Ringwa

General information
This language was simply constructed as an experiment, and for fun.

Consonants
Consonant pairs (?/?) are unvoiced-voiced pairs.

IPA symbols: ŋ (ng), θ (th), ð (dh), ʃ (sh), ʒ (zh), x (x), ɣ (gh), tʃ (ch), dʒ (j)

Vowels
IPA symbols: ə (e), ɛ (ë), æ (ae), ɔ (o)

L and R
R represents an alveolar tap (IPA: ɾ).

L represents an alveolar lateral approximant. (IPA: l)

Alphabet
Romanized:

a, i, o, e, ai, oi, wa,

æ/ae, ë, u, r, l, ya, yo, wo,

p, k, t, s, ts, sh, ch, x, th, f, n,

b, g, d, z, dz, zh, j, ğ/gh, dh, v, ng.

IPA:

/a/, /i/, /ɔ/, /ə/, /ai/, /ɔi/, /wa/,

/æ/, /ɛ/, /u/, /ɾ/, /l/, /ja/, /jɔ/, /wɔ/,

/p/, /k/, /t/, /s/, /ts/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /x/, /θ/, /f/, /n/,

/b/, /g/, /d/, /z/, /dz/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /ɣ/, /ð/, /v/, /ŋ/.

Orthography for foreign/loan words

 * "pn" is pronounced /m/.
 * "xğ" is pronounced /h/.
 * "pğ","tğ" and "kğ" represent /pʰ/, /tʰ/ and /kʰ/ respectively.
 * "sl" and "tsl" represent /ɬ/ and /tɬ/ respectively.

Phonotactics
Almost all 2-consonant clusters are allowed, but exactly one of the two must be a stop. /ts/, /dz/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ must be written with the proper symbol (not as a pair of symbols).Clusters must have the same voicing throughout, otherwise they are pronounced according to "Orthography for foreign words". When two vowels are next to each other, pronounce a glottal stop between them, except if one of them is /ɾ/ or they are in a diphthong (/ai/, /ja/, /ɔi/, /jɔ/, /wa/, /wɔ/). Only plosives, /n/ or /ŋ/ can precede /w/, and written /ŋ/ must occur at the end of a syllable. Also, the following sound changes take place (in this order):
 * /n/ before a velar consonant is pronounced /ŋ/ except across a word boundary.
 * /k/, /g/, /x/ and /ɣ/ before "y" is pronounced /c/, /ɟ/, /ç/ and /ʝ/ respectively.
 * Any string of 2 or more /ɾ/ must be pronounced as an alveolar trill /r/.

Grammar
There are three types of word in Ringwa: Objects, Numbers, and Relations.

Objects
These correspond to other languages' nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Each object has a number of forms to determine what part of speech it is, but some words do not have an adverb form.

Objects can have these forms:

Noun (10): direct, genitive, dative, locative and instrumental cases (5) and plural (5)

Example: Weight

Verb (20): Infinitive (1), past, present and future tenses with simple, perfect and continuous aspects (9) and passive voice versions (9), gerund (1)

Example: To weigh

Performer (10): Same forms as noun, but meaning a do-er of the verb form (10)

Example: Balance/scale

Adjective (5): Agrees with case of modified noun (5)

Example: Heavy

Adverb (3): Agrees with tense (but not aspect) of modified verb (3)

Example: Heavily

Object Conjugation/Declension
The prefixes/suffixes/bothfixes are applied in the order they are shown in (top-bottom), if required. A case must be added for nouns and adjectives and a tense must be added for verbs and adverbs. Markers must be included on adjectives and adverbs. Table note: The number in parentheses is a "group". Only one member of any group can be added, and things with no group specified are on their own.

Numbers
These are like numbers in other languages, except they are in base 20 (dën). They are a special case of Objects, with a predetermined definition (with "x" being the value): Number words: sëdëxabe tradëner ba dënri(seven-ten-add-three-twenty-times-add-twenty-powerof) = 20^(3*20+17) ≈ 1 googol
 * Noun: x itself
 * Verb: To multiply by x
 * Adjective: Having a count of x (paucal/plural) x-th (otherwise)
 * Adverb: Done x times
 * Performer: A device/person whose purpose is to multiply by x

dën dënri dënri  (twenty-twenty-powerof-twenty-powerof) = 2020 20 is about the 3.5th root of a googolplex (1010 100 )

Number operation suffixes:

All operations are written after their inputs, so "two plus one" in Ringwa would be un dhu waba (lit. "one two added")

Adding: -ba or -abe

Multiplying: -er or -r

Exponentiation: -ri. Note that the exponent is said and written before the base.

Relations
These correspond to other languages' articles, particles and prepositions. They do not inflect.

Word order

 * Adjectives and adverbs come after the noun/verb they are describing.
 * Subjects and agents come before objects
 * Verbs must be after their subject and object (SOV order). This reduces ambiguity.
 * Relations can only come after nouns.

Example text
The alphabet:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1: