Archive:Thuun
Thuun | |
---|---|
Tuum | |
Pronunciation | [tʉ:m] |
Region | Northern Mahavia |
Native speakers | ~ 300 000 (2015) |
Language family | East-Mirarian
|
Writing system | Kuoggvi / Achiyitqan |
Official status | |
Official language in | Uvanga |
CWS code | UO1 |
Background
Thuun (Tuum /tʉ:m/) is the primary language of Uvanga, and is distantly related to Mahavic and Elipo-Sucaelian.
Phonology
Consonants
Bilabial | Alveolar | Dorsal | |
---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |
Plosive | p | t | k |
Fricative | s | ||
Approximant | l | j |
Vowels
Front | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
Close | i i: | y y: | ʉ ʉ: | |
Mid | e e: | ø ø: | ɤ ɤ: | o o: |
Open | æ æ: | ɑ ɑ: |
These vowels can combine to form up to almost 80 phonemic polyphthongs, including length distinctions. Overlong vowels are also possible, but quite uncommon.
Phonotactics
(C)V(C) syllable structure, /j/ cannot appear in coda, and /p/, /k/, and /l/ generally cannot be word-final.
Thuun has a system of vowel harmony. A word cannot contain both front and back vowels, so affixes automatically adapt to the same backness as the stem. The only neutral vowel is /i/, which can occur in words of either backness.
Orthography (romanisation)
a /ɑ/ |
ä /æ/ |
e /ɤ/ |
ë /e/ |
i /i/ |
j /j/ |
k /k/ |
l /l/ |
m /m/ |
n /n/ |
o /o/ |
ö /ø/ |
p /p/ |
s /s/ |
t /t/ |
u /ʉ/ |
y /y/ |
Long and overlong vowels are written doubled or tripled, eg. <ää> /æ:/, äää /æ::/
Diphthongs are written with their components side by side, eg. <ië> /ie̯:/, <iië> /ie̯::/
Orthography (conscript)
Thuun has two official scripts: Achiyitqan (abugida), and Kuoggvi (alphabet), a modified version of the Mahavic script. Standard Mahavic is also commonly used.
Grammar
Morphology
Thuun is highly synthetic and exclusively suffixing. The morphology is overall agglutinative, but there are some fusional elements as well. The suffixing process also often results in phonological modifications to the stem or other attached suffixes.
Nouns decline for at least 30 cases and 2 numbers, with number and case being fused into one suffix. Nouns also take suffixes for pronominal possession and locational modifiers.
Verbs conjugate for 10 different categories: subject agreement (10), tense (2), polarity (2), voice (3), mood (10+), interrogative (2), and 4 aspect slots (9).
Syntax
The word order is fairly unrestrictive, but tends to be SVO or SOV.