Paang

Cuam (shlản Củam) is an Irtan Southeast Asian language in the Cuam-Flei family. Its loanwards are mainly from Middle Chinese, Mon-Khmer and Far East Semitic; more recently it has borrowed from French and modern Chinese languages. Cuam is official in Cuamland (Fâimh doill-Chủam).

Cuam is inspired by Irish, Thai and Hmong.

Cuam-Flei is believed to have come from Tricin, and have undergone tonogenesis after incorporation in the Southeast Asian sprachbund. Some linguists connect the name Cuam to the PIE root *ķoy-m- via an old substrate language closely related to Azalic, which would make it cognate with the word "home".

Phonology

The romanization in this article was invented by Dómhnail Ó Loingsigh.

Initials: all Irish single consonants plus prenasalized stops and sh(n/l/r)-; allow br dr gr fr cr bl dl gl fl cl; p- only occurs in borrowings; stops are +asp/-asp like in Scottish Gaelic (dl- is not allowed and is a source of mid-class l-)

shm- is only used in so-called shm-reduplication which has a different meaning than the English one

Séimhiú should have different outcomes from Irish (th dh should be /tsh ts=/)

In unmutated words, all Irish unmutated initials + séimhiúed initials are permissible

séimhiúed words can't séimhiú again, but when they get urúed it manifests as prenasalization:

• **CV-(initial) > (lexically séimhiúed initial)
• **-n CV-(initial) > n:(initial) > nC (prenasalized initial)

Vowels: all combos of +-pal x vowel allowed in Irish (assuming broad final) but they sound more like Scottish Gaelic versions (á is not backed etc.)

• a ea u i o eo á eá é ao(i) í ó eó ú iú ia ua (slenderizing ua) (written a ea u i o eo aa eaa ee ao ii oo eoo uu iu ia ua iua)

Allowed finals: -b -d -g -dh (-j) -imh (nasalization + -j) -bh (-w) -mh (nasalization + -w) -m -n -il -r (after short vowels written -bb -dd -gg -ddh -immh -bbh -mmh -mm -nn -ill -rr)

• -mhail (nasalization + l) -mhar (nasalization + r) in loans: némhar némhar 'to plot/scheme' (from Irtan Icelando-Sinitic)

Tones are essentially the same as in Thai. "Live syllables" (non-checked) have 5 possible tones: áM áL áF áH áR (mid low falling high rising, as in Thai). "Dead syllables" (open short vowel or stop final) have fewer possible tones.

The following is a minimal set for all 5 tones:

• Mid: laa /lāː/ [l̪ˠaː˧] 'white'
• Low: làa /làː/ [l̪ˠaː˨˩] 'loud'
• Falling: lâa /lâː/ [l̪ˠaː˥˥˩] 'fruit'
• High: láa /láː/ [l̪ˠaː˧˥] 'easy'
• Rising/Dipping: lảa /lǎː/ [l̪ˠaː˨˩˧] 'vase, jar, ceramic jug'

Orthography

Cuam uses an sbugida derived from the Far East Semitic abugida. Far East Semitic loans are written as in the original.

It uses 4 tone marks, like Thai does, but they're named after Far East Semitic numbers:

• deodh chádd - tone B
  • chádd is not actually a cognate of Hebrew אחד but a cognate of עשתי in Hebrew עשתי עשר 'eleven'.
• deodh thỉan - tone C
• deodh shlàd - high tone
• deodh arr-fámh - rising tone

Grammar

Nouns

Cuam has absolute and construct states, like Semitic languages. Absolute state is sometimes a floating mutating morpheme that marks gender (marks absolute state, construct state doesn't mutate). Sometimes absolute state manifests as a separate preposed word or syllable which may or may not mutate the word itself. (absolute state comes from a preceding classifier)

1-10: leddh, nàn, feỏ, shlùdd, dâimmh, án, ciûr, shnản, shleiddh, fáoil

leM is used as an indefinite article like Vietnamese một

Pronouns

cûd = I, ùmh = thou, gaè = we (du incl)

Diachronics

Some "possible" syllables should be disallowed bc of historical sound change, like unasp stop initial + nasal coda + 2nd tone syllables in Mandarin

Before having mutations, Cuam had long, short and ultrashort vowels. Mutations come from preceding ultrashort syllables that are lost.

After Cuam gained mutations, it underwent the medieval Sinosphere register/tone split like most other languages in the Sinosphere, resulting in mutation depending on tone. Early Modern Cuam had a very complex system of mutations and tonal ablaut, which Modern Cuam simplified to a finite set of noun genders by analogy.

Tone diachronics

Middle Cuam (before the tone split) had 3 tones, like Middle Chinese, marked in the native script as unmarked, tone 1 and tone 2.

Consonant classes (séimhiú didn't change the consonant class while urú did)

• Mid: *k- series, glottal stop
• High: *kh- series, voiceless fricatives, shR-
• Low: *g- series, voiced fricatives, resonants
  • g- series became kh- for tones 0, 1 and entering tone; g- for tone 2

Tone chart

class	ending	unmarked (tone A)	deodh chádd (tone B)	deodh thỉan (tone C)
mid	dead	low	-	fall
mid	alive	mid	low	fall
high	dead	low	-	fall
high	alive	rise	low	fall
low	dead (short vowel)	high	fall	-
low	dead (long vowel)	fall	-	high
low	alive	mid	fall	high

(Later borrowings can have other initial + tone combinations)