Nantai

Nantai
男体語 nàn-tái-gò
Pronunciation	[ˈnã̞.dáiˌgo̞]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2024
Setting	Alt-history Earth
Native to	Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Native speakers	~566 (2023)
Language family	Japonic Nantai
Early form	Proto-Japonic
Standard form	Standard Nantai
Dialects	Western Tochigi Nikkō-Nantai Shirane-Nantai Eastern Tochigi(†)
Writing systems	Japanese Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Japan
Regulated by	Nantai Association

Nantai(男体語; Nantai: [ˈnã̞.dáiˌgo̞]) is a Japonic language spoken natively in what is now the Tochigi Prefecture in Japan. It is a critically endangered language, with only 566 remaining native speakers.

Due to its phonetic similarity to Japanese, the language was officially considered a dialect of Japanese and was suppressed as "improper speech" until 1988, though linguists had been considering Nantai a separate language from as early as 1901 due to a lack of mutual intelligibility with Japanese.

Nantai has also influenced the Tochigi dialect of Japanese, mainly through the lack of distinction between /i/ and /e/ sounds, which is the defining feature of Tochigi-ben, as well as the voicing of consonants between two vowels.

Comparison with Tochigi-ben

Nantai has heavily influenced the defining features of the Tochigi dialect of Japanese, alternatively called Tochigi-ben. Some features of Tochigi-ben borrowed from Nantai include:

• Lack of distinction between [e] and [i]
• Voicing of consonants between two vowels
• Lack of contracted syllables such as [gʲɯ]
• Lack of morphological polite register.

Phonology

Orthography

Nantai uses the three writing systems of Japanese: Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. All three scripts have the same purpose as in Japanese, with Hiragana for grammar, Kanji for vocabulary and Katakana for foreign loanwords.

Romanisation

Main article: Ōsugi-Min system.
Nantai has a very different romanisation system than Hepburn, the romanisation system used in Japanese. The main romanisation system used in Nantai is called the Ōsugi-Min system, and looks much more like Hanyu Pinyin than Hepburn, mainly because diacritics are used to show high and low tones.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Palatal	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d		k g		ʔ
Fricative		f	s z	ɕ ʑ			h
Affricate				t͡ɕ d͡ʑ
Nasal	m		n		(ŋ)	(ɲ)
Approximant	w
Lateral			l

/ɲ/ and /ŋ/ are allophones of /n/, for before /e/ or /i/ and before /k/ or /g/ respectively.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close/close-mid	i~e		ɯ
Close-mid/Open-mid			o~ɔ
Open	a

Dipthongs

In Japanese, /ou/ monophthongises to form a long /oː/. This rule does not occur in Nantai, so おう(ou) is actually pronounced [oʊ̯], not /oː/. In the now extinct Eastern Tochigi dialect, /ou/ was pronounced [joː], trading dipthongisation for initial palatalisation.

Nasalisation

When an alveolar nasal consonant(/n/) is after a vowel, the vowel is nasalised and the consonant is no longer pronounced, e.g. /a/ + /n/ → /an/ → /ã/.

Nasalised vowels are still considered vowels, so the VCV rule still applies, e.g. /ṼtṼ/ would still become /ṼdṼ/, with /Ṽ/ representing any nasalised vowel.

Prosody

Pitch-accent

Nantai uses a similar pitch-accent system as Japanese.

Phonotactics

Nantai has a similar phonotactic system as Japanese, which mostly fits the (C)V(V) pattern.

Morphology

Particles

Like in Japanese, Nantai uses particles to distinguish topic and comment.

Japanese particle	Nantai equivalent	Purpose of particle
は wa	None - sometimes shown by elongation of final vowel, e.g. 彼らー(kárìra-)	Indicates topic
を wo	を written ǫ, pronounced [o] or [oʊ̯]	Indicates direct object of action
が ga		Indicates subject, occasionally object
の no	の nó - for most words なん nán - for masculine personal pronouns(彼 & 彼ら)	Indicates possession
に ni		In, at, on, during, etc.
へ written he, pronounced [ɛ].	ゐ į [i], [ehi~ehe]	To, towards, for

Pronouns

Personal

		Singular	Plural
First person		hà 私	hà-táhi 私達
Second person		náta なた	náta-táhi なた達
Third person	Masculine	kárì* 彼	kárìra 彼ら
	Feminine	káno-sò* 彼女	káno-sò-táhi 彼女達

* Kárì(彼) and káno-sò(彼女) are loanwords from Japanese. Historically, Classical Nantai had no gendered third person pronouns.

Demonstrative

	Near	Far	Further
Singular	kó こ	ká か	aká あか
Plural		kásu かす	akásu あかす