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Akhyan
Introduction
Orthography
The consonant system of Akhyan is characterised by its resemblance as the same consonant system of Sanskrit, with slight deviations. Akhyan has eliminated voiced aspirated consonants, having assimilated to a fricative or deaspirated. Akhyan has a three way contrast of plosives and affricates, including aspirated and unaspirated pairs. The language also features a three-way contrast between sibilants, such as palatal, retroflex, & alveolar. Akhyan uses the Mon-Burmese script.
Consonants
Non-Sibilants | Labial | Dental | Velar | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | Romanisation | script | IPA | Romanisation | script | IPA | Romanisation | script | ||||
Nasal | m | m | မ | n | n | န | ŋ | q | င | |||
Plosive | Tenuis | p | p | ပ | t | t | တ | k | k | က | ||
Aspirated | pʰ | ph | ဖ | tʰ | th | ထ | kʰ | kh | ခ | |||
Voiced | b | b | ဗ | d | d | ဒ | g | g | ဂ | |||
Fricative | Tenuis | f | f | ၾ | h | x | ဟ | |||||
Voiced | v | v | ဘ | ʔ | ' (medial) | အ | ||||||
Approximant | w | w | ဝ | l | l | လ |
Sibilants | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | Romanisation | script | IPA | Romanisation | script | IPA | Romanisation | script | ||||
Plosive | Tenuis | t͡s | c | ၸ | t͡ʂ | ç | ဋ | t͡ɕ | ć | စ | ||
Aspirated | t͡sʰ | ch | ႀ | t͡ʂʰ | çh | ဌ | t͡ɕʰ | ćh | ဆ | |||
Voiced | d͡z | ð | ၻ | d͡ʐ | ł | ဍ | d͡ʑ | j | ၺ | |||
Fricative | Tenuis | s | s | သ | ʂ | ş | ၑ | ɕ | ś | ၔ | ||
Voiced | z | z | ဓ | ʐ | ż | ၓ | ʑ | ź | ည | |||
Approximant | ɹ | r | ရ | j | y | ယ |
Vowels
Front | Back | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flat | Round | Flat | Round | ||||||||||||
IPA | Romanisation | Script | IPA | Romanisation | Script | IPA | Romanisation | Script | IPA | Romanisation | Script | ||||
Close | i | i | ကိ ိ | y | ü | ကၳ ၳ | ɨ | iu | ကၖ ၖ | u | u | ကု ု | |||
Middle | e | e | ကဲ ဲ | ø | ö | ကၲ ၲ | ə | eo | ကါ ါ | o | o | ကး း | |||
Open | ɛ | ai | ကေ ေ | œ | ä | ကႄ ႄ | ɐ | a | က | ɔ | au | ကီ ီ |
Vowel Diacritics | |||
---|---|---|---|
ိ | ၳ | ၖ | ု |
ဲ | ၲ | ါ | း |
ေ | ႄ | ီ |
Nullification Diacritics | |
် | ္ |
Although both Virama (္) and Asat (်) delete the inherent vowel, they serve distinct functions. Asat (်), as in က်, marks syllable boundaries, while Virama (္), as in က္, forms consonant clusters. Special forms also emerge when ယ, ဝ, and ရ are combined with a consonant and the virama, resulting in ကျ, ကွ, and ကြ, respectively.
Phonotactics
Morphology
Pronouns
Nouns & Adjectives
Akhyan features a system of noun and adjective declension that operates across two grammatical numbers and eight cases, treating both parts of speech with similar morphological rules—so much so that adjectives can conveniently be analysed alongside nouns.
1 | Numbers | Singular & Plural |
---|---|---|
2 | Cases | Intransitive, Ergative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative, Locative, Instrumental |
Akhyan’s declension paradigm is surprisingly streamlined, consisting of only three distinct declension patterns. The general classification is:
- Akranta အကြန်တ (-a stems)
- Zeokçho ဓါက်ဌး (-o stems)
- Mitaveş မိတဘဲၑ် (Consonant stems)
According to the Rasthani ရသ်ထနိ, the manuscript identified 8 cases which is defined in the book as "Fayaqö" ၾယငႄ. The eight fayaqö are the intransitive, ergative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive and locative cases.
- Łiunaing ဍၖနေင် Intransitive Case
- Kaothiv ကဝ်ထိဘ Ergative Case
- Penubo ပဲနုဗး Accusative Case
- Nauthang နီထင် Genitive Case
- Seomar သါမရ် Dative Case
- Baćhi ဗဆိ Ablative Case
- Xallei ဟလ်လဲယ် Locative Case
- Reftou ရဲၾ်တးဝ် Instrumental Case