Liðakuin

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Liðakuin
Liðakuin
Progress: 20%
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Nominative-accusative
Head direction
Initial Mixed Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Masculine-feminine-neuter
Nouns decline according to...
Case Number
Definiteness Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect


Liðakuin (IPA: [ˌli.ðɐ.ˈkɵ̞jn]), also referred to as Lidakuin or Lidhakuin, is a Gomensayan language spoken on the continent of Gomensai. It is spoken by about 10,000,000 people, being the official language of the Fenril Federation.

Introduction

Liðakuin is my third conlang, first started in 2023 as part of my worldbuilding projects. Specifically, it is linked to my project "Drawn to AfterLife." However, it also sees use in my Pokémon AU and other projects of mine.

Liðakuin, like all of my serious conlangs, is meant to be similar to natural languages in terms of scope. It is inspired by Icelandic and English.

This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of grammatical mistakes, they do not make any edits without my permission. This work is protected by copyright, and I do plan on using it in monetized material; this wiki is a service both for myself and for any future fans.

Etymology

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n (ɲ) (ŋ)
Stop p b t d (c) (ɟ) k g
Affricate ts dz
Fricative plain f θ̠ ð̠ ç x ɣ
sibilant s z ɕ ʑ
lateral ɬ
Approximant ʋ l j (ʎ) (w) (ɫ)
Trill r

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
Close i y (ɯ) u
Close-mid e ø ə (ɵ̞) o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open æ a aj ɑw
Diphthongs ow ew ej ju jo jɔ ja ɵj


Stress

Liðakuin is a dynamic-accent language. Stressed syllables are louder and longer than non-stressed syllables. Additionally, several of the vowel phonemes are laxened in unstressed syllables.

Stress is unpredictable in Liðakuin. It usually falls on "long" vowels, specifically one of /æ aj e o i uy/, but can fall on any vowel.

Liðakuin speakers also tend to reduce the vowels /a i y u uɥ e ei o ou/ to [ɐ ɪ ʏ ʊ ʉ ɛ e ɔ o] when unstressed. This results in /e ɛ/ and /o ɔ/ to be merged in unstressed position.

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure in Liðakuin is CCVCC. Liðakuin generally abhors hiatus that does not occur at word boundaries - that is, within the same word, two vowels are not allowed to touch, and compounded words or affixed words that would result in two vowels touching frequently have a consonant inserted between them, especially k, though j is also common when the second of the vowels is u.

Orthography

Liðakuin may be either written using the Latin alphabet or the native Liðakuin script.

Romanization

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n nj ng
Stop p b t d kj gj k g
Affricate ts dz tj dj
Fricative plain f þ ð hj h q
sibilant s z sj zj
lateral ʒ
Approximant v l j lj w
Trill hr r

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
Close i y uy ú
Close-mid é ö u ó
Open-mid e o
Open ä a æ á
Diphthongs ou eu ei ju jó jo ja ui


Morphology

Nouns

Liðakuin nouns have one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Nouns decline based on this as well as one of several declension classes, named after the nominative ending:

  • 1: ur class; masculine nominative nouns end in -ur, feminine nominative nouns end in -un, and neuter nominative nouns end in -us.
  • 2: ing class; masculine nominative nouns end in -i, feminine and neuter nominative nouns end in -ing. This class is sometimes referred to as the "neuter-neutralizing class" as neuter declension 2 nouns are usually identical to feminine declension 2 nouns.
  • 3: a/ar class; nominative nouns end in one of those two endings. Generally a noun ending in -ar in class 3 is neuter, while a noun ending in -a in class 3 is feminine, but nouns with either ending of any of the three grammatical genders are still considered class 3, as the declension pattern only depends on if there is an r after the a or not.
  • 4: -n(n) class; masculine nominative nouns end in -n or -nn, and neuter nominative nouns generally end in -nt. Feminine nominative nouns may end in -n, -nn, or -na, but despite ending in -a, the rest of the forms of such nouns will not decline as if they were class 3 nouns.
    • 4a: nouns in this sub-class do conjugate for plurality by adding an -s (-us in nominative) to the end of the word.
    • 4b: nouns in this sub-class do not conjugate for plurality, and have the same form in singular and plural forms. As this sub-class is larger than sub-class 4a, often sub-class 4b is considered simply "class 4", with sub-class 4a nouns being considered exceptions.
  • 5: sonorant class; nouns in this class end in -l, -r, -hl, -hr, or -m in their nominative and accusative forms. The other forms do not care which of the above sounds ends the word, solely that it is one of those five sounds. While nouns of any gender can have any of the class 5 nominative endings, -hr is more commonly associated with neuter, while -m is more commonly associated with masculine.
  • 6: hard nouns, so-named for the final sound many nouns in this class have in their roots. Any noun whose nominative form ends in a stop or fricative is almost certainly declension class 6, but nouns ending in vowels can still readily occur in declension 6, it is simply that, for vowel-ending nouns, declension 6 looks more like an irregular case of declension 1. Class 6 is often separated into subclasses based on the number of vowels present. These are solely for phonotactics, however, with a k being added before the ending for declension 6 nouns that end in a vowel in their accusative case.

Verbs

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Other resources