Nillíno
| Nillíno | |
|---|---|
| nillíño | |
| Pronunciation | [niˈjiɲo] |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2024 |
| Native speakers | 391,000 (2014) |
Sinatolean
| |
Early forms | Proto-Sinatolean
|
Nillíno(nillíño, Nillíno: [niˈjiɲo], Spanish: lengua nillína, lengua de San Miguel) is a Sinatolean language spoken in the Nillíno Islands(Nillíno: nillíntólu), an archipelago historically colonised by the Spanish and dubbed Islas de San Miguel de la Mancha(Spanish for "Islands of Saint Michael of La Mancha"). Because of this history, Nillíno's orthography is primarily based on the Spanish alphabet, leading to the existence of letters such as ⟨ñ⟩ and digraphs such as ⟨ll⟩. Additionally, Nillíno also has many Spanish loanwords which have in turn influenced other neighbouring languages, such as mesa "table" or silla "chair", which became mesa and siya in Sinatolean. By number of native speakers, it is the 3rd most spoken Sinatolean language with 391,000 speakers, after Mowinda-Moyeng with 765,000 speakers.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p b | t | k | |
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ |
| Fricative | s z | ç | x | |
| Semivowel | w | j | ||
| Lateral | l |
/j/ is written as ⟨ll⟩, /x/ is written as ⟨j⟩, /ŋ/ is written as ⟨ng⟩ and /ɲ/ is written as ⟨ñ⟩. /k/ is written as both ⟨c⟩ and ⟨k⟩, though ⟨k⟩ is used before and /i/ or /e/, as ⟨ci⟩ or ⟨ce⟩ would be pronounced /çi/ or /çe/ respectively.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɯ u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Front | a | ||
/ɯ/ is descended from Proto-Sinatolean *é and is written as ⟨ü⟩. /a/ is variably pronounced, from as far back as /ä̠/ to as far front as /æ/ from some speakers.
Prosody
Stress
Stress is marked with acute accents on vowels, ⟨á é í ó ú⟩. Because ⟨ü⟩ /ɯ/ already has a diacritic, the stress is not marked on ⟨ü⟩, but is still phonologically present, such as in sanün [saˈnɯn] "northern wind" and nücmaí [nɯkmaˈi] "in the thread"