Kandaxangg

Kandaxangg
Pronounced:	['kɑ.ⁿdə.Ɂɑⁿⁿg]
Timeline and Universe:	Polycosm, Unknown World
Species:	Humanoid
Spoken:	Nangah-Riki Archipelago
Total speakers:	10,000-13,000.
Writing system:	None
Genealogy:	Isolate
Typology:
Morphology:	Isolating
Morphosyntax:	Nominative
Word order:	SVO
Credits
Creator:	Linguarum Magister
Created:	Spring, 2016 (updated Summer 2017)

Background

Kandaxangg is the language of the Nggang, the human inhabitants of the Nangah-Riki, the Northern Archipelago, who dwell in villages upon the shores while the fey Nggang-Angik, the Predecessors, live within the mirror-world of the glaciers. Tangg-Nggang (Nggang) culture is paleolithic, animist, and illiterate. The Nggang hunt seals and sometimes birds (including the ptarmigan, 'kandaxang'). Despite this nomadic lifestyle, Tangg-Nggang culture is highly unified in worship and ethics, valuing cooperation, honesty, and piety towards the triple goddess Handangangg, Iring, and Xanggah. Tangg-Nggang men have a cult of Nggang-Hindangg Handangand, Grandfather Sun, who stays long months in the sky in the summer months, but leaves on a hunting expedition in the winter. Nggang-Hindangg Nandang, Grandmother Moon, presides over the cult of women and the left side of the tent.

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

There are three voiceless obstruents, coronal, velar, and glottal [t] /t/, [k] /k/, and [Ɂ] /x/.

There are two voiced and prenasalized obstruents, coronal and velar [nd] /nd/ and [ᵑg] /ngg/.

There are two nasals, coronal and velar [n] /n/ and [ŋ] /ng/.

There is one fricative, glottal [h] /h/.

There is one lateral/rhotic, uvular [ᴚ] /r/. Whether [ᴚ] /r/ is grouped with non-coronal or glottal consonants varies by dialect.

In phonotaxis, the consonants are divided into coronal and non-coronal consonants. The non-coronal consonants are further divided into glottal and non-glottal consonants.

Vowels

There are three vowels phonetically but two vowels orthographically.

[i] /i/ is a high unrounded front vowel. It is considerably rarer than /a/.

[ɯ] is the allophone of [i] after a non-coronal consonant.

[ɯⁿ] is the allophone of [i] after a glottal consonant.

[ɐ] /a/ is a low unrounded vowel most of the time; it can also be a mid unrounded vowel as a linking vowel.

[ɑ] is the allophone of [ɐ] after a non-coronal consonant.

[ɑⁿ] is tne allophone of [ɑ] after a glottal consonant.

[ə] /a/ is a mid unrounded vowel.

[ɤ] is the allophone of [ə] after a non-coronal consonant.

[ɤⁿ] is the allophone of [ə] after a glottal consonant.

Alternative Orthography

Although most scholars of Kandaxangg use the orthography detailed above, an alternative orthography (Alternate Vowel Orthography or AVO) exists, based on the desire to more clearly distinguish the non-coronal allophones. In AVO, the non-coronal allophones of /i/ are written as /u/ and those of [ɐ] /a/ as /o/, and all allophones of [ə] /a/ as /e/. The majority opinion objects to this because the orthographical presence of back vowels implies rounding which is not present in Kandaxangg, to which the minority opinion responds that the two-vowel orthographic system is unnecessarily confusing and does not adequately reflect the surface forms.

Nouns

Basic Nouns

Kandaxangg lacks grammatical gender, although some nouns have a natural gender. If gender specification is needed, the following nouns are used:

nanggingg man

nirangg woman

xanding stone

Pronouns

There are four personal pronouns in Kandaxangg

nangg - 1st person

hanggang - 2nd person

andang - 3rd person

ndanga - 4th person

Other Pronouns

nggang - one; person

Numbers

Kandaxangg numbers are quinary. After the initial binary system (the Nggang have no concept of zero), the system operates with a central focus number flanked by two lesser subtractive numbers and two greater additive numbers. It is rare that a Nggang needs to count discrete objects higher than fifteen (15). Scholars of Kandaxangg hypothesize that the proto-Kandaxangg system was ternary, later expanded to quinary by subtraction and to the current system by subtraction and addition. Kandaxangg also possesses a detailed set of measurement words which ameliorates the paucity of the number system.

1 ndang

2 kand

3 kand kang randax

4 ndang kang randax

5 randax

6 randax tandax ndang

7 randax tandax kand

8 kand kang nandik

9 ndang kang nandik

10 nandik

11 nandik tandax ndang

12 nandik tandax kand

13 kand kang arangg

14 ndang kang arangg

15 arangg

16 arangg tandax ndang

17 arangg tandax kand

Colors

white - ndarand

black - tangganingga

red - randingg

blue/green - rahand

yellow - ndirand

Animals

flightless bird - handangand

flying bird - ndahand

ptarmigan - kandaxang