Omni-kan

Omni-kan
Pronounced:	/omnikan/
Timeline and Universe:
Species:	Human
Spoken:
Total speakers:
Writing system:
Genealogy:
Typology
Morphology:
Morphosyntax:
Word order:
Credits
Creator:	Qwynegold
Created:	2009

Omni-kan is an international auxiliary language. Its earlier names include Pasetok, Pastok, Omnis-kan and Omenis-kan. Although Omni-kan is an auxlang, there is no serious ambition to make it an actually used international language. It was just created for the fun of the challenge of creating a conlang that could potentially be spoken by as many people as possible on Earth.
Since the language is supposed to be international the phonemic inventory is rather small, and several phonological constraints exist for ease of pronunciation. Yet homonyms are avoided. Omni-kan has borrowed all of its words from other languages. There are 49 languages that have been especially prioritized in word borrowing and phonology: Modern Standard Arabic, Mossi (Mòoré), Yoruba, Swahili, Armenian, Albanian, Tamil, Turkish, Kazakh, Uzbek, Mongolian, Hungarian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Indonesian/Malay, Mandarin, Burmese, Thai, Quiché (K'iche'), Quechua, (Paraguayan) Guaraní, Tok Pisin, Tashelhiyt, Hausa, Oromo, Fula, Akan (Twi dialect), Kanuri, Bambara, Telugu, (White) Hmong, Persian, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, English, Russian, Ancient Greek, Portuguese, Bengali, French, Japanese, German, Punjabi, Javanese, Marathi, Korean, Italian, Wu (Shanghai dialect), Cantonese (Canton dialect). All major language families, and major branches of the largest families, are present among these 49 languages. At least 3,88 billion, and possibly as many 8 billion people (including second language speakers) speak these languages.

Phonology

Phoneme inventory

Pulmonic consonants

Bilabial

Labiodental

Dental

Alveolar

Postalveolar

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

Uvular

Pharyngeal

Epiglottal

Glottal

Nasal

/m/ <m>

/n/ <n>

/ŋ/ <g>

Plosive

/p/ <p>

/t/ <t>

/k/ <k>

Affricate

/tʃ/ <c>

Fricative

/f/ <f>

/s/ <s>

/h/ <h>

Approximant

/ʋ/ <w>

/j/ <j>

Trill

/r/ <r>

Tap or flap

Lat. fricative

Lat. approximant

/l/ <l>

Lateral flap

Co-articulated pulmonics

	Labial-palatal		Labial-velar		Alveolo-palatal		Palatal-velar
Fricative
Approximant

Vowels

	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
Close	/i/ <i>									/u/ <u>
Close
Close-mid
Mid	/e/ <e>								/o/ <o>
Open-mid
Near-open
Open					/a/ <a>

1. ^ ^ ^ These are marginal phonemes. There are no minimal pairs involving these phonemes, except for possibly in proper nouns and interjections. [ŋ] is in complementary distribution with /n/, [f] with /p/, and [r] with /l/. The former ones can be replaced by the latter ones if the speaker cannot pronunce any of the alternatives marked with the same color in the above phoneme charts.

The sounds of Omni-kan can be pronunced in several ways depending on what the speaker is capable of, but the most desirable pronunciations have been marked in the above tables. The desirable realization may be substituted for any phoneme marked with the same color. For example /s/ should preferrably be an alveoral fricative, as "/s/ <s>" has been marked in column alveolar, row fricative, but postalveolar, retroflex and alveolo-palatal realizations are also acceptable.

There are also six diphthongs: /ui, oi, ei, ai, ou, au/. The final /i/ could optionally be [j], and final /u/ could be [w]. The diphthongs can also be split up into two syllables, with an optional [ʔ] between. /ei/, /au/ and /ou/ are marginal phonemes as mentioned above, and in complementary distribution with other phonemes.

Phonological constrains

The syllable structure of Omni-kan is (C)V(C). The onset can be any consonant except g, while the coda can be any of m, n, g, p, t, k, f, s, l. M can't appear at the end of a word though. The allowed medial clusters are:

• mp mf
• nt nc ns nj nw nr nl
• gk
• pt ps pr pl
• ft fr fl
• tn tw tr tl
• kn kp kt kc ks kw kr kl
• sn sj sw sr sl
• lm lp lf lt lk lc ls lj lw

The sequences ji, wu, wo, and word-final e and m are unallowed.

Complimentary distribution

In the following list · stand for either syllable break or word boundary.

• V₁n - V₁
• au - o
• ei - e
• f - p
• g - n
• ou - o, u
• r - l
• s· - t·
• ti - ci

Borrowing scheme

When borrowing words, the word might need to be changed to fit Omni-kan's phonological constrains. Generally, e is used to split up non-word final consonant clusters, while o is used at the end of words. If possible, the vowel is placed so that the consonants are still adjacent. Here some other rules, which take precedence over the above:

• #CiV > CijV
• #CuV > CuwV (but see wo and wu below)
• Cː > C
• CCiV > CCijV
• CCuV > CCuwV (but see wo and wu below)
• Vː > V
• Vst > Vt
• eu > e
• iV > jV
• ji > i
• m# > mo
• r· > l·
• wo > o
• wu > u

Grammars

Prepositions

Omni-kan has four locational prepositions, which are often used together with location nouns.

