Wanya

Wanya
Pronounced:	[ˈwan.ja]
Timeline and Universe:	here and now
Species:	humans
Total speakers:	1
Writing system:	alphabet
Genealogy:	isolate
Typology
Basic word order:	SVO
Credits
Creator:	Fenhl
Created:	from January 2011 onward
Links
CALS

This page contains text in the Wanya alphabet and romanization. It renders best if you have the Unifont CSUR and Geneva fonts installed.

Wanya (Wan ya Fenxəl, Wan ya Fenxəl) is a conlang by Fenhl. It serves mostly as his personal language, although a conculture is slowly developing.

Phoneme inventory

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal		m						n						ŋ
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g
Fricative		β	f	v		ð	s	z					x	ɣ		ʁ
Approximants		w						ɹ				j
Trill								r
Lateral Approximant								l				ʎ

• In syllable codas, [ʃ] replaces [s].
• In syllable codas, [ʒ] replaces [z].
• [β] and [ʙ] are in free variation.
• [ʁ] and [ʀ] are in free variation.

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high
High-mid					ɘ
Mid
Low-mid			ɛ							ɔ
Near-low
Low					a

• In diphthongs and next to /j/, [ɪ] replaces [i].
• In stressed syllables, /ɘ/ is pronounced [e].
• In unstressed syllables, /ɘ/ is pronounced [ə] or dropped.
• [a] and [ɐ] are in free variation.

Syllable structure

The structure of Wanya syllables can be described in pseudo-awkwords-code as:

((C)(L)/A)V(V)(N)

with the following parameters:

• A=pf/bv/ts/dz/kx/ɡɣ
• C=b/d/ɡ/w/p/t/k/ð/β/v/z/ɣ/m/n/ŋ/f/s/x
• L=l/ʎ/r/ʁ/ɹ/j
• N=m/n/ŋ/s/ts/z/dz
• V=i/ɘ/u/ɛ/a/ɔ

This pseudocode does not reflect several details, like the fact that a diphthong may not consist of two instances of the same vowel.

Orthography

Wanya's native script is an alphabet: each phoneme is represented by one of several letters. Normally the language is written in small letters, but the first letter of a name, and the first letter of the first word of a sentence is a capital one. When a name consists of multiple words in the original language, it is written in PascalCase. Abbreviations are written in all-caps. Consonants have two letters — the capital and small letter — and vowels have four letters — capital and small versions of the standard and diphthong letters. The diphthong letters are only used for the second vowel in a diphthong, e.g. the i in rais would be represented by the small diphthong letter, while the ï in raïs would be represented by the small standard letter. In the table below, the diphthong letters follow the standard letters.

There are two romanizations: the Unicode-based romanization which always has exactly one letter for one sound (or letter in the native script), and the ASCII-friendly romanization which only uses Latin capital and small letters, spaces, and optionally punctuation marks. Here they are in comparison:

If you do not have the Wanya font installed, you will see a copy of the Unicode romanization instead of the alphabet.

Phoneme			Alphabet						Unicode-based						ASCII-friendly
b	d	ɡ	Б	b	D	d	G	g	Б	b	D	d	G	g	B	b	D	d	G	g
w	ɹ	j	W	w	Я	ɹ	Y	y	W	w	Я	ɹ	Y	y	W	w	Ll	ll	J	j
p	t	k	P	p	T	t	K	k	P	p	T	t	K	k	P	p	T	t	K	k
ð	l	ʎ	Δ	δ	L	l	Λ	λ	Δ	δ	L	l	Λ	λ	Dd	dd	L	l	Y	y
i	ɘ	u	II	ii	ƎƎ	əə	UU	uu	I	i	Ǝ	ə	U	u	I	i	X	x	U	u
β	r	ʁ	B	β	R	r	Ꝛ	ꝛ	B	β	R	r	Ꝛ	ꝛ	Bb	bb	Rr	rr	R	r
v	z	ɣ	V	v	Z	z	Γ	γ	V	v	Z	z	Γ	γ	V	v	Z	z	Gg	gg
m	n	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Ŋ	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Ŋ	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Nn	nn
f	s	x	F	f	S	s	X	x	F	f	S	s	X	x	F	f	S	s	Kk	kk
ɛ	a	ɔ	EE	ee	AA	aa	OO	oo	E	e	A	a	O	o	E	e	A	a	O	o

