Wistanian

Wistanian [wɪsˈteɪni.ən]
Spoken in:	Wistania
Conworld:	Vale
Total Speakers:	~ 50,000,000
Genealogical classification:	Taliv    - Taliv-Nati Pidgin       - Wistanian
Basic word order:	Verb-Subject-Object
Morphological Type:	Analytical/Agglutinative
Morphosyntactic Alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Created by:
Paul A. Daly	Began: January 2017 Published: January 2018

Wistanian (IPA: /wɪsˈteɪni.ən/), natively known as anigaliylaun (IPA: /əˈnigaˌlilɑn/), is the first constructed language (conlang) by world-builder, writer, and professional amateur Paul A. Daly, written in 2017. The language was created for a novel series, the first of which is near completion.

It is spoken on the fictional planet Vale, on a large, yet hidden, island called Wistania. The language developed as a creole between two different languages, eventually becoming the lingua franca among the five different people groups who dwell on the island. Wistanian is an analytical and head-initial language, with VSO word order and a moderately small phonological inventory.

Introduction

Setting

Wistanian is an auxiliary language spoken on the fictional island nation of Wistania. The language stems from a pidgin created between the Nati and Taliv languages during The Wistanian War. After the peace treaty was signed, the Katapu, who were allied with Nati and Taliv but inactive in the war, documented and refined the Nati-Taliv Pidgin for use in the newly established government. Wistanian features mostly Taliv grammar, Nati vocabulary, Katapu influences, many Bolotil loan words, and scientific terms, mathematics, and the lunar calendar derived from the work of the Uzin. Wistanian's native name, anigaliylaun, is a compound of ani (language) and galiylaun (peace). It is translated as "Peace Language."

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 100 years, Wistanian advanced from a government-only auxiliary language into the national language of the island, natively and fluently spoken by all 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 Bolotil people group, who often protest the language's difficulty. The other five languages are still spoken, especially the Bolotil language. 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.

Goals

Wistanian was created with three goals in mind:

1. 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.
2. To be simple and mostly regular. Due to the language’s history, this is a simple language with plenty of room to grow and evolve over the years. It is an in-universe auxiliary language that should be easy for natives and foreigners alike to learn with fair speed.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Inspiration

Like most first conlangs, Wistanian started as an English relex (but without tense and articles). However, after nearly three mass revisions over a year, Wistanian has become its own unique language. Its primary influences are English semantics, Spanish grammar, and Tamil vocabulary. Despite this, the only limit put upon Wistanian was its author's imagination, therefore these language's influences are far and few between.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants are as follows (allophones are in [brackets]):

	Bilabial	Labio-Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Plosive	p b		t d			k g
Fricative	[ɸ ~ β]	v	z	ʒ	[ʝ]	[ɣ]		ɦ
Approximant					j		w
Trill			[r]
Tap			ɾ
Lateral approximant			l

Consonant Allophony

/w/ > [ɸ ~ β] / V_V
/j/ > [ʝ] / _(front vowel)
/k, ɡ/ > [ɣ] / (back vowel)_
/ɾ/ > [r] / unpredictable; often used for exaggeration (e.g., garani (large) will often be said with the trill.)

Vowels

The vowels are as follows (allophones in [brackets]):

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i [ɪ]		ɯ
Mid	e	ə
Open		[a]	ɑ

There is one diphthong: /aɪ/.

Vowel Allophony

/i/ > [ɪ] / C_C (unstressed)
/ə/ > [a] / C_C (stressed)

Phonotactics

Syllables take on a (C)(A)V(N) structure where A represents an approximant and N represents any consonant that is not /j/, /w/, or /ɦ/. The last consonant in a syllable should not equal the first consonant in the next syllable, and neighboring vowels are always separated with /ɦ/, except for /i/ and /ə/, which are separated with /j/.

Stress

Stress typically lands on the heaviest syllable (aɪ/e > i/ɯ/ɑ > ə). However, several words break these rules, as /i/ can become an unstressed [ɪ], and /ə/ can become a stressed [a].

Prosody

Wistanian is a stress-timed language, spoken softly and clearly with very little intonation. Stressed syllables and words are said slower.

Orthography

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:

1. m, n, b, d, g, v, z, w, and l are represented with their IPA symbol.
2. p, t, and k are represented by bb, dd, and gg, respectively.
3. ʒ, ɦ, ɾ, and j are represented by j, h, r, and y, respectively.
4. ɯ is represented by u.
5. ə and a are represented by a.
6. i and ɪ are represented by i.
7. aɪ is represented by i, but is often written ii or an underlined i.
8. e is represented by aa.
9. ɑ is represetned by au.

Script

The Wistanian script.

Wistanian has an alphabet which represents the different sounds in Wistanian. The alphabet was inspired by Latin, IPA, and Greek, but is often described as Armenian-looking. The script was also designed to reflect the shapes of dishes and eating utensils, as the Taliv and Nati used tables of dishes and pots to convey secret messages.

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 Bolotil alphabet, while the abugida is an alternative script used by the Nati.

Syntax

Wistanian follows a rigid syntax and tight grammar. However, these strict standards, along with the simple phonology, help Wistanian people-group to remain understandable and intelligible among each other.

