Thangha': Difference between revisions

Thangha' is another language spoken in my far future Antarctic conworld (after runaway global warming has melted most of the ice but made most of the rest of the world uninhabitable). It is spoken by nomads who inhabit the centre of the continent.. Because each group of nomads speak their own dialect, Thangha' is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluricentric_language Pluricentric language]. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Thangha's has become a lingua franca across much of East Antarctica (through other ethnic groups trading with the nomads). To give an example of the diversity, the initial consonant in the name of the language can be pronounced as [tˤ], [θˤ], [θ], [tsˤ], [sˤ], [tʰ], [tsʰ] or occasionally [ts]. The consonant that begins the second syllable is usually prononuced [x], but a few dialects pronounce it as as [χ], [ħ] or [h].

Like many other Antarctican languages (but definitely not all), Thangha' is descended from English. However, many ancestors of Thangha' speakers came from the Philippines, Indonesia and the Pacifc (these areas were the first to be severely affected by global warming), and the language is heavily influenced by Austronesian languages, most notably in its split ergative alignment. But it also borrowed heavily from Hindi and various Chinese dialects.

| Nasal || m || mʲ ~ mj || n || nʷ ~ nw || || || ɲ ~ nj || || || || ||  

| Voiced Stop / Affricate || b || bʲ ~ bj || d || dʷ ~ dw || dʑ || ɖ || ɟ ~ gj|| g || || gʷ ~ gw ~ gb || ||  

| Voiceless Stop || p || pʲ ~ pj || t || tʷ ~ tw || || ʈ || c ~ kj || k || q || kʷ ~ kw ~ kp || qʷ ~ kf ~ qp || ʔ

| Fricative || f|| fʲ ~ fj || s || sʷ ~ sw || ɕ || ʂ || ç ~ ɬ || x ~ χ ~ ħ ~ h || || xʷ ~ χʷ ~ ʍ ~ ɸ|| ||  

| Lateral || ||  || || || || || ʎ || || ɫ || || ɫʷ ~ ɫw ||  

This is formed by reduplicating the last syllable of the noun e.g. /ˈɫama/ [ˈɫɑma] - "llama" -> /ˈɫama-ma/ [ˈɫɑmama] - "llamas". However, in Thangha', pluralisation is optional. So /ˈɫama/ could mean either "llama" or "llamas". In general, the plural is only used to emphasise that there is a large number / quantity of something. It can even be used for uncountable nouns e.g. /ˈsaⁿdəʔ/ [ˈsandəʔ] - sand (from a desert, Thangha' has a different word for beach sand) -> /ˈsaⁿdəʔdəʔ/ [ˈsandədːəʔ] - "large amount of desert sand / dune sea".

The Genitive case is normally marked with the prefix /naⁿ-/ e.g. /ˈdʷokəʔta/ - [dʷukətːa] - "shaman" -> /naⁿ-ˈdʷokəʔta/ - [nandʷukətːa] - "of the shaman shaman", /ˈməʔda/ - [ˈmədːa] - "mother" -> /naⁿ-ˈməʔda/ - [namˈmədːa] - "of the mother mother" -> However, if the initial consonant of the noun is /ʔ/, /j/ or /w/, then these are replaced with /nag-/, /naɟ-/ and /nagʷ-/ respectively. e.g. /ˈjiːtəʔ/ - "food" -> /naˈɟiːtəʔ/ - "of the food".