Dwekoenish

Dwekoenish (/dʷə.ˈkʰeɪ.nɪʃ/, native: Dvekönešč /dvɛ.ˈkʰœ.nɛʃʧ/) is a fictional diachronic language created by Marko Stanković, aka Stelvojoj. The following article primarily details characteristics of High Dwekoenish, the dialect most closely observed in public media and governmental affairs, but dialectal features are also considered.

Dwekoenish Dvekönešč
Spoken in:	Dwekoenia (Dveköneyya)
Conworld:	Alternate Earth
Total speakers:	Unknown
Genealogical classification:	Arvaši Continental Northwestern Continental Dwekoenish
Basic word order:	VSO
Morphological type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
Stelvojoj	2008 CE-present

Phonology

The phonology of Dwekoennish largely mirrors the articulatory contrasts of most Indo-European languages, i.e., voiced vs. voiceless consonants, a vowel inventory which elaborates that of e.g. Latin, and the absence of such contrasts as pharyngealization, vocalic nasalization, and retroflexion. It is not without a few oddities, however, in comparison with other IE languages. Of special note are the abundance of coronal fricatives, affricates, and the presence of two fully open front vowels, /a/ and /ɶ/ (though the second retains only allophonic status).

The tables below list the full range of phonemes within standard Dwekoenish. Note that /w/ and /ɫ/ both represent co-articulated approximants; they are positioned in accordance with their secondary point of articulation in the table for convenience.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g
Nasal		m						n						(ŋ)
Tap, Flap								ɾ
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x		h
Affricate							ʦ	ʣ	ʧ	ʤ
Approximant		w						(ɹ)				j
Lateral Approximant								l						(ɫ)

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High		i y			ɨ					u
Near-high
High-mid
Mid			e ø						ɤ o
Low-mid
Near-low
Low				a (ɶ)			ɑ

Phonological Processes

Allophony

Dwekoenish phonemes are regarded as exhibiting a particularly narrow range of allophony; this is especially true in the case of vowels, but this is not to say that vowels (or consonants) display no such variation.

Vowels

A-mutation occurs in syllables preceding those which contain /a/, either as a monophthong or the first vowel in a polypthong:

œ → ɶ

Because c is also sometimes present in words which contain no triggering /a/, some linguists claim that /a/ is in fact a phoneme, if only marginal.

Consonants

The extent to which this allophony occurs is debated. Studies suggest that is not regionally distributed, nor is it a meaningful indicator of socioeconomic status.

Consonant allophony, on the other hand, is completely conditioned and thus more predictable.

The alveolar nasal /n/ is assimilated to a velar nasal before a velar stop:

n_{g, k} → ŋ

The alveolar lateral approximant /l/ is velarized following a back vowel (except when preceding a consonant):

B_l_{V, #} → ɫ

The tapped /ɾ/ becomes an approximant before consonants and word-finally:

V_ɾ_{C, #} → ɹ

The voiceless stops are aspirated word-initially:

#_{p, t, k}_V → {pʰ, tʰ, kʰ}

These variations represent standard pronunciation. To pronounce them as their usual phonemic realizations in these pronunciations as regarded as unusual at best and pretentious at worst.

Vowel Harmony

Old Dwekoenish exhibits strong characteristics of vowel harmony, but this feature is mostly lost in the modern era. It has, however, resulted in various forms of words that resemble ablaut, and in some cases still triggers certain palatalizations. All such mutations are always reflected in the orthography of the language. While none of the synchronic processes in Dwekoenish are fully documented, the most general rules are well-understood.

The rules are known to be nuanced, and they typically apply only when the triggering vowel occurs either as a monophthong or as the first vowel in a polypthong, and when the affected vowel occurs either as a monophthong or as the last vowel in a polyphthong. The probability that a rule will hold appears to be at least partially dependent on these conditions; it is mostly likely to occur, for example, when both trigger and triggered occur as monophthongs. The details beyond these conditions are less clear.

