User:Sheikah/Kyawcenni

This article is about the language. For the people, see Kyawcenni people.

Kyawcenni
Language family	Sheikan, Kyawcennic
Early form(s)	Classical Kyawcenni
Era	ca. 2023 to today
Writing system	Tanswaiy, sometimes Latin
Official status
Spoken in	Kingdom of Kyaw Cen
Regulated by	Government of Kyaw Cen
Speaker
Demonym	Kyawcenni
Number of speakers	~12
Technical information
Usage	Government language
Language code	KYC

Distribution of the Kyawcenni language

Kyawcenni is an analytic language spoken by Kyawcennis in the Kingdom of Kyaw Cen and written in Tanswaiy. Its early speakers originated from Marcyland, but it is now spoken in the Kyawcenni archipelago and most of Shingtsun.

History

Kyawcenni descends from the Sheikah language spoken in Marcyland before the migration to the Isles of Silly in late 2023.

Orthography

Kyawcenni uses the Tanswaiy and Latin alphabets. The spelling is based on Middle Kyawcenni.

Latin	Middle Kyawcenni	Condition	Realization
a	a		à
ai	ɛː		ɛ́
au	ɔː		ɑ́
b-	b		b
c	ts		ts
cy-	tsj		tɕ
č	tʃ	Onset	ʈʂ
		Coda	ʈʂ (high vowel tone)
d-	d		d
dy	dj		dʐ
e	ɛ		ɛ̀
ê	eː		ɪ́
ę	ɚ		ɚ
g-	ɡ		ɤ̯
gy-	gj		dʑ
h	χ		χ
i	i		ì
j	dʒ	Onset	ɖʐ
	ʒ	Coda	ʂ (low vowel tone)
k-	k		k
ky-	kj		tɕ
l-	l		l
m	m	Onset	m
		Coda	ɰ̃b
n	n	Onset	n
		Coda	ɰ̃d
-ng	ŋ		ɰ̃
o	ɔ		ɔ̀
ô	oː		ú
p-	p		p
r	ɹ		ɹ
s	s	Onset	s
		Coda	s (high vowel tone)
sy-	sj		ɕ
š	ʃ	Onset	ʂ
		Coda	ʂ (high vowel tone)
t	t		t
ty-	tj		tʃ
u	y		y
w	w		w
x	ç	Onset	c
		Coda	ç
y	j		j
z	dz	Onset	dz
	z	Coda	s (low vowel tone)
zy-	dzj		dʑ

Phonology

Consonants

Kyawcenni uses following consonants:

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo-Palatal		Palatal	Velar-Uvular
	unv	v	unv	v	unv	v	unv	v	unv	v		unv	v
Plosive	p	b	t	d							c [c, ç]	k	ɤ̯
Nasal		m [m, ɰ̃b]		n [n, ɰ̃d]									(ɰ̃)³
Fricative			s~θ¹	dz			ʂ		ɕ			χ
Affricate			ts		tʃ	dʒ	tɕ	ɖʐ		dʑ
Liquid		w		ɮ				ɻ			j

² Can be treated as an allophonic realization of the sequence /(C)i/

³ Historically its own phoneme descended from /ŋ/, but is now sometimes seen as an allophone of /g/

Vowels

Kyawcenni uses following vowels:

-	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, y		(u)¹
Near-close	(ɪ)¹	(ɚ)²
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a	(ɑ)¹

¹ [ɪ], [u] and [ɑ] can be treated either as seperate phonemes as allophones of [i], [ɔ] and [ɑ] respectively distinguished by tone. /ɛ/ also has two tonemic realizations.

² Can be treated as an allophonic realization of the sequence /ɛɻ/

Tone

The following chart shows how tone works in Kyawcenni.

The italicized bold IPA is the Middle Kyawcenni phonemes. As examples, this chart uses /ɛ/ and one of the listed coda consonants, but the tones apply to any vowel¹.

