Dwekoennish

Dwekoennish (native: Dvekönnešč) is a language spoken on the continent of Arvašag. It is a member of the northwestern branch of the Hovalic languages, the majority of which are concentrated in the Arvaši province of Dwekoennia. Dwekoennish is divided into many dialects, but the central dialect (based mostly on the late Emperor Hoval's own idiolect) is widely understood and has become the de facto written standard. This article deals with the features of the standard dialect.

Dwekoennish Dvekönnešč
Spoken in:	Dwekoennia (Dvekönneas)
Conworld:	Arvašag (continent)
Total speakers:	~342 million
Genealogical classification:	Arvaši Hovalic Northwestern Hovalic Dwekoennish
Basic word order:	VSO
Morphological type:	inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
Stelvojoj	2008 AD

History

Dwekoennish is actually a name that represents a family of dialects and subdialects within the Hovalic branch of the continental Arvaši family (which is itself, for various reasons, a bit of a misnomer). The Hovalic peoples, named after the bloodline which first established their empire, speak the most conservative of the Arvaši languages, which is believed to be at least partly a result of the Hovalic dynasty's policies on language regulation. Over the centuries, political and cultural motivations have brought about the standardization of regional variants of Dwekoennish, and a few such variants have managed to retain prominence in certain regions. Today, the standard Dwekoennish language enjoys the status of a continental lingua franca, and it remains the primary language of literature and scholarship on Arvašag.

Geographic Distribution

Due to the sensitive nature of politics on Arvašag, a proper census of the continent has not been conducted in over 50 years, and even then, records show that those conducted have never been very precise. Therefore, no clear estimate can be made of the number of Dwekoennish speakers, but academics have used what data that does exist, along with careful methods of error analysis, to estimate that anywhere between 337 and 350 million people speak the language. (For record-keeping purposes, the popular standard estimate is 342 million.) This includes native Dwekoennish speakers and those who speak Dwekoennish as a second language but use it regularly in business or the home.

The Empire and Linguistic Cleansing

Main article: Dwekoennish Imperial Language Policy

Dwekoennish is spoken throughout much of western Arvašag, most of which was originally under the rule of the Dwekoennish Empire. It is still an official language in many of the independent provinces, but in a few provinces it has lost official status but remains in high usage. Its widespread influence is mostly a consequence of its imposition by Emperor Hoval. Many provinces are enacting movements to revive local languages in retaliation to what they consider the suppression of their cultures.

Phonology

Dwekoennish has a rich inventory of consonants and vowels. Of special note are the abundance of coronal fricatives, lateral consonants, and the presence of two fully fronted, fully low vowels.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n						ŋ
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g
Tap, Flap								ɾ
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x		h
Affricate							ts	dz	tʃ	dʒ
Approximant								ɹ				j
Lateral Fricative							ɬ	ɮ					ʟ˔
Lateral Affricate							tɬ	dɮ					kʟ˔
Lateral Approximant								l					ʟ

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i	y								u
Near-high
High-mid										ɤ
Mid
Low-mid			ɛ	œ						ɔ
Near-low
Low				a	ɶ				ɒ

Orthography

The Latin orthography for Dwekoennish is as follows. Note that digraphs are usually collated by phonemes and not alphabetically when discussed in such contexts as those seen in a grammar text.

A a - /a/

Å å - /ɒ/

B b - /b/

C c - /ʦ/

Č č - /ʧ/

D d - /d/

Ð ð - /ð/

E e - /ɛ/

F f - /f/

G g - /g/

H h - /h/

I i - /i/

J j - /j/

K k - /k/

L l - /l/

Ł ł - /ʟ/

M m - /m/

N n - /n/

O o - /ɔ/

Ö ö - /œ/

Ȍ ȍ - /ɶ/

P p - /p/

R r - /ɾ, ɹ**/

S s - /s/

Š š - /ʃ/

T t - /t/

Þ þ - /θ/

U u - /u/

Ü ü - /y/

V v - /v/

W w - /ɤ/

X x - /x/

Z z - /z/

Ž ž - /ʒ/

Polygraphs:

dz - /ʣ/

dž - /ʤ/

lh - /ɬ/

tlh - /tɬ/

lz - /ɮ/

dlz -/dɮ/

łh - /kʟ˔/

kłh - /kʟ˔/

ng - /ŋ/

*When in word-final position or following a vowel and preceding a consonant.