KWMs
KWMs /ʷʘ͡ǂs/, or in English /kwʊms/, is a language spoke in the islands of Juya Gwaña. It was inspired by the Hush language and comes from the Deep Dimensional linguistic anomaly, alongside Zaekuu.
Phonology
Inventory
KWMs only has consonants, all but one (/ʞ/) of which use nasal voiceless velaric airstream[1] and most (all except /ʬ ʭ ʞ/ because they are already abnormally quiet) have weak articulation. These properties are not transcribed since they apply to almost every phoneme. Any phonemes that are able to be coarticulated can do so to produce new phonemes. When this happens, the romanization reflects this by capitalizing all the graphemes of the coarticulated sound.
| Phonemes | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat | Prerounded[2] | ||||||||
| Trill | ʙ̥ ⟨wb⟩ | r̥ ⟨r⟩ | ɽr̥ ⟨wr⟩ | ||||||
| Fricative | Egressive | ʷf[3][4] ⟨f⟩ | s[5] ⟨s⟩ | ||||||
| Ingressive | ↓ʷf[3][4] ⟨v⟩ | ||||||||
| Click | Noisy | Median | ʘ ⟨m⟩ | ʷʘ ⟨wm⟩ | ʇ[6][7] ⟨x⟩ | ||||
| Lateral | ʖ[6][8] ⟨j⟩ | ||||||||
| Abrupt | ↓p[9] ⟨b⟩ | ǃ¡ ⟨l⟩ | ǂ ⟨k⟩ | ʞ[10][11] ⟨wk⟩ | |||||
| Percussive | ʬ[12] ⟨p⟩ | ʭ ⟨t⟩ | |||||||
Coarticulations
Coarticulations are not always simultaneous, but do occur with the same "breath" (or whatever the velaric equivalent to breath is), which adjacent phonemes do not do. Below are all the allowed coarticulations. There are 48 double-articulation phonemesː /r̥͡ʙ̥, ɽr̥͡ʙ̥, ʷf͡ʙ̥, s͡ʙ̥, ʭ͡ʙ̥ ʷr̥͡f, r̥͡s, r̥͡ʭ ʷɽr̥͡f, ɽr̥͡ʭ ʷs͡f s͡ʭ, ʞ͡ʭ, ʬ͡ʭ ʷʇ͡f, ʷʖ͡f, ʷ!͡f¡, ʷǂ͡f, ʷʞ͡f, ʇ͡ʘ, ʖ͡ʘ, !͡ʘ¡, ǂ͡ʘ, ʞ͡ʘ, ʷʇ͡ʘ, ʷʖ͡ʘ, ʷ!͡ʘ¡, ʷǂ͡ʘ, ʷʞ͡ʘ, ʇ͡p, ʖ͡p, !͡p¡, ǂ͡p, ʞ͡p ʖ͡ʇ, !͡ʇ¡, ǂ͡ʇ, ʞ͡ʇ, ʇ͡ʭ ʖ͡!¡, ǂ͡ʖ, ʞ͡ʖ, ʖ͡ʭ ǂ͡ǃ¡, ʞ͡ǃ¡, !͡ʭ¡ ʞ͡ǂ, ǂ͡ʭ/
Exact Pronunciations
These are detailed instructions on how to pronounce each single-articulation phoneme because KWMs has a very atypical phonology.
