単亜語

単亜語 is a zonal auxlang intended to be quickly learnable, readily comprehensible, and mutually communicative between persons of the w:East Asian cultural sphere. It uses Chinese characters for all of its native writing, with some forms being simplified according to the w:Shinjitai/新字体 standards of Japan. w:Hangul is used for foreign sounds or phonetic spelling. It is not tonal, mostly analytic, SVO, topic-prominent, uses classifiers, is pro-drop, and uses postpositions.

Phonology

単亜語 has 5 vowels and 12 consonants. Immediately upon seeking a common ground across East Asia, one encounters a great deal of diversity. Japanese is definitely the outlier, with the most restrictive sound inventory of all. Only Japanese does not contrast aspirated and unaspirated stops, instead opting for the more European-sounding voicing contrast. This distinction is difficult for Japanese-speakers to learn, but if the feature is not contrastive in affricates, it is easier. The operating principle of sound selection is, no other sounds than Japanese has, but including Japanese allophones. Japanese and Korean speakers will experience the same difficulty with /l/ vs /ɾ/ as they do with Europeans.

単亜語 Consonants

Consonants
	Labial	Alveolar	"Post"	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	ㅁ /m/	ㄴ /n/		ㅇ /ŋ~ɴ/
Stops	ㅂ /p~b/	ㄷ /t~d/		ㄱ /k~g/
Affricates			ㅈ /t͡s~t͡ɕ~c/
Fricatives		ㅅ /s ~ z ~ ɕ/		ㅎ /h ~ ɦ ~ x/
Liquids		ㄹ /l ~ ɾ/
Approximants	와 /w~ɰᵝ/		야 /j/

Vowels are also difficult to achieve consensus on. Mandarin and Japanese have the most limited systems. The world's most common and usable system -- with five, cardinal vowels -- was chosen for maximum compatiblity, and many combinations are excluded (see below). Again, much allophony and tolerance will be used and needed between parties. There are two ways to write /u/, but only one (우) is used in native transcription. The other (으) is used to break up consonant clusters, and is whatever epenthetic vowel is common for the speaker. Japanese will realize these as /ɯᵝ/, Koreans as /ɯ/, Mandarin-speakers as /ɨ/, Cantonese as /ʊ/, and Vietnamese as /ə̆/.

単亜語 Vowels

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	이 /i ~ ɪ/		우/으 /u ~ ʊ/
Mid	에 /e ~ ɛ ~ ə/		오 /o ~ ɔ/
Low	아 /a ~ ä ~ ɑ/

Because tone is not present in all languages and learning tone is extremely prohibitive, tone is not phonemic in 単亜語, and prosody is not specified. Sentence Final Particles (SFPs) are mandatory to indicate any modality other than simple, declarative sentences.

Phonotactics

Across the region, there is no clear majority position on syllable structure. WALS misleadingly labels all our languages as "moderately complex". Hence, there are many gaps in the phonetic system. A syllable may start with any sounds except /ŋ/ (Japanese /N/). The rime must be a plain vowel, or /ya/. The coda can be /i/, /u/, /n/, /m/, /ŋ/, /k̚/, /t̚/, or /p̚/. Many speakers will need to epenthesize a vowel afterward coda consonants, but they should be reduced as much as possible. Coda stop consonants must be indicated with the epenthetic vowel marker (like a hyphen), which may only be omitted if the next syllable begins with the same stop or a vowel.

Off-glides will be pronounced as separate syllables by everyone except Chinese and Vietnamese speakers, but again, tolerance is indicated. Syllables that begin with /w/ must have /a/ as a rime, but there is an exception: /wei/. Syllables that begin with /y/ may not have /i/ as a rime. Syllables that begin with k, or h and have a coda, must have /a/ or /e/ as a rime. CH-initial syllables cannot take /ja/ as a rime. Remember also that some will say /s/+/y/ and /s/+/i/ as /ɕ/.

m, n p, t, k s, h y, l, w

+

i, u e, o a, ya

+

m, n, ŋ p, t, k i, u

Writing

単亜語 recognizes that while Chinese characters may be common in Japan and China, they are less so in Korea and absent from Vietnamese popular education. Therefore, the total number of logograms in use in 単亜語 is kept to under 2000. Pronunciations are regularly derived from Middle Chinese, and then adapted to a consensus position between Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese.

The form of Chinese characters have changed in the last century, with the development of Simplified Characters in Mainland China. However, these are not taught in Korea and elsewhere. Therefore, a medial position has been chosen, that of Japanese w:Shinjitai (新字体).

