User:Aquatiki/Sandbox

Wedish is a conservative Judeo-Christian language spoken only between a husband and a wife. It is meant to appeal to Indo-European and Semitic language speakers. It sounds like Anglish (Germanic English without Latin influence), has Hebrew/Aramaic verbs but a variety of other influences.

Phonology

Generally speaking, Wedish has British English consonants, Spanish vowels, and Yiddish phonotactics. The Roman alphabet (plus four other letters) is used as an abjad, though the Hebrew alphabet can be used. The writing of vowels is typically skipped, except in dictionaries and some poetry. A, H, O, and E (and W and Y) are used a mater lectionis, i.e. hints as to the unwritten vowels. A usually means an /a/ at the beginning of a word, H at the end. O indicates /o/ or /u/ at the start of a word, but only means /o/ medially or finally. E indicates initial /e/ or /i/

I, and U are not used.

Consonants

Consonants in IPA
	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n						ŋ
Plosive	p	b			t	d					k	g	ʔ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x		h
Affricate							tʃ	dʒ
Approximants		w				l				j
Trill						r

Consonants as Written
	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		M				N						NG
Plosive	P	B			T	D					K	G
Fricative	F	V	Θ	Ð	S	Z	C	J			X		H
Affricate							Ŧ	Ɗ
Approximants		W				L				Y
Trill						R

Consonants in Hebrew Alphabet
	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		מ/ם				נ/ן						נג
Plosive	פּ/ףּ	בּ			תּ	דּ					כּ/ךּ	ג
Fricative	פ/ף	ב	ת	ד	שׂ	ז	שׁ	ס			כ/ך		ה
Affricate							צ/ץ	ט
Approximants		ו				ל				י
Trill						ר

Q is used for the sound /q/ (as in Quran/Koran), but it almost universally pronounced /k/. Speakers from non-rhotic countries pronounce R as trilled, while Americans tend to make it retroflex (which can make them hard to understand!).

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Back
High	i~ɪ							u
High-mid			e~ɛ					o
Mid					ə
Near-low			æ
Low					a

The Hebrew vowel points are used around Latin letters, with only slight modification. The glottal stop A is used here as a place holder.

Written	Sound	Name
Ạ	/i/ as in feet or fit	Hireq/ḤR̤Q
A̤	/e/ as in bet or bait	Sereh/S̤R̤H
A̞	/æ/ as in Sally	Qæmets/Q̞M̤T̩S
ֻA	/u/ as in boot	Qibuts/Q̣B̖T̩S	3 dots is formal. A slanted line is also used, i.e. A̖
Ȧ	/o/ as in boat*	Holem/ḢL̤M
A̱	/a/ as in father	Pathach/P̱Θ̱X
ְA	/ə/ as in careen	Schwa/ְCW̱	In typed contexts, the schwa is often written as a line: i.e. A̩

The Schwa may or may not be indicative of a separate syllable (see Phonotactics below).

A tilde above a letter makes it syllabic, that is, the nucleus of a syllable. Only M̃, Ñ, and L̃ may take the tilde.

There are many diphthongs in quick speech, but they are pronounced separately (i.e. two syllables) in careful speech.

AY

/ai/ (English long-I)

EY

/ei/ (English long-A)

OY

/oi/

OW

/ou/ (English long-O)

Phonotactics

Neither vowel length nor stress is phonemic. Long vowels indicate stress. Initial consonant clusters can only be two letters long, unless they start with S or C. Final consonant clusters can only be two letters long, which even limits even combinations which would produce a third, epenthetic consonant.

Onset

All single consonant phonemes		except /ŋ/
Stop or affricate plus approximant	PL, PR, BL, BR, KW, KL, KR, KY, GW, GL, GR, GY, TW, DW, ŦW, ŦL, ŦR, ŦJ, ƊR	but not PW, PY, BW, BY, TL, TR, TY, DL, DR, DY, ƊL, ƊY, ƊW
Fricative plus approximant	FW, FL, FR, FY, VW, VL, VR, VY, ΘW, ΘL, ΘR, SW, SL, ZW, CW, CL, CR, JW, JL, JR, XW, XL, XR	but not ΘY, ÐW, ÐW, ÐR, ÐY, SR, SY, ZL, ZR, ZY, CY, JY, XY
S or C plus voiceless stop, M, or N	SP, ST, SK, SM, SN, CP, CT, CK, CM, CN
S or C plus voiceless stop or affricate plus approximant:	SPL, SPR, SKW, SKL, SKR, SKY, STW, SŦW, SŦR, CPL, CPR, CKW, CKL, SKR, CKY, CTW, CŦW, CŦR	but not SPW, SPY, STL, STR, STY, SŦL, SŦJ, CPW, CPY, CTL, CTR, CTY, CŦL, CŦJ

Coda

The single consonant phonemes		except H, W, Y, R
Lateral approximant plus stop or affricate:	LP, LB, LT, LD, LC, LJ, LŦ, LƊ, LK, LG
Lateral approximant + fricative:	LF, LV, LΘ, LÐ, LS, LZ, LC, LJ, LX
Lateral approximant + nasal:	LM, LN	but not LNG
Nasal + homorganic stop or affricate	MP, MB, NT, ND, NŦ, NƊ, NGK, NGG	NGK and NGG are just spelled NK and NG
Voiceless fricative plus voiceless stop:	FP, FT, FK, ΘP, ΘT, ΘK, SP, ST, SK, CP, CT, CK, XP, XT, XK
Two voiceless fricatives:	FΘ, FS, FC, ΘS, ΘC, SΘ, CΘ, CS, XΘ, XS, XC	But not FX, ΘF, ΘX, SF, SC, SX, CF, CX, XF
Two voiceless stops:	PK, PT, KT,	But not KP, TK, TP
Stop plus voice-matching fricative:	PΘ, PS, PC, BÐ, BZ, BJ, TΘ, TS, TX, DÐ, DZ, KF, KΘ, KS, KC, KX, GÐ, GZ, GJ	But not PF, PX, BV, TF, DV, GV TC=Ŧ, DÐ=Ɗ

More complicated consonant clusters than these may be possible across syllable boundaries, but require epenthetic vowels.

