Kwang language
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Kwang | |
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Standard Kwang Wa Kwan Shu Dwà | |
Pronunciation | [wá kwã́ ʃú dwà] |
Ethnicity | Kwang |
Native speakers | 105,000,000 (2021) |
Language family | Ngerupic
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Early forms: | Middle Kwang
|
Dialects | Standard Kwang, Awarahli Kwang, Xuni Kwang |
Official status | |
Official language in | Qonklaks, Seang Pe |
CWS code | sdq |
Kwang is a Ngerupic language official in Qonklaks. It is the second most widely spoken Ngerupic language, second only to Terminian, with around 105 million speakers, depending on which lects one considers. While much of the core vocabulary shared with other Ngerupic languages, there is a substantial amount of vocabulary with no cognates in other branches.
There are several lects of Kwang, traditionally considered dialects but increasingly considered by linguists outside Qonklaks to be separate languages. This article will describe the standard Kwang variety, official in Qonklaks and predominantly originating from the area near Jikhein. Only 25 million of the 105 million speakers are native speakers of Standard Kwang, with the other 80 million speaking other lects but being able to understand and use the standard variety.
Standard Kwang is a standardized form of the Jikhein variant of Central Kwang, a loosely defined group of dialects descended from Middle Kwang, the reconstructed ancestor of today's Bai Paw and Central Kwang. The dialect earned its prestige after the Phõ Dynasty relocated the capital from Paseinsẽ to Jikhein, as the Imperial Court increasingly employed personnel from the Central Realm. Attempts to standardize Central Kwang began in the 18th century when imperial scholars attempted to create a unified Terminianization system for the capital dialect. Standard Kwang was first promulgated during the Qonklese Empire as the Blessed Kwang Langauge (Kwang: Wa Kwan Shĩ Zũ) in 1932, and schools across the nation was forced to teach this standard in order to boost literacy rates and aid in creating a single common linguistic identity.
The language was promptly renamed to "Standard Kwang" after the fall of the Empire in 1950, and the state officially abandoned the Qonklese logography, favouring the easier Terminian alphabet instead. Under the kúúlist regime, the language underwent deliberate changes to remove "ideologically incompatible vocabulary" from public use, but the endeavour was abandoned in 1972.
Phonology
Consonants
Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Epiglottal | Glottal | |
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Nasal | ||||||||||||
Plosive | ||||||||||||
Fricative | ||||||||||||
Affricate | ||||||||||||
Approximant | ||||||||||||
Trill | ||||||||||||
Flap or tap | ||||||||||||
Lateral fric. | ||||||||||||
Lateral app. | ||||||||||||
Lateral flap |
Vowels
Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
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Close | |||||
Near-close | |||||
Close-mid | |||||
Mid | |||||
Open-mid | |||||
Near-open | |||||
Open |
Phonotactics
Orthography
The Kwang language is written using Qonklese logograms.