Faiten
| Faiten | |
|---|---|
| Fae Tan Fah or 飛談話 | |
| Pronunciation | [fᴀi̯ tᴀn fᴀ] |
| Created by | Nathan Xu |
| Date | 2009 |
| Native to | Faitonia |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Faitonia |
| Regulated by | 共產媈唐人民共和國政府 or Kaung Shan Fai Tang Hnin Bin Gong Var Quoc Jieng Fu |
Introduction
Faiten Language (also known as Tan Language) is a constructed language with its roots in the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is primarily spoken in the region of Faitonia and holds a community of 4 million speakers (4.5 million including in Faitonian diaspora). While Faiten initially gained popularity as a tool to circumvent government censorship on the internet, it has also evolved into a fully-fledged spoken language. Faiten's linguistic structure draws influences from mainly Chinese and in some cases Vietnamese.
Phonology
Vowel inventory
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | y | ɨ | u |
| Middle | e | ø | ə | o |
| Open | ɛ | œ | ᴀ | ɔ |
Diphthongs
| Palatal | Labial | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| i̯a | ai̯ | u̯a | au̯ |
| i̯e | ei̯ | u̯e | eu̯ |
| ɨ̯ə | əi̯ | u̯ə | |
| i̯o | u̯o | ou̯ | |
| y̯ø | øy̯ | ||
| i̯u | |||
Consonant inventory
| Labial | Dental | Velar | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | t͡sʰ | ʈ͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ |
| Tenuis | p | t | k | t͡s | ʈ͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | |
| Voiced | b | d | g | ||||
| Fricative | Tenuis | f | h | s | ʂ | ɕ | |
| Voiced | v | z | ʐ | ʑ | |||
| Resonant | Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Liquid | w | l | j |
Correspondences From Middle Chinese
Faiten Initials
Faiten Open Rimes
Faiten Nasal Rimes
Notes:
- Labialisation of initials 幫 滂 並 明 only occur in independent rimes 嚴 元 殷 庚 凡 文 廢 微 幽 as well as Chongniu-B rimes 祭 支 脂 宵 鹽 侵 仙 真 清 as well as Closed mouth III rimes 戈 陽 蒸.
- Rimes 魚 虞 are realized as back vowels /u o/ in initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟, and front /y ø/ for the initials 章 昌 禪 書 船, and /i̯o i̯u/ for the rest.
- Before initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟 the mixed III finals lose their palatal glide as they merge with division II.
- The initials 曉 匣 are both realized as /h/. But in closed mouth syllables they labiodentalise into /f v/ which lose their -u̯- glide.
- Before initials 端 透 定 泥 精 清 從 心 邪 they lose their palatal glide while retaining their vowels.
- In initials 知 徹 澄 娘 莊 初 崇 生 俟 the vowels /e i/ become /ə ɨ/.
- In initials 見 溪 羣 疑, Chongniu-B rimes loses it’s palatal glide while Chongniu-A rimes retains the -i- glide.
Orthography
Faiten utilises two scripts in it's literature: Latin and Hanzi. Occasionally, these two scripts intertwine, although primarily in informal or conversational contexts. However, the Latin script used in Tan lacks a rigid standard set of letters to render certain phonemes and tends to exhibit inconsistency in orthography. In Faiten a grapheme becomes a vessel for multiple phonemes, and conversely, multiple phonemes find expression within a single grapheme.
Initials
| Initials | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Retroflex | Velar | |
| Stop | Aspirated | pʰ
p, hp, ph |
tʰ
t, ht, th |
t͡sʰ
tz, ch |
t͡ɕʰ
q |
ʈ͡ʂʰ
kr, gr |
kʰ
k, hk, kh |
| Tenuis | p
p, b |
t
t, d |
t͡s
ts |
t͡ɕ
j |
ʈ͡ʂ
tr, dr |
k
k, c, g | |
| Voiced | b
b, bh |
d
d, dh |
g
g, gh | ||||
| Fricative | Tenuis | f
f |
s
s |
ɕ
x |
ʂ
sh |
h
h | |
| Voiced | v
v |
z
z |
ʑ
r |
ʐ
zh |
|||
| Resonant | Nasal | m
m, hm |
n
n, hn |
ŋ
ng, gn | |||
| Liquid | l
l, lh, hl |
||||||
| Glide | j
i, y |
w
u, w | |||||
Finals
| Plain Rime | Front | Back | ||
| Flat | Round | Flat | Round | |
| Close | i
i, ee |
y
u, uu, ue |
ɨ
z, ze, y |
u
u, oo, ou |
| Middle | e
e, ay, ai, eh, er |
ø
eu, eo, oe, oeu |
ə
e, o, a |
o
o, aw, au, oh, or |
| Open | ɛ
e, ay, ai, eh, er |
œ
eu, eo, oe, oeu |
a
a, aa, ah, ar |
ɔ
o, aw, au, oh, or |
As noticeable in this table, the vowels [e ɛ] [ø œ] [o ɔ] are merged in orthography and share the same graphemes, however in spoken Faiten these sounds are distinguished with context disambiguating the graphemes semantic value. For instance <ke> is either pronounced [ke] "fake", [kʰe] (classifier), [kɛ] "family", or [kʰɛ] "cash".
| Palatal | Labial | ||
| i̯a
ia, ya |
ai̯
ae, ay |
u̯a
oi, oa, war, waa, wah |
au̯
ao, aw, aou |
| i̯e
ie, ye, iae, yae |
ei̯
ey, ei, ay, ai |
u̯e
we, way, wai, oue, oui |
eu̯
ew, aeo, eow, aio |
| ɨ̯ə
eau, uea, ea |
əi̯
aoe, aei, oie, eur, eor, uer |
u̯ə
our, ua, wa |
|
| i̯o
iau, io, iao, yau, yao, yo |
u̯o
uo, wo, wau |
ou̯
ow, ou, aw, au | |
| y̯ø
ieu, iue, ieo, yeu, yue, yeo |
øy̯
eui, eoi, ui, uei, uy, oei |
||
| i̯u
iou, iu, you, yoo, yu, ioo |
|||
| Table 2.4: Codas | |
| m
m, me, mp, mme, lm, chm, gm, mn, mh |
p̚
p, pe, mp, lp, b, mpe, f, ph, pt, ft, bp |
| n
n, ne, nt, l, lt, hn, nne, ll, le, |
t̚
t, te, nt, lt, d, tt, th, nte, st, tch, dt |
| ŋ
ng, nn, gne, gn, nh, nc, ngh, nd, hgn |
k̚
k, ke, que, c, ch, g, nk, lk, ct, ck, gk |