Wistanian: Difference between revisions

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background-color:#ffffff; font-size:2em;" | '''Wistanian'''<br />[[File:Anigalilaun.png|350px]]<br />[əˈniɡəˌlilɑn]

| '''Conworld:''' || Vale

| '''Basic word order:''' || Verb-Subject-Object

| Paul A. Daly || Began: January 2017<br/>Published: January 2018

'''Wistanian''' (IPA: /wɪsˈteɪni.ən/), natively known as '''anigalilaun''' (IPA: /əˈniɡəˌlilɑn/) or 'peace language',  is an ''a priori'' artistic [[w: Constructed_language|constructed language]] created by author, student, and future ESL teacher Paul A. Daly for a series of low fantasy books that he plans to write and publish once he's done with his education. It is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' on the island of Wistania, derived from the Taliv language after their speakers came into contact with speakers of the Nati language. These two people groups allied during the Wistanian War between them and the Bwolotil people. After the war ended with a peace treaty, the language was standardized, recorded, and taught around the island as "the language of peace" and set as the official language of the united government. During the events of the novels, three hundred years after the peace treaty, around 95% of the population speak Wistanian; 60% of whom learn it natively and 20% of whom speak it exclusively.

 

 

 

 

The language is spoken on the fictional planet Vale, on a large yet isolated island called Wistania. The language belongs to the Talivian sub-family, which evolved steadily throughout the Taliv's existence. After having been settled on by the Taliv for several hundred years, the island became the new home for the Bwolotil people, who had fled to the island to hide a large collection of magical and extremely dangerous ajmastones. The Bwolitil were originally apathetic toward the Taliv until they discovered that the Taliv held one such ajmastone as a central symbol of their culture. The Bwolotil, therefore, engaged in war with the Taliv to apprehend their ajmastone. Three separate people groups also inhabited the island during this war, one of which was the Nati people who allied with the Taliv to win the war. This alliance led to the formation of the Taliv-Nati [[w: Pidgin|pidgin]], which was later named ''anigalilaun'', meaning "the language of peace". During the events of the novel series (about 300 years after the end of the war) Wistanian is the majority language of the island. The language also has a number of influences from the Katapu (sister peoples to the Nati and known for their religious traditionalism), the Uzin (a people distantly related to the Bwolotil who settled the island shortly after the beginning of the war), and the Bwolotil.

The people of Wistania are highly diverse, with a number of unique customs, traditions, and holidays among them, however, they do share a common government, law, and citizenship. The nation has ten capital cities spread across the island run by government officials called '''alaudd''' (plural, '''alauddan'''. Literally "high ones".). These ''alauddan'' meet together periodically every nine days to discuss and make national decisions. The main trade of Wistania is flowers, which are used as food, medicine, and decoration. Their diets are composed mainly of fruits and vegetables, which they normally turn into salads or soups, as well as fish, seeds, nuts, and some red meats. A majority of Wistanians are tan-skinned, Bwolotil people being slightly darker. Although brown is a common eye color, blue and green eyes are also very typical. Wistania is a very colorful and musical nation, with a diverse collection of music genres based on pan flutes, dulcimers, voice, drums, and other percussion instruments. Their most common sports include competitive archery, acrobatics, track, rainball (like basketball with four goals) during the rainy season, and a soccer-like sport during the dry season. The largest religion in Wistania is Valism, which was spread by the Katapu. The belief pertains to ajma spirits and the worship of Vale, an ajma that created their planet and enclose all the other ajma into ajmastones to keep them from harming life.

The five different people groups of Wistania remained isolated from each other for part of the post-war era. However, trade and intermarriage became more commonplace, requiring a competent ''lingua franca''. This is followed by religious evangelism by the Katapu, engineering from the Uzin, and entertainment from the Nati, all of which Wistanian was the primary language for distribution and promotion. Eventually, the language became taught as a mandatory subject in school. After only a couple of centuries, Wistanian advanced from a government-only auxiliary language into the national language of the island, natively and fluently spoken by most of its citizens.  

As a result, Wistanian is mostly regular, with a moderately small phonological inventory and vast dialectal variation. It is the most spoken and embraced by the Taliv and Nati people groups, and the least spoken by the Bwolotil people group, who often protest the language's difficulty. The other five languages are still spoken, especially the Bwolotil language which still has a number of monolingual non-Wistanian speakers. Both the Uzin and Katapu have important texts written in their languages, while Taliv and Nati have shifted into archaism, although they are still taught in school.

Wistanian was created with three goals in mind:

# '''To be naturalistic, yet unique.''' It should have its own unique phonology, grammar, and lexicon, not identical to any natural language on earth, but still naturalistic and sensible.

# '''To represent the Wistanian culture.''' This language was designed for songs and speeches, bedtime stories and battle cries, gentle wisdom and fierce ambition, hope and struggle. This language is designed for the Wistanians: their personality, their history, and their heart.

