User:Izaland Terramorphing Committee/Sandbox/Izaki Language
A brief manual of Izaki language, the conlang under development for Izaland.
Basically it is a language isolate, however many elements are inspired by Japanese, Korean and Finnish Languages.
Phonology - 音声学
Sounds
Izaki language has an average number of consonant sounds, and a limited number of vocalic sounds, making it a pretty easy to pronounce language.
Vowels
Izaki has 5 vowels and 2 semivowels. The 5 vowels can have a short or a long sound:
Back | Front | |
Close | /i/ | /u/ |
Mid | /e/ | /o/ |
Open | /a/ |
The semivowels are /w/ and /j/, and always occur before a vowel. The only exception is the /wjV/ composition, where V is a vowel (mostly /a/), like in the compound /wja/ (業).
Consonants
Izaki has 22 consonants, as per the following phonetic chart.
↓ Manner/Place → | Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Stop | p b | t d | c | k ɡ | |||
Affricate | ʦ ʣ | ʧ ʤ | |||||
Fricative | f | s z | ʃ ʒ | h | |||
Approximant | j | ||||||
Trill | r | ||||||
Lateral approximant | l |
Syllabes
The Izaki phonology is strictly syllable based, and the structure we are going to explain followingly is so strict that also foreign loan words must be adapted to it.
To better explain the syllable composition, we will divide the different sounds into three categories:
V: the 5 vowels, short or long (a, e, i, o, u, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū)
C: the 22 consonants (p, b, k, g, t, d, ch, j, s, z, ts, ð, sh, zh, m, n, l, r, h, f, v)
F: the syllable-final consonants (n, l, s, r, h*, kk**) - only these consonants can appear after a vowel in a syllable, or at the end of a word. However, no words end by -h.
*h: it can be found in the final position of a syllable structure, and appears between a vowel and another consonant. The following consonant will be not voiced
Example words: dahkei (cliff), zhohtan (side), nihki (coast), rihmi (county), nehkeu (too much)
**kk: the geminated /k/ is a feature of the south-west dialect, and in current Izaki language only appears in the name of the city of Kikknās (Itakiri Prefecture).
A basic syllable can be one of the following kinds:
- V any vowel, short or long
- CV any consonant*, any vowel
- CVF
Only non sonorant consonants (k, t, p, s, ts, sh, ch) and n, l, r can be strong (doubled).
Example words: kaida (sword), miwa (water), rekki (pen), noppo (spoon), keilo (route), shihkama (whale), kamitsas (everywhere), estinden (always), jīssu (to press), yokoku (notice), jāshiki (common sense), gūnyū (milk), hākei (total), keskwa (result), wingyōn (bank), inshēs (printing)...
Writing System
Izaki language writing system is one of the most articulated writing systems, making use of the Bai characters and an original composed alphabet called askaoza (邦記, or 𖬒ᒢ𖬭ᣟᐤ𖬖𖬰).
The Bai characters and the askaoza are not alternative writing systems, but each of them has a definite role. Basically, Bai characters are used to show the semantical meaning of nouns, verb roots, adjectives etc., while askaoza complements them, allowing variable parts of the speech to be declined or conjugated accordingly. This works basically as in Japanese with kanji and kana.
In the first section of our language manual we are going to learn the basics of the askaoza.
Main features of the askaoza writing system:
- One letter corresponds to one sound
- All the letter are by default adjoined with the sound “/a/”. No words in Izaki can start with a double consonant, while certain consonants can follow another one, but their representation is different (see later)
- The other vocalic sounds except for “a” are rendered with a diacritic symbol, on the left or on the right of the consonant.
- Single vowels are shown by a “placeholder” symbol, with the value of /a/ if no other vowel diacritic is present.
- The main letters are unvoiced sounds. The corresponding voiced sounds are marked by a dot on the top.
Roman alp. | Character | IPA | Roman alp. | Character | IPA |
清音 (seion) - unvoiced | 濁音 (takuon) - voiced | ||||
K | 𖬭 | /k/ | G | 𖬭𖬰 | /g/ |
P | 𖬡 | /p/ | B | 𖬡𖬰 | /b/ |
S | 𖬖 | /s/ | Z | 𖬖𖬰 | /z/ |
T | 𖬮 | /t/ | D | 𖬮𖬰 | /d/ |
F | 𖬌 | /f/ | V | 𖬌𖬰 | /v/ |
CH | 𖬥 | /ʧ/ | J | 𖬥𖬰 | /ʤ/ |
SH | 𖬔 | /ʃ/ | ZH | 𖬔𖬰 | /ʒ/ |
TS | 𖬪 | /ʦ/ | Đ | 𖬪𖬰 | /ʣ/ |
H | 𖬨 | /h/ | |||
N | 𖭑 | /n/ | |||
M | 𖬊 | /m/ | |||
L | 𖬠 | /l/ | |||
R | 𖬬 | /r/ |
Vowels and consonant joints
Let’s take the first letter in Izaki alphabetical order, the “ka”: 𖬭 As it is now, we would read it /ka/, and not “k”, since in Izaki consonants are not stand-alone, and the default value is /ka/.
