Faiten

Revision as of 06:07, 29 June 2023 by Nathan Xu (talk | contribs) (→‎Finals)
Faiten
Fae Tan Fah or 飛談話
Pronunciation[fᴀi̯ tᴀn fᴀ]
Created byNathan Xu
Date2009
Native toFaitonia
Sino-Tibetan
  • Sinitic
    • Faiten
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 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 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

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

p, hp, ph

t, ht, th

t͡sʰ

tz, ch

t͡ɕʰ

q

ʈ͡ʂʰ

kr, gr

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

p, pe, mp, lp, b, mpe, f, ph, pt, ft, bp

n

n, ne, nt, l, lt, hn, nne, ll, le,

t, te, nt, lt, d, tt, th, nte, st, tch, dt

ŋ

ng, nn, gne, gn, nh, nc, ngh, nd, hgn

k, ke, que, c, ch, g, nk, lk, ct, ck, gk

Example texts

Other resources