Language scratchpad/Donsilan languages
Unnamed language
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | (ŋ) | (ŋʷ) | ||
| Stop | p b | t d | k g | kʷ gʷ | |||
| Fricative | f | θ ð | x | ||||
| Sib. Fricative | s z | ɕ ʑ | |||||
| Sib. Affricate | t͡s (d͡z) | t͡ɕ (d͡ʑ) | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
| Lateral | l | ʎ | |||||
| Trill | r |
In addition, there is the archiphoneme /ː/, which lengthens the preceding vowel, if not already long.
Vowels
The language has a simple five-vowel system (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/), and each vowel may either be short or long.
Root structure
The maximal shape of the root is CR-HRC-, where:
- C: an obstruent cluster
- R: a sonorant
- H: /f/, /x/, or the archiphoneme /ː/ (forbidden if the root-final C itself contains an /f/ or /x/)
The nucleus of the root is undefined, and can take any vowel /a/, /e/ or /o/, short and long. It may also be omitted.
Within an obstruent cluster the following constraints are observed:
- No cluster contains more than one stop.
- No cluster contains more than one of the non-sibilant fricatives /f/ and /x/.
- No cluster contains more than one /s/.
- If the cluster begins with /ː/, then /f/ and /x/ are forbidden. This is the only location where /ː/ occurs in a cluster.
- If a stop follows or precedes /s/, it must be voiceless.
Additionally, the sequences *tl and *dl are forbidden in the onset. It is possible to have onsets containing a labial followed by a semivowel in the root, but the semivowel disappears when next to a vowel and is realised as a full vowel (/i/ or /u/) otherwise.
Other consonants mutate as follows:
| Plain | Palatalised | Labialised |
|---|---|---|
| /t/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡s/ |
| /d/ | /ʑ/ | /z/ |
| /s/ | /ɕ/ | /sw/ |
| /k/ | /θ/ | /kʷ/ |
| /g/ | /ð/ | /gʷ/ |
The root structure is mainly shown in the writing system; in spoken language and transliterations, parts of the root structure may be obscured by sandhi.
Valid roots
The following obstruent clusters are valid:
- H (E, H, F)
- s (S)
- P (P, B, T, D, K, G)
- sP (SP, ST, SK)
- HP (EP, EB, ET, ED, EK, EG, HP, HB, HT, HD, HK, HG, FP, FB, FT, FD, FK, FG)
- Hs (ES, HS, FS)
- sH (SH, SF)
- PH (PH, PF, BH, BF, TH, TF, DH, DF, KH, KF, GH, GF)
- Ps (PS, TS, KS)
- sPH (SPH, SPF, STH, STF, SKH, SKF)
- PsH (PSH, PSF, TSH, TSF, KSH, KSF)
- HsP (ESP, HSP, FSP, EST, HST, FST, ESK, HSK, FSK)
- HPs (EPS, HPS, FPS, ETS, HTS, FTS, EKS, HKS, FKS)
This gives a total of 81 obstruent clusters.
The sonorants are M, N, L, R, I and U. They only follow obstruent clusters ending in a stop (P) or clusters consisting of only one obstruent. No such restriction applies in the coda. The H phonemes can occur before a sonorant in the coda, provided that the obstruent cluster itself does not contain H (13 clusters).
Theoretically, this gives 321 possible onsets and 840 codas, for a total of 269,640 roots. However, TL and DL roots are forbidden, reducing the number of onsets to 309.
Orthography
The writing system used is an abugida that preserves the consonantal root nature of the language. Consonants have separate symbols (transliterated as uppercase letters), while the vowels /a/, /e/ and /o/ are denoted using diacritics (transliterated as <a>, <e> and <o>). "Hiatus" has its own symbol, transliterated as <'>.
The following letters are used by the language:
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenuis | P /p/ |
T /t/ |
Þ /θ/ |
K /k/ |
Q /kʷ/ |
| Mediae | B /b/ |
D /d/ |
Ð /ð/ |
G /g/ |
C /gʷ/ |
| Sibilant | X /ɕ/ |
S /s/ |
Z /sw/ | ||
| Fricative | E /ː/ |
H /x/ |
F /f/ | ||
| Nasal | M /m/ |
N /n/ |
|||
| Lateral | L /l/ |
||||
| Approximant | R /r/ |
I /j/ |
U /w/ |
The order of the 22 letters is as follows:
- EHFPBMTDNÞÐKGQCXSZLRIU
The hiatus symbol cannot occur word-initially, but in collation it is sorted before <E>
Vowels are ordered as follows:
- zero, e, ē, o, ō, a, ā
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
| First person | 1p inclusive | Second person | Reflexive | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | MU mu |
WeN wen |
WeZ wesw |
NeR ner |
NeZ nesw |
TU tu |
IUR jur |
IUS jus |
|||
| Accusative | EMe me |
NFUe nowe |
NSMe unsme |
UFUe uwe |
USMe usme |
TUe twe |
IFUe iwe |
ISMe isme |
SUe swe |
SFUe sowe |
ESMe sme |
| Genitive | MeNe mene |
NoFe nowo |
NoZe noswe |
UoFe wowo |
UoZe woswe |
TeUe tewe |
IoFe jowo |
IoZe joswe |
SeUe sewe |
SoFe sowo |
SoZe soswe |
| Dative | MeNeI menei |
NFUeI nowei |
NSMeI unsmei |
UFUeI uwei |
USMeI usmei |
TeUeI tewei |
IFUeI iwei |
ISMeI ismei |
SeUeI sewei |
SFUeI sowei |
ESMeI smei |
| Ablative | MeNoD menod |
NFUoD nowod |
NSMoD unsmod |
UFUoD uwod |
USMoD usmod |
TeUoD tewod |
IFUoD iwod |
ISMoD ismod |
SeUoD sewod |
SFUoD sowod |
ESMoD smod |
| Instrumental | MeNeE menē |
NFUeE nowē |
NSMeE unsmē |
UFUeE uwē |
USMeE usmē |
TeUeE tewē |
IFUeE iwē |
ISMeE ismē |
SeUeE sewē |
SFUeE sowē |
ESMeE smē |
| Locative | MeNI meni |
NFUI nowi |
NSMI unsmi |
UFUI uwi |
USMI usmi |
TeUI tewi |
IFUI iwi |
ISMI ismi |
SeUI sewi |
SFUI sowi |
ESMI smi |
| Allative | MeNeH menah |
NFUeH nowah |
NSMeH unsmah |
UFUeH uwah |
USMeH usmah |
TeUeH tewah |
IFUeH iwah |
ISMeH ismah |
SeUeH sewah |
SFUeH sowah |
ESMeH smah |
| Comitative | MeNoG menog |
NFUoG nowog |
NSMoG unsmog |
UFUoG uwog |
USMoG usmog |
TeUoG tewog |
IFUoG iwog |
ISMoG ismog |
SeUoG sewog |
SFUoG sowog |
ESMoG smog |
Roots
Numeral roots
| 1 | K-D- |
|---|---|
| 2 | T-M- |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 |