What if we want to give it the sound /ke/? In this case we need to add on the right (as this is the rule of the “E”) the necessary diacritic, called, in Izaki, tenkun: 𖬭ɭ
Thus we know that “𖬭ɭ” will be read as /ke/; “𖬭𖬭ɭ” will be /kake”/ and “𖬭ɭ𖬭” shall be /keka/
In the same way, we can write either ki, ko, and ku:
𖬭ᛁ the “i” sound is made by adding a vertical bar
𖬭ᐤ the “o” sound is made by adding a small circle on the top-right
𖬭𐐢 the “u” sound is rendered by an umbrella handle shaped element
Thus we can have these possible combinations:
𖬭𖬭ᛁ (kaki), 𖬭ᐤ𖬭𐐢 (koku), 𖬭ᛁ𖬭𐐢 (kiku) etc…
Let’s take a view to the main Izaki consonants with the 5 simple vowels:
Consonant | A | E | I | O | U |
- | 𖬒 a | 𖬒ɭ e | 𖬒ᛁ i | 𖬒ᐤ o | 𖬒𐐢 u |
K | 𖬭 ka | 𖬭ɭ ke | 𖬭ᛁ ki | 𖬭ᐤ ko | 𖬭𐐢 ku |
P | 𖬡 pa | 𖬡ɭ pe | 𖬡ᛁ pi | 𖬡ᐤ po | 𖬡𐐢 pu |
S | 𖬖 sa | 𖬖ɭ se | 𖬖ᛁ shi | 𖬖ᐤ so | 𖬖𐐢 su |
T | 𖬮 ta | 𖬮ɭ te | 𖬮ᛁ ti | 𖬮ᐤ to | 𖬮𐐢 tu |
F | 𖬌 fa | 𖬌ɭ fe | 𖬌ᛁ fi | 𖬌ᐤ fo | 𖬌𐐢 fu |
CH | 𖬥 cha | 𖬥ɭ che | 𖬥ᛁ chi | 𖬥ᐤ cho | 𖬥𐐢 chu |
SH | 𖬔 sha | 𖬔ɭ she | 𖬔ᛁ shi | 𖬔ᐤ sho | 𖬔𐐢 shu |
TS | 𖬪 tsa | 𖬪ɭ tse | 𖬪ᛁ tsi | 𖬪ᐤ tso | 𖬪𐐢 tsu |
H | 𖬨 ha | 𖬨ɭ he | 𖬨ᛁ hi | 𖬨ᐤ ho | 𖬨𐐢 hu |
N | 𖭑 na | 𖭑ɭ ne | 𖭑ᛁ ni | 𖭑ᐤ no | 𖭑𐐢 nu |
M | 𖬊 ma | 𖬊ɭ me | 𖬊ᛁ mi | 𖬊ᐤ mo | 𖬊𐐢 mu |
L | 𖬠 la | 𖬠ɭ le | 𖬠ᛁ li | 𖬠ᐤ lo | 𖬠𐐢 lu |
R | 𖬬 ra | 𖬬ɭ re | 𖬬ᛁ ri | 𖬬ᐤ ro | 𖬬𐐢 ru |
Here are the derived consonants with the different vowel combinations:
Consonant | A | E | I | O | U |
- | 𖬒 a | 𖬒ɭ e | 𖬒ᛁ i | 𖬒ᐤ o | 𖬒𐐢 u |
G | 𖬭𖬰 ga | 𖬭𖬰ɭ ge | 𖬭𖬰ᛁ gi | 𖬭𖬰ᐤ go | 𖬭𖬰𐐢 gu |
B | 𖬡𖬰 ba | 𖬡𖬰ɭ be | 𖬡𖬰ᛁ bi | 𖬡𖬰ᐤ bo | 𖬡𖬰𐐢 bu |
Z | 𖬖𖬰 za | 𖬖𖬰ɭ ze | 𖬖𖬰ᛁ zi | 𖬖𖬰ᐤ zo | 𖬖𖬰𐐢 zu |
D | 𖬮𖬰 da | 𖬮𖬰ɭ de | 𖬮𖬰ᛁ di | 𖬮𖬰ᐤ do | 𖬮𖬰𐐢 du |
V | 𖬌𖬰 va | 𖬌𖬰ɭ ve | 𖬌𖬰ᛁ vi | 𖬌𖬰ᐤ vo | 𖬌𖬰𐐢 vu |
J | 𖬥𖬰 ja | 𖬥𖬰ɭ je | 𖬥𖬰ᛁ ji | 𖬥𖬰ᐤ jo | 𖬥𖬰𐐢 ju |
ZH | 𖬔𖬰 zha | 𖬔𖬰ɭ zhe | 𖬔𖬰ᛁ zhi | 𖬔𖬰ᐤ zho | 𖬔𖬰𐐢 zhu |
Ð | 𖬪𖬰 ða | 𖬪𖬰ɭ ðe | 𖬪𖬰ᛁ ði | 𖬪𖬰ᐤ ðo | 𖬪𖬰𐐢 ðu |
Diphthongs
Besides the main 5 vowels, Izaki language also has s certain number of diphthongs, or gliding vowels, a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable.