I-E-mutuation generally holds in syllables preceding those which contain /ɛ/ or /i/. Note that this rule can also be applied when triggering vowels proceed triggering vowels:

i → ɛ → a → ɤ

These rules, however, are not hard and fast, and often appear to be blocked for reasons that can't be traced by diachronic linguistics alone. Some dialects observe this variant of the rule:

i → ɛ → a → u

A currently popular theory in Dwekoenish linguistics is that this shift is entirely responsible for the existence of phonemic /ɶ/, but there exist sufficiently many cases in which the hypothetical triggering /a/ is now absent that further study is needed.

Orthography

Dwekoenish is written with variants of both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Historically, the Cyrillic orthography has been in use since before the Latin, and is typically the more common of the two, except among a few smaller municipalities (and the later generations of many emigrant families). A few centuries ago, the Latin orthography underwent a major revision, many aspects of which were eventually reflected in the Cyrillic (e.g., as in the written representation of /j/). The changes were never intended to be applied to the Cyrillic, and while the origins of their reapplication are not fully known, they are often attributed to a particular journalist in one of the popular kingdom periodicals of the time. (It is worth noting that the Cyrillic counterpart of the letter <yy> is often referred to colloquially as "idiot's y" in Dwekoenish.)

In the table that follows, when more than one phoneme is present in a letter's description, the latter indicates a context-dependent allophone. (NOTE: To be elaborated later.)

	Roman	Cyrillic	IPA
	A a	А а	/a/
	Á á	Я я	/ɑ/
	B b	Б б	/b/
	C c	Ц ц	/ʦ/
	Č č	Ч ч	/ʧ/
	D d	Д д	/d/
	Ð ð	Дх дх	/ð/
	E e	Е е	/e/
	F f	Ф ф	/f/
	G g	Г г	/g/
	H h	Х х	/h/
	Ħ ħ	Ӿ ӿ	/x/
	I i	І і	/i/
	K k	К к	/k, kʰ/
	L l	Л л	/l, ɫ/
	M m	М м	/m/
	N n	Н н	/n, ŋ/
	O o	О о	/o/
	Ó ó	Ӯ ӯ	/ɤ/
	P p	П п	/p, pʰ/
	R r	Р р	/ɾ, ɹ/
	S s	С с	/s/
	Š š	Ш ш	/ʃ/
	T t	Т т	/t, tʰ/
	Þ þ	Тх тх	/θ/
	U u	У у	/u/
	V v	В в	/v/
	W w	Ԝ ԝ	/w/
	Y y	И и	/ɨ/
	Yy yy	Ии ии	/j/
	Z z	З з	/z/
	Ž ž	Ж ж	/ʒ/
	Ö ö	Ӧ ӧ	/œ/
	Ü ü	Ӱ ӱ	/y/

There is also one unofficial letter:

	Roman	Cyrillic	IPA
	Öa öa	Ӧа ӧа	/ɶ/

The letter <öa> is sometimes alternatively written <ȍ> (<o> with double grave) in the Latin orthography; this is acceptable, but it is typically considered nonstandard, and it is never seen even in those publications which acknowledge /ɶ/. The digraph representation is preferred instead; otherwise, and more often, it is simply rendered as <ö>.

Grammar

Nouns

NOTE: UNDER MAJOR REVISION.

Dwekoenish is a highly inflected fusional language with agglutinative characteristics. Nouns and adjectives are declined for three numbers and sixteen cases. Patterns of declension are grouped into three genders, though the distinction is only morphologically contrastive in the singular (with the exceptions of a few minor irregularities in the dual and plural). It is more significant with regards to adjectives and articles.

The first declension pattern applies to masculine nouns whose nominative forms end in -è or any non-sibilant consonant.