Because Chinese characters do not contain enough phonetic information, and because transcribing sounds is also needed, a phonetic alphabet is also needed. Katakana is useful, but is not helpful in spelling foreign words. The Latin alphabet is not indigenous enough. Hangul was chosen because it required the least modification. Whenever possible, in order to facilitate learning by newcomers, Hangul should be written as Ruby, like this: 東京(동공). Only words which are not 単亜語 should be written as 韓文 alone: 도오교오 (日本). Foreign words maybe spelled with Korean characters and combinations not used in 単亜語.

The 単亜語 system of Hangul is slightly different from standard Korean. Some syllables must be written with one of two diacritical marks, or an extra symbol. Syllables may end in an off-glide, which has to be written as as   ̩ (\0329) or   ̞ (\031E). Syllables with final stops must indicate the acceptability of epenthetic vowels with ˉ (\02C9). When these special characters are unavailable, a simple Korean ㅣ (\3163), ㅜ (\315C) or ㅡ (\3161) may be used.

単亜語 Syllables in Hangul
Final→ Initial↓	ㄴ	ㅁ	ㅇ	ㅂ	ㄷ	ㄱ	ㅣ	ㅜ
가	간	감	강	갑ˉ	갇ˉ	각ˉ	가̩	가̞
게	겐	겜	겡	겝ˉ	갇ˉ	겍ˉ	게̩
고			공	곱ˉ	곧ˉ	곡ˉ
구				굽ˉ	굳ˉ	국ˉ
기				깁ˉ	긷ˉ	긱ˉ
나	난	남	낭	납ˉ	낟ˉ	낙ˉ	나̩	나̞
냐	냔	냠	냥	냡ˉ	냗ˉ	냑ˉ	냐̩	냐̞
네	넨	넴	넹	넵ˉ	넫ˉ	넥ˉ	네̩	네̞
노	논	놈		놉ˉ	녿ˉ	녹ˉ
누	눈	눔		눕ˉ	눋ˉ	눅ˉ	누̩
니	닌	님	닝	닙ˉ	닏ˉ	닉
다	단	담	당	답ˉ	닫ˉ	닥ˉ	다̩	다̞
댜	댠	댬	댱	댭ˉ	댣ˉ	댝ˉ	댜̩	댜̞
데	덴	뎀	뎅	뎁ˉ	덷ˉ	덱ˉ	데̩
도	돈	돔	동	돕ˉ	돋ˉ	독ˉ
두	둔	둠		둡ˉ	둗ˉ	둑ˉ	두̩
라	란	람	랑	랍ˉ	랃ˉ	락ˉ	라̩	라̞
레	렌	렘	렝	렙ˉ	렏ˉ	렉ˉ	레̩

Syntax

(NounPhraseTOPIC + 者(자))?

(NounPhraseSUBJ.)?

PostpositionalPhrase*

VerbPhrase

(NounPhraseOBJ.)?

SentenceFinalParticle*

単亜語 is has a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order. The languages of Asian are split SVO/SOV but because SOV requires making the nominative and accusative, SVO was chosen. Adverbial phrases and oblique arguments must precede the verb. The language uses postpositions, genitives precede their noun, as do adjectives, numerals, and relative clauses. 単亜語 is a topic-prominent language, featuring pro-drop, wh-word in situ, and copula-drop.

Nouns

象(샹)者(자) 飛行機(비항기) 用(용) 汽油(기유)

Regarding elephants, airplanes use gasoline.

Unlike English, most of the languages of Asia are verb-centric. This can be discerned by the fact that adjectives are stative verbs, not substantive nouns. In all the languages of our region, nouns are not marked for number, gender, or case.

Word order determines a great deal of meaning. Topics must come first in the sentence and be marked with the postposition 者(자). The subject may be dropped. Postpositional phrases must come before the verb. Objects must come after the verb. Topics serve a variety of grammatical roles, but one of the most important is possession, which is indicated by POSSESSOR-topic POSSESSEE exist.

The Noun Phrase

(Determiner - [ 此(지) or 其(기) or 彼(비) ])?

AdjectivalPhrase*

Noun

(Honorific Suffix - 尊(존))?

ClassifierPhrase

The noun phrase consists of an optional determiner (此(지), 其(기), or 彼(비)), any adjectival phrases, the noun itself, an optional honorific suffix (尊(존)), an optional plural suffix (simple or associative), and an optional classifier phrase.

Pronouns

The most polite thing to do is drop the pronoun. This is humble if you are speak about yourself, and it is middle-ground for speaking to another. To be polite, use the person's title. Using their name or "you" is much more intimate.

Verbs

Verb phrases consist of an optional negative particle 不(붇ˉ), any number of simple verbs for serialization (each with the particle 還(한) suffixed}}, the one (or only) head verb, with optional honorific marker (尊(존)), and aspect marker (ø for imperfective, 了(라̞) for perfective, 過(가) for historic past, or 就(주) for irrealis).

Sentence Final Particles

Every utterance other than simple, declarative sentences must end in a sentence final particle.