Tonuao

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East Asian Cultural Sphere.png

Tonuao is a zonal auxlang[1] intended to be quickly learnable, readily comprehensible, and mutually communicative between persons of the w:East Asian cultural sphere. It uses Chinese characters for much of its writing, with some forms being simplified according to the w:Shinjitai/新字体 standards of Japan. The Japanese syllabary w:Katakana is used for all other sounds. It is non-tonal, nearly analytic, SVO, topic-prominent, uses classifiers, is pro-drop, copula-drop, and uses postpositions.

Phonology

Tonuao has 5 vowels and 10 consonants.

Tonuao Consonants
Consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasals m /m/ n /n/
Plosives p /p ~ b ~pʰ/ t /t ~ d ~ tʰ/ k /k ~ g ~ kʰ/
Fricatives s /s ~ ɕ/ h /h ~ ɦ ~ x/
Liquids l /l ~ ɾ/
Approximants w /w/ y /j/

While there is a great deal of consonantal allophony (see below), every language speaker will experience some sounds as difficult, especially in achieving consistency.


Tonuao Vowels
Vowels
Front Central Back
High i /i ~ ɪ/ u /u ~ ɯ/
Mid e /e ~ ɛ ~ ə/ o /o ~ ɤ/
Low a /a ~ ä/

Again, a great deal of tolerance is required when listening to others. Non-Mandarin speakers will have the hardest time being patient with Chinese vowels, but accents are part of being international!

Phonotactics

The three allowable syllable structures are V, CV, Cya, and CVn. There are gaps in all these series, and allophony.


Simple Syllables
ø a
(as in 啊)
e
/e ~ je ~ ə/
i
/i ~ ji/
o
/o ~ wo/
u
/u ~ wu/
P pa pe pi po pu
T ta te ti
/ti ~ t͡ɕi/
to tu
/tu ~ tsu/
K ka ke ki ko ku
M ma me mi mo mu
N na ne ni no nu
S sa se si
/si ~ ɕi/
so su
H ha he hi ho hu
L la le li lo lu
W wa
Y ya yo
/jo ~ joʊ̯/
yu
Katakana
ø
P
T
K
M
N
S
H
L
W
Y


Complex Syllables
ya an en in
P pya pan pen pin
T tya
/tja ~ t͡ɕa/
tan ten tin
K kan ken
M mya man men min
N nya nan nen nin
S sya
/sja ~ ɕa/
san sen sin
H han hen
Katakana
ya an en in
P ピャ パン ペン ピン
T チャ タン テン チン
K カン ケン
M ミャ マン メン ミン
N ニャ ナン ネン ニン
S シャ サン セン シン
H ハン ヘン

The complex syllables of Tonuao are clearly much more limited.


References