Lôppic

General information
The Lôppic language (Lôppic Latin: Lô lôpizô tařak, pronounced [ˈlo loˈpizo ˈtaʁɐk]) is the main language spoken on the Island of Laāláûī, in the country of Kihāmát, and is recognised as the island's official regional language. An inflected fusional nominative-accusative language, Lôppic has two numbers, three genders and seven cases. The language is the second most spoken in the country after Kihā́mmic and both belong to the isolated Panlaffic language family, indigenous to the country's eight islands. There are five extant Panlaffic languages other than Lôppic and Kihā́mmic.

Phonology and orthography
Lôppic can be written in either both traditional Panlaffic script or in the Standardised Romanised Panlaffic Alphabet. For ease of use the Romanised alphabet is used below.

Consonants
P p : [p] voiceless bilabial plosive

L l : [l] alveolar lateral approximant, [ɫ] velarised alveolar lateral approximant (before another consonant)

M m : [m] bilabial nasal, [ɱ] labiodental nasal (before f and v)

N n : [n] alveolar nasal, [ŋ] velar nasal (before g and k)

D d : [d] voiced alveolar plosive

H h : [h] voiceless glottal fricative, [ɦ] voiced glottal fricative (before y and between two vowels)

Ȟ ȟ : [ç] voiceless palatal fricative

K k : [k] voiceless velar plosive

Ǩ ǩ : [x] voiceless velar fricative

R r : [ɹ] alveolar approximant (at the start of a word), [ɾ] alveolar tap

Ř ř : [ʁ] voiced uvular fricative

B b : [b] voiced bilabial plosive, [β] voiced bilabial fricative (between two vowels)

V v : [ʋ] labiodental approximant

Z z : [z] voiced alveolar fricative

Ž ž : [ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar fricative

F f : [f] voiceless labiodental fricative

G g : [ɡ] voiced velar plosive, [ɣ] voiced velar fricative (between two vowels)

S s : [s] voiceless alveolar sibilant

Š š : [ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar fricative

Č č : [t͡ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar affricate

T t : [t] voiceless alveolar plosive

Y y : [j] palatal approximant

Vowels
A a : [a] open front unrounded vowel, [ɐ] near-open central vowel (semi-unstressed), [ə] mid central vowel (unstressed)

Ā ā : [ɑː] long open back unrounded vowel, [ɑ] open back unrounded vowel (unstressed)

Ã ã : [ɐ̃] nasalised near-open central vowel

E e : [ɛ] open-mid front unrounded vowel, [e] close-mid front unrounded vowel (stressed at the end of a word), [ə] mid central vowel (unstressed)

Ẽ ẽ : [ẽ] nasalised close-mid front unrounded vowel

O o : [ɒ] open back rounded vowel, [ə] mid central vowel (unstressed)

Ô ô : [o] close-mid back rounded central vowel, [ə] mid central vowel (unstressed)

Ō ō : [ɔː] long open-mid back rounded vowel, [ɔ] open-mid back rounded vowel (unstressed)

Õ õ : [õ] nasalised close-mid back rounded central vowel

I i : [i] close front unrounded vowel, [ɪ] near-close near-front unrounded vowel (semi-unstressed), [ɪ̈] near-close central unrounded vowel (unstressed)

Ī ī : [iː] long close front unrounded vowel, [i] close front unrounded vowel (unstressed)

Ĩ ĩ : [ɛ̃] nasalised open-mid front unrounded vowel

U u : [ʊ] near-close near-back rounded vowel, [ʊ̈] near-close central rounded vowel (unstressed)

Û û : [u] close back rounded vowel, [ʊ̈] near-close central rounded vowel (unstressed)

Ū ū : [uː] long close back rounded vowel, [u] close back rounded vowel (unstressed)

Ũ ũ : [ũ] nasalised close back rounded vowel

Digraphs
LY ly : [ʎ] palatal lateral approximant

NY ny : [ɲ] palatal nasal

DZ dz : [d͡z] voiced alveolar affricate

DS ds : [d͡z] voiced alveolar affricate

DY dy : [ɟ] voiced palatal plosive

DŽ dž : [d͡ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar affricate

KG kg : [kː] geminated voiceless velar plosive

GK gk : [gː] geminated voiced velar plosive

TZ tz : [t͡s] voiceless alveolar affricate

TS ts : [t͡s] voiceless alveolar affricate

TY ty : [c] voiceless palatal plosive

Vowel stress
Depending on whether or not a vowel is stressed in Lôppic, its pronunciation may change, just as in English, Portuguese and Russian. Stressed means that the vowel is a primary or strong secondary stress point, semi-stressed means that it neighbours a stress point, unstressed means that there is at least one other vowel between it and a stress point. The table below shows how pronunciation may change according to stress:

Alphabet
All the Panlaffic languages have traditionally been written in the Panlaffic alphabet, Lôppic using a specific variant, but nowadays chiefly due to the Internet the Romanised alphabet is gaining use. Unlike in Kihā́mmic the stresses of word are not indicated with stress marks.

Panlaffic alphabet
The Panlaffic alphabet is a true alphabet. An example of its use is on the Coat of Arms of Kihāmát (left). The word on the scroll spells "Kihāmát" in the Kihā́mmic variant of the alphabet. Though the alphabet formerly had both majuscule and minuscule cases, only the majuscule is now generally used and the minuscule is no longer used at all in any official context.

Cases
There are seven cases in the Lôppic language:
 * 1) Nominative
 * 2) Accusative
 * 3) Genitive
 * 4) Ablative
 * 5) Allative (or dative-allative)
 * 6) Instrumental
 * 7) Prepositional

Nouns
Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter; two numbers: singular and plural; and are declined according to case.

Singular
Masculine nouns end in a consonant, -ô and -õ.

Plural
Pluralisation in masculine nouns adds the infix -am- or -m-, some nouns add -an- or -n- instead.

Singular
Feminine nouns end in -a, -ã, -e and -ẽ.

Plural
Pluralisation in feminine nouns adds the infix -m- or -am-. Some nouns add -n- or -an- instead.

Singular
Neuter nouns end in -û, -ũ-ī and -ĩ.

Plural
Pluralisation in neuter nouns adds the infix -tr- or -atr-. Some nouns add -dr- or -adr- instead.