Řeuŋnie
Ouřefr /ˈəʊr̝ɛfə/ (Ouřefrnie cijtnr /əʊr̝ɛfəɲeː tsijʔtnɐ/) is an Idavic language belonging to the Nabŋaic branch. It is inspired by Czech, Dutch, Cantonese, Maltese and Japanese (but mainly by the first two). It is the second most widely spoken Nabŋaic language after Nabbrzé, which is the Mandarin/Russian counterpart.
Unlike Nabbrzé, Ouřefr has more loans from the clasiscal language Netagin, a fellow Idavic language.
todo
Diachronics
- OSL
- Czech-like depalatalization and hard/soft vowel splits
- Palatalization-dependent GVS, then another depalatalization?
- n- > l- (unless assimilating)
Test
Woeŋanieš uistřibt melouk lo vahrádyvijŋ, ar mezryž woþmyce bačirňr řeunie aš ŋávej těmzánišie. Evloedr wie doežanejne hář, po ryhoteuŋ.
Phonology
"Czech with more vowels and simpler phonotactics" or "Play up the Dutch in Czech"
Consonants
p b t d ť ď c (dz) č dž k g f þ s š ch w v z ž gh m n ň ŋ l r ř j /p b t d c ɟ ts dz tʃ dʒ k g f θ s ʃ x w v z ʒ ɣ h m n ɲ ŋ l~ɫ r r̝ j/
m n ŋ can be syllabic, and have long versions ḿ ń ŋ́.
Glottal reinforcement, but no gemination
l~ɫ allophony as in RP; vocalization of dark L possible
Realizing /c ɟ ɳ/ as [tʲ dʲ nʲ] is a feature of sung Ouřefr.
Vowels
a e/ě i/y o u á é ij/ei ó ú eu/ui ie oe ou r ŕ /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ɵ aː(ɹ) ɛː(ɹ) ɛɪ~ɪj ɔː ʉː œː ɪː oː~uː əʊ~əʏ ə ɜː/
Closer allophones [ɪj~eɪ] of /ɛɪ/ are more common after palatals /c ɟ ɲ j ʃ tʃ ʒ dʒ r̝/.
- ě i ie ij eu are palatalizing; all other orthographic vowels are nonpalatalizing.
- For C = b p v f, Cě Ceu Cij denote /Cjɛ Cjœː Cjɛɪ/; mě meu mij denotes /mɲɛ mɲœː mɲɛɪ/.
- For C = d t n, Cě Ci Cie Cij Ceu denote /ɟ c ɲ/ + vowel.
- ó mostly occurs in loanwords from Netagin.
Notes on vowel diachronics
Ouřefr has lost Proto-Nabŋaic vowel length. Pre-Proto-Nabŋaic i u e a ī ū ē ā has become e o e a i y ě o when not lengthened; Unlike in Nabbrzé, some devoicing of short i and u has occurred (cf. Japanese), which gave Ouřefr more consonant clusters.
Long vowels result from open-syllable lengthening (OSL): **čettijn > *četijn; **četijn > *čétijn. OSL occurred before the devoicing, making the Ourefr distribution of long vowels somewhat similar to Czech.
Modern ie ei/ij oe ú result from older 'ää ý/í ó ú. Old Ouřefr u, ú has shifted to i, ij after soft consonants j č ž š ň *ľ ř.
Palatalizing eu /œː/ is common in native words. Common sources are:
- Old Ouřefr /æː/ before velars or /l/: for example, řeuŋ /r̝œːŋ/ 'wind' comes from Old Ouřefr řa̋ŋ < PNab *reiŋu < PId *reyŋu.
- Old Ouřefr long /juː/, coming from PId /ew/ or /iw/.
Non-palatalizing ui /œː/ comes mostly from historical *ujV or loanwords.
Most speakers today are in the process of merging ŕ /ɜː/ into á /aː/.
As suggested by the spelling, r ŕ come from syllabic r; they are cognate to Nabbrzé -arz/-árz.
Suprasegmentals
Long vowels take two morae; downstep as in Japanese
- baàk = /baꜜ.ak/ 'basil'
- bàak = /ba.akꜜ/ 'feather'
- baak = /ba.ak/ 'stump'
Accent is not distinguished in the native orthography except in dictionaries; hence all three words above will be transliterated bák, unless disambiguation is needed.
Historically hard-soft vowel pairs
- hard y ~ soft i
- hard u ~ soft i
- hard a ~ soft ě
- hard ei ~ soft ij
- hard á ~ soft eu
- hard ou ~ soft eu
- hard ui ~ soft eu
- hard oe ~ soft ie
- hard ú ~ soft ij
Long vowels result from OSL čettijn > četijn; četijn > čeetijn
Morphology
Inflectional morphology is Slavic and Germanic-inspired; clitics and syntax are Japanese-inspired