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	ASKA

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 ⟨e⟩, ⟨u⟩	ə ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩	ʌ ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

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

Grammar

Nouns

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

Plural Classes

Class 1: -a Plurals
Ending	Standard Plural	Irregular Plural
-i	asaki (summer) > asaka	osi (sky) > osia
-e	rake (tinamou meat) > raka
-iu	koiu (egg) > koia
-ai	ohai (catfish) > oha	kai (love) > kaia
-ei	korei (planet) > koria
-oi	mufoi (breeze) > mufa	toikoi (flamingo) > toiki
Class 2: -i Plurals
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
Class 3: -ma Plurals
Singular	Dual	Plural (unused)
piki (foot)	pikima	pika
maki (hand)	makima	maka
uan (eye)	uanma	uani

Consonant Mutation

Some irregular plurals 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

Cases

Since nouns are not inflected according to case, they are instead preceded by case-marking particles. These particles have definite and indefinite forms, marked by the affix -si. For the nominative case, which doesn't use a case marker, si is standalone.

	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	Ø	si
Accusative	xa	xasi
Genitive	ut	utsi
Dative	man	mansi
Locative	io	iosi
Ablative	a	asi
	ei	esi
Comitative	o	osi
Abessive	iako	iakosi

a vs ei

In Asakan there are two distinct ablative markers, a/asi and ei/esi, which have different functions.

• a/asi is used mainly before the agent in a passive construction, while ei/esi is used to indicate an action "away from" or "out of".

Si kuarion asa axan a axhoros mari.

The letter was sent by an anonymous person.

Si kuarion asa axan eisi Otofu.

The letter was sent from Otofu.

• a/asi is also used in the construction of certain prepositional phrases.