• Tou has the meaning that something is located somewhere, like the words in, on and at in English.
• Ta has the meaning that something is coming from somewhere, like the word from in English.
• Si means that something is going somewhere, like the words to and for in English.
• Menten is used for telling what way something is going, like the words along, through and via in English.

See Location for examples of how locational relations are expressed.

Syntax

Location

Location is usually expressed by a locational preposition followed by a noun in genitive and a locational noun. The preposition tells the direction: to, from, along or not moving. The locational noun (LOC.NOUN) tells the actual place. The locational can be combined with the prefix ka-, which means that the subject has physical contact with the place. In the following list, the different ways of telling location has been likened to different noun cases.

• Adessive - tou NOUN GEN fukan.
• Apudessive - tou NOUN GEN wijeri.
• Inessive - tou NOUN GEN in.
• Intrative - tou NOUN and NOUN GEN aita.
• Pertingent - tou NOUN GEN ka-LOC.NOUN.
• Subessive - tou NOUN GEN alat.
• Superessive - tou NOUN GEN (ka)-soharu.
• Ablative - ta NOUN GEN fukan
• Delative - ta NOUN GEN (ka)-soharu.
• Egressive, initiative - ta NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN).
• Elative - ta NOUN (GEN in).
• Allative - si NOUN GEN fukan.
• Illative - si NOUN GEN in.
• Terminative - si/tou NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN).
• Perlative (penetrating) - menten NOUN GEN aita.
• Perlative (going through a space) - menten NOUN GEN in.
• Prosecutive - menten NOUN GEN soharu.
• Vialis - with NOUN GEN use.
• Temporal (at an exact point of time) - tou TIME.NOUN (GEN in).
• Temporal (around some time) - tou TIME.NOUN GEN fukan.
• Temporal (sometime during a time span) - tou TIME.NOUN GEN aita.
• Benefactive - si NOUN (GEN sake).
• Dative, orientative - si NOUN.
• Exessive - ta NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN) (si NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN))

Derivation

There are many derivational suffixes in Omni-kan, used for creating new words. All derivational suffixes are actually shorter forms of other words with independent meanings. An -s- is added between a root that ends with a vowel and a suffix that begins with a vowel. If the root ends with, and the suffix begins with a consonant, an -e- is inserted between them.

Derivational suffixes

Original word	Meaning	Suffix	Meaning/use	Example
aprofa	child	-apro	Turns a word for an animal specie into a word meaning "the infant form of that animal".	hunto (dog) > huntosapro (puppy)
epitatai	know	-epi	Used for making words with the meaning "the teaching of X".	kanatlai (animal) > kanatlaisepi (zoology)
mama	mother	-mam	Turns a word for an animal specie into a word meaning "a mother of that specie".	*** (goose) > ***mam (mother Goose)
mekas	big	-meka	Adds a meaning of "largeness".	winakil (human) > winakilmeka (giant)
mikros	small	-mikro	A diminutive suffix.	winakil (human) > winakilmikro (dwarf)
ona	woman	-on	Makes a word feminine.	aprofa (child) > aprofason (girl)
otoko	man	-oto	Makes a word masculine.	aprofa (child) > aprofasoto (boy)
papa	father	-pap	Turns a word for an animal species into a word meaning "a father of that species".	awahahufokaho (bird) > awahahufokahopap (bird father)
sekop	stick	-seko	Used for deriving a word for the handle of a tool.	*** (broom) > ***seko (broomstick)
toktok	language	-tok	Used for deriving names of languages from names of countries or ethnic groups. If added to a country name ending with -lanto, the -lanto is deleted.	Thailanto (Thailand) > Thaitok (Thai language)
winakil	human	-wina	Used for deriving words of mythical beasts who are half human, half animal.	awahahufokaho (bird) > awahahufokahowina (birdman)

This article is part of a series on International Auxiliary Languages. Romance-based Auxlangs: Aercant * Atlango * Interlingua * Latin Nov * Novial * Occidental (Interlingue) * Panroman * Romanal Germanic-based Auxlangs: Folksprak * Nordien Slavic Auxlangs: Novoslovnica Turkic Auxlangs: Jalpi Turkic African Auxlangs: Afrihili Mixed-Origin Auxlangs: Esperanto * Adjuvilo * Ido * Ayola * Medial Europan * Bolak * Kotava * North American * Pantos-dimou-glossa * Pasetok * Sasxsek * Universalglot * Volapük A priori auxlangs: -

This article is part of a series on Engineered languages. Arithmographic languages: Characteristica universalis Logical languages: AllNoun * Ithkuil * Loglan * Lojban * X-1 Philosophical languages: Alwato * An Essay towards a Real Character * Ars signorum * Ro * Toki pona * Ygyde Others: Altllamiac * Briefscript * Pasetok * Speedtalk