Dwekoenish
Dwekoenish (/dʷəˈkʰeɪnɪʃ/, native: Dvekönešč /dʷɛˈkʰœnɛʃʧ/) is a fictional diachronic language created by Marko Stanković, aka Stelvojoj. The following article details characteristics of High Dwekoenish, the dialect most closely observed in public media and governmental affairs.
| Dwekoenish Двекӧнешч | |
| Spoken in: | Dwekoenia (Dveköneyya) |
| Conworld: | Alternate Earth |
| Total speakers: | Unknown |
| Genealogical classification: | Arvaši
|
| Basic word order: | VSO |
| Morphological type: | Fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | nominative-accusative |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| Stelvojoj | 2008 CE-present |
Phonology
The phonology of Dwekoennish largely mirrors the articulatory contrasts of most Indo-European languages, i.e., voiced vs. voiceless consonants, a vowel inventory which elaborates that of e.g. Latin, and the absence of such contrasts as pharyngealization, vocalic nasalization, and retroflexion. It is not without a few oddities (when compared to other IE languages). Of special note are the abundance of coronal fricatives, affricates, and the presence of two fully open front vowels, /a/ and /ɶ/.
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | |||||||||||||
| Tap, Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | x | h | ||||||
| Affricate | ts | dz | tʃ | dʒ | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | (ɹ) | j | ||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | ɫ | ||||||||||||||
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | i y | u | ||||||||
| Near-high | ɨ | |||||||||
| High-mid | (e) (ø) | ɤ (o) | ||||||||
| Mid | ||||||||||
| Low-mid | ɛ œ | |||||||||
| Near-low | ɒ | |||||||||
| Low | a ɶ | |||||||||
Orthography
Dwekoenish is written with variants of both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Historically, the Cyrillic orthography has been in use since before the Latin, and is typically the more common of the two, except among a few smaller municipalities (and the later generations of many emigrant families). A few centuries ago, the Latin orthography underwent a major revision which was eventually reflected in the Cyrillic (e.g., as in the written representation of /j/). These changes were never intended to be applied to the Cyrillic, and while it remains uncertain whether the origins of this reapplication have been fully determined, it is often attributed to a particular journalist in one of the popular kingdom periodicals of the time. (It is worth noting that the letter <yy> is often referred to colloquially as "idiot's y" in Dwekoenish.)
In the table that follows, when more than one phoneme is present in a letter's description, the latter indicates a context-dependent allophone. (NOTE: To be elaborated later.)
| Roman | Cyrillic | IPA | |
| A a | А а | /a/ | |
| B b | Б б | /b/ | |
| C c | Џ ц | /ʦ/ | |
| Č č | Ч ч | /ʧ/ | |
| D d | Д д | /d/ | |
| Ð ð | ДЬ дь | /ð/ | |
| E e | Е е | /ɛ, e/ | |
| F f | Ф ф | /f/ | |
| G g | Г г | /g/ | |
| H h | Х х | /h/ | |
| Ħ ħ | Ӿ ӿ | /x/ | |
| I i | І і | /i/ | |
| K k | К к | /k, kʰ/ | |
| L l | Л л | /l, ɫ/ | |
| M m | М м | /m/ | |
| N n | Н н | /n, ŋ/ | |
| O o | О о | /ɒ, o/ | |
| Õ õ | Ӯ ӯ | /ɤ/ | |
| P p | П п | /p, pʰ/ | |
| R r | Р р | /ɾ, ɹ/ | |
| S s | С с | /s/ | |
| Š š | Ш ш | /ʃ/ | |
| T t | Т т | /t, tʰ/ | |
| Þ þ | ТЬ ть | /θ/ | |
| U u | У у | /u/ | |
| V v | В в | /v/ | |
| Y y | И и | /ɨ/ | |
| Yy yy | Ии ии | /j/ | |
| Z z | З з | /z/ | |
| Ž ž | Ж ж | /ʒ/ | |
| Ö ö | Ӧ ӧ | /œ/ | |
| Öa öa | Ӧа ӧа | /ɶ/ | |
| Ü ü | Ӱ ӱ | /y/ |
In the Latin orthography, the letter <öa> is sometimes alternatively written <ȍ> (<o> with double grave); this is acceptable, but no longer considered standard, and it is never seen in current government or journalistic publications.
Grammar
Nouns
Dwekoenish is a highly inflected fusional language with agglutinative characteristics. Nouns and adjectives are declined for three numbers and sixteen cases. Patterns of declension are grouped into three genders.
The first declension pattern applies to masculine nouns whose nominative forms end in -è or any non-sibilant consonant.
Könè, king
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | könè | köneas | kȍnás |
| Genitive | könu | köne | könem |
| Dative | kön | könedast | kȍnadast |
| Benefactive | köné | könea | könia |
| Accusative | könu | köneai | köniaš |
| Locative | könest | könist | kȍnast |
| Illative | könesten | könisten | kȍnasten |
| Inessive | könestí | könistí | kȍnastí |
| Elative | könestom | könistom | kȍnastom |
| Allative | könesté | könisté | kȍnasté |
| Adessive | könestje | könistje | kȍnastje |
| Ablative | könestod | könistoðy | kȍnastoða |
| Terminative | könestá | könistá | kȍnastá |
| Prolative | könestav | könistav | kȍnastav |
| Abessive | könedz | könidz | kȍnadz |
| Comitative | kȍnat | köneat | köniat |
Note that the letter -ö- is assimilated to -ȍ- when it is proceeded by -a- or -à- (but not -ia-) in the following syllable.
