Liubishuhulandianese

General information
Liubishuhulandianese is a language spoken in the UCN (Unofficial Confederate Nations), an international organization of nations located in Texas, Svalbard, Kerguelen, and other places around the world. The UCN actually exists, and considers the United Nations as unofficial. It is only called the Unofficial Confederate Nations so it won't get in trouble with the UN. With a culture so unique, the UCN needs a language to unite its Nations. Therefore, Liubishuhulandianese was created. Liubishuhulandianese is named after the UCN's first nation, Liubishuhuland. People of the UCN, especially of Liubishuhuland, use this language on a daily basis mainly for communication.

The script is written in a vertical cursive script. However, due to the diffusion of the Latin alphabet and the necessity to type Liubishuhulandianese, the language is also written with Latin letters without diacritics.

Pronunciation is rather difficult, as there are many phonemes, most of which are consonants. There are pulmonic consonants, affricates, co-articulated consonants, clicks, implosives, and ejectives, but pulmonic consonants are the most frequent. Some consonants are not found on the IPA chart.

Vocabulary is derivational, and since Liubishuhulandianese is a analytic language, there are a variety of grammatical particles. Each word in Liubishuhulandianese has a root form, which is usually a noun, verb, or adjective. By adding affixes, the part of speech and meaning of a word can change. Therefore, Liubishuhulandianese is not an isolating language. Liubishuhulandianese affixes are applied to most words, even to loan words, the majority of which originate in Mandarin Chinese. Greek, Latin, English, Arabic, and other languages also contribute to Liubishuhulandianese vocabulary.

Liubishuhulandian grammar is very straightforward and intuitive. Particles can be used to define subjects and predicates, show possession, and modify the sentence structure or tone. Inflection is nearly nonexistent in Liubishuhulandianese. Sentence structure is rather fluid and is based on context.

Liubishuhulandianese idea expression is vocabulary-based, meaning that sentences are to be interpreted literally and word-for-word. Prepositional idioms are not confusing because each preposition is only used in a specific set of situations. Lexical units are generally short, although there are a few idioms.

The name "Liubishuhulandianese" consists of two English demonymic suffixes, "-ian" and "-ese". This gives the impression of a place named "Liubishuhulandian", but the double suffix serves a purpose—to distinguish the language from the people. Hence, a Liubishuhulandian lives in Liubishuhuland and speaks Liubishuhulandianese. In Liubishuhulandianese, the word "Liubishuhu" is an adjective, and can modify the words "ren" and "vo", which mean "person/persons" and "language", respectively.

Consonants
The IPA system is used here. Refer to the Alphabet section for Liubishuhulandianese graphology. Other consonants:

ǀ - tenuis dental click

ǁ - lateral coronal click

' - follows a consonant to make it an ejective

ɓ - bilabial implosive

ɗ - alveolar implosive

ʄ - palatal implosive

ɠ - velar implosive

ʛ - uvular implosive

Notes:

Most affricates are written with two separate, consecutive letters. See the Alphabet section for the exceptions "ch" and "j".

Vowels
Notes:

The vowels /ɛ/ and /ə/ are represented by the same letter: "e" in the Latin alphabet. Generally, it is pronounced /ɛ/ when stressed and /ə/ when unstressed. It is very important that the letter "e" is pronounced correctly in each instance.

The vowels /a/ and /ä/ are represented by the same letter: "a" in the Latin alphabet. The two vowels can be used interchangeably. Most Liubishuhulandians use a mixture of both in speech and can hardly tell the difference between the two.

Some Liubishuhulandianese words have tones, but they are not necessary in common speech and are not written. In educated speech, the use of tones for certain words is more common. Tones are mostly borrowed from Mandarin Chinese.

Alphabet
Notes:

* The symbol "~" is placed between two consonants that are not meant to be pronounced as one sound. For example, "mv" would be pronounced as /ɱ/, but "m~v" would be pronounced as /mv/.

** The symbol "^" makes the consonant before it an implosive consonant.

*** The symbol "|" nasalizes the vowel before it.

Liubishuhulandianese has its own script, the Liubishuhulandianese script, which is written in vertical cursive. However, this script is only handwritten.

The letters "rh" rhotacizes the vowel it follows and is pronounced if a vowel immediately follows it.

Phonotactics
There are few, if any, phonotactic constraints in Liubishuhulandianese. There is theoretically no limit on the number of consonants in the onset and coda of a word, and it is possible for a word to have no nucleus.

Word Order
Word order can appear in the following forms in the indicative and interrogative moods:

(S = subject/agent; V = verb; O = (direct) object; IO = indirect object; P = predicative modifier) The particles "bie" and "suu" must be succeeded by a object, which can take attributive modifiers. Modifiers will be explained later.
 * 1) S P ("bie" IO) ("ne"?)
 * 2) S "us" (O) V ("bie" IO) ("ne"?)
 * 3) S V ("ne"?)
 * 4) S V O ("bie" IO) ("ne"?)
 * 5) S "suu" O V ("bie" IO) ("ne"?)
 * 6) V S O ("bie" IO) ("ne"?)

"Bie" is the indirect object marker for ditransitive verbs, while "suu" is the direct object marker for ditransitive or monotransitive verbs. An indirect object must always carry "bie", but "suu" must only be used before a object that appears before a subject.

The particle "ne" changes an otherwise indicative sentence into a question. The answer is either "yes" ("leth") or "no" ("fo"). Questions ending with "ne" are asked out of inquiry—the asker does not expect any particular answer. The word "ne" can be replaced by the word "be", which is used in situations of confirmation. This means that the asker believes that the answer to the question will be "leth", and is only asking to make sure.

In the first listed sentence structure, the predicative modifier can be a predicative adjective or a present participle. No verb is needed.

The second listed sentence structure is a passive construction. It required a subject, the particle "us", which makes a verb passive, and a transitive verb. The object is the agent in this case, and can be omitted if desired. If the transitive verb is ditransitive, then "bie", followed by an indirect object, can be used.

Dependent Clauses
Dependent clauses provide additional information to independent clauses, and there are several variations.

The Relative Clause
Relative clauses are modifiers of nouns and pronouns. Non-restrictive relative clauses, or modifiers that are nonessential to the sentence, are formed by adding the pronoun "yim", which is the only relative pronoun in Liubishuhulandianese, to the beginning of an indicative clause of sentence structure 1-5. This indicative clause must not take interrogative particles and must also be free of the antecedent:

Ha ashfi su xiaodenz yim ha yo muq suu uu ananas nieg denz bie.

Gloss: I like the child (who/that/which) I ('s) mother (O marker) (a/one) pineapple give (past tense marker) (IO marker).

Translation: I like the child whom my mother gave a pineapple to.

Notice that the particle "bie" comes with no indirect object. The IO is actually the pronoun "yim", whose antecedent is the direct object, "su xiaodenz", in the independent clause. The antecedent and the pronoun "yim" can be subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects, and no declension is necessary at all.