Kuyugwazian
| Kuyugwazian | |
|---|---|
| kŭyŭgwažen toohlŭžŭn kŭyŭgwažennŭ | |
| Pronunciation | [kɯjɯɡˈwaʒɛn ˈtoːxlɯʒɯn] [kɯjɯɡˈwaʒɛnnɯ] |
| Created by | Lili21 |
| Date | Jun 2018 |
| Setting | Calémere |
| Native to | Kŭyŭgwažtow |
| Ethnicity | Kŭyŭgwaž (kŭyŭgwažüülŭn) |
| Native speakers | 22,300,000 (6424) |
Kenengyry languages
| |
| Chlouvānem script for 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.
External History
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 |
- In Chlouvānem loanwords only.
Prosody
Stress
Intonation
Phonotactics
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.