Hwnic: Difference between revisions

'''Hwnic''' is an ''a priori'' semi-naturalistic agglutinative language. It attempts to broadly delineate what natural languages might look like in the future, influenced by sources as diverse as Internet slang, mathematical notations, and programming languages.

Hwnic is a pitch-accent language. The continuants may be syllabic. Syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C)(C), with most word roots taking the form of C(C)V. Connected speech is subject to a set of more complex rules involving use of non-modal phonation.

 

The grammar of Hwnic is mostly simple and straightforward. Word order is SOV, but sentences may show up as OV due to pro-drop. Nouns are not declined, but may take affixes that denote number, negation, state, or property. Verbs are conjugated to person, number, and sometimes mood; an auxiliary verb can show tense, aspect, and animacy/volition.

 

The lexicon of Hwnic is based on concrete concepts. Simple concepts like body parts are covered in a single word, while complex concepts like types of animals may have a two-name system. The lexicon is currently incomplete.

Most words have initial stress. A syllable containing a syllabic /l/, most commonly ''bl'', ''ml'', and ''dl'', is stressed. For words that start with a syllabic /m/, /n/, or /r/, the stress may be on the second syllable. Particles have low pitch, and as such a few pairs of words are distinguished by tone alone. Compound words retain the stress of their constituents, although consecutive stress causes pitch sandhi and the second stress takes on a low or falling pitch.