Archive:Asakan language

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Asakan
Standard Monyo, Monyo Asakasiafat
Pronunciation	/asakasjasat/
Ethnicity	Monyo
Language family	Proto-Monic Asxato-Monic Asakan
Early forms:	Kamano-Monic Asako-Monic Old Monyo Asakan
Dialects	Fokatakian, Ixahimi, Kanioto, Standard North, Standard South, Tatxo
Writing system	Monyo Script
Official status
Official language in	Yakormonyo
CWS code	UKTS

Asakan, also known as Standard Monyo or simply Monyo, is spoken as a native language throughout central and southern Yakormonyo. It is an analytical language, and its morphology is slightly synthetic.

Classification

Asakan is an Kamano-Monic language within the Monic language family. Being Asxato-Monic, it is related to other coastal Monic languages such as Vontáatan and Ańakfan. Asakan, along with its sister language, Itimian, differs from other Monic languages with its treatment of the rostral stop *m. In most other languages, this sound softened to a velar approximant, and in some cases, assimilated with neighbouring vowels. Asakan does the opposite; *m is further strengthened, causing the following:

1. If preceding a vowel, said vowel reduces to a schwa;
2. If preceding a consonant, an intermediary schwa to break the cluster;
3. If at the end of the word, an epenthetic schwa; and
4. If preceding a schwa at the end of the word (due to #1 and #3), an epenthetic nasal *n.

For example, Proto-Monyo *kāham (mountain) is Asakan kaman, Vontáatan ká and Kagassian kahau.

Phonology

Consonants

	Rostral	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨n⟩
Stop	ɓ̥ ⟨m⟩	t ⟨t⟩, d ⟨r⟩		k ⟨k⟩
Affricate		ts ⟨p⟩, ⟨ts⟩	tʃ ⟨tx⟩
Fricative		s ⟨s⟩, ⟨f⟩	ʃ ⟨x⟩	x ⟨h⟩
Liquid		ɾ ⟨r⟩	j ⟨i⟩	ʕ ⟨u⟩

• ⟨n⟩ is pronounced /ŋ/ before the velars ⟨k⟩, ⟨x⟩; e.g. inhi (morning) /iŋxi/.
• ⟨r⟩ is pronounced /d/ before the nasal ⟨n⟩; e.g. tonri (book) /tʌndi/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩
Mid	e ⟨u⟩	ə ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩	ʌ ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

• The two diphthongs are /aɪ/ ⟨ai⟩ and /əɪ/ ⟨oi⟩.
• The schwa /ə/ is realised in certain environments, namely ⟨man⟩ /ɓ̥ən/ and ⟨io⟩ /jə/.

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns

Monyo nouns are inflected solely for plurality. Many irregular forms exist, especially due to loaned words and neologisms.

Plural -i

Ending	Standard Plural	Irregular Plural
∅	okun (tree) > okuni	kiar (sun) > kiara
-a	iama (jay) > iami	fiuntxa (loft) > fiuntxai
-o	asto (bottle) > asti	simo (ground) > simoi
-u	maku (bone) > maki	otoikoru (river) > otoikora
-ia	pasia (world) > pasi	nakia (chair) > nakiai
-io	fumio (peach) > fumi	txuio (train) > txuia
-ho	riho (book) > rihoi	musho (flock) > mushi
-fo	piatfo (bed) > piatfoi	kakfo (door) > kakfi

Plural -a

Ending	Standard Plural	Irregular Plural
-i	inhi (morning) > inha	osi (sky) > osia
-iu	koiu (egg) > koia
-ai	ohai (catfish) > oha	kai (love) > kaia
-oi	mufoi (breeze) > mufa	toikoi (flamingo) > toiki

Irregular Plural -ma

-ma is an obsolete dual affix and is used with some pairs.

Singular	Dual	Plural (unused)
piki (foot)	pikima	pika
maki (hand)	makima	maka
uan (eye)	uanma	uani

Irregular Consonant Mutation

These irregulars evolved from consonant shifts in Old Monyo: at the end of a word, ⟨f⟩ ⟨p⟩ and ⟨tx⟩ become ⟨s⟩ ⟨t⟩ and ⟨t⟩, respectively.

The velar nasal ⟨ń⟩ shifted to /g/ and later /k/ before vowels, while remaining the same elsewhere. Orthography reforms reflected this shift, ⟨ń⟩ becoming ⟨kn⟩ before vowels and ⟨nn⟩ at the end of a word, while merging with ⟨n⟩ before consonants. Further reforms eventually removed the second ⟨n⟩, causing ⟨kn⟩ to merge with ⟨k⟩ and ⟨nn⟩ with ⟨n⟩.

Ending	Plural	Example
-s	-f	muras (ball) > murafi
-t	-p	xosat (wing) > xosapi
	-tx	kasot (mouth) > kasotxi
-n	-k	karin (branch) > kariki