Könè, king

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	könè	köneas	kȍnás
Genitive	könu	köne	könem
Dative	kön	könedast	kȍnadast
Benefactive	köné	könea	könia
Accusative	könu	köneai	köniaš
Locative	könest	könist	kȍnast
Illative	könesten	könisten	kȍnasten
Inessive	könestí	könistí	kȍnastí
Elative	könestom	könistom	kȍnastom
Allative	könesté	könisté	kȍnasté
Adessive	könestje	könistje	kȍnastje
Ablative	könestod	könistoðy	kȍnastoða
Terminative	könestá	könistá	kȍnastá
Prolative	könestav	könistav	kȍnastav
Abessive	könedz	könidz	kȍnadz
Comitative	kȍnat	köneat	köniat

Note that the letter -ö- is assimilated to -ȍ- when it is proceeded by -a- or -à- (but not -ia-) in the following syllable.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Dwekoenish are inflected for person, number, case, and gender (excluding the first- and second-person singular). Forms separated by a slash (/) represent masculine and feminine forms respectively.

Nominative

	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	eš	meadve/mõadwa	meas/mias
Second Person	do	veadve/võadwa	veas/vias
Third Person	ine/ina	ineadve/inõadwa	ineas/inias

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

Dwekoenish has two number systems: one decimal (base-10) and one undecimal (base-11). The terminology of both systems is the same concerning numbers between one and ten, and the differences in larger numbers are of minuscule value. Since the undecimal system is now largely unused, we here detail the decimal system.

Numbers in Dwekoenish do not exhibit case inflections. The number one, however, is inflected for gender, as are all integers with a 10^0 (or 11^0) place value digit of 1 (excluding those with a 10^1 place value digit of 1 as well; the declension of eleven, in other words, is much like that of other numbers which do not end in a digit 1).

	Number	Roman	Cyrillic
	1	eives (ei)	еівес (еі)
	2	dveas (dve)	двеас (две)
	3	þriyyas (þri)	тьріииас (тьрі)
	4	čatvoras (čar)	чатворас (чар)
	5	pyyač	пииач
	6	syyoš	сииош
	7	šovam (šom)	шовам (шом)
	8	õč	ӯч
	9	dživam (džam)	джівам (джам)
	10	džišeþ (džeþ)	джішеть (джеть)
	11	eizodžeþ	еізоджеть
	12	dvezodžeþ	двезоджеть
	13	þrizodžeþ	тьрізоджеть
	14	čarzodžeþ	чарзоджеть
	15	pyyazodžeþ	пииазоджеть
	16	syyozodžeþ	сииозоджеть
	17	šomzodžeþ	шомзоджеть
	18	õzodžeþ	ӯзоджеть
	19	džamzodžeþ	джамзоджеть
	20	džešaþ	джешать
	21	džešaþ eives	джешать еівес
	22	džešaþ dveas	джешать двеас
	...	...	...
	30	þreiyyeþ	тьріииеть
	40	setworeþ	сетԝореть
	50	pyyõčeþ	пииӯчеть
	60	syyošeþ	сииошеть
	70	šovõmeþ	шовӯметь
	80	õčeþ	ӯчеть
	90	dživõmeþ	джівӯметь
	100
	101
	...	...	...
	135
	...	...	...
	200

Forms in parentheses denote contractions. These variants are considered quite colloquial, and are typically not used in official contexts. They also represent (with minor exceptions) the forms which are inserted into compounds involving numbers, including constructions of larger numbers as shown above. This is illustrated in the numbers between 10 and 20, but they also appear in the names of polygons, multiple-birth siblings, etc.

In the historical undecimal number, system, the number 11 is referred to by the name "džišõt" (contracted as "džõt"). Numbers are built similarly from this base, with the addition of forms like "džeþzodžõt" for the undecimal number 1A, etc. The undecimal system disappeared from everyday use several centuries ago, and is typically only found in ancient runic inscriptions. Because numbers are rarely named in these documents, there is ongoing controversy over whether the term "džišõt" was artificially introduced by linguists or historians. Also because the runic numbers are no longer in use, the number corresponding to the term "džišeþ" is typically denoted A in discussions about the undecimal number system.