Wain [WAI]
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Typology
Progressing
17 words
Wain
Hi [hi]
WainHi [hi]
Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 8 June 2017
Language type
Engineered Language (Englang)
Species
Human/humanoid
About Wain
An in-universe conlang spoken by a large family owning a massive zaibatsu-style conglomerate (WAI Corporation).
Design goals:
Several of these goals are achieved with the unique concept of ‘overfixing’, where two morphemes can be simultaneously articulated. All content morphemes (i.e. nouns and non-auxiliary verbs) are grouped into either peripheral or coronal, allowing a combination to be spoken at once: 〈te〉 /te/ ‘ice’ + 〈pu〉 /pu/ ‘make/-ify’ = 〈tpeu〉 /t͡peu/ ‘freeze’/.
Thanks to Karchei#2675 on Discord for the new orthography, because the old one was god-awful.
Design goals:
- Information-dense
- Quickly spoken
- Functional with a relatively small set of root words
- Difficult for non-native speakers to understand
- Somewhat unusual phonology acting as a sort of built-in shibboleth
Several of these goals are achieved with the unique concept of ‘overfixing’, where two morphemes can be simultaneously articulated. All content morphemes (i.e. nouns and non-auxiliary verbs) are grouped into either peripheral or coronal, allowing a combination to be spoken at once: 〈te〉 /te/ ‘ice’ + 〈pu〉 /pu/ ‘make/-ify’ = 〈tpeu〉 /t͡peu/ ‘freeze’/.
Thanks to Karchei#2675 on Discord for the new orthography, because the old one was god-awful.
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- palatal | Palatal | Labio- velar | Velar | Uvular | Epiglottal | Glottal | Other | ||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m m̼ | n̪ n̪̰ | n n̰ n̩ | ɳ ɳ̰ | ŋ | ɴ1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p p̼ | t̪ t̪ʼ t̪ʰ | t tʼ tʰ | ʈ ʈʼ ʈʰ | k | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ2 | f | s | z | x | ʜ3 | h | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Affricate | t͡s t͡sᵝʷ4 t͡sʼ t͡sʰ | d͡ʒ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l l̰ˀ l̥ | ɫ5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trill | ʙ | r r̥ʼ | ʀ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click | ǀ ⁿǀˀ | ǃ ⁿǃˀ | ‼ ᶯ‼ˀ | ǁ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implosive | ɓ ɓ̼ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Blends | ᶑ͡ɓ | ɳ͡m | ɗ͡ɓ | t͡p | ʈ͡p | n͡m | ǃ͡χ | l͡pˡ |
- Only contrastive word-finally
- only contrasts with /f/ word-initially
- trill
- /ts/ with extreme labial action
- dental, slightly pharyngealized
| Vowels | Front | Central | Back | |||
| Close | i | ɨ | u | |||
| Close-mid | e | o | ||||
| Open | ä | ɒ | ||||
| Polyphthongs | oi̯ | ei̯ | äu̯ | äi̯ | eu̯ | ou̯ |
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Wain. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 WainOrthography [edit] | |||||||||
| !X !x/ǃ͡χ/ | Aa/ä/ | Ââ/ɒ/ | AI ai/äi̯/ | AU au/äu̯/ | Bb/ɓ/ | BR br/ʙ/ | B̈ b̈/ɓ̼/ | Dd/ʈ/ | D! d!/‼/ |
| D' d'/ʈʼ/ | DB db/ᶑ͡ɓ/ | DP dp/ʈ͡p/ | Ee/e/ | EI ei/ei̯/ | EU eu/eu̯/ | Ff/f/ | FW fw/ɸ/1 | GR gr/ʀ/ | Hh/h/ |
| HR hr/ʜ/2 | Ii/i/ | Jj/d͡ʒ/ | Kk/k/ | Ll/l/ | L! l!/ǁ/ | L' l'/l̰ˀ/ | LL ll/ɫ/3 | LP lp/l͡pˡ/ | Mm/m/ |
| M̈ m̈/m̼/ | Ņņ/ɳ/ | Nn/n/ | N! n!/ⁿǃˀ/ | Ņ! ņ!/ᶯ‼ˀ/ | Ņ' ņ'/ɳ̰/ | N' n'/n̰/ | NH nh/n̪/ | NH! nh!/ⁿǀˀ/ | NH' nh'/n̪̰/ |
| ŅM ņm/ɳ͡m/ | NM nm/n͡m/ | NN nn/n̩/ | Oo/o/ | OI oi/oi̯/ | OU ou/ou̯/ | Pp/p/ | P̈ p̈/p̼/ | Rr/r/ | R' r'/r̥ʼ/ |
| Ss/s/ | Tt/t/ | T! t!/ǃ/ | T' t'/tʼ/ | TB tb/ɗ͡ɓ/ | TH th/t̪/ | TH! th!/ǀ/ | TH' th'/t̪ʼ/ | TP tp/t͡p/ | TS ts/t͡s/ |
| TS' ts'/t͡sʼ/ | TSW tsw/t͡sᵝʷ/4 | Uu/u/ | Ww/w/ | Xx/x/ | Yy/j/ | Zz/z/ | Đđ/ʈʰ/ | Łł/l̥/ | Ŋŋ/ŋ/ |
| Ŋ̇ ŋ̇/ɴ/5 | Ŧŧ/tʰ/ | ŦH ŧh/t̪ʰ/ | ŦS ŧs/t͡sʰ/ | Ɨɨ/ɨ/ | |||||
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | |||||||||
- only contrasts with /f/ word-initially
- trill
- dental, slightly pharyngealized
- /ts/ with extreme labial action
- Only contrastive word-finally
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Overfix Coarticulation Tables
Combinations of peripheral+coronal consonants in WAI
14-Jun-17 20:08
