Dwekoenish
Dwekoenish (/dʷəˈkʰeɪnɪʃ/, native: Dvekönešč /dvɛˈkʰœnɛʃʧ/) 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 | Ц 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
NOTE: This declension table is largely out of date. The case system of Dwekoenish now more closely reflects that of Indo-European languages; elaborated locative cases and those based on other prepositions can be formed by affixing the proper prepositions to the fundamental cases, but these are often considered contractions rather than genuine cases. This table will cleaned up in the near future.
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, though the distinction is only morphologically contrastive in the singular (with the exceptions of a few minor irregularities in the dual and plural). It is more significant with regards to adjectives and articles.
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.
Numbers
Dwekoenish has two number systems: one decimal (base-10) and one undecimal (base-11). The terminology of both systems is the same concerning numbers between one and ten, and the differences in larger numbers are of minuscule value. Since the undecimal system is now largely unused, we here detail the decimal system.
Numbers in Dwekoenish do not exhibit case inflections. The number one, however, is inflected for gender, as are all integers with a 10^0 (or 11^0) place value digit of 1 (excluding those with a 10^1 place value digit of 1 as well; the declension of eleven, in other words, is much like that of other numbers which do not end in a digit 1).
| Number | Roman | Cyrillic | |
| 1 | Eives (Ei) | Еівес (Еі) | |
| 2 | Dveas (Dve) | Двеас (Две) | |
| 3 | Þriyyas (Þri) | ТЬріииас (ТЬрі) | |
| 4 | Čatvoras (Čar) | Чатворас (Чар) | |
| 5 | Pyyač | Пииач | |
| 6 | Syyoš | Сииош | |
| 7 | Šovam (Šam) | Шовам (Шам) | |
| 8 | Õč | Ӯч | |
| 9 | Dživamai (Džam) | Джівамаі (Джам) | |
| 10 | Džišeþei (Džeþ) | Джішетьеі (Джеть) | |
| 11 | Eizodžeþ | Еізоджеть | |
| 12 | Dvezodžeþ | Двезоджеть | |
| 13 | Þrizodžeþ | Тьрізоджеть | |
| 14 | Čarzodžeþ | Чарзоджеть | |
| 15 | Pyyazodžeþ | Пииазоджеть | |
| 16 | Syyozodžeþ | Сииозоджеть | |
| 17 | Šamzodžeþ | Шамзоджеть | |
| 18 | Õzodžeþ | Ӯзоджеть | |
| 19 | Džamzodžeþ | Джамзоджеть | |
| 20 | |||
| 21 | |||
| 22 | |||
| 30 | |||
| 40 | |||
| 50 | |||
| 60 | |||
| 70 | |||
| 80 | |||
| 90 | |||
| 100 | |||
| 101 | |||
| 135 | |||
| 200 |
Forms in parentheses denote contractions. These variants are generally not regarded as words, even in colloquial settings; rather, they represent the forms which are inserted into compounds involving numbers. This is illustrated in the numbers between 10 and 20, but they also appear in the names of polygons, multiple-birth siblings, etc.
In the historical undecimal number, system, the number 11 is referred to by the name "džišõtõi" (contracted as "džõt"). Numbers are built similarly from this base, with the addition of forms like "džeþzodžõt" for the undecimal 1A, etc. The undecimal system disappeared from everyday use several centuries ago, and is typically only found in ancient runic inscriptions. Because numbers are rarely named in these documents, there is ongoing controversy over whether the term "džišõtõi" was artificially introduced by linguists or historians. Also because the runic numbers are no longer in use, the number corresponding to the term "džišeþei" is typically denoted A in discussions about the undecimal number system.
