ASP

This is an attempt at decoding the conlang found in the webcomic Skewed Paradise.

Corpus

Leon

(Catboy thing. Found in the woods. Has no memory of events before being found. Speaks normally English.)

• Whispering to a caught shoplifter:
  • "Mer valeem. Y'menyah."

• Fights with a suddendly appearing guy in exo-suit:
  • Mental Snap
  • "Eya yemma! Nem mera her eramen yah!"
  • Dodge
  • "Mer valeem."
  • Dodge
  • "Ner anim, rayanam er ha!"
  • "Hahaha! Ne anyah iram?"
  • Dodge
  • "Memma enya, emren eya."
  • Leap back
  • "Yem enin inyanema enya?"
  • "Nem veryem eramen valeem re-"

Reen

(Catgirl thing. Just introduced.)

• Arriving:
  • "Azerian!" = [AzErj@n] = /azerian/?
• To Leon:
  • "Y'enin ner amiyan nem enin meren. Nem'era heyyer?"
  • (Leon: "Nina and her frends helped me. We're safe, Reen.")
  • "Az, mrenye veya nem ayam yah?"
• After having her hair pulled by Nina:
  • "Vya! Nye ne?!"
• Nicholas arrives behind her:
  • (Nick: "So you're Reen.")
  • "Nahme..?"
  • ("Er, Jim told me about you.")
  • "Revyal!"
  • examines face
  • "Y'ayam'ver...'Revyal'."

Alphabetically

• amiyan
• anim
• anyah
• ayam
  • y'ayam'ver
• Azerian (proper name)
  • Az (nickname)
• emren
• enin (x2)
  • y'enin
• enya (x2)
• er
• eramen (x2)
• eya (x2)
• ha
• (hahaha) (laughter, obviously)
• her
• heyyer
• inyanema
• iram
• memma
• y'menyah
• mer
• mera
• meren
• mrenye
• nahme
• ne (x2)
• nem (x4)
  • nem'era
• ner (x2)
• nye
• rayanam
• re-
• revyal (proper name??)
• valeem (x2)
• veryem
• veya
• vya
• yah (x2)
• yem
• yemma

Phonology

Vowels

At least /i E A/. It remains to be seen if <a> can also represent /&/ or /@/, if can also represent /I/ and what <ee> represents. Back rounded vowels (/u o/ etc.) do not seem to occur.

Consonants

 /v z        /
 /    l r j h/
 /m n        /

• codas /m n r l h/

• initial clusters /mr nj vj/
• medial clusters /mm hm rj jj/
• morpheme-medial cluster /mv/ (assuming that apostrophes mark clitic boundaries)

Grammar

"Azerian" is assumed to be (a vocative of) a proper name, more specifically Leon's name in this language. "Az" is furthermore assumed to be a nickname shortening.

"Mera her" can substitute for "veryem".

Prefixal y-.

Question phrases:

• "Ne anyah iram?"
• "Yem enin inyanema enya?"
• "Nem'era heyyer?"
• "Nye ne?"

These all appear to share the root ne-. This is however also found in most declarativ phrases, so most likely it is a basic grammatical root (pronominal? copula?) It's also not obvious if inyanema actually contains the root.