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).

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/móadwa	meas/mias
Second Person	do	veadve/vóadwa	veas/vias
Third Person	ine/ina	ineadve/inóadwa	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)	тхріииас (тхрі)
	4	čatvoras (čar)	чатворас (чар)
	5	pyyač	пииач
	6	syyoš	сииош
	7	šovam (šom)	шовам (шом)
	8	óč	ӯч
	9	dživam (džam)	джівам (джам)
	10	džišeþ (džeþ)	джішетх (джетх)
	11	eizodžeþ	еізоджетх
	12	dvezodžeþ	двезоджетх
	13	þrizodžeþ	тхрізоджетх
	14	čarzodžeþ	чарзоджетх
	15	pyyazodžeþ	пииазоджетх
	16	syyozodžeþ	сииозоджетх
	17	šomzodžeþ	шомзоджетх
	18	ózodžeþ	ӯзоджетх
	19	džamzodžeþ	джамзоджетх
	20	džešaþ	джешатх
	21	džešaþ eives	джешатх еівес
	22	džešaþ dveas	джешатх двеас
	...	...	...
	30	þreiyyeþ	тхреіииетх
	40	setworeþ	сетԝоретх
	50	pyyóčeþ	пииӯчетх
	60	syyošeþ	сииошетх
	70	šovómeþ	шовӯметх
	80	óčeþ	ӯчетх
	90	dživómeþ	джівӯметх
	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.