Pinecone

Pinecone
Early form(s)	Pinecone (traditional)
Era	VERY LONG AGO-Now
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Spoken in	'bed
Speaker
Endonym	ū
Exonym	Pinecone
Number of speakers	Unknown
Technical information
Usage	Native language

Pinecone (Pinecone: ū /u˥/) is one of the languages spoken in 'bed. It is distantly related to ve dkq mvli w, however it has been fully ship of theseused, so there is nothing in common between the two languages besides loanwords.

Phonology

Pinecone has 48-49 consonants, 10 vowels and 6 tones.

Consonants

consonants		labial		alveolar	postalveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar	guttural
		plain	dorsal
nasal		m	ŋʷ <ŋv>	n			ɲ <ń>	ŋ <ŋ>	ɴ <ŋ̇>
plosive	aspirated	pʰ <p'>	kʷʰ <kv'>	tʰ <t'>			cʰ <c'>	kʰ <k'>	qʰ <q'>
	voiceless	p	kʷ <kv>	t			c	k	q
	voiced	b	ɡʷ <gv>	d			ɟ <j>	ɡ <g>	ɢ <r>
fricative	voiceless	f	χʷ <xv>	s	ʃ <š>	ʂ <ṣ>	ɕ <ś>		χ <x>
	voiced		ʁʷ <řv>						ʁ <ř>
affricate	aspirated			t͡sʰ <z'>	t͡ʃʰ <ž'>	ʈ͡ʂʰ <ẓ'>	t͡ɕʰ <ź'>
	voiceless			t͡s <z>	t͡ʃ <ž>	ʈ͡ʂ <ẓ>	t͡ɕ <ź>
approximant		ɥ <y>	w	l		ɭ <ḷ>	j	ɰ <w>	h

Vowels

vowels	front		back
	unr.	rnd.	unr.	rnd.
high	i	y	ɯ <w>	u
mid	e <ẹ>		ɘ <ạ>	o <ọ>
low	ɛ <e>		a	ɔ <o>

Tones

The exact way that tonogenesis happened in Pinecone is a mystery, however the leading hypothesis seems to be that, just like with everything else strange about the language, "they just kind of did that".

tones	ipa	rom
mid	a˧	a
high	a˥	ā
rising	a˩˥	á
falling	a˥˩	à
falling rising	a˥˩˧	ǎ
falling rising	a˩˥˧	â

Phonotactics

Just like its sibling language, ve dkq mvli w, all Pinecone words are monosyllabic. The syllables come in the form (C)(G)V(L), where C is any consonant except for approximants, G is any glide, V is any vowel and L is any lateral or non labial nasal. The glide G may not be present if the vowel V is a high vowel. The lack of an onset consonant is realized as a glottal stop [ʔ]. Any tone can be applied to any syllable.

Grammar

Parts of speech

There are two parts of speech in pinecone: nouns and verbs, with adjectives simply being verbs that mean "to be [adjective]". It is worth noting that all of the verbs are intransitive.

Syntax

Pinecone has a staggeringly low amount of syntactic structures, at only 2 or 3 depending on how you count. Pinecones syntax usually uses terms from the language itself, similarly to Lojban.

jw̌l

In pinecone, all words come in pairs called jw̌l. A jw̌l is always composed of one noun and one verb. One of these jw̌l simply conveys a clause with an intransitive verb and an argument, with the noun-verb arrangement meaning the noun is doing the verb and the verb-noun arrangement meaning the verb is being done to the noun (one can alternatively analyze pinecone as having only transitive verbs with SVO word order where every jw̌l just has a null subject/object, however this analysis is disregarded by most). With this one can translate some simple sentences, such as the following:

xvȳń p'ǎ

horse explode

'the horse explodes (something)'

sạ̄n ž'ǎ

eat fish

'the fish is being eaten'

Note how the first jw̌l doesnt mean that the horse is the one that is being exploded but rather is causing something else to be exploded, to talk about a horse being the one who is exploded one would say p'ǎ xvȳń. It is also worth noting that despite the fact that the English backtranslations have the nouns marked as definite singular and the verbs marked as present tense, the Pinecone jw̌l dont express any of that. An equally valid backtranslation of the first jw̌l would be 'horses will have exploded (something)'.

qạŋ

When two jw̌l are put next to eachother, the meaning becomes 'jw̌l 1 causes jw̌l 2'. This operation of putting two jw̌l together is called a qạŋ. For example, sạ̄n ž'ǎ xvȳń p'ǎ would mean that the consumption of a fish has led a horse to explode something. This is also how you can express transitive verbs, xvȳń p'ǎ p'ǎ ž'ǎ would mean that the exploding of something has led to a fish being exploded, which one can usually assume to mean 'a horse exploded a fish'. There is no limit as to how long a chain of qạŋ (called a mà) can get, for example something like tí zuạ zuạ šal p'ǎ tí 'you get get pipebomb explode you' is valid, though intermediate steps usually only get added if they add new information or in some cases when jw̌l seem completely unrelated it might be helpful to add some extra context, so theres usually no need to explain how you exploding by receiving the pipebomb happened step by step from the beginning of the universe (foreshadowing :3). Each mà is one 'sentence' in pinecone, as they are separated by periods and intonation breaks.