The Unicode-based romanization uses the diaeresis to indicate a vowel cluster, for example:

• rais [raɪʃ]
• raïs [ra.iʃ]
• kuäi [ku.aɪ]
• kuaï [kua.i]
• kuäï [ku.a.i]

Each example could theoretically be a different word. Kuai cannot be a Wanya word since triphthongs are not allowed.

Since the native alphabet doesn't use any punctuation marks, they are optional in the romanizations.

This article only uses the Unicode-based romanization, not the ASCII-friendly one.

Grammar

• The basic sentence structure is subject-verb-object.
  • The subject is left out when the verb is in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. (Unlike Spanish, not leaving the subject out for emphasis is very bad style.) Conversely, the 4th person requires the subject to be explicitly mentioned.
  • the definition of a verb includes a list of thematic relation slots. Similarly to Lojban, objects listed after the verb are assumed to have the thematic relation of their respective slots. In order to leave a single slot empty, insert the null object ŋi ŋi. For two or three empty slots, use ŋiŋi ŋiŋi or ŋisti ŋisti, respectively.
• There is no number marking on nouns or verbs, i.e. no grammatical distinction between singular and plural. The adjective dazyi dazyi "multiple" can be used to mark something as plural, or alternatively numbers in a usual adjective slot.

Verbs

Verbs are inflected according to tense (present, future, past), modality (indicative, imperative, declarative), and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th).

The infinitive form of a Wanya verb always ends on a vowel or diphthong, followed by -nda. Verbs are inflected by removing that and adding the suffix from the table below.

		indicative	imperative	declarative
present	1	oy	usoy	uvoy
	2	es	ues	uves
	3	a	usa	uva
	4	(ə)	us	(ə)fu
future	1	(ə)moy	usmoy	uvəmoy
	2	(ə)mes	umes	uvəmes
	3	(ə)ma	usma	uvəma
	4	(ə)m	um	(ə)fum
past	1	oyats	usoyats	uvoyats
	2	ets	uets	uvets
	3	ats	usats	uvats
	4	(ə)ts	uts	uvəts

Notes

• an ə in parentheses is only inserted if the inflected verb wouldn't fit into the syllable structure otherwise. It is always pronounced as [ə].

Adjectives

Adjectives are "augmented" by inserting one of the following infixes directly before the nucleus of the adjective's last syllable:

• iX — definitely
• ist — very
• ifaX — extremely

(where X is the first syllable's onset)

For example, with the adjective fis fis (happy), it would be fis, fifis fifis, fistis fistis, fifafis fifafis. With the adjective ani ani (long), it would be ani, aniï aniï, anisti anisti, anifaï anifaï.

Adverbs are to verbs what adjectives are to nouns, and Wanya treats them exactly this way.

Numbers

Wanya uses a quinary (base-5) number system. The digits are:

• 0 — nai
• 1 — vo
• 2 — duŋ
• 3 — ista
• 4 — fa

In spoken Wanya, these digits are simply chained together: 40 = 130₅ = vostanai (ista is shortened to sta when it occurs after another digit). These are the basic rules for saying numbers in Wanya. There are the following exceptions:

• 0 as a number (not as a digit) is translated as mau.
  • Ordinal numbers start at 0, not at 1 (just like in computer science). This 0 is translated as nai.
• If a number is or starts in vonai, this is replaced by səë.
• If a number is or starts in vovo, this is replaced by gou.
• The sequence nainai, if it is not surrounded by more nai, is replaced by bis.
• If a digit occurs exactly twice in a row, the second occurrence is replaced by yam.
• If a digit other than nai occurs exactly thrice in a row, the second and third occurrences are, together, replaced by parə.
• If a digit occurs multiple times in a row, the sequence is replaced by the digit in question, kure, the length of the sequence, and mai.

