Suwáá
- Suwáá/Classical
- Suwáá/Camánreh
- Suwáá/Hosne'éh
- Suwáá/New Urban
- Suwáá/Wordlist
- Suwáá/Swadesh list
- Suwáá/Names
| Suwáá | |
|---|---|
| Sowaár dasrég | |
| Pronunciation | [/sʊ̀wɑ̌ːɻ tɑ̀ʂɛ́k/] |
| Created by | IlL |
| Setting | Tricin |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Sowaárp'í (de facto) |
| Regulated by | none |
Suwáá (English: soo-WAHR; Amísreg: Sowaár da·srég /sʊ̀wɑ̌ːɻ tɑ̀ʂɛ́k/, gloss: Sowaár 3pl-language-INAL) is the dominant language in Sowaárp'í in Verse:Tricin/Txapoalli. Sowaár is a non-configurational polysynthetic language with a complex verbal morphology.
Suwáá forms a single dialect continuum and is otherwise an isolate.
External history
Sowaár is made for a Japan- and Britain-inspired country in Tricin but is intended to be very different from Japanese or English. It is aesthetically inspired mainly by Navajo, and secondarily by Hmong and Vietnamese. On the other hand, its grammar is Inuit-inspired.
Internal history
The name Sowaár literally means "good people" (from so- 'good' + waár, an obsolete root meaning 'people'; some draw a connection to Proto-Quame *kwarom).
Some speculate that Suwáá is related to the Quame languages.
Diglossia
Todo
- Badly irregular ablaut like Navajo
- Some really short roots
- Should be different from Navajo and Roshterian but still polysynthetic
- Some Quame-ish words
Phonology
The following describes Amísreg (Standard Sowáar) phonology.
Consonants
Amísreg has a large consonant inventory of 36 consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | central | lateral | ||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | nr /ɳ/ | ny /ɲ/ | |||||
| Stop | tenuis | b /p/ | d /t/ | dl /tl/ | dr /ʈ/ | dlr /ʈɭ/ | j /tɕ/ | g /k/ | ' /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | p /pʰ/ | t /tʰ/ | tl /tɬʰ/ | tr /ʈʰ/ | tlr /ʈɬʵʰ/ | c /tɕʰ/ | k /kʰ/ | ||
| ejective | t' /tʼ/ | tl' /tɬʼ/ | tr' /ʈʼ/ | tlr' /ʈɬʵʼ/ | c' /tɕʼ/ | k' /kʼ/ | |||
| Fricative | s /s/ | ł /ɬ/ | sr /ʂ/ | łr /ɬʵ/ | x /ɕ/ | kh /x/ | h /h/ | ||
| Approximant | w /w/ | l /l/ | r /ɻ~ɭ/ | y /j/ | |||||
Notes
All consonants in Amísreg are long, compared to English and other Sowaár dialects: with plain stops the hold is longer, with aspirated stops the aspiration is longer, and with affricates the frication is longer. The voice onset time of the aspirated and ejective stops is twice as long as that found in most other languages.
Amísreg retroflexes are subapical (like Tamil retroflexes), unlike retroflexes in other accents. Native speakers describe subapical retroflexes as "posh", "deep" or "dignified".
Vowels
Amísreg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i /ɪ/ | ii /iː/ | o /ʊ/ | oo /uː/ |
| Open | e /ɛ/ | ee /ɛː/ | a /ɑ/ | aa /ɑː/ |
Tone
Modern Amísreg has a two-level tone system - every word will have at least one high pitched mora but may have more than one, especially in longer words. A mora with high pitch is marked with an acute accent.
Other Sowaár lects have different tonal systems or none. For example, the Cyamányeh lect has no tone.
Phonotactics
Sowaár allows no initial clusters.
Accents
- Main article: Sowaár/Accents
There are two dimensions of linguistic variation in Sowaár:
- Vocabulary and grammar: Standard Sowaár (He'aásreg) and regional dialects. New Urban Sowaár is a koiné consisting of a mixture of the two, with register changes.
- He'aásreg itself is a mixture of a local dialect and Classical Sowaár.
- Accent: Even when speaking Standard Sowaár (not a regional dialect), one is usually expected to keep a regional accent. Having no regional accent at all is associated with being upper class. An Amísreg speaker will speak in Standard Sowaár, but the converse is not usually true.
Orthography
All varieties of Sowaár are written in the Sowaár alphabet, which was originally developed as a phonetic notation system like the IPA. Amísreg spelling is based on Conservative Amísreg.
- no dot: mid tone
- one dot below: high tone
- two dots below: low tone (unpronounced)
Writing vernaculars
Sandhi
All Sowaár lects have extensive sandhi systems. The following describes Standard Sowaár sandhi.
Consonants and vowels
Tone
Morphology
- Main article: Sowaár/Morphology
Sowaár is strongly head-marking, like many indigenous languages of North and Central America. More information is conveyed by verbs than in most other languages.