xvyọ̄

xvyọ̄ happen at the beginning of each new mà. The first jw̌l in every mà that isnt the first in a kv'ēŋ̇ (a bunch of mà (a paragraph)) must have been said in a previous sentence. That first jw̌l is where the new mà begins from. This does also mean that you cant talk about things that happened before the event described in the first jw̌l of a kv'ēŋ̇, so its not uncommon to see Pinecone kv'ēŋ̇ starting with something like `universe exist`. This maneuver is how you turn a linear sentence into a sentence tree. You can also end the mà on a previously mentioned jw̌l, which would mean that said jw̌l has multiple events leading up to it (this is called a fẹ́n). because of this, its impossible to have multiple identical jw̌l on different parts of a sentence tree. This doesnt mean that you cant separately talk about when you exploded a cat and when you exploded a horse, that would just be ù p'ǎ p'ǎ píŋ. ù p'ǎ p'ǎ xvȳń., but it does mean that a kv'ēŋ̇ like zō ê zō lỳḷ lỳḷ fuô. zō ê fuô ê lỳḷ fuô. 'sun exist sun melt melt house. sun exist house exist melt house.' doesnt refer to 2 separate instances of a house melting, just 2 events leading up to one melting of a house (or multiple houses being melted, plurals arent marked, point is that the two events leading up to the house melting have the same effect on the melting of the house). xvyọ̄ sometimes arent counted as a separate syntactic structure, due to how they occour across sentence boundaries.

Parallel universes

If every event in a kv'ēŋ̇ has to be traced back to a common root cause, how does one talk about events that didnt happen? Or events where one is unsure if they occoured? Or events that cant be accurately given a truth value? Since the truth split off from the false some time before our universe began, we can make the first jw̌l in a kv'ēŋ̇ k'ẁŋ rwạ̄ŋ̇ 'universe fake' and from there we can xvyọ̄ one event per truth value. The phrase k'ẁŋ rwạ̄ŋ̇ being at the beginning of nearly every Pinecone utterance also led it to be loaned into ve dkq mvli w as a greeting. There are 4 main truth values: true (for plain indicative statements), false (for negated statements), unknown (for statements that are one or the other but you dont know which but it is possible to find out which exactly, for example the truth value of the Collatz Conjecture) and undefinable (for statements where you have no way of knowing the truth value, often used for hypothetical events). We write out our sentence tree as normal from the truth xvyọ̄, but whenever there is a statement with a different truth value one simply adds a qạŋ from whatever event you chose to represent said truth value at the beginning to the event which is meant to have said truth value. Thus, 'the sun melted me and it did not melt my friend' would be k'ẁŋ rwạ̄ŋ̇ k'ẁŋ ê zō ê zō lỳḷ lỳḷ ù. zō lỳḷ lỳḷ geń. k'ẁŋ rwạ̄ŋ̇ t'wēń kò lỳḷ geń. 'universe fake universe exist sun exist sun melt melt me. sun melt melt friend. universe fake cave_johnson to_be_super_mario melt friend' (The jw̌l t'wēń kò 'Cave Johnson is Super Mario' can be replaced with any objectively incorrect jw̌l). This isnt counted as a separate syntactic structure as it uses ones that were previously mentioned, however it has to be separately due to it being one of the less intuitive aspects of how the language is used.

