Wanya

Wanya
Pronounced:	[ˈwan.ja]
Timeline and Universe:	here and now
Species:	humans
Total speakers:	1
Writing system:	alphabet
Genealogy:	isolate
Typology
Basic word order:	SVO
Credits
Creator:	Fenhl
Created:	from January 2011 onward
Links
CALS

This page contains text in the Wanya alphabet and romanization. It renders best if you have the Unifont CSUR and Geneva fonts installed.

Wanya (Wan ya Fenxəl, Wan ya Fenxəl) is a conlang by Fenhl. It serves as his personal language. For example sentences, see the translations on CALS.

Phoneme inventory

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal		m						n						ŋ
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g
Fricative		β	f	v		ð	s	z					x	ɣ		ʁ
Approximants		w						ɹ				j
Trill								r
Lateral Approximant								l				ʎ

• In syllable codas, [ʃ] replaces [s].
• In syllable codas, [ʒ] replaces [z].
• [β] and [ʙ] are in free variation.
• [ʁ] and [ʀ] are in free variation.

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high
High-mid					ɘ
Mid
Low-mid			ɛ							ɔ
Near-low
Low					a

• In diphthongs, [ɪ] replaces [i].
• In stressed syllables, [ɘ] and [e] are in free variation.
• In unstressed syllables, [ɘ] and [ə] are in free variation.
• [a] and [ɐ] are in free variation.

Syllable structure

The structure of Wanya syllables can be described in pseudo-awkwords-code as:

((C)(L)/A)V(V)(N)

with the following parameters:

• C=b/d/g/w/p/t/k/δ/β/v/z/γ/m/n/ŋ/f/s/x
• L=l/λ/ꝛ/r/ɹ/y
• A=pf/bv/ts/dz/kx/gγ
• V=u/a/e/o/i/ə
• N=m/n/ŋ/s/ts/z/dz

This pseudocode does not reflect several details, like the fact that a diphthong may not consist of two instances of the same vowel.

Orthography

Wanya's native script is an alphabet: each phoneme is represented by one of several letters. Normally the language is written in small letters, but the first letter of a name, and the first letter of the first word of the first sentence is a capital one. When a name consists of multiple words in the original language, it is written in PascalCase. Abbreviations are written in all-caps. Consonants have two letters — the capital and small letter — and vowels have four letters — capital and small versions of the standard and diphthong letters. The diphthong letters are only used for the second vowel in a diphthong, e.g. the i in rais would be represented by the small diphthong letter, while the ï in raïs would be represented by the small standard letter. In the table below, the diphthong letters follow the standard letters.

There are two romanizations: the Unicode-based romanization which always has exactly one letter for one sound (or letter in the native script), and the ASCII-friendly romanization which only uses Latin capital and small letters, spaces, and optionally punctuation marks. Here they are in comparison:

If you do not have the Wanya font installed, you will see a copy of the Unicode romanization instead of the alphabet.

Phoneme			Alphabet						Unicode-based						ASCII-friendly
b	d	ɡ	Б	b	D	d	G	g	Б	b	D	d	G	g	B	b	D	d	G	g
w	ɹ	j	W	w	Я	ɹ	Y	y	W	w	Я	ɹ	Y	y	W	w	Ll	ll	J	j
p	t	k	P	p	T	t	K	k	P	p	T	t	K	k	P	p	T	t	K	k
ð	l	ʎ	Δ	δ	L	l	Λ	λ	Δ	δ	L	l	Λ	λ	Dd	dd	L	l	Y	y
i	ɘ	u	II	ii	ƎƎ	əə	UU	uu	I	i	Ǝ	ə	U	u	I	i	X	x	U	u
β	r	ʁ	B	β	R	r	Ꝛ	ꝛ	B	β	R	r	Ꝛ	ꝛ	Bb	bb	Rr	rr	R	r
v	z	ɣ	V	v	Z	z	Γ	γ	V	v	Z	z	Γ	γ	V	v	Z	z	Gg	gg
m	n	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Ŋ	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Ŋ	ŋ	M	m	N	n	Nn	nn
f	s	x	F	f	S	s	X	x	F	f	S	s	X	x	F	f	S	s	Kk	kk
ɛ	a	ɔ	EE	ee	AA	aa	OO	oo	E	e	A	a	O	o	E	e	A	a	O	o

The Unicode-based romanization uses the diaeresis to indicate a vowel cluster, for example:

• rais [raɪʃ]
• raïs [ra.iʃ]
• kuäi [ku.aɪ]
• kuaï [kua.i]
• kuäï [ku.a.i]

Each example could theoretically be a different word. Kuai cannot be a Wanya word since triphthongs are not allowed.

Since the native alphabet doesn't use any punctuation marks, they are optional in the romanizations.

This article only uses the Unicode-based romanization, not the ASCII-friendly one.

Grammar

• The basic sentence structure is SVO.
  • The subject is left out when the verb is in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. (Unlike Spanish, not leaving the subject out for emphasis is very bad style.) Conversely, the 4th person requires the subject to be explicitly mentioned.
  • the definition of a verb includes a list of thematic relation slots. Similarly to Lojban, objects listed after the verb are assumed to have the thematic relation of their respective slots. In order to leave a single slot empty, insert the null object ŋi ŋi. For two or three empty slots, use ŋiŋi ŋiŋi or ŋisti ŋisti, respectively.
• There is no number marking on nouns or verbs, i.e. no distinction between singular and plural.

Verbs

Verbs are inflected according to tense (present, future, past), modality (indicative, imperative, declarative), and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th).