Sowaár has a large number of noun-like constructions which appear on the surface to be phrases, but which are fixed in both meaning and morphology.
Example:
- Sowaár tasr la'dat'oóweyiid
- /sʊ̀wɑ̌:ɻ tʰɑ̀ʂ lɑ̀ʔtɑ̀tʼǔ:wɛ̀jì:t/
- Sowaár da-hasr la'-da-t'oó-e-iid
- Sowaár 3PL.AN-for "all directions"-3PL.AN-radiate/REG-REG=NOMZ.AN (REG = TAM for "regularly does something, as in a job")
- Sowaár Broadcasting Corporation
- Literal translation: "those who regularly send things out in all directions for the Sowaár people"
Syntax
Word order
Amísreg is non-configurational. Noun phrases are head-final.
Clitics
Most conjunctions obey Wackernagel's law; they come after the first syntactic phrase or the first stressed word in a clause.
Nominalizers
Nominalized relative clauses are formed by attaching the nominalizing clitic =in after the clause.
Examples:
- lisdrój /lɪ̀ʂtʂʊ́c/ = 'I love you' > lisdrójeh /lɪ̀ʂtʂʊ́ceh/ = 'the fact that I love you'
- sriilohóokh = 'they pile up forming a line' > sriilohóokhin = (a type of scale used in Sowaár music)
Vocabulary
Sowaár vocabulary is nearly exclusively native. A sparse number of words are from Naquic and Tsimulh languages, and recently, Skellan. Borrowed words are almost all nouns.
For example:
Khópab daSóol = Clofabolocin (via Skellan Clofab)
glah → gakháh /kaxah/
Hnawcas Amlad → Náwokas Ámkhad
Iña's Moh > Íikhasmoh
To abbreviate words, Sowaár uses clipping.
Transliterating Skellan
Consonants:
- /m n ŋ/ = m n n
- /p t k/ = b d g
- /pʰ tʰ kʰ/ = p t k
- /ts tʃ/ = c c
- /f θ ç χ h/ = p d x kh h
- /v ð j/ = w d y
- /s ʃ/ = s x
- /z ʒ/ = s x
- /w r r̥ ʟ/ = w r sh kh
Vowels:
- /i y ə u e~ɛi ø~œy o~ɔu ɛ œ a ɔ/ = ii ii a oo i/eyi i/eyi o/awo e e a a
- /e ø o/ = i i o for Skellan Eevo, eyi/ewi/awo for Fyxoomian Eevo
- /ai ui au ɛu iu iə yə uə/ = ayi owi awo ewo iyo iya iya uwa'
- Fyxoomian: /õˁ ẽˁ~ø̃ˁ ɛ̃ˁ~œ̃ˁ ɔ̃ˁ ãˁ/ = oN iN eN aN aN
- Skellan: /iɤ yɤ uɤ eɤ øɤ oɤ ɛɤ aɤ ɔɤ/ = iwa iwa owa iwa ewa owa ewa awa awa
Study by non-native speakers
Due to the popularity of Sowaár pop culture across the globe, Sowaár is commonly learned by Sowaárophile otakus. Sowaár is considered one of the most daunting languages for speakers of most Northern languages, due to its morphological complexity and high degree of diglossia.
Poetry
Sowaár poetry uses quantitative meters, like Sanskrit.
(LLLLSLLSSSSSSLLSLLSLL)
(LLLSSLSLSSSLLLSLLSL)
Lyoóshaant’ ólo·sjecyida'eéch’ óna da·sk’onyáad shéb (LLSLSSSLSSLSLL)
Gáadeéncyok’ oon·táshojyekaad wehacóozh bijháalyin (LLSLSSSLSSLSLL)
Phrasebook
- 'Áa'weh khéh = Welcome ("good place")
- Mehonol'é? = Hello! (gloss: good place, 2SG-CONT-peaceful-INTERR lit. "Are you in peace?")
- Khahonolíi. = reply to Mehonol'é? (gloss: 1SG-CONT-peaceful-TVF "Yes, I am in peace.")
- Lihosdróy = I love you.
- Nótr'ahgará be'saambój. Khooh 'ésjol be'saambojáyee'. = "All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others."
Sample Texts
UDHR
- Nórkhantóo...
- all=human 3PL-GNOM-be-born 3SG.INAN-from GNOM-STAT-free, 3PL-STAT-PASS-honor=NOM=also and 3PL-GNOM-STAT/deserve=NOM 3INAN-GNOM-STAT/equal
- Literally: All people from being born are free; their dignity and rights are equal. They-can-TELIC-think=NOMZ and they-can-know-good=NOM, they can use it, they must thus move themselves in the face of each other as if they were brothers.
Serenity
- Literally: May I be at peace with what I cannot change, boldly change what I can change, and by thinking wisely, tell the two situations apart.