Word list

Nouns

běŋ̇	bɛɴ˥˩˧	clan
bẹ̌ŋ̇	beɴ˥˩˧	understanding
buó	bwɔ˩˥	idiot
c'ue	cʰwɛ˧	hand
cuěń	cwɛɲ˥˩˧	naqoo people
c'ùl	cʰul˥˩	the jw̌l in which this word is located in
cūŋ̇	cuɴ˥	vaporization
cyaŋ̇	cɥäɴ˧	purpose
ệḷ	eɭ˩˥˧	Daniw
fẹ́n	fen˩˥	pinecone branch in
fộ	fo˩˥˧	reason
fuô	fwɔ˩˥˧	house
fy̌	fy˥˩˧	ray
fŷḷ	fyɭ˩˥˧	vision
gạ́ń	gɘɲ˩˥	engineer
geń	gɛɲ˧	friend
gvǎ	ɡʷa˥˩˧	cooking
gvạ́ŋ	gʷɘŋ˩˥	skye
gvu	ɡʷu˧	disappearence
hạ̀	hɘ˥˩	collatz conjecture
iạ̌	jɘ˥˩˧	[The Sun]
jw̌l	ɟɯl˥˩˧	pinecone noun/verb pair
k'āŋ	kʰäŋ˥	robot
kún	kun˩˥	sanskrit
kv'ēŋ̇	kʷɛɴ˥	pinecone paragraph
kvyā	kʷɥa˥	rain
k'ẁŋ	kʰɯŋ˥˩	universe
lȳ	ly˥	king
mà	ma˥˩	pinecone chain of implication phrases
māŋ	mäŋ˥	lower class
mwḷ	mɯɭ˧	lemonade
nīŋ	niŋ˥	tounge
ŋvwêŋ̇	ŋʷɰɛɴ˩˥˧	humanity
ŋvyē	ŋʷɥɛ˥	Ħixin
o	ʔɔ˧	thing
ọ́	o˩˥	now
ọ̀	o˥˩	here
píŋ	piŋ˩˥	cat
qạŋ	qɘŋ˧	pinecone implication phrase
q'w	qʰɯ˧	pot
qw̄	qɯ˥	emergency
q'yán	qʰɥän˩˥	year
rẹ̀	ɢe˥˩	nightmare golden freddy
rên	ʁɛn˩˥˧	rene descartes
řǐn	ʁin˥˩˧	lemon
šw	ʃɯ˧	life
ṣw̄	ʂɯ˥	the hatred towards people who lauch fireworks on new years eve upon seeing how terrified your pet is at them
ṣwạ	ʂɰɘ˧	ultrafrench
syạ̀	sɥɘ˥˩	gourd soup
śué	ɕwɛ˩˥	food
śun	ɕun˧	carrying (event of carrying)
tí	ti˩˥	2p
t'iǒŋ̇	tʰjɔɴ˥˩˧	language
t'wēń	tʰɰɛɲ˥	cave johnson
ù	ʔu˥˩	1p
ū	u˥	pinecone the language the languaeg pinecone
uêl	wɛl˩˥˧	meeting
wạ̀ŋ	ɰɘŋ˥˩	person
wl	ʔɯl˧	this
xvw̌	χʷɯ˥˩˧	1465 ratare spaceship
xvȳń	χʷyɲ˥	horse
xvyọ̄	χʷɥo˥	pinecone branch off
yạ̌n	ɥɘn˥˩˧	location
yẹ̌	ɥe˥˩˧	the ngorld
yẹ́ŋ	ɥeŋ˩˥	day
ž'ǎ	tʃʰä˥˩˧	fish
ẓ'ệŋ	ʈʂʰeŋ˩˥˧	manager
zō	tsɔ˥	sun
žon	tʃɔn˧	man
ź'í	tɕʰi˩˥	particle
ź'ué	tɕʰwɛ˩˥	earth
źyạ̄ń	tɕɥɘɲ˥	fire

Verbs

ạ	ʔɘ˧	be at (general purpose locative adposition)
âń	aɲ˩˥˧	one
ca	ca˧	scream
c'ǎl	cʰal˥˩˧	unknown
cuḷ	cuɭ˧	know
cwọ	cɰo˧	win
cý	cy˩˥	love
dòŋ	dɔŋ˥˩	golden
dwo	dɰɔ˧	rule
ê	ʔɛ˩˥˧	exist
éń	ɛɲ˩˥	carry
eŋ̇	ʔɛɴ˧	meet
î	ʔi˩˥˧	do
iǎ	ja˥˩˧	many
ial	jäl˧	bad
íḷ	ʔiɭ˩˥	happy
kà	kä˥˩	understand
kò	kɔ˥˩	to be super mario
kv'ẹń	kʷʰeɲ˧	float
kv'ọ̀ḷ	kʷʰoɭ˥˩	combustile
lw	lɯ˧	this
lỳḷ	lyɭ˥˩	melt
nuēŋ̇	nwɛɴ˥	rue
ńw̄ŋ	ɲɯŋ˥	vaporize
ŋvīḷ	ŋʷiɭ˥	evil
p'ǎ	pʰa˥˩˧	explode
p'iẹ̄	pʰje˥	burn
piọ́	pjo˩˥	dumb
pyè	pɥɛ˥˩	invent
q'ûn	qʰun˩˥˧	approach
řè	ʁɛ˥˩	cook
řvw̌	ʁʷɯ˥˩˧	cold
rwạ̄ŋ̇	ɢɰɘɴ˥	false
šal	ʃal˧	pipebomb
sạ̄n	sɘn˥	eat
sậŋ	sɘŋ˩˥˧	speak
siěŋ	sjɛŋ˥˩˧	go around in a circle
syậ	sɥɘ˩˥˧	inquire
śyạ	ɕɥɘ˧	take
t'â	tʰa˩˥˧	hate
t'ạ̌	tʰɘ˥˩˧	use
û	ʔu˩˥˧	have
uạ̀n	wɘn˥˩	make
uō	wɔ˥	disappear
ẁn	ʔɯn˥˩	give
wọ̀ŋ	ɰoŋ˥˩	obsess
xî	χi˩˥˧	see
xọ̀	χo˥˩	mad
ž'ạ̄ŋ	tʃʰɘŋ˥	learn
zẹ̌	tse˥˩˧	desire
ẓi	ʈʂi˧	turn
ž'u	tʃʰu˧	think
zuạ	tswɘ˧	get
z'ŷŋ̇	tsʰyɴ˩˥˧	manage