Napkožæc
| Napkožæc | |
|---|---|
| Pronounced: | /nɑp.ˈko.tsɛtʃ/ |
| Timeline and Universe: | Alternate Earth, modern era |
| Species: | Human (Napž) |
| Spoken: | Napž-tawra |
| Total speakers: | unknown |
| Writing system: | Napžic script |
| Genealogy: | Indo-European Indo-Napžic |
| Typology | |
| Morphological type: | Fusional |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Credits | |
| Creator: | DiZ |
| Created: | late 2006 - present |
Napkožæc (or Napkotzaetch) - literally "language of the cloud-walkers" - is a language spoken by the fictional Napž people.
Alphabet
Napkožæc is usually written in the Napžic script. However, the language can be transliterated into the Latin alphabet using digaphs and diacritics that correspond to character combinations in Napkožæc. For the purposes of convenience, the majority of words will be written using this transliterated Latinized form. The alphabet is as follows:
Aa Ââ Ææ Bb Cc Dd Ðð Ee Êê Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Ôô Pp Rr Ss Šš Tt Uu Vv Ww Zz Žž Þþ
With three additional graphemes:
Dd, Ng, Wr
These graphemes, as they represent their own distinct sounds, are treated as separate letters in the Napžic script.
Phonology
Vowels
A - [ɑ] father; some dialects, /a/ amor (Spanish)
 - [æ] sat
Æ - [ɛ] bed
E - [e] entender
Ê - [ɪ] pit
I - [i] meet
O - [o] sobre
Ô - [ə] lemon; when stressed, /ʌ/ run
U - [u] too
Consonants
Table
| Type | Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Post-alveolar | Labial-velar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | p b | t d | k g | ||||||||||||||
| fricative | ɸ | f | θ ð | s z | ʃ | ||||||||||||
| affricate | tʃ | ||||||||||||||||
| trill | r | ||||||||||||||||
| tap | ɾ | ||||||||||||||||
| approximant | l ɹ | j | w | h | |||||||||||||
| nasal | m | n | ŋ |
- As a general rule, voiced consonant stops never occur in the middle of words.
Per Latin alphabet
B - [b] bite
C - [tʃ] cheat
D - [d] den
Ð - [ð] then
F - [f] fire
G - [g] gut
H - [h] harm
J - [j] your
K - [k] cast
L - [l] lie
M - [m] mine
N - [n] no
P - [p] pit
R - [r] "trilled" R, ratón (Spanish)
S - [s] say
Š - [ʃ] shine
T - [t] ten
V - [ɸ] (no English equivalent, see below)
W - [w] week
Z - [z] zoo
Ž - [ts] mats
Þ - [θ] thin
Dd - [d] as in ladder, add
Ng - [ŋ] long
Wr - [ɺ] rock
The letter V
The sound of the letter has no equivalent in the English language. In most dialects, it is somewhat similar to the voiceless labiodental fricative (f), but it is made without touching your top teeth to your bottom lip, and with a smaller opening between the lips. If need be, [f] is an acceptable substitute, and "V" is in fact pronounced this way in several dialects.
Further transliteration
The Napkožæc alphabet can be further transiletarated using the most basic Latin characters, without diacritics:
- Â â - Aa, aa
- Æ æ - Ae, ae
- Ê ê - Ii, ii
- Ô ô - Uu, uu; sometimes omitted altogether
- C c - Ch, ch; tch
- Ð ð - Th, th
- Š š - Sh, sh
- Ž ž - Tz, tz
- Þ þ - Th, th
Sometimes wr is simply changed to r.
Dialects
Lexicon
Main article: Napkožæc lexicon
