Wai'yung



Wai'yung is the North-Eastern member of the Rotenmuhl language family. It has the most tones of the family, having translated most of Rotenmuhl's final consonants into tones. Unlike its sister language, it does not use tone to dictate verbal conjugation, so verbs may appear with tones like any other word. Strangely for the Rotenmuhl-Viisyal sprachbund, Wai'yung lacks both clicks and lateral fricatives, having merged both into [kʰ] and [l] respectively. The only other language to lack these sounds is unrelated Pataka from the Viisyal family. Wai'yung makes extensive use not only of its tones, but its glides. Gramatically, it closely resembles Rotenmuhl, but has completely lost the Rotenmuhl family article system and gender system.

So really it'd be the easiest of user:Viisyal's languages to speak if it weren't for the tones.

Phonology
Phonotactics

Almost all Wai'yung words are monosyllabic. Words appear in the forms C(w,j)V(C), with the possibility of an initial minor syllable Cə. Words with a minor syllable in front are considered to be "one and a half" syllables. Aspirated consonants, fricatives, and glides may not appear as final cononants.

Vowels & Tone
1. Only present as a reduced vowel form of [a] in minor syllables.

2. Diphthongs and the vowel [y] cannot have glides before them.

Alphabet
1. Because [j] is only found syllable initially as a consonant, and [y] syllable medially as a rare vowel, and since [jy] /yy/ is an invalid construction, /y/ may stand for both phonemes.

2. [ʔ] is not always written syllable-initially since its presence is implied because all syllables must begin with a consonant. Thus [ʔuk˨] "ant" may be written either /'ûk/ or /ûk/. This article prefers using fewer apostrophes.

Nouns and Adjectives
All Wai'yung sentences require a noun. For example, if someone says "What should I do?" the answer cannot be simply "Run." but must include the subject : "You run."

Nouns do not take articles, but definiteness and number may be established by placing "this/that" /ha/ and "plural" /la/ before a noun. Eg. /kait/ "a/the house" ; /ha kait/ "the house, this house" ; /ha la kait/ "these houses."

As well, nouns and adjectives do not take gender. The speakers of Wai'yung, like Rotenmuhl and Viisyal, come from a three-sex species : human male and female genders are inapplicable. Like unrelated language Viisyal, but unlike its sister language Rotenmuhl, Wai'yung does not mark gender grammatically at all. If a speaker needs to define the gender of a noun, usually a person or animal, the adjectives for the gender may be appended afterward.

Adjectives
Adjectives follow nouns. Adjectives do not decline. eg. /mûür mwok/ "a green house" ; /la kait mwo'/ "green houses".

Adverbs
Adverbs follow verbs unless they are a verb case adjective as described below. Time terms such as "last night" count as adverbs. Probability is indicated through adverbs, though a vague sense of "maybe" can be created with a subjective verb case.

Verbs
Verbs do not conjugate as in Indo-European languages, but take special adverbs to express tense, mood, and modality. In Wai'yung's sister language Rotenmuhl, these adverbs are actually helper verbs that conjugate, but they have lost all conjugation in Wai'yung. Tense-marking adverbs appear before the main verb. Other adverbs such as "quickly" or "soon" appear after the verb.

The Passive Voice
Passive verbs are indicated by switching the subject and object of a normal sentence and then repeating the main verb itself. Examples:

"A child made a cake." /chur ma naul lau/ ; "The cake was made by a child." /lau ma naul naul chur/ "I smiled" /u ma ngoi/ ; "I was smiled at." /ma ngoi ngoi u/ "The next storm will break the roof" /hap fwin go jwal wek/ ; "The roof will break during the next storm." /wek go jwal jwal hap fwin/

Gerund
The difference between many nouns and verbs is simply sentence placement. For example, there is no difference between "to break" /jwal/ and "a break, a fracture" /jwal./  However, a noun form of a verb may be defined by calling at a "little X" /X ngu/, such that "a fracture" would be /jwal ngu/ and "a smile" would be /ngoi ngu/. In colloquial speech, just /-u/ is added after a word, without a glottal stop.

Participle
The participle form of a verb is placed after what it describes, just like an adjective or adverb, always using the perfect tense adverb before it.

Comparatives and Superlatives
Comparatives and superlatives take the form of : A more/less/same/most/least B. In this format, more, less, same, most, and least are verbs. To make a general statement, like "houses are bigger than fruits in general," the adjective "many" /na'/ is applied to both nouns : /mûür na' shi' gwë na'/. To specify what value is being compared, the statement takes the form of : X /ja/ A (comparative) B. "Fruits are tastier than houses" /sâü ja gwë na' min kait na'/ ; "This fruit is smaller than an apple." /durt ja gwë yat shur/ (the size of the frut is less). More /min/, less /yat/, same /ayur/, most /famin/, least /fayat/.

For, In Order To
To state the intent of any action, /sa/ is placed after the verb and before the intent. Eg. "go to the store for jeans" becomes /mi sa bî sa nwur / while "I studied biology to become a doctor" becomes /u ma jê ha jê yü sa hout fît./  When saying that something is done on behalf of another, the word "because" /ji/ is used instead, in the same construction.

Conjunctions
1. Handled as a verb ending.

Prepositions
Like conjunctions, prepositions connect phrases by going in between them. Wai'yung has many prepositions to choose from. A few common ones :

Vocabulary
Like Rotenmuhl, Wai'yung uses a Base 12 number system, with examples below. It has two different words for "twelve", one used for combining forms, and one for the plain number.

Example text


Jwen jwen nu' keun u' ha gwo su oul o hŷ su la wurn. Atai atai la o sa wot su lacha', su la o be ül ji nu' oü en o pwö gum ngu.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.