Ánagin

General information
Ánagin is spoken on the island of  Tánagwer, on the planet of Condora. Aside from Tánagwer, standard Ánagin, as well as variant dialects of Ánagin, is found on nearby islands such as Orása, Ésan and Batárn, and many more.

Consonant digraphs
There are a few digraphs that consist of consonants in Ánagin. One, [ps] or [p͡s], actually is not a digraph - since it is a separate letter in the Tneddaf alphabet (called Tēdáva in Ánagin) used by Ánagin and several other languages. It is only sometimes considered a 'digraph' because it is transliterated as two letters: the digraph ps is generally used, though some linguists prefer to alternatively use ṕ or even ψ (from the Greek letter psi). However, these uses can be considered rather uncommon.

The same can be said about [ɡʷ],  [kʷ],  [d͡z] and [t͡s], in a way, because they are represented by digraphs in Ánagin's orthography too. However, they are one letter in the Tneddaf alphabet, and they are clear affricates.

The real consonant digraphs in Ánagin are ny, gh and rs. They are pronounced respectively as [ɲ], [ɣ] and [ʒ] (some linguists have argued that rs is pronounced more like [ʑ], but this view is not generally accepted). It should be kept in mind, however, that the presence of these three digraphs is relatively rare. Furthermore, there is the digraph cs that can only be found in a very small amount of words used only on the islands of Hátsobnekh, Dzátsanē and Bwáwen. It is similar to a long c [t͡ʃ], thus: [t͡ʃː].

Vowels
Above are the vowels present in Ánagin. Noted should be that /y/ and /æ/ are relatively rare vowels.

When it comes to dialects, there are some deviations from the standard pronounciation of the vowels. On the islands west of Vónadar, Úskata and Trēábo, /e/ is pronounced [eɪ], / æ/ is pronounced [e], and / ɑ/ becomes [ ɛ ]. On Batárn, /y/ is often realised as [u] and a few other regional dialects have [ɨ ː ] or [ ʏ ] (the latter being significantly less common and only found on the Kvatanáka plateau of the northeast of Tánagwer) for /y/.

Aspiration and palatalisation
In Ánagin, certain vowels can be either aspirated or palatalised. The vowels u and o (see the orthography section below) can be aspirated. This usually occurs at the beginning of a word; medial aspiration is seldom. Aspiration is indicated as Ŭ and ŭ, and Ŏ and ŏ. Traditionally, a breve is used, but alternatively, the use of a caron (also known as háček, inverted circumflex or wedge) is permitted too. As for aspiration, one can easily notice the similarity with Ancient Greek. The breve is similar to the rough breathing mark (dasía in Ancient Greek, or spiritus asper in Latin) used in the ancient language of our world. An important note is that an Ánagin word can start with hu- or ho- too. This is almost similar to ŏ and ŭ; this is a clear example of redundancy in the Ánagin language. A few linguists have argued that hu and ho are pronounced [ɦu], and [ɦo] or [ɦ ɔ ], whereas ŭ and ŏ would be [hu], and [ho] or [h ɔ ], respectively. However, speakers of Ánagin do not notice, nor acknowledge this difference. For them, there is no difference between [ɦ] and [h], hence they are allophones. Besides, an aspirated vowel can be the vowel to be stressed in a word. In this case, no acute accent is put on any vowel in the word; one should gather from the absence of the acute accent marking the stress, that the aspirated vowel with a breve on top is stressed.

Two other Ánagin vowels can be palatalised. As shown in the orthography section, palatalisation is written as Ä and ä, and Ë and ë. The pronounciation of these palatalised vowels is [ʲa] or [ʲ ɑ ], and [ʲ ɛ ]. In fact, the vowels are not always palatalised. For instance, in the case of a word starting nä-, the n is actually palatalised, so it is pronounced [nʲa]-. When a word starts with what is called a palatalised vowel, this implies that a word starting with ë, for example, is pronounced [ʲ ɛ ] or simply [j ɛ].

Orthography or romanisation
The orthography used to transliterate Ánagin to any Western language is given in the table below. Please be aware that the standard pronounciation is shown in this table. A few dialects sometimes deviate from this.

Notes on the orthography
1 The letter d may be dental in a couple of cases. [d] usually becomes [d̪] before a short a [ɑ] and a short e [ɛ]. However, most Ánagin speakers do not notice the difference themselves. Therefore, it is not considered a mistake at all when a non-native speaker does not use a dental d.

2 The vowels e and  ē are separate letters in Ánagin, unlike many European languages on Earth. When stressed, e and   ē   both become é, and é is always pronounced [e]. When unstressed, e represents [ ɛ] or  [ɛː] and   ē  represents [e ː ].

3 At the end of a word, r can be pronounced either  [ɾ] or [ʀ ]. In all other cases,  [ɾ] is usual.

Aspiration and palatalisation
The features of aspiration and palatalisation in Ánagin have already been discussed. An aspirated vowel, either u or o, recieves a breve for aspiration: ŭ and ŏ. A diaeresis is used for palatalisation: ä and ë. See this section for more information.

Consonant clusters
Consonant clusters are combinations of consonants that can occur in words in a certain language. In Ánagin, quite a few clusters are permissible. However, one should bear in mind that they are not used very often. Many words only consist of single consonants and vowels.

In the next table, one can see which consonant clusters (consisting of two consonants) are possible in Ánagin. When there is no consonant cluster in a cell, a combination is not possible. When the cell is marked light red, the cluster is permissible at the end of a word only. Light green indicates that it is possible only at the end of an uninflected word and steel blue indicates that the cluster is possible in medial positions. Violet stands for the possibility of both medial and initial, whereas aquamarine is for medial and final. Lastly, yellow shows that the cluster is possible in all cases; whether initial, final or medial.

A small key for the table is given too:

(Note that the letter left of a row is the first of the cluster and the letter above a column is the second. Also, consonant digraphs, that in fact are consant clusters with another pronounciation than expected, are not shown. Instead, DH is shown, abbreviating 'digraph'.)

Syllable structure
The usual syllable structure for Ánagin (C)(C)V(C)(C). A C indicates a consonant, a V a vowel. When a C is put between brackets, (C), this means a possible consonant.

A few examples of Ánagin words illustrating the syllable structure are given below.


 * Ésan: é-san


 * VCVC: V-CVC




 * Tánagwer: tá-na-gwer


 * CVCVCVC: CV-CV-CVC




 * Dnátrasen: dná-tra-sen


 * CCVCCVCVC: CCV-CCV-CVC




 * Ŏtamáka: ŏ-ta-má-ka


 * VCVCVCV: V-CV-CV-CV