| Non-Ingressive | Ingressive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Pronunciation | IPA | Pronunciation |
| [ᵑ̥ʙ͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric bilabial trill | [↓ʷᵑ̥f͉] | Ingressive voiceless nasal velaric pre-rounded labiodental fricative |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed, loosened lips become trilled due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips rounded. As the lips unround, bottom lip makes contact with top teeth and air is pushed inward as a fricative due to retraction of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥r͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric alveolar trill | [ᵑ̥ʘ͉] | Voiceless nasal bilabial noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip pressed against alveolar ridge, but loosened, becomes trilled due to advancement of the back of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed lips tightly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ɽr͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric retroflex trill | [ʷᵑ̥ʘ͉] | Voiceless nasal pre-rounded bilabial noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue underside pressed against hard palate, but loosened, becomes trilled and pushed forward due to advancement of the back of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips closed and rounded. As the lips unround, lips tightly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ʷᵑ̥f͉] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric pre-rounded labiodental fricative | [ᵑ̥ʖ͉,ᵑ̥‖͉] | Voiceless nasal lateral noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips rounded. As the lips unround, bottom lip makes contact with top teeth and air is pushed outward as a fricative due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue sides suctioned to inner cheeks gets released due to the lowering of the tongue side(s). Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥s͉] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric alveolar fricative | [↓ᵑ̥p͉] | Voiceless nasal bilabial abrupt click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip reaches alveolar ridge and air is pushed outward as a fricative due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed lips mildly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ʬ] | Voiceless nasal velaric bilabial percussive | [ᵑ̥ʇ͉,ᵑ̥ǀ͉] | Voiceless nasal median noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Bottom lip strikes top lip forcefully to create a sound. Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip suctioned to roof of mouth gets released due to the lowering of the tongue tip. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ʭ] | Voiceless nasal velaric bidental percussive | [ᵑ̥!͉¡] | Voiceless nasal alveolar abrupt click with subalveolar percussive release |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Bottom teeth strike top teeth forcefully to create a sound. Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip mildly suctioned to alveolar ridge gets released due to the lowering of the tongue tip. The tongue underside incidentally strikes floor of the mouth. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ǂ͉] | Voiceless nasal palatal abrupt click | ||
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue body suctioned to hard palate gets released due to the lowering of the tongue. Vocal folds not vibrating. | |||
| [ᵖʞ̥̃] | Labialic voiceless nasal velar click | ||
| Back of tongue suctioned to velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips closed. Back of tongue suction gets released due to lowering of the tongue. Vocal folds not vibrating. | |||
- ↑ Nasal velaric airstream is an articulation where the dorsum is pressed against the velum throughout the articulation. In such articulations, the air required to produce a sound is limited to what is in front of the dorsum. The nasalization allows for constant breath in and out the nose throughout speech.
- ↑ Prerounded consonants begin labial protrusion before the consonant is made. During its articulation, the lips begin to return to their normal position, but they are protruded for long enough to make the interior of the lips the place of articulation instead of the edges.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ are primarily distinguishable because egressive velarics tend to have a high tongue position and ingressive velarics tend to have a low tongue position, so /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ can be described as [ʷf𐞢 ↓ʷfᵓ] .
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ may be pronounced as buccalized [ʷↀ͡f] and [↓ʷↀ͡f].
- ↑ /s/ can only appear word-finally.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 ⟨ʇ⟩ and ⟨ʖ⟩ are alternative ways of writing the dental ⟨ǀ⟩ and lateral ⟨ǁ⟩ clicks used to avoid confusion with the minor ⟨|⟩ and major ⟨‖⟩ prosodic breaks, or in this language, to distinguish a single lateral click from two dental clicks in a row.
- ↑ /ʇ/ is in free variation between a dental, alveolar, and retroflex click.
- ↑ /ʖ/ may be pronounced as any place of articulation between alveolar and palatal in order to make pronunciation easier and allow for coarticulations.
- ↑ While an unusual notation, ⟨↓p⟩ is used here to represent the abrupt bilabial click due to there being few alternatives.
- ↑ During the hold of /ʞ/, it too has a voiceless velar nasal articulation. The velar click is the only consonant that interrupts the constant velar closure present in the language.
- ↑ /ʞ/ is back-released, meaning its efflux place of articulation is more forward in the mouth than the velar closure. The default position is bilabial, but it can change depending on nearby sounds in order to make pronunciation easier and allow for coarticulations.
- ↑ Due to this language's /ʬ/ being articulated so close to the source of airstream (the velar closure), it may have an egressive or ingressive plosive release upon the parting of the lips, notated ⟨ʬᵖ⟩. No reference is made to the airstream direction due to them being nearly impossible to retroactively distinguish.
