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
Wedish generally has British English consonants, Hebrew vowels, and simpler phonotactics. The Roman alphabet (plus four other letters) is used as an abjad. 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 | j | ||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
| Consonants as Written | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | M | N | NG | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | P | B | T | D | K | G | A | |||||||||
| Fricative | F | V | Θ | Ð | S | Z | C | J | X | H | ||||||
| Affricate | Ť | Ɗ | ||||||||||||||
| Approximants | W | Y | ||||||||||||||
| Trill | R | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | L | |||||||||||||||
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.
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 | Sereh/S̤R̤H | |
| A̞ | /æ/ as in Sally | Qæmets/Q̞M̤T̩S | |
| ֻA | /u/ as in boot | Qibuts/Q̣B̖T̩S | 3 dots is formal. A slanted line is becoming common, 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, NG̃ (often shortened to just G̃), R̃, and L̃ may take the tilde.
Phonotactics
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, there are different forms for the husband and wife is almost every circumstance. Additionally, something like possession of the subject is marked on the verb. In the 3rd person, any number of objects may be referred to: what matters is whose "sphere" they are thought to belong to.
| # | Designation | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M | 1st Person Masculine | Used by the husband to refer to himself. | AN /I am here |
| 1F | 1st Person Feminine | Used by the wife to refer to herself. | I am here |
| 1D | 1st Person Dual | Used by the couple to refer to themselves. | We are here |
| 2M | 2nd Person Masculine | Used by the wife to refer to her husband. | You are here |
| 2F | 2nd Person Feminine | Used by the husband to refer to his wife. | You are here |
| 3M | 3rd Person Masculine | Used by either to refer to that which is of the husband. | Your hair is gone |
| 3F | 3rd Person Feminine | Used by either to refer to that which is of the wife. | Your hair is perfect |
| 3D | 3rd Person Dual | Used by either to refer to that which is mutual. | Our children are eating (now) |
| 3N | 3rd Person Neither | Used by either to refer to that which is neither's. | 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 |
|---|---|
| Ð̩TC̱YL̃D | the child (1) |
| Ð̩TC̱YL̃D̤M | the children (2) |
| Ð̩TC̱YL̃D̤Z | the children (many, as a group) |
| Ð̩TC̱YL̃D̤N | the children (many, as individuals) |
Gender
There is not gender in Wedish, per se. Some nouns and pronouns refer to masculine things and some refer to feminine things, but there is no agreement necessary between parts of speech.
Definiteness
Exactly as in English, there
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 only (but exceedingly common)
Nouns
Relative clauses immediately follow the noun they modify, as do adjectives, demonstratives and numerals. Genitives are post-nominal, expressed by a postclitic.
| # | Ergative | Absolutive | Genitive | Dative | Ablative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1M | ANY | NXN | NW | NY | BNW |
| 1F | AK/AX | MK/MX | MYN | MY | MR |
| 1D | W | OS | ORS | WY | BRS |
| 2M | AT | YK | YW | YY | KWN |
| 2F | DW | DK/DX | DYN | DY | DR |
| 3M | HW | O | |||
| 3F | HY |
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.