# '''To be novel-friendly.''' Crazy letters and long words will confuse and alienate most readers, which is why Wistanian was designed to have short, easily readable words that readers can enjoy, one small sentence at a time.

 

 

Wistanian is the first constructed language by its author and is currently on its seventh version. Wistanian is a unique language that derives influences from several natural languages, especially [[w: Spanish_language|Spanish]] and [[w: Tamil_language|Tamil]], but their influence is mostly found in the lexicon while contributing only minimally to the grammar, which is more alike to [[w: Cantonese|Cantonese]] and [[w: Abui_language|Abui]].

 

* Wistanian V1 was non-sense gibberish with a "general aesthetic" thrown around in the first drafts of the novels.

* Wistanian V2 was an English [[w: Relexification|relex]] (but without tense and articles) recorded on the Notes App of the author's iPhone.

* Wistanian V3 was the first attempt not to make the language just like English. Due to a question about verb aspect, the author discovered the subreddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/ r/conlangs] and revised the language. This version eventually resulted in a [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A6KEK3XpFpO3cAyVG-51KMlOGPU5f6IG/view?usp=sharing 23-page grammar].

* Wistanian V4 was the result of deeper relationships with r/conlangs users over Discord. This version is marked by a fluctuating word order, adding /p/ and /k/, the Talivian alphabet, and at least some semblance of naturalism. It also has a [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iq-ta5iplwmt7HSKnHNmIxZc2Eo5Ts-L/view?usp=sharing grammar document that's 49 pages long].

* Wistanian V5 was a heavily edited response to discrepancies, holes, and potential improvements on the previous version. It is marked by a stricter word order, orthography changes, and "converbs" (which are now relativizer particles). It also saw the advent of the [https://www.reddit.com/r/wistanian/ r/wistanian subreddit] and [https://wistania.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikistania]. Although a grammar document was under development, its only complete representation is in [https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/7q6zr3/wistanian/ Reddit post that offers a summary].

* Wistanian V6 is marked by a total lexicon rehaul that attempted (and failed) to respect diachronic change. Within this version, huge edits and revisions occurred among each lexical category. Nouns lost their locational cases, verbal conjugation was completely scrapped and redone, modifiers were re-analyzed and removed, honorifics were restructured, particles were added, colors and numbers were redone, and the history was clarified to be more realistic.  

* Wistanian V7 is a recognition of these dramatic changes. With this version, the lexicon is expected to be polished, the script is expected to be tweaked, and many of the basics are expected to be expanded. This article accurately represents Wistanian in its current version (unless otherwise noted).

 

[[File:WistanianZoratinFlower gold.png|thumb|right|The Wistanian symbol of peace, modelled after the ''zoraddin'' flower.]]

The consonants are as follows (allophones are in parentheses):

| style="text-align: center;" | (ŋ)²

| style="text-align: center;" | (ɣ)³

# [w] is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while [βʷ] is spoken in quick speech. In the Western Dialect, it is always pronounced as [w].

# [r] is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while [ɾ] is spoken in quick speech. In some words, the trilled is preferred even in quick speech; for example, '''ggarauni''' (large) is almost always pronounced [kəˈrɑni].

====Vowels====

The vowels are as follows (allophones in parentheses):

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Front

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Central

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Back

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | High

| style="text-align: center;" | i (ɪ)¹

| style="text-align: center;" |  

| style="text-align: center;" | ɯ (u)²

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Mid

| style="text-align: center;" | e

| style="text-align: center;" | (ə)¹

| style="text-align: center;" |  

|-

! style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" | Low

| style="text-align: center;" |  

| style="text-align: center;" | a

| style="text-align: center;" | ɑ (ɒ)²

| colspan="4" | '''Diphthong''': ai̯

# /ɯ/ and /ɑ/ shift to [u] and [ɒ] after /w~βʷ/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Syllable coda may be any consonant that is not /j/, /w/, or /ɦ/.

* m, n, p, t, k, b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʒ, ɾ, l

 

Stress usually falls on the first non-lax vowel (/ai̯/, /i/, /e/, /a/, /ɯ/, or /ɑ/). But there are many exceptions, especially where the vowels /i/ and /a/ come into place since you must know whether or not those sounds are the stressed /i/ or /a/ or the lax [ɪ] or [ə]. A prime example is between the words '''viman''' and '''viman''', which are spelled identically. When stress is on the /i/ as in [ˈvimən], the word means “sugar”, but when stress is on the /a/ as in [vɪˈman], the word means “sky.” /ai̯/ and /e/ are always stressed. /ɯ/ is always stressed unless it's word-initial (in which case it will usually shift to [ʊ]). /ɑ/ is usually stressed unless non-lax /a/ or /i/ are present. Secondary stress is also lexical, but rare. Many particles and common monosyllabic words are not stressed unless the feature the /e/ or /ai̯/ vowels. (E.g.,'''va''' is normally [və], and '''zi''' is normally [zɪ]; but '''aa''' is normally [ˈe].)

