Tsunem [CYU]
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Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 11 October 2019
Language type
Artistic Language (Artlang)
Place & SpeakersTsunem is spoken by a population of around 28,000,000 .
Species
Human/humanoid
About Tsunem
Initially the idea for a language sprang from a live RPG game. One if the characters came from the country Tsunano and needed a basic cultural background. I sketched the language as part of that.
Later I teleported the country and language to an unidentified exoplanet, where I still imagine it to be. As the context of RPG had fallen away, the apriory language lost all constraints and to continue with it, I felt it necessary to look for a new context.
I'm just trying to clean up the current grammar and lexicon. No new translations are added a.t.m.
Development
Initially the idea for a language sprang from a live RPG game. One if the characters came from the country Tsunano and needed a basic cultural background. I sketched the language as part of that.
Later I teleported the country and language to an unidentified exoplanet, where I still imagine it to be. As the context of RPG had fallen away, the apriory language lost all constraints and to continue with it, I felt it necessary to look for a new context.
I'm just trying to clean up the current grammar and lexicon. No new translations are added a.t.m.
- Task List
- Update article on verb conjugation
- Update article on noun declension
- Update article on pronouns
- Update article on determiners
- Update article on word formation
- Add philological information to all word entries
- Prune dictionary
- Add grammar tables
Sample of Tsunem[view] Iivi opaldar zuvo iv-ugis vi ale' viyix ezidi' pu'-pavor ledryi' nyita nyut-paqor
I cautiously give the dangerous man my father's money at the predetermined square in front of the church.[view all texts]
I cautiously give the dangerous man my father's money at the predetermined square in front of the church.[view all texts]
Language family relationships
[view] About CiyeThe Ciye language family consists of three main languages: the classical Tsunem language, it predecessor Epic Tsunem and its descendant the Rekhish language.
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Palatal | Velar | ||||||
| Nasal | [m]1 | [n]2 | [ŋ]3 | |||||||||
| Plosive | pʰ | b̥ | tʰ | d̥ | cʰʲ | ɟ̥ʲ | kʰ | g̥ | ||||
| Fricative | [f]4 | [s]5 | z | [ɕ]6 | ʑ [ʑ̃]7 | [x]8 | ɣ̞ | |||||
| Affricate | t͡s | d͡z | t͡ɕ | d͡ʑ | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | [ɹ]9 | j [j̃]10 | |||||||||
| Blends | g͡ʑ | k͡ɕ | [ɹ͡ʑ]11 |
- allophone of /b̥/
- allophone of /d̥/
- allophone of /g̥/
- allophone of /pʰ/
- allophone of /tʰ/
- allophone of /cʰʲ/
- allophone of /ɟ̥ʲ/
- allophone of /kʰ/
- allophone of /z/
- allophone of /ɟ̥ʲ/
- allophone of /ʑ/
| Vowels | Front | Near- front | Back | |||
| Close | i [i:]1 | [y:]2 | u [ũ̞]3 | |||
| Near-close | [ɪ̃:]4 [ɪ̃]5 | [ʏ̃:]6 | ||||
| Close-mid | e [e:]7 | [ø:]8 | o [õ̞]9 | |||
| Open | [ã̝:]10 [a̝:]11 [ã̝]12 | [ɶ̝̃:]13 | ɑ [ɑ̃:]14 [ɑ̃] | |||
- allophone of /i/
- allophone of /u/
- allophone of /u/
- allophone of /i/
- allophone of /i/
- allophone of /u/
- allophone of /e/
- allophone of /o/
- allophone of /o/
- allophone of /e/
- allophone of /ɑ/
- allophone of /e/
- allophone of /o/
- allophone of /ɑ/
Syllable StructureEach part of the syllable only allows a subset the consonantal inventory which makes sound change inevitable. At the highest level the syllable is divided into an onset (O) and a rhyme (R), which can each be divided into three parts. The onset can have an initial cononant (I). This may be followed by a medial (M) or glide (G). The onset cannot be empty; if the initial consonant is h, it may be deleted however. The rhyme has an obligatory nucleus (N) and an optional glide (G) and final consonants (F). See "Phonology and Phonotactics"
Stress informationLexical stress is purely tonal, independent of vowel length, and generally realized as a high tone, e.g.: /zépʰɑcʲʰɑɹ/. The actual tone depends on various factors such as the prosodic stress, the context and the speaker, the options usually being: high or low and rising or falling for more emphasis. For this reason stress is simply marked with the short IPA stroke /ˈzepʰɑcʲʰɑɹ/ If the phonemes /o/ and /e/ lose their stress, for morphological reasons, they change to /ɑ/.
Although largely predictable, stress is actually phonemic because it can be the only distinguishing feature between parts of speech. Each word can have one stressed syllable only, and only on the word stem, i.e. not on affixes. In verbs, adjective and adverbs the stress falls on the first stem vowel, in nouns, pronouns and numerals it falls on the second vowel. In compounds the stress falls on the head word. A number of short words, mostly determiners, have no stress.
Although largely predictable, stress is actually phonemic because it can be the only distinguishing feature between parts of speech. Each word can have one stressed syllable only, and only on the word stem, i.e. not on affixes. In verbs, adjective and adverbs the stress falls on the first stem vowel, in nouns, pronouns and numerals it falls on the second vowel. In compounds the stress falls on the head word. A number of short words, mostly determiners, have no stress.
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Tsunem. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 TsunemOrthography [edit] | |||||||||
| ' A' /̃/ | Aa/ɑ/ | Bb Ba /b̥/ | Cc Ca /cʰʲ/ | Dd Da /d̥/ | Ee/e/ | Ff[f] | Gg Ga /g̥/ | Ii/i/ | Jj Ja /ɟ̥ʲ/ |
| Kk Ka /kʰ/ | Ll La /l/ | Mm[m] | Nn[n] | Ng ng[ŋ] | Ny ny[ʑ̃] | Oo/o/ | Pp Pa /pʰ/ | Qq Qa /ɣ̞/ | Rr[ɹ] |
| Ry ry[ɹ͡ʑ] | Ss[s] | Sy sy[ɕ] | Tt Ta /tʰ/ | Uu/u/ | Vv Va /ʋ/ | Xx[x] | Yy Ya /j/ | Zz Za /z/ | Zy zy Zya /ʑ/ |
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | |||||||||
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Verb Conjugation
This article gives a summary of verb endings in Tsunem.
02-Feb-23 14:45Noun Declension
Declension is one of two ways that words inflect in Tsunem. ...
01-Feb-23 23:09Pronouns
The formation and declension of pronouns and some associate ...
10-Jan-23 22:34Tsunem: Typology and Forms
This is a short overview of the Tsunem grammar to guide furt...
01-Jan-23 21:41Numerals and Numbers
Tsunems counting is sexagesimal with base numerals 1 till 60...
01-Feb-22 19:43Phonology and Phonotactics
Tsunem has around 33 consonants of which only 15 contrast, a...
30-Jan-22 19:49PhoMo Codes
These are some of the codes I use to make the grammar tables
04-Feb-21 10:11Dictionary Manual and Abbreviations
This is a short guide to dictionary entries and abbreviation...
21-Jan-21 22:51
