Babyish languages
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Babyish languages are a set of artificial languages from a child story called "Stories in Babycasèny", which can be viewed as a pidgin of Cantonese and English.
Babyish languages can basically be classified into two branches:
- Babyish - characterised by its 5 vowels system (ä and ö are considered part of a and o)
- Sheepness - besides a, e, i, o and u, they considered schwa as the 6th vowel and coded separatedly, while Babyish will distribute them among the 5 vowels as short vowels.
Babyish has its own characters, being some geometric shapes, but was not used beyond illustration. It is transcripted in two ways:
- accented Latin characters
- plain ASCII text
Since Babyish is a pidgin of Cantonese, some words are tonal and require indication of tones. Tonal marks from pinyin is borrowed for tone indication, with an additional mark of "dot below" in indicate "yang" tones.
Characters used in Babyish
Babyish used these characters:
Vowels
| Vowels | SAMPA | transliteration | Special note |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | a | à = /6/ in SAMPA |
| Ä | { | ae | |
| E | E | e | è = /@/ in SAMPA |
| I | i | i | ì = /1/ in SAMPA |
| O | O | o | ò = /Q/ in SAMPA |
| Ö | 9 | oe | |
| U | u | u | ù = /V/ in SAMPA |
| Ü | y | ue |
Babyish does not have dipthongs, so when one encounters two vowels being placed together, they are pronounced separately.
Consonants
| Consonants | SAMPA | transliteration | Special note |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | b | b | |
| P | p | p | |
| M | m | m | |
| F | f | f | |
| D | d | d | |
| T | t | t | |
| N | n | n | |
| L | l | l | |
| G | g | g | |
| K | k | k | |
| Ŋ | N | ng | |
| Ĥ | x | kh | |
| J | dZ | j | |
| Č | tS | ch | |
| R | r | r | |
| H | h | h | |
| Ẑ | dz` | zh | |
| Ĉ | ts` | cz | |
| Ŝ | s` | sz | |
| Ȓ | r` | rh | |
| Z | dz | z | |
| C | ts | c | |
| S | s | s | Sometimes Ç is used to represent "S" sound |
| Y | j | y |
Tones
- Tones: macron for long vowels, acute, hacek, grave, dot below.
| Tone sign | Tone value | Tone value in Cantonese | Tone value in Mandarin |
|---|---|---|---|
| (no sign) | 33 or 55 | yin ping or Tone 1 | yin ping |
| ¯ (macron) | 33 or 55 but longer duration |
(no equivalent) | (no equivalent) |
| ´ (acute) | 24 | yin shang (Tone 2) or yang shang (Tone 5) | rising tone |
| (hacek) | 22 | yin qu (Tone 3) or yang qu (Tone 6) |
|
| ` (grave) | short vowels or 51 | (no equivalent) | qu sheng |
| . (dot below) | 11 | yang ping (Tone 4) | (no equivalent) |
Some sample text of Babyish
Vocabularies
| English | Babyish | Origin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | Uzaza / Miao | Original / Onomotopaeic | |
| Dog | Azaza / Wou | Original / Onomotopaeic | |
| Rabbit | Zaza / Déng | Original | |
| Sheep | Me | Onomotopaeic | |
| Panda | Siongmiao | Mandarin Chinese | |
| Fish | Ör | Original | |
| Tortoise (or turtle) | Wuggwài | Cantonese | |
| not yet | mǐ- | Cantonese | |
| full (after meal) | báo | Cantonese | |
| hungry (after meal) | mǐbáo | Cantonese (= "mǐ-" not yet + "báo") | |
| used | Yused | English | |
| not used | Mǐyused | Cantonese+English (= "mǐ-" not yet + "yused") | |
| Elder Brother | (le) gor | Cantonese | |
| Younger Brother | (le) sálou | Cantonese | |
| Elder Sister | (la) sis | English | "sis" is not pronounced as /sis/, but is pronounced as /dzit/ instead, a pattern occurred in Korean as well |
| Younger Sister | (la) mui | Cantonese | |
| Father | Baba | Cantonese | |
| Mother | Mama / Mami | Cantonese | |
| Water | Sui | Cantonese | |
| Clear water | Nanasui | from "sui" | |
| Tea | Cya | Japanese (Cantonese) | |
| Tea for guest | Oucya | Japanese | |
| Tea for sheep | Meorcya | derived from "me"+"oucya" |
Famous Literatures in Babyish
- "Sheepness stories" series (Yöŋmàn gusi)
- "The Hero: New R Little Bear" (Sun R xiuhung daihùp)
