Whag

Whag was the language of the Pencils and many other species/civilizations in the central regions of the Pencilcosmos, before they adopted The Pencil Language. Whag is directly descended from Proto-Central, and thus shares many traits with it.

The language has few loanwords, with most of the loanwords coming from The Pencil Language.

The language is peculiar in that even though it is stress-timed, it exhibits no known signs of vowel reduction.

Classification and Dialects
Whag is divided into 2 main dialects: the Wofian dialect and the Freeglian dialect*. Although they are (usually) classified as separate dialects, the dialects are relatively similar to each other.

* The status of the dialect is controversial

Phonology
Note that the phonology is just an approximation of the alien phonology used by the speakers.

Vowels
* These sounds are only present in certain dialects.

Phonotactics
Although Whag is still relatively strict on consonant clusters, it is more lenient than its predecessor, Proto-Central.

Allowed consonant clusters (note that "j" represents /j/):

(C)j

(C)w

Whag developed a slightly different syllable structure to Proto-Central (Pencilcosmos) due to sound changes. Words tend to end in vowels, in contrast to Freeglian, its closely-related counterpart.

All sounds are allowed as onset, and /p/, /s/, /k/, /ɾ/, and all vowels allowed as coda.

Stress is always on the penultimate syllable (this does not apply to loanwords).

Phonological Sound Changes

 * /x/ -> /h/ in onset


 * /p/ -> /b/ in onset
 * /ʍ/ -> /w/
 * /ji/ -> /ɛ/ if followed by /ɾ/ (unpredictable)
 * /ji/ -> /i/ if followed by a fricative (unpredictable)
 * /r/ -> /ɾ/
 * /ç/ -> /ɕ/ or /ɕʲ/ in stressed positions (there are many exceptions to this)
 * /ç/ -> /ʝ/ -> /j/ in unstressed positions (there are many exceptions to this)
 * /q/ -> /k/ and sometimes -> /g/ in onset
 * /ɒ/ -> /ɑ/ -> /a/ or /ɔ/
 * /ʊ/ -> /ə/ -> /ɛ/ (-> /e/) (the exact path is uncertain)
 * /awu/ -> /au/ -> /ɒ/ -> /ɔ/
 * /ɑ/ -> /a/ -> /ɛ/ -> /e/ in stressed positions (sound change is relatively unpredictable; this sound change tends not to happen in monosyllabic words)
 * word-final devoicing

Nouns
Nouns take some marking, and decline according to person, definiteness, and number.

Noun marking will be shown via the word "hau" (realm/-verse/place): The indefinite article evolved from a particle in Proto-Central meaning "there".

Nouns have 3 numbers: singular (unmarked), dual, and plural. This will be demonstrated via the noun "wagep", which means "pencil/creature" (note that this form is irregular): A regular form, this time using "ho" (realm/verse): If a number greater than 2 is directly specified (as in "wegap bu", meaning "eight pencils"), affixes showing grammatical number disappear.

Verbs
Verbs conjugate according to tense, aspect, and voice (note that the language makes no distinction between past tense and perfective/perfect aspect). Verbs inflect for one case.

Verb conjugation will be shown via the word "shji" (create): * These are irregular forms, verbs ending with "ji" usually exhibit irregularity.

The passive voice marker can also be used as a participle former.

The gerund former is -wi, which changes to -ui if the word it is being suffixed on ends with /p/.

To express that a thing is able to do something, the particle "hishekja" is placed after the phrase/clause.

Copula
Just like in Proto-Central, the copula (ja) is suffixed onto the verb to show that it definitely happened (it can also just be considered the default verb ending). Later on, the copula also was used to create stative verbs and was also affixed onto descriptive nouns. The copula can also be added to show emphasis.

Relative Clauses
Relative clauses are formed by putting the verb before the noun, just like in Proto-Central. The object goes before the verb (if there is one).

Adjectives
Adjectives take no marking.

Most adjectives (excluding the basic ones, such as "good", "bad", "many", "few", etc.) are derived from verbs, such as "soshjas" ("smart"), "roshjas" (dumb/stupid), "alive ("hep"), and "dead ("heso"), although quite many are derived from nouns, such as "hajekja" (peaceful/peace), "hesokja" (voidlike/void), and "hakja" (time-like/spreading).

Some adjectives and their corresponding nouns share the same form.

Comparative/Superlative Degree
The comparative is marked by reduplicating the first syllable of the word.

The superlative is marked by an adposition (wisaga), which comes after the adjective.

This will be demonstrated using the word "hip" (small): There is a different conjugation pattern for words that start with a syllable that contains /a/, which will be demonstrated via the adjective "hajekja" (peaceful)

Conjunctions
Whag previously had 5 conjunctions: "and" (shu), "or" (rugjo), "but" (rusekja), and "because/for" (bazasi), although it lost a dedicated word for "and" later on.

Conjunctions aren't too interesting grammar-wise, and take no marking (as they are just conjunctions). Some conjunctions, like "bazasi", are also used as particles/adpositions.

Question Words
"basazi" can be used as "why" when it comes at the end of a sentence.

"rusas" can be used as "what". It is treated as a noun.

"rushjasa" can be used as "when". It is treated as an adjective.

Syntax
Whag is entirely head-initial. There are barely any adpositions that come before the word they're inflecting.

Lexicon
Whag/Lexicon