Toneme chart

Coda → Vowel ↓	ts, s, tʃ, ʃ	z, ʒ	m, n, ŋ	ç, χ	j, w, ɹ	∅
	ts, s, ʈʂ, ʂ	s, ʂ	ɰ̃b, ɰ̃d, ɰ̃	ç, χ	j, w, ɻ	∅
a, ɛ, ɔ, i, y	ɛs˩˥	ɛs˩	ɛɰ̃˩	ɛç˩	ɛj˥	ɛ˥
a, ɛ, ɔ, i, y¹
ɔː, ɛː, eː, oː	ɛs˥	ɛs˥˩	ɛɰ̃˥	ɛç˥	ɛj˥˩	ɛ˥˩
ɑ, ɛ, ɪ, u

¹ /y/ is a toneless phoneme where the tone doesn't matter. Typically, the chart applies to /y/ as well, but that phoneme has more variation.

Phonotactics

Excluding vowels, a syllable can start with the following consonants:
p b t d m n s ts z l ʃ tʃ ʒ ç k χ ɡ j w ɻ
Excluding vowels, a syllable can end in the following consonants:
m n s ts ʃ tʃ ç χ ŋ j w ɻ ɰ̃b ɰ̃d ɰ̃
If none of them appear directly before or after each other, following consonants can be used between consonant and vowel:
j w ɻ
A syllable can also begin with vowels, but it cannot begin with a high-tone vowel or /y/.
/cçj-/ or /çj-/ are not allowed before /eː/, /y/ or /i/
/cç/ and /ç/ are not allowed before /w, ɻ/ in the same syllable
/ɻ/ or /ɚ/ next to /l/ is not possible
A postalveolar consonant before /j, w, ɻ/ is not possible
/ɻ/ and /ɚ/ cannot appear in the same syllable

Evolution from Middle Kyawcenni

For now, look at the orthography section

Also:

If a word of more than three syllables has no long vowels, the vowel of the syllable will be high-tone

Syntax

The Syntax of Kyawcenni follows VSO word order by standard, but it is not strict. In speech and poetry other word orders can be found as well.
Adjective and adposition appear after the noun they modify.

Morphology

When Kyawcenni words are combined, the first word is often shortened to only one syllable:
Jongyitęnar = Ætérnalism
(First syllable of jonggyaw = religion + nominative of yitęnar = Ætérnal)

Nouns

Nouns in Kyawcenni are not marked for number.

Nominalization

Adjectives and verbs can be turned into nouns by adding the -nu suffix.

Case

Kyawcenni has four cases in total: Nominative Genitive-Dative Accusative Vocative

Nominative

The Nominative case doesn’t have any ending, not sure what else to say here:
cun, bwis, bim, awč, kyaw, nawiy, gešeng

Genitive-Dative

The Genitive-Dative case is used for indirect objects and after prepositions.
It is formed by adding a -ne suffix:
cunne, bwisne, bimne, awčne, kyawne, nawiyne
Except for words ending in -ng, which changes to -nne,
gešenne
for words ending in -na, which is shortened to -n-
Botswaunne
and for some geographic names ending in -w and -y, which become -we and -ye respectively.
Yikowe, Hweye

Accusative

The Accusative case is formed by adding a -ni suffix:
cunni, bwisni, bimni, awčni
Except for words ending in -ng, after which -gi is added:
gešenggi
And words ending in -w or -y, after which just -i is added:
kyawi, nawiyi
and for words ending in -na, which is shortened to -n-
Botswaunni

Vocative

The Vocative case is formed by adding a -ne suffix:
cunne, bwisne, bimne, awčne
Except for words ending in -ng, after which -ge is added:
gešengge
And words ending in -w or -y, after which just -e is added:
kyawe, nawiye
and for words ending in -na, which is shortened to -n-
Botswaunne

Verbs

There are three suffixes that can be added to verbs in the following order:

Assumption: -si benzang → benzangsi x ≈ I assume x calculates
Subjunctive: -ga benzang → benzangga x ≈ x would calculate
Past: -dah benzang → benzangdah x ≈ x calculated

Those can also be combined:
benzang → benzangsigadah ≈ I assume x would have calculated

Transitive verbs usually end in -em, -en or -me. Those suffixes are omitted in the conjugated form.

Exceptions: There are some exceptions for verbs that don’t just add suffixes, but change their stem:
bęč (walk) → bih in Past tense, not bęčdah

Adjectives

For comparatives, you just double the last syllable of the adjective:

paš (good) → pašpaš (better)

For superlatives, you just add najne (all in genitive case) after the comparative form.

Vocabulary

For a list of Kyawcenni words, see Kyawcenni vocabulary