Let’s take a look at some examples: 𐭘𖬭 kya, 𐩪𖬌 fwo, 𐩬𖬖 swa
There are 8 main diphthongs, rendered in roman alphabet with “y” (/j/) and “w” (/w/), and in askaoza these semivocalic sounds are shown by a diacritic on the left of the corresponding consonant.
Let’s see how it works with the consonant 𖭑 (n):
A | E | I | O | U | |
Y | 𐭘𖭑 nya | 𐐑𖭑 nye | ᛚ𖭑 nyo | 𐐓𖭑 nyu | |
W | 𐩬𖭑 nwa | 𐩧𖭑 nwe | 𐐊𖭑 nwi | 𐩪𖭑 nwo |
Example words and sounds:
𖭑ᛁ𐩬𖭑ɭ niswae
𖬒ᐤ𐐓𖬬𖬒 oryua
𐩧𖬭𖬬ᛁ kweri
𐐓𖬒𖬪ᐤ yutso
𐭘𖬨Ꮀ𐐊𖬭 hyaakwi
𐐑𖬒ᛁ𖬖ᐤᐡ yeison
𖬌𐐢𐐑𖬬 furye
𖬪𐩬𖬒 tsawa
𖬖𐩪𖬒𖬨ᛁ sawohi
𐩪𖬭𖬨ɭ kwohe
𖬊ᛁ𐩧𖬖Ꮀ miwee
ᛚ𖬒𖬊 yoma
𐐓𖬊Ꮀ𖬨 myuuha
ᛚ𖬮𖬖𐐢 tyosu
Double Consonants
The double consonant is shown by a diacritic positioned before the syllable containing the consonant to be doubled.
𖬮𖬭 taka vs 𖬮ⲅ𖬭 takka
𖬨ᛁ𖭑ᐡ hinan vs 𖬨ᛁⲅ𖭑ᐡ hinnan
𖬥ᛁ𐩪𖬭 chikwo vs 𖬥ᛁⲅ𐩪𖬭 chikkwo
Long vowels
In Izaki language, vowels can be short or long. This feature has a distinctive value, so it is important to notice when a vowel is short or long.
In the official Sanotari-Idanos romanization system, long vowels are written with a macron: ā ī ē ō ū, while in the less used Tagenas romanization system, they are just left as a couple of vowels: aa, ii, ee, oo, uu.
In the askaoza alphabet, to mark a long vowel, the diacritic “Ꮀ” is placed on the right of the long vowel syllable.