Syntax
Timekeeping
Translations
| kJWMr | wmv | ms | -JXs | pb | mwm | -jm | -WKX | kwk | XWMrp | -KMKM | ||||||||||
| /ǂʷʖ͡ʘr̥ | ʷʘ↓ʷf | ʘs | -ʖ͡ʇs | ʬ↓p | ʘʷʘ | -ʖʘ | -ʞ͡ʇ | ǂʞ | ʷʇ͡ʘr̥ʬ | -ǂ͡ʘǂ͡ʘ/ | ||||||||||
| banana | sweet | ADJ_COP | -COND | too_much | dog | -M | -GEN | 1.SG | dislike | -VIS | ||||||||||
| “My dog dislikes banana if it is too sweet.” | ||||||||||||||||||||
Vocabulary
| KWMs | English | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Word | IPA | Translation | Note |
| krs | /ǂrs/ | season | |
| krxx | /ǂrʇʇ/ | season cycle (year) | |
| jWMLm | /ʖʷʘ͡ǃʘ/ | moon phase | |
| jWMLfx | /ʖʷʘ͡ǃʷfʇ/ | lunar month | time between new moon and next new moon |
| pjks | /ʬʖǂs/ | half moonday | time between moonset and moonrise or vice versa |
| pjps | /ʬʖʬs/ | moonday | time between moonrise and next moonsire |
| xmb | /ʇʘ↓p/ | half day | time between sunset and sunrise or vice versa |
| xmbjx | /ʇʘ↓pʖʇ/ | day cycle | time between sunrise and next sunrise |
| mkk | /ʘǂǂ/ | person | |
| wmwrj | /ʷʘɽr̥ʖ/ | desire | object of desire |
| wmvf | /ʷʘ↓ʷfʷf/ | desire | feeling of desire |
| wbfp | /ʙ̥ʷfʬ/ | Bufip | gender associated with masculinity (includes masculine people of any sex) |
| jJTs | /ʖʖ͡ʭs/ | Jitjis | gender associated with the female sex (includes female[1] individuals who are not Bufips or Rakmises) |
| wrwks | /ɽr̥ʞs/ | Rakmis | gender associated with non-masculinity (includes feminine or androgynous males, intersex people, or non-reproducing[1] females) |
| bbtJX | /↓p↓pʭʖ͡ʇ/ | Babatix | an adult with an unclear or unknown gender |
| a mysterious person isolated from general society | |||
| a tourist that one has not directly interacted with in a friendly way | |||
| occasionally, this may be used for assigning a gender to Jiraks, but it's becoming more common to just call them Jiraks[2] | |||
| jwrk | /ʖɽr̥ǂ/ | pre-adult (Jirak) | pre-adults are not assigned a gender, but "pre-adult" has in a sense become a gender[2] for those under 20 in KWMs society |
| bSWB | /↓ps͡ʙ̥/ | baby | used for before a child is able to walk consistently without help |
| XMXM | /ʇ͡ʘʇ͡ʘ/ | child | used for after a child is able to walk consistently without help until they noticeably begin puberty |
| FWBj | /ʷf͡ʙ̥ʖ/ | adolescent | used for after a child noticeably begins puberty until they are 20 years old |
| xwb | /ʇʙ̥/ | male | |
| kvb | /ǂ↓ʷf↓p/ | female | |
| mml | /ʘʘ!¡/ | intersex | |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 More specifically, Jitjis is related to female-related fertility, so an infertile, asexual, or celibate female will usually become a Rakmis or Bufip, but it is not required. Also, a non-female can be a Jitjis if they take on specific roles associated with female fertility. Those roles are not exclusive to The Natural Obligation, but preforming them during it is a major part of being a Jitjis.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 In older times, pre-adults were genderless, but could be included in the "genderless" category named Babatix when mentioned in academia alongside Bufip, Jitjis, and Rakmis. Pre-adults are much more likely to be called Babatixes in textbooks and formal literature. More recently, whether Jirak is a gender or not has been in question. Jirak is now seen as a semi-category with certain youth-related social characteristics instead of a lack of social characteristics. This is likely due to digital technology creating a greater divide between younger and older generations.