 

Stress is realized through vowel lengthening and sometimes a higher intonation.

 

Prosody varies among the different people groups. In the standard dialect, a soft and clear tone is expected. In most Talivian villages, speaking loudly is considered rude and is therefore looked down upon. In the Southwest, the volume is typically louder. Speed also varies as the Northeast prefers slow and careful speech while the Northwest prefers fast-paced speech.

 

Another key contrast among dialectal prosody is merging like vowels between separate words. For example, a Uzin speaker would most likely pronounce '''auvi ilam''' (young bird) by merging the final '''-i''' in '''auvi''' and the initial '''i-''' in '''ilam''', like [ˈɑvˈiləm]. A Nati speaker would pronounce both '''i''''s by lengthening it like [ˈɑv ˈiːləm]. A Bwolotil or Katapu speaker would insert a glottal stop between them: [ˈɑvi ˈʔiləm]. A Taliv speaker may add an empenthetic '''y''' and pronounce it like [ˈɑvi ˈjiləm].

Wistanian employs its own script, but it is romanized with a system that reflects the script and its spellings. The romanization rules are as follows:

Wistanian employs a number of peculiar digraphs: ⟨bb⟩ = /p/, ⟨dd⟩ = /t/, ⟨gg⟩ = /k/, ⟨aa⟩ = /e/, and ⟨au⟩ = /ɑ/, .

 

[[File:Slide1.PNG|thumbnail|left|250px|The Wistanian script.]]

The script, often referred to as '''araman taliv auzanigza''' (lit. "dishes of the Taliv") began its evolution during the Diwa oppression when the Taliv people were secretly plotting escape by setting their dishes outside their homes in certain orders to convey messages. After their escape and resettlement on the Wistanian island, the dishes gave form to the written language.

Another interesting feature of the script is "compound glyphs." They are /k/, /t/, /p/, /e/, and /ɑ/, and they are made by doubling or combining two different glyphs together. This is why the romanization of Wistanian uses ⟨gg⟩ for /k/, ⟨au⟩ for /ɑ/, as well as the other digraphs.

Like the lexicon and grammar, Daly redesigned the Wistanian script multiple times - three, to be exact. The original script was an alphabet, but it did not capture the "spirit" of Wistanian, so it was scrapped for an abugida. The abugida, which was beautiful, was also difficult to learn and write, prompting yet another redesign. The original design is now considered as the old Diwa alphabet, while the abugida is an alternative script used by the Nati.

Wistanian follows a fairly rigid syntax and tight grammar for a number of historical reasons. Firstly, due to its mixing with the Nati language, Taliv lost most of its irregularities and exceptions. Secondly, as the Katapu began to teach Wistanian, they had spread false information to "make more sense" of the language, which resulted in further simplification that was later adopted as standard. In Wistanian's infancy, it was almost engineered to be as efficient as possible. However, learners were still able to incorporate features from their native language into Wistanian, providing it with several of its current syntactical quirks (e.g., imperative word order was introduced by the Nati learners).  

Wistanian has four traditional lexical categories (parts of speech): the noun ('''davagg'''), the verb ('''anai'''), the particle ('''mauvaldul'''), and the honorifics ('''garajil''').  

| Any word that takes on nominal morphology and can act as a subject or object the verb.

| Any word that takes on verbal morphology.

Wistanian is predominately head-initial and verb-initial. This is manafested in that particles are always expressed first in a particle phrase (PartP), head verbs are expressed first in a verb phrase (VP), and head nouns are expressed first in a noun phrase (NP).  

  vig-a    dari aa  garauda bi.

  eat-DUR boy  ACC food   goodness

  speak-PFV 3Sa.NOM '''ACC Q'''.

  sink -PFV '''mine'''

  set-PFV 1S.NOM ACC food    LOC  table '''POSS brown'''.

  speak-PFV boy  '''loudness'''

  speak-PFV '''loudness'''.

  speak-PFV boy  ACC '''loudness'''.

  speak-PFV boy  '''INST loudness'''.

  '''CO talk-PFV CO talk-PFV''' 3Sa.NOM  

 

* '''1st person''' singular (<code>1S</code>) pronouns are used to refer to the speaker. First person plural (<code>1P</code>) is used to refer to the speaker and an indeterminate number of others.

 

 

 

Verbs, which tend to be expressed at the beginning of a sentence, are defined as any state or action applied to or applied by the subject. Wistanian verbs conjugate between the stative aspect, durative aspect, durative/perfective aspect, and irrealis mood. There are also a number of verbal particles (featured at the beginning of a VP) that denote conditional, telic, gnomic, permissive, obligative, and potential moods. There are a number of suffixes that can derive nouns from verbs. Tense is not marked but rather implied through context.