Grammar

Because this language is only ever spoken between two, specific people, a great deal of narrowing in scope is possible.

Person

Wedish has the typical 3-person distinction. However, given the limited circumstances where this language is spoken, there is only a first-person singular and dual, second-person singular, and the third-persons. Number is not distinguished in the third person except by plural markers on the noun/pronoun.

#	Designation	Use	Example
1S	1st Person Singular	Referring to the Ego.	AN /I am here.
1D	1st Person Dual	Referring to the couple.	We are here
2S	2nd Person Singular	Referring to the Interlocutor.	You are here
3M	3rd Person Masculine	Refers to that which is masculine.	He is gone.
3F	3rd Person Feminine	Refers to that which is feminine.	She is gone.
3N	3rd Person Neither	Refers to that which is neither masculine nor feminine.	Other people's kids are making noise.

Case

There are no cases, per se. The ergative, or subject of a transitive clause must come before the verb,unless it is emphatic or a question (similar to English). The absolute (when denoting the object of the verb) must come after the verb, unless the clause is emphatic or a question. Genitive relationships are expressed through via the independent participle OV or its allomorph, the suffix '-V (cp. English "of"). Dative relationships come by T/T-. Ablative is handled by BO/B-. Only pronouns have separate morphology for these cases.

There are no ditransitive verbs in Wedish. All truly modal auxiliary verbs take infinitive verb objects.

Number

Broadly speaking, Wedish recognizes three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. However, there are two different plurals: collective and distributive. As with most languages, the unmarked form of the word is the singular.

Word	Meaning
Ð̩Ŧ̱YLD	the child (1)
Ð̩Ŧ̱YLD̤M	the children (2)
Ð̩Ŧ̱YLD̤Z	the children (many, as a group)
Ð̩Ŧ̱YLD̤N	the children (many, as individuals)

Gender

There is more gender in Weddish than in English but less than in Hebrew, Yiddish, or German. Basically, things of high animacy or importance are grammatically gendered. Generally speaker, animate beings small than a human are in the feminine, while things bigger are masculine. However, as in English, there is no agreement to keep track of, other than on the third person pronouns.

Definiteness

Exactly as in English, there are three kinds of definiteness in Wedish. The definite and indefinite articles are particles that attach the front of a word and may be applied to nouns of any number (unlike English). Without any article, nouns are by nature abstract. For example, ÐŦYLD (the child) refers to one specific child of the couples, NŦYLD refers to one non-specific child of the couples, but ŦYLD refers to "the state of being one a child of ours".

Verbs

Wedish verbs agree with the subject/actor in person only. Tense is the main idea encoded in the verb, with aspectual qualities typically requiring adverbs or postpositional phrases. Noun incorporation is common. Incorporated verb phrases may still take either an ergative or an absolutive subject, to indicate intentionality. There is poly-personal agreement.

The future tense is intentional for the 1st person and suppositional for the 2nd and 3rd.

The only (but exceedingly common) auxiliary verb is the "to be" verb, which precedes the verb it modifies and is conjugated the same way.

Kinds of Verbs

Hollow Verbs

The middle consonant is a semi-vowel (Y or W). The resulting forms all have a long vowel or diphthong in the stem-based syllable.

Initial Consonant Cluster

2 or 3 consonants begin the verb and 1 ends it. The initial group stays together and the theme vowel is /a/ or /e/.

Final Consonant Cluster

The first consonant is alone, followed by the vowel /a/ or /e/, but then ended by a consonant cluster. This final group is often broken up in conjugation.

Hollow Verb Paradigm

Tense	Number	Form
Past	1	ḶYPN̖W
	2	ḶYP̖W
	3	ḶYP̱H
Present	1	LỴP̤N
	2	LỴP
	3	LỴP̤T
Future	1	N̖WḶYP
	2	ṚḶYP
	3	W̞ḶYP

The "to-be" verb is separated into two related verbs, like Korean 있다 and 이다, Japanese います and です, or Chinese 有 and 是.

Copulative

Past						1M	TYYTY
1F	TYYNW
2M	HYYT
2F	HYYT
2D	HYYTW
3	HT
Present						1M

|}

Nouns

Relative clauses immediately follow the noun they modify, as do adjectives, demonstratives and numerals. Genitives are post-nominal, expressed by a postclitic.

Pronoun table

#	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Ablative
1S	A̱ṆY	MR	NW	NY	BNW
1D	ẈY	O̖S	O̱AS	WY	BRS
2S	DW	DK/DX	DYN	DY	DR
3M	HW	O
3F	HY
3N

Derivational Morphology

Grammatical parts of speech are somewhere stricter than in English. For example, adjectives cannot be used substantively without a suffix

Form	Expects	Produces	Meaning
-NS	Adjective	Noun	"The quality of being ..." (cp. -ness)
C-	Noun	Noun	"The language of ..." (cp. -ish)
YY-	Noun	Noun	"An inhabitant of ..."

Discourse Participles

XTATY

(Lit. Heb. "I have sinned") This is very much like the English opening phrase "I confess that". While (like everything) it is possible to abuse this phrase, it typically begins an utterance with an air of confession, humility and perhaps even admission of guilt.

Lexicon

LYP	to jump	Hollow