Let’s take a look at some examples: 𖬭Ꮀ kā, 𖬌ᛁᎰ fī, 𖬮ᐤᎰ tō
There are cases of long vowel in a CVC syllabe. In this case, the diacritic must be placed before the final consonant one: 𖬪ᐤᎰᐡ tsōn, 𖬬𐐢Ꮀᒢ rūs, 𖬨ɭᎰᣘ hēr
Greetings and useful expressions
In the table, some useful words in Izaki
Ingerish | Izaki (romanised) | Transcription (Izaki) |
Ingerish | Ingo | 引語 |
Yes | Sā | 𖬖⸠ |
No | Na | 𖭑 |
Hello! | Ānjiwara! | 𖬮⸠ᐢ𖬐𖬰ᛁ𐩬𖬮𖬬 |
How are you | Soi yodeska? | 𖬖ᐤᛁ ꓩ𖬮𖬒𖬰ɭᒢ𖬭? |
Hello (formal) | Āmajike | 𖬮⸠𖬊𖬐𖬰ᛁ𖬭ɭ |
Hi! (informal) | Ānji! | 𖬮⸠ᐢ𖬐𖬰ᛁ! |
I'm fine, thank you. | Nai tepan, dōmas. | 𖭑꜉ 良ᐢ, 𖬒𖬰ᐤ⸠𖬊ᒢ. |
So and so | tepana, zushina / tenazuna | 良𖭑, 悪𖭑 / 𖬁ɭ𖭑𖬖𖬰𐐢𖭑 |
Goodbye! | Sokkiba! | 𖬖ᐤⲅ𖬭ᛁ𖬇𖬰! |
Welcome | Witte edeseke | 𐐊𖬮𖬁𖬳𖬳ɭ 𖬮ɭ𖬒𖬰ɭ𖬖ɭ𖬭ɭ |
Please | Inadeshiyan (indeshan) | 𖬮ᛁ𖭑𖬒𖬰ɭ𖬔ᛁ𐭘𖬮ᐢ (𖬮ᛁᐢ𖬒𖬰ɭ𖬔ᐢ) |
Thank you | Dōmas
Dōmades |
𖬒𖬰ᐤ⸠𖬊ᒢ.
𖬒𖬰ᐤ⸠𖬊𖬒𖬰ɭᒢ |
You're welcome | Dōmehisatta | 𖬒𖬰ᐤ⸠𖬊ɭ𖬨ᛁ𖬖𖬁𖬳𖬳 |
Excuse me | Karansekeni / Karanseken / Karansee | 𖬭𖬬ᐢ𖬖ɭ𖬭ɭ𖭑ᛁ / 𖬭𖬬ᐢ𖬖ɭ𖬭ɭᐢ / 𖬭𖬬ᐢ𖬖ɭ⸠ |
Sorry | Kuben | 𖬭𐐢𖬇𖬰ɭᐢ |
Good morning | Tepan allaa | 良ᐢ 朝⸠ |
Good afternoon | Tepan katoo | 良ᐢ 昼⸠ |
Good evening | Tepan seikaa | 良ᐢ 夕⸠ |
Goodnight | Tepan nanshaa | 良ᐢ 夜⸠ |
Nouns
Nouns in Izaki can be declined in singular and plural forms. There are no genders, as male, female or neuter. All the names are genderless.
Plural Formation
In order to make the plural form, you need to prolong the last vowel of the name and add “n”. If the name already ends by a long vowel, just a n is added. If a noun ends in a consonant, see the rules.
Nouns ending by vowel:
Meaning | Singular (nominative) | Plural (nominative) |
water | miwa (水) | miwaan (水⸠ᐢ) |
fire | hunui(火) | hunuiin(火⸠ᐢ) |
man | suto (男) | sutoon (男⸠ᐢ) |
woman | natae (女) | nataeen (女⸠ᐢ) |
apple | sugua (檎) | suguaan (檎⸠ᐢ) |
forest | tsawa (森) | tsawaan (森⸠ᐢ) |
rice | konu (米) | konuun (米⸠ᐢ) |
freedom | jiyu (自由) | jiyuun (自由⸠ᐢ) |
nation | kukka (國家) | kukkaan (國家⸠ᐢ) |
Noun ending by consonants:
In Izaki, due to phonological rules, words can only end by: -n, -s, -l, -r. Basically to make the plural form, you need to prolong the ending consonant, and recall once again the previous vowel.
Meaning | Singular (nominative) | Plural (nominative) | Remarks, exceptions |
surface | pyomyen(表面) | pyomyenne | |
law | pōrīs(法律) | pōrīsshi | Izaki phonetics do not allow the /si/ syllable, which becomes /ʃi/ (shi). |
technology | gijus(技術) | gijussu | |
wave | moigon(波) | moigonno | |
leg | huinnon(脚) | huinnonno | |
fennel | totsus(茴) | totsussu | |
insect | nās(虫) | nāssa | If the last vowel of the singular form is a long one (ā,ē,ī,ō,ū), in the plural form it will be a shortened vowel. |
love | saison(愛) | saisonno | |
docking | rul(埠) | rullu | |
God of the Sea | kikk(-) | kikki | irregular word |
moral | tekeh(徳) | tekehte | irregular word |
Cases
Izaki Language operates on 8 cases (格⸠ᐢ kakuun).
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs need to be declined in most of the situations.
- Nominative (主格, shukaku): the case used for the main subject, or the topic of the sentence. In the dictionary the nouns are in the nominative form.
