowel and a resonant) and only if followed by a vowel. While many of these triggering circumstances were later lost or modified, some inflections require a stem with a reduced consonant.
Two common examples of inflections using a reduced consonant are the accusative singular of most nouns and the definite suffix (article) -ŭn:

• "milk (NOM), milk (ACC), the milk" – *leet, *leetɯr, *leet-indɯ > leet, leewŭr, leewŭn (long vowel)
• "jug(NOM), jug (ACC), the jug" – *lata, *latar, *lata-indɯ > lat, latŭr, latŭn (short vowel, therefore no consonant reduction)
• "friend (NOM), friend (ACC), the friend" – *jurk, *jurkɯr, *jurk-indɯ > žurg, žužŭr, žužŭn (high short vowel plus resonant)

Nouns

Kuyugwazian nouns are inflected, mostly agglutinatively, for seven cases and two numbers (singular and plural):

Case	(singular) form	consonant stem, no reduction bolŭn, -m "house"	consonant stem with reduction leet "milk"	-a vowel stem žaagla "horse"	Other vowel stem miži, -re "woman"
Nominative	(lemma form)	bolŭn	leet	žaagla	miži
Accusative	-ŭr/-ːr	bolŭmŭr	leewŭr	žaaglaar	mireer
Genitive	-ŭne/-ne	bolŭmŭne	leewŭne	žaaglane	mirene
Partitive	-(y)o	bolŭmo	leewo	žaaglayo	mireyo
Dative	-tüh	bolŭmtüh	leettüh	žaaglatüh	miretüh
Prolative	-or/-r	bolŭmor	leewor	žaaglar	mirer
Ablative	-(ː)šŭl	bolŭmšŭl	leetšŭl	žaaglaašŭl	mireešŭl

The nominative-accusative plural is formed by adding -üül (consonant stems) or -yül (vowel stems), e.g. bolŭmüül, žužüül "friends", žaaglayül, mireyül.

The partitive plural is formed by adding -(y)ulaa/-wlaa, e.g. bolŭmulaa, žužulaa, žaaglawlaa, mireyulaa.

The plural forms of other cases are formed by adding -wŭ- and then the singular ending, e.g. bolŭmwŭne, žurgwŭtüh, žaaglawŭr, mirewŭšŭl.