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:

1. One letter corresponds to one sound
2. 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)
3. The other vocalic sounds except for “a” are rendered with a diacritic symbol, on the left or on the right of the consonant.
4. Single vowels are shown by a “placeholder” symbol, with the value of /a/ if no other vowel diacritic is present.
5. 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.

1. 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.
2. Genitive (属格, zukkaku): to express the possession
3. Accusative (対格, taikaku): the case used for the direct object of a transitive verb
4. Dative (与格, yokaku): the indirect case of a destination recipient (to whom)
5. Locative (処格, shokaku): the case used to express the static position
6. Allative (向格, hyānkaku): the case used to express the direction (to the outside, until)
7. Ablative (奪格, daskaku): the case used to express the origin (from where, from when)
8. 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):

1. Words ending in a: add an -e
2. Words ending in e: add an -i
3. Words ending in i: add an -o (a diphthongization happens, so the word end changes to -yo)
4. Words ending in o: add an -u
5. Words ending in u: add an -a (a diphthongization happens, so the word end changes to -wa)
6. 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.

1. Comitative (with): -te (miwaete, with the water; tendattannete, with the beetle)
2. Translative (to become): - nde (sāryonde, to become a river, jiyuande, to become free)
3. Dedative (about): - nkai (ahirounkai, about the color; )
4. Abessive (without) -ttan (saisonuttan, without love; gijussattan, without technology)

Another case, the istructive, is made by the dative bases:

1. 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.)