The durative verb can also take on an additional suffix, the perfective ⟨-i⟩, which reacts to the durative ⟨-a⟩, becoming ⟨-ai⟩.  

! style="text-align: center;" | Perfective

=====Perfective=====

The Perfective Aspect (<code>PFV</code>) is applied to a dynamic verb that views the action as a completed whole, strongly implying the past tense in the realis and future tense in the irrealis. Although the perfective is formed by adding ⟨-i⟩ to the durative ⟨-a⟩, becoming ⟨-ai⟩, it is glossed only as <code>PFV</code> rather than <code>DUR-PFV</code> for the sake of saving space.

   speak'''-PFV''' 1S.NOM language-peace.

As perfective, the verb '''yiga''' suggests a specific event that is a completed whole. It is important to understand the difference between the perfective and stative aspects since many stative verbs can be roughly translated as "has been X". Stative verbs are states, while perfective verbs are actions. Stative verbs are also usually still applicable in the moment of utterance while perfective verbs are usually not.

Whenever the irrealis is used on a verb without an aspect marker, it is assumed to be indicative of a future action (in most cases). The verb "walk" has not literally happened yet, which is why it is in the irrealis. However, the speaker is sure that the action will occur at some time in the future, which is why it is in the unmarked indicative.

   '''budaij yau miram.'''

   buda   -ai '''-j'''  yau    miram.

   walk.to-PFV'''-IRR''' 1S.NOM store.

When applied to a perfective verb, the sentence is translated that the subject has done the action before.

   '''GNO'''  put.on'''-PFV''' man ACC shirt.

   '''COND''' die -PFV '''-IRR''' 1S.NOM, bury-PFV-IRR 2S.NOM LOC  hill 1S.ACC.  

   '''HYP'''  sink  -PFV'''-IRR''' 1S.POSS boat,  COND exist-STA-IRR hole  LOC.

   "My boat could sink if there is a hole in it."  

The atelic aspect (<code>ATEL</code>) refers to a verb that does not have an intended endpoint, whether because the action failed or was directionless. The atelic is denoted with the particle '''in''' and can only be applied to durative or perfective verbs.

   '''ATEL''' walk.to-PFV 1S.NOM store, TEMP minute COP three.

   break -PFV friend '''ACC''' bone COP 3S.POSS

   eat -PFV boy  '''3Si.ACC'''.

   hit-PFV 3Sa.NOM '''3Sa.ACC'''

   hit-PFV 3Sa.NOM '''ACC 3Sa.ACC'''.

The instrumental particle is also used to mark the theme of a ditransitive verb, doubling as a sort of dative marker.  

  give-PFV 1S.NOM 2S.ACC '''INSTR''' flower.

   die -PFV 3S.NOM '''BEN'''  2S.ACC.

   die -PFV 3S.NOM '''CAU'''  2S.ACC.

  hide-PFV '''CO''' boy  '''CO''' girl.

  hide-PFV boy  '''WCO''' girl.

The [[Wistanian/Lexicon|Wistanian Lexicon]] currently stands at 600 words as of October 2018, with a goal of accomplishing 2,500 words by the end of the year. A minimum of 10 words are actively added to the lexicon almost every day.  

[[File:WistanianFamily.png|thumb|right|A typical Wistanian family]]

Wistanian kinship is a modified version of the [[w: Hawaiian_kinship|Hawaiian system]] common in most Malayo-Polynesian languages. In this system, siblings and first cousins share terms with only a gender and age distinction. Mothers are usually given a term of endearment by their children (usually '''mu'''), but a child's aunts will also be called "mother" and the father and uncles will share terms as well. Most of Wistanian culture is [[w: Ambilineality|ambilineal]] and [[w: Matrifocal_family|matrifocal]], so that children live and associate closest to their mother and her side of the family. For this reason, a child's mother's brother will often be just as much of a father figure as the child's biological father, who may or may not be involved in the family.  

The Bwolotil people are more [[w: Nuclear_family|nuclear]], consisting of only a mother, father, and one or two children. They have their own kinship terms from their language. Some Katapu people share the typical family structure and kinship terms. However, most family structures are [[W: Extended_family|extended]] so that families live amongst the mother's extended family, and fathers are usually present in the home. Most of their kinship terms also come from the Katapu language, but some Wistanian terms are borrowed as well.

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#993300; color:#ffffff;" | zuvil<br> jaaru

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#9b9b9b;" | au<br> garaji

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#fe0000;" | raul<br> nidda <br> hagg

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#ffff00;" | luz<br> aubra

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#33ff33;" | jan<br> bazu

| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic; background-color:#0033ff;" | zaz<br> iyad