- Genitive (属格, zukkaku): to express the possession
- Accusative (対格, taikaku): the case used for the direct object of a transitive verb
- Dative (与格, yokaku): the indirect case of a destination recipient (to whom)
- Locative (処格, shokaku): the case used to express the static position
- Allative (向格, hyānkaku): the case used to express the direction (to the outside, until)
- Ablative (奪格, daskaku): the case used to express the origin (from where, from when)
- Instrumental (具格, gukaku): the case used to express the way or the instrument of an action (with something, using something), and also used to create other expressions using added ending suffixes.
Case/meaning | Addied stem (-V/-C) | water | tear | gate | wolf | opinion | day |
Nominative | - | miwa | tsokke | mua | tsaikis | wiken | kato |
Genitive | add -s/-us | miwas | tsokkes | muas | tsaikisus | wikenus | kados |
Accusative | prolong vowel1 | miwā | tsokkē | muā | tsaikisū | wikenū | katoo |
Dative | add -i | miwai | tsokkei | muai | tsaikishi | wikenni | katoi |
Locative | add -n/-un | miwan | tsokken | muan | tsaikisun | wikenun | kadon |
Allative | add -r/-ur | miwar | tsokker | muar | tsaikisur | wikenur | kador |
Ablative | add -l/-ul | miwal | tsokkel | mual | tsaikisul | wikenul | kadol |
Instrumental | see below | miwae | tsokkei | muae | tsaikiso | wikeni | katou |
1: if the noun already ends by a long vowel, the accusative keeps the same as the nominative.
2: in the genitive, locative, allative and ablative cases (strong cases), nouns ending by vowel see a change in the last consonant, which becomes a sonorant if originally was k, p, ch, t, f, r, ts, sh (this doesn’t happen with double consonants).
Ex: lota (sheet) > lodas, taito (diary) > taidon, dasa (trunk) > dazas, niki (tower) > nigis
The instrumental case can be created using the “vowel progression system”, and the rule is easily observable by each vowel ending words; also the last consonant of the nouns ending by vowel changes accordingly to the strong cases sonorisation phenomenon (強格濁音化):
- Words ending in a: add an -e
- Words ending in e: add an -i
- Words ending in i: add an -o (a diphthongization happens, so the word end changes to -yo)
- Words ending in o: add an -u
- Words ending in u: add an -a (a diphthongization happens, so the word end changes to -wa)
- Words ending in consonant follow the same vowel progression rule as above, but the ending consonant doubles
Meaning | Nominative | Instrumental | Notes |
water | miwa | miwae | |
hill | oboe | oboei | |
river | sāri | sāryo | i+o contract in “yo” |
color | ahiro | ahirou | |
bear | usumu | usumwa | u+a contract in “wa” |
employee | shawin | shawinno | |
beetle | tendattan | tendattanne | |
Seoul | Soul | Soulla | |
life | seikwas | seikwasse |
Note: words already ending with a diphthong keeps behaving the same, except for V+”o” ending nouns:
Meaning | Nominative | Instrumental | Remarks |
lightning | sasatsai | sasatsayo | |
bell | akau | akawa | |
neck | kea | keae | |
tusk | nekīkei | nekīkeyo | |
mushroom | hingao | hingō* | -ao ending names change the last “ao” to “ō” |
port | sāreo | sāreu | -eo ending names change the last “eo” to “eu” |
glass | tassuo | tassū | -uo ending names change the last “uo” to “ū” |
actor | haiyū | haiyūa | -long u ending names just see an added "a" |
Derived cases
From the instrumental stem, by adding other particles, you can create some sub-cases.
- Comitative (with): -te (miwaete, with the water; tendattannete, with the beetle)
- Translative (to become): - nde (sāryonde, to become a river, jiyuande, to become free)
- Dedative (about): - nkai (ahirounkai, about the color; )
- Abessive (without) -ttan (saisonuttan, without love; gijussattan, without technology)
Another case, the istructive, is made by the dative bases:
- Istructive (with the mean of): - hte
Example sentences
I live in Sainðaul
Nai Sainðaulun paen. (我 作安崎𐐢ᐢ 住𖬮ɭᐢ)
The books of the student are in the classroom.
Hakuseis kinoon kyoshisun yohan.(学生之 冊⸠ᐢ 教室𐐢ᐢ ꓩ𖬮𖬨ᐢ)
Anna ordered two novels.
Anna shosessē kantsul chubun teki. (𖬮ⲅ𖭑 小説𖬖ɭ⸠ 二𖬑𐐢ᐡ 注文𖬁ɭ𖬭ᛁ.)