In written Wanya, the first letter of the word for a number word is used to write that number. They are as follows:

• Б — bis
• D — duŋ
• G — gou
• Y — yam
• P — parə
• K — kure
• I — ista (this is used even if the i is dropped in the spoken form)
• V — vo
• M — mau / mai
• N — nai
• S — səë

These letters are also simply chained together. All numbers are prefixed with either the symbol for the unit if there is one, or the number sign #.

Some examples:

• 5 = 10₅ = #S
• 7 = 12₅ = #VD
• 18 = 33₅ = #IY
• 40 = 130₅ = #VIN
• 42 = 132₅ = #VID
• 50 = 200₅ = #DB
• 813 = 11223₅ = #VYDYI
• 1024 = 13044₅ = #VINFY
• 1000000 = 224000000₅ = #DYINKGM
• 29103830456733703613281 = 111111111111111111111111111111111₅ = #GVKGVM
• 10842021724855044340074528008699417114257812 = 22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222₅ = #DKDPM

To quantify a noun, a number word can be used as an adjective: naya #IDV is “87 cats”.

Vocabulary

Moving to: Wanya/Vocabulary

• konda — v. to have sth. swh.
• linsonda — v. to visualize, present sth.
• luna — n. night
• luŋonda — v. to fall
• lan — adj. reverse
• lanterenda — v. to disconnect
• lananda — v. to undo
• lomən — n. cloud
• əpyis — adj. hollow, empty
• əpya — n. cave, center of mouth
• uλan — adj. imaginary, nonexistant
• umyi — conj. of (defining attribute, talking about, + noun)
• βits — adj. left (direction)
• βeya — n. quote
• βoŋ — adj. closed, restricted, in a building
• zəꝛanda — v. to ride
• zuïyu — n. convention, standard, tradition
• γus — evid. can
• γouskəboen — n. expressed demand, order, task (spoken)
• γouskəboenda — v. to demand, order (spoken)
• γouskətəma — n. expressed demand, order, task (written)
• γouskətəmonda — v. to demand, order (written)
• γouska — n. wish, favorite, preference
• γouskonda — v. to wish for sth., to express a wish/favorite/preference
• mai — conj. end of adjectival phrase
• mau — evid. not
• mavin — adj. evil
• maöla — n. costume, mask
• nyeŋ — adj. cheeky
• nyo — n. sign, mark
• nunis — adj. quick, punctual
• nuna — n. time
• na — evid. hopefully
• naɹon — n. house
• ŋi — pron. null object
• ŋiŋi — pron. double null object
• ŋisti — pron. triple null object
• ŋoŋga — n. uvula, back of mouth
• ŋoŋgonda — v. to swallow
• fi — n. light, magic
• fidera — n. wizard
• fis — adj. happy
• funda — v. to walk swh. from swh. via swh.
• faŋ — n. fish
• xi — adj. green
• xupis — adj. empty
• xupa — n. void
• xuponda — v. to empty
• xai — adj. up

Example sentences

For more example sentences, see the translations on CALS.

Na benəmo fis ani
Na benəmo fis ani
/na bɛ.nə.mɔ fi ʃa.ni/
Hopefully live-IMP.FUT.2 happy long
May you live happy and long.
Inspired by the Vulcan salute, this is a common farewell in the conculture.

Kema emyəs altəto keꝛə λəna Ŋi dꝛəta kaska
Kema emyəs altəto keꝛə λəna Ŋi dꝛəta kaska
/kɛ.ma ɛm.jeʃ al.tə.tɔ kɛ.ʁə ʎe.na _ ŋi dʁe.ta kaʃ.ka/
Man last sit-IND.PST.4 LOC room Null work-4.IND.PST door
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...
The “world's shortest horror story”, as posted by Even Tolo Dybevik in the Conlangs Facebook group.