Word Order

Wistanian has Verb-Subject-Object word order (imperatives are VOS), modifiers that follow their head (except for possessive pronouns, numbers, and colors), post-positional spatial suffixes, and non-spatial prepositions. Modifier phrases will usually come at the beginning or end of the sentence. Auxiliary verbs come before transitive verbs, but sometimes after the subject, if the verb is intransitive.

gaura navu miramwi miz ilam din aanaulaman garani ggaun zi vaumu.
"The young man is quickly carrying three large melons to the market for his mother."

gaura	navu	miram-wi	miz	ilam	din	aa-naulam-an	garani	ggaun	zi	vaumu
carrying	fast	store-toward	man	young	three	ACC-melon-PL	large	for	3SG.POSS	mother.

Questions

Questions will typically follow the same syntactic pattern as declarative sentences, except with rising intonation. Typically, Yes/No questions will consist of a statement followed by zaun/baun (Yes/No). "Who/What/When/Where/Why" questions will either follow the same declarative-question word pattern, or include a question particle as the object.

rol magiyn va. zo?
red table PRS.COP. yes?
"Is the table red?”

rol magiyn va. ari?
red table PRS.COP. why?
“Why is the table red?”

luva zon?
2SG-PRS.COP who?
“Who are you?”

There is no Wistanian equivalent to "how," usually being replaced by "what" or "what method". ("How are you?" is literally translated "What are you?")

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are fairly regular with only one case marking, the accusative prefix, aa-, which is attached to every direct object to distinguish it from the subject.

Pronouns, on the other hand, are highly variable, with different forms of the nominative, accusative, possessive, reflexive, and prepositional cases in five persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd animate, 3rd inanimate, and 3rd spiritual) and two numbers (singular and plural). For the third animate and spiritual, the nominative and accusative pronouns are the same, resulting in 46 unique pronouns in all.

Nouns do take on a plural suffix, -(a)n), and a negating suffix (bau(n)-) which can apply to any word in Wistanian.

Verbs

Verbs are also highly regular taking on no inflectional morphology at all. Instead, they rely on particles to determine tense (past, present, future) and aspect (imperfective, perfective, gnomic). The default verb (no particles) is in the imperfective aspect and present mood.

miya yau aagarauvi
drinking 1S.NOM ACC-water.
"I am drinking water."

va miya yau aagarauvi.
GNO.PRS drinking 1S.NOM ACC-water
"I drink water."

vaun miya yau aagarauvi.
PFV.PRS drinking 1S.NOM ACC-water.
"I have drunk water."

Modifiers

Modifiers immediately follow their head, except for colors, numbers, and possessives. Morphologically, there is no difference between an adjective and an adverb, since they rely on word order. Modifiers also provide verb modality and postpositional contrsutions.

Adpositions

There are two types of adpositions in Wistanian:

Locative/Directive adpositions are tagged at the end of a noun root, acting as a postposition, similar to the word homeward. (E.g., ujadi-ddal // house-in // "in the house"). These words must always be featured immediately after the verb.

Purpose adpositions, such as the benefactive and instrumental, act as separate prepositional words. These phrases can be expressed at the beginning of the sentence, the end of the sentence, or after the verb.

Converbs

There are a few converbs, which act differently than other verbs. The most important of theses converbs is va which essentially means "which is" and is used as a copula, auxiliary verb, and relative conjunction.

As a copula, the word order is psuedo-SVO. Technically, there is only the subject, a relative particle, and an object of the relative clause, and the following sentence is a fragment, which are legal in Wistanian grammar.

viddaru va garauda.
fruit COP food.
"fruit is food."

As an auxiliary verb, it acts as the gnomic particle.

va viga dari aagarauda
GNO.PRS eating boy ACC-food
"The boy eats food."

As a relative conjunction, it can be translated as "which is."

viga dari aaviddaru va garauda.
eating boy ACC-fruit which.is food.
"The boy is eating fruit, which is food."

There are two other converbs: na (having/which has/possessive) and vaun (doing/which does/perfective). These converbs work almost identically with va.

Honorifics

Wistanian has a very exciting honorific system with several unique features. Honorifics are used for almost everyone: familial relationships and close friendships, authorities and superiors, and people who are younger than you. They are often said after a proper noun, take inflectional morphology, and can replace the 2nd person pronouns.

Example texts

auv lin zun, buda yau, ya gaun inja yau aagawaz garani id. auv yum, gaun bbiyra yau aagawaz, ya ddal lin vaggan min min vilauwa. ya yiga yau; gaun auwina gawaz idzau aahiyari.

during one day, walking 1S.NOM, and PFV.PST finding 1S.NOM ACC-log big PROX. during next, PFV.PST roll 1S.NOM ACC-log, and LOC one stick little little 3SI.NOM-under. And saying 1S.NOM; PFV.PST possessing log DIST child.

"One day, I was walking, and I found this big log. Then, I rolled the log over, and underneath was this tiny little stick. And I was like, “That log had a child!”

— from "Seagulls (Stop It Now)" by Bad Lip Reading