Sohcahtoan

Sohcahtoan
外事語
Pronunciation[ˈsoːkatogɯː]
Created byJukethatbox
Date2022
Native toSohcahtoa
Native speakers26 million (2023)
Altaic
  • Japonic
    • part. Ryukyuan
      • Sohcahtoic
        • Sohcahtoan
Early form
Standard form
Standard dialect(標準方言)
Dialects
  • Yū-mage dialect(王町方言)
  • Tugu dialect(蛸方言)
  • Pakū dialect(拍方言)
  • Nānpa-semā dialect(長島方言)
Official status
Official language in
Republic of Sohcahtoa
Recognised minority
language in
Japan
Regulated bySohcahtoan Ministry of Linguistic Regulation
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Sohcahtoan(外事語, sō-kato-gū Sohcahtoan: [ˈsoːkatogɯː]) is a Japonic conlang spoken on the fictional island of Sohcahtoa. Its phonology, lexical base and grammar are all firmly Japonic, although more recently loanwords from other languages such as Portuguese(ッアスカ, 'asuka([ˈʔasɯka]) from Portuguese açúcar, meaning "sugar") and modern Japanese(共和国, kū-a-gugeō([ˈkɯːagɯgeoː]) from Japanese 共和国, kyōwakoku, meaning "republic").

Orthography

Modern Sohcahtoan uses all three scripts used in the Japanese language today: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, and each script more of less retain their original purpose as in Japanese. However, some hiragana are pronounced differently than in Japanese, most notably ⟨を⟩ being pronounced [(w)o] in Japanese and [oː] in Sohcahtoan, and ⟨は⟩ being pronounced [ha] or [wa] in Japanese and [aː] in Sohcahtoan.

Additionally, while Japanese kanji have two ways to read a kanji(onyomi and kunyomi), Sohcahtoan kanji have only one way to read a kanji, usually corresponding to its Japanese onyomi.

Consonants

Labial Dental/
alveolar
Post-
alveolar
/
palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d  k ɡ ʔ
Affricate t͡s
Fricative s z ʃ
Approximant j
Lateral l
Flap ɾ

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɯ
Close-mid e o
Open a

All vowels in Sohcahtoan(except [i]) have elongated versions, those being ō([oː]), ā([aː]), ē([eː]) and ū([ɯː]).

Prosody

Stress

Sohcahtoan is a prototonic language, meaning that linguistic stress is placed on the first syllable of a word. This feature is from Ancient Sohcahtoan.

Phonotactics

Syllables in Sohcahtoan follow the form of (C)V as in Japanese. This contrasts with the Ancient Sohcahtoan pattern of (C)V(C).

Morphology

Most words in Sohcahtoan originate in Ancient Sohcahtoan(see here for examples), which itself descends from Proto-Japonic. More recent words, such as "coffee", "sugar" and "computer" are loanwords from Portuguese.

Syntax

Ancient Sohcahtoan and modern Sohcahtoan both have very similar grammar to Japanese.

Constituent order

Ancient Sohcahtoan uses an S-O-V(subject-object-verb) format as in Japanese, however when asking a question the language uses a V-O-S(verb-object-subject) structure, e.g. ānu ā bōru ka adosata(犬はボールかあどさた, The dog has a ball) and Adosata ka bōru ānu?(あどさたかボール犬?, does the dog have a ball?)

Noun phrase

ānu(犬)
dog-NOM

Sohcahtoan, like Japanese, doesn't have a word for "the", unless you are also specifying the location of something, e.g. if you wanted to say "the dog", it would be simply "ānu"(犬literally "dog"), but if you wanted to say "this dog" or "that cat" it would be "げん犬"(gen inu) or "がん猫"(gan nero) respectively.

Sentence phrase

ēshi ā kosa ō chigarā(牛は草を食らー)
cow TOP grass OBJ eat

In this sentence, ēshi(牛 cow, oxen) is the subject, kosa(草 grass) is the object and chigarā(食らー to eat, to consume) is the verb.

Example texts

Other resources