Nanyse

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Nanyse is my first and only conlang. Although this is far from its first incarnation, I'm hoping to use this version of my project in a science-fiction novel I'm working on. The language, and the culture of those humans who speak it, was created gradually over time as native speakers from different points in Earth's history were kidnapped and forced to work with speakers from other cultures and languages. I'd call the end result - this current incarnation of my conlang - a macro-pidgin, but in the story there are over 14 million native speakers. I hope you enjoy watching me struggle with creating this language. Please, don't hesitate to send any questions my way - especially if I've slipped up and forgotten my own rules or spellings. Thank you for your attentions!

Nanyse
Иφчψѣɔ
Pronunciation[/nʌ.nɪ.sɛ/]
Created by
Native toDumun Territories
Native speakers14,854,447 (2013)
Multiple
  • Nanyse
Early form
Dialects
  • Ohi
  • Kote
  • Jara
  • Yrem
Official status
Regulated byThe Academy of Unu
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Introduction

Nanyse is the native language of the Ubaneb Dumun and the official language of trade in the known nabdetam. It is an a posteriori language, with reported origins in ancient Sumerian, Hittite, and Chinese, and employs alphabetic orthography, as well as agglutinative grammar. Nanyse is a consonantic language that lightly stresses the last syllable and doesn't use tones. It's also accusative and inflecting. There four recognized dialects of Nanyse and, of them, the Ohi dialect is considered to be the official pronunciation.

Phonology

The Nanyse alphabet is composed of 52 symbols, with separate symbols denoting either the upper or lower case forms of 26 different sounds. Due to the difficulties of learning the native alphabet, and the relatively wise-spread use of the Roman alphabet on Kisar, it is the Roman alphabet that is used to teach new comers the written form of Nanyse. The native alphabet will be described in another article.

Alphabet

Names Am Æp El Yc Is Ot Um Har Bat Din Gan Jen Ci Kap Lun Mos Nem Pan Rom Xo Sel Vas Tro Was Zap
Upper Case A Æ E Y I O U H B D F G J C K L M N P R X S V T W Z
Lower Case a æ e y i o u h b d f g j c k l m n p r x s v t w z

Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close i ʉ u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid ɵ o
Mid ə
Open-mid ɛ ʌ
Near-open
Open a

Monophthongs

Monophthongs are pure vowel sounds. Nanyse has four of these: A(ʌ), E(ɛ), Y(ɪ), and U(ʉ)

Diphthongs

Diphtongs are two vowel sounds occurring in the same syllable. Nanyse has three of these: Æ(ɛɪ), I(aɪ), and O(oʊ)

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal
Nasal
Plosive
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.
Lateral flap

Orthography

Phonotactics

Grammar

Morphology

Syntax