Japhethite

Introduction

Japhethite is a Semitic-inspired, a priori, tri-consonantal, polysynthethic, deeply theological language. As always, I straddle the borderline between artlang, auxlang, and engelang. It's an artlang because it must be beautiful, interesting, and compelling. It's an auxlang because it is regular, learnable, and aimed at everyone. It's an engelange because it has a meta-linguistic axe to grind: you can learn more about theology by trying to put your thoughts about this language. It can be itself only at the center of all of these: the goal is to be interesting and compelling to the author.

Phonology

The sounds of Japhethite are almost typical, but with interesting additions. The velar-nasal (ŋ) can be initial. There is a lateral fricative (ɬ), like Welsh. The consonantal-R is a tap (ɾ), as in Japanese. Also, the F-type sound is only made with the lips – never the teeth.

Orthography

Letters of the Japhethite abjad
ø~ā	b	g	d	h~ē	w~ū	ʃ~ʒ	χ~ʁ~ō	t	j~ī	k	l	m	n	s~z	ŋ	p	ɸ~β	t͡ʃ	q	ɾ~r̅	ɬ	θ̼
ܐ	ܒ	ܓ	ܕ	ܗ	ܘ	ܙ	ܚ	ܛ	ܝ	ܟ	ܠ	ܡ	ܢ	ܣ	ܥ	ܦ	ܧ	ܨ	ܩ	ܪ	ܫ	ܬ
ālef	beþ	gamal	dalaþ	heh	waw	šayn	xeþ	teþ	yod	kaf	lamad	mīm	nun	semkat	ŋeŋ	peh	fr̅	čade	qōf	reł	łin	þā

Japhethite is written with 23 letters of the Syriac abjad, RTL. Vowels are typically omitted, able to be inferred from context. When written, they are small ligatures above or below the consonants. Fully six letters are mater lectionis, which means it can be hard to tell whether they are indicating long vowels/diphthongs, or whether they are consonants. They are

1. i=Y, e.g. MYM = mīm
2. u=W, e.g. NWN = nūn
3. e=H, e.g. PH = pē
4. o=Ħ~X, e.g. QXF = qōf
5. r=R, e.g. FR = fr̅
6. a=ʔ, e.g. ÞA = þā

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	PA/Dorsal	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	M /m ܡ /	N /n/ ܢ	Ŋ /ŋ~ɴ/ ܥ
Stops	P /p/ ܦ B /b ܒ /	T /t/ ܛ D d ܖ	K /k/ ܟ G /g/ ܓ	Q /q/ ܩ	' (ʔ) ܐ
Fricatives	F~V /ɸ~β/ ܧ	S~Z /s~z/ ܣ	Š~Ž /ʃ~ʒ/ ܙ	X~Ħ /χ~ʁ/ ܚ
More Fricative	þ /θ̼/ ܬ	Ł /ɬ/ ܫ	Č /t͡ʃ/ ܨ		H /h/ ܗ
Rhotic		R /ɾ/ ݍ
Liquids	W /w/ ܘ	L /l/ ܠ	Y /j/ ܝ

Vowels

The diphthongs are ey, ai, ow, aw plus all long vowels.

Vowels

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i ܐܺ or ܐܻ		u ܐܽ or ܐܾ
Mid	e ܐܶ or ܐܷ	r ܐ݅ or ܐ݆	o ܐܳorܐܴ
Low		a ܐܰorܐܱ

Prosody

Stress

Stress comes on the third-to-last mora, which is also the third-to-last letter in the writing system.

Phonotactics

Syllables are either V, VC, CVC, or CVVC. Vowels or consonants can be geminated, which is written in the orthography.

Morphophonology

• The following letters reject gemination: R, X, H, L, N, and Ŋ – the so-called Gutturals. ʔ isn't really any sound, so geminating it actually just makes the vowel long (which looks strange because the mater suddenly shows up).

Triconsonantal Roots

Nearly every single word is derived from a three-consonant root, such as ČGM, or WPT. Some words look like they come from something smaller, but are actually from roots where the second consonant is repeated in the third, such as DFF or þQQ. These are called geminate roots. Another common occurrence is when the middle letter is a mater, meaning it can turn into a vowel, and make a much smaller word. These are called Hollow Roots. When one of the three root-consonants is a guttural, we call it a Weak Verb. If there are two, we call it a Doubly Weak Verb.

Morphology

The parts of speech in Japhethite basically break down into just nouns, verbs, and postpositions. Adjectives are verbs and adverbs are verbs, so there's not much left.

Nouns

Nouns comes in seven "genders" (or classes)

1. Eternal: these are all (attributes of) God
2. Formal: these are the Forms as they existed embodied before the Fall
3. Natural: these are all here and now, after the Fall, maybe sinful, maybe not
   1. People - man, woman, spiritual beings
   2. Animals - domestic animals, occupations, highly-complex tools, faces, hands, families, cities
   3. Beasts - non-domestic animals, moving things (water, fire), medium tools, body part*
   4. Seeds - technically alive, inert tools, homes, regions/places,
   5. Rocks - not alive, verbal nouns, mass nouns

, three numbers,

1. Singulative - takes the place of definiteness, "THE ONE"
2. Paucal - a few, some, a couple
3. Collective - unmarked, quasi-plural

and three cases.

1. Nominative - doubles as vocative. Unmarked
2. Accusative - (i)Y-ending
3. Oblique - dative, genitive, ablative - (u)W-ending

	Eternal	Form	Person	Animal	Beast	Seed	Rock
S	Šá12a3	ʔo12ŕ3iM	QeÞ1e2ú3oR	1iČ2o3oR	Sa12ú3eS	1ŕ22o3	1éM2i3
P		ʔó12r3	QeÞ1e2ú3iŊ	1i2ČóŊr3	Sa12ú3eŁ	1á22i3
C			Qé12u3	1íČ2r3	Sá12a3

Pronouns

1. first exclusive
2. first inclusive
3. second
4. third in the seven genders
5. fourth

Other resources

Small lexicon