Wanya verb stems always end on a vowel or diphthong. Verbs are inflected by removing that and adding the suffix from the table below.

		indicative	imperative	declarative
present	1	oy	ou	Vvoy
	2	Vs	Vüs	Vves
	3	a	au	Vva
	4		Vü	Vf
future	1	oyə	oyV	Vzyo
	2	eyə	əmV	Vdz
	3	ayə	amV	Vza
	4	(ə)yV	Vm	Vze
past	1	oyVt	Vxyod	Vboy
	2	ets	əxV	Vbve
	3	at	axV	oβa
	4	(ə)tV	Vx	əb

Notes

• A capital V stands for the vowel or diphthong from the verb stem.
• an ə in parentheses is only inserted if the inflected verb wouldn't fit into the syllable structure otherwise. It is always pronounced as [ə].
• The infinite suffix is -Vnda.

Adjectives

Adjectives are "augmented" by inserting one of the following infixes directly before the nucleus of the adjective's last syllable:

• iX — definitely
• ist — very
• ifaX — extremely

(where X is the first syllable's onset)

For example, with the adjective fis fis (happy), it would be fis, fifis fifis, fistis fistis, fifafis fifafis. With the adjective ani ani (long), it would be ani, aniï aniï, anisti anisti, anifaï anifaï.

Adverbs are to verbs what adjectives are to nouns, and Wanya treats them exactly this way.

Vocabulary

Main article: Wanya/Vocabulary

• bi — evid. and
• bun — n. word
• bunɹa — adj. beautiful
• blanda — v. to give sth. to sb.
• bet — adj. back (direction, time)
• betenda — v. to retreat from sth., to go back (direction, time)
• benonda — v. to live
• baun — n. sheep, goat
• bas — adj. down
• du — adj. done, okay
• dudek — n. halo
• duŋ — num. 2
• dꝛanda — v. to work at sth.
• dzuvu — n. world, universe
• dera — n. person
• dezda — adj. same, equal
• desa — n. bridge
• dana — nn. woman
• dazyi — adj. multiple
• gəδə — n. glass
• guru — n. number
• wibu — n. horse
• wakirfunda — vv. to go, travel swh. from swh. by sth. via swh.
• wan — n. language
• ɹənda — v. to exist
• yənis — adj. collected, united, assorted, complete
• yəna — n. group, collection
• yəöi — n. sentence
• yes — pron. 2nd person (you)
• ya — conj. by, from, of
• yoönda — v. to greet sb.
• pə — conj. which does (insert verb here)
• pəönda — v. to throw sth. at sth.
• plinda — v. to jump
• pan — conj. and (+ noun)
• pasta — n. replacement, successor
• pastonda — v. to replace sth. with sth., to switch (between two instances of) sth.
• tə — n. tea
• tə — adj. right (direction)
• təmonda — v. to write
• tera — n. link, connection
• taluyai — n. christmas
• tonda — v. to stop sb./sth. from sth. using sth.
• kudera — n. player
• kuda — n. game
• kudanda — v. to play
• kusda — adj. rude, disrespectful
• katigonda — v. to rescue sb./sth. from sb./sth
• kala — n. list, index
• kalis — adj. main, principal
• kaska — adj. separating, in between
• kora — n. chest, safe, locker
• koronda — v. to store, keep, save sth. swh.
• konda — v. to have sth. swh.
• δə — conj. (together) with, containing, of
• linsa — n. view, visual arrangement
• linsonda — v. to visualize, present sth.
• luŋonda — v. to fall
• la — pron. 3rd person (he, she, it, they)
• lan — adj. reverse
• lanterenda — vv. to disconnect
• lananda — v. to undo
• lomən — nn. cloud
• λi — conj. and (+ list of nouns, + λi again)
• ista — num. 3
• əpyis — adj. hollow
• əpya — n. cave, center of mouth
• uλan — adj. imaginary, nonexistant
• βits — adj. left (direction)
• βeya — n. quote
• βoŋ — adj. closed, restricted, in a building
• rə — adj. open, free, unrestricted, outside
• ꝛunda — v. to hurt sb. using sth.
• viya — nn. violet (flower)
• vo — num. 1
• zəꝛanda — v. to ride
• zuïyu — n. convention, standard, tradition
• γus — evid. can
• γouska — n. wish, favorite, preference
• mau — evid. not
• mavin — adj. evil
• maöla — n. costume, mask
• NYΔA — n. USA
• nyeŋ — adj. cheeky
• nyo — n. sign, mark
• nunis — adj. quick, punctual
• nuna — n. time
• na — evid. hopefully
• naɹon — nn. house
• nanko — n. country, nation
• ŋi — pron. null object
• ŋiŋi — pron. double null object
• ŋisti — pron. triple null object
• ŋoŋga — n. uvula, back of mouth
• ŋoŋgonda — v. to swallow
• fi — n. light
• fis — adj. happy
• funda — v. to walk swh. from swh. via swh.
• fa — num. 4
• faterenda — v. to connect
• fanda — v. to make, to create, to establish sth.
• faŋ — n. fish
• sinda — v. to read sth. using sth.
• səe — num. 5
• sokis — adj. violet (color)
• xi — adj. green
• xupis — adj. empty
• xupa — n. void
• xuponda — v. to empty
• xai — adj. up
• ay — evid. yes
• Ameɹika — n. America (continent)
• anta — adj. forward (direction, time)
• antanda — v. to advance (direction, time)
• anka — nn. duck
• ani — adj. long
• oy — pron. 1st person (me, us)
• olominda — v. to laugh at sb./sth.
• ompfonda — v. to eat sth. using sth.

abbreviations

• adj. adjective
• conj. conjunction
• evid. evidential
• n. noun
• nn. noun and name
• num. number word
• pron. pronoun
• v. verb

• sb. somebody
• sth. something
• swh. somewhere