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|Phonology=
  
|Phonology=
 
|Words=
  
|Words=
−
|Creator=U Kataka|Name=South Vimnic|NativeName=u˧ e˧nvǵa˧ʔo˧m}}
 +
|Creator=U Kataka|Name=South Vimnic|NativeName=u˧ e˧nvġa˧q̇o˧m}}
 
South Vimnic (Vgha) is spoken on the southeast coast of the Mainland and throughout the Southern Mountains. It has had extensive and artificial reconstruction and simplification from its archaic predecessor and is the official language of several small nations.
  
South Vimnic (Vgha) is spoken on the southeast coast of the Mainland and throughout the Southern Mountains. It has had extensive and artificial reconstruction and simplification from its archaic predecessor and is the official language of several small nations.
   
 
==History==
  
==History==
−
The southeast coast of the Mainland and the Southern Mountains were previously invaded and colonised twice by the Tev Empire, during which Old South Vimnic became extinct and much of the language became permanently lost. Once the region regained independence, the linguistic composition of the region was mainly Tev with various Tev creoles and pidgins. The nations of this region formed a multinational government and founded an institution to revive and purify Old South Vimnic through reconstruction based on Old South Vimnic (through old texts), other Vimnic languages, and regional creoles. This effort also utilised compounding, abbreviation, abstraction, and the elimination of most non-Vimnic lexical and grammatical influences—most notably excepting the agglutinative morphology (which occurred in most Tev creoles through Old South Vimnic's isolativity and Tev's fusionality). Various grammatical rules were also simplified, with grammatical exceptions generally being eliminated. The extensive initiative to educate the population in modern South Vimnic was aided by a newly-formed religious institution.
 +
The southeast coast of the Mainland and the Southern Mountains were invaded and colonised twice by the Tev Empire, during which Old South Vimnic became extinct and much of the language was lost. Once the region regained independence, the linguistic composition of the region was mainly Tev with various Tev-based creoles and pidgins. The nations of this region formed a multinational government and founded an institution to create the new South Vimnic language based on Old South Vimnic (via surviving texts) as well as reconstruction via other Vimnic languages and regional creoles. This effort also involved compounding, abbreviation, abstraction, and the elimination of most non-Vimnic lexical and grammatical influences—the latter most notably excepting the agglutinative morphology (which is widespread in Tev creoles due to Old South Vimnic's isolativity and Tev's fusionality). Various grammatical rules were also simplified, with most grammatical exceptions eliminated. The initiative to educate the population in the new South Vimnic language was largely handled by a newly-formed religious institution.
   
−
This initiative was well-received both internally and externally and achieved great success. However, this effort gradually slowed and halted due to a plague whose aftermath led to civil war and an invasion by Aurwe. During this time, radical compounding via South Vimnic's large amount of particles with varied lexical, phonological, and grammatical influences from the Aurwean language altered the language and led to a linguistic rift primarily between rural and urban areas. While connections between the cities improved causing the formation of the modern standard dialect, more isolated parts of the country became more isolated from the language and experienced stagnation and/or independent change. After this chaotic period, the governments of the region attempted a new linguistic purist movement which was poorly received in general and was soon discontinued despite some early success.
 +
This initiative was well-received both internally and externally and achieved great success. However, this effort gradually slowed and then halted due to a plague whose aftermath led to civil war and an invasion by Aurwe. During this time, compounding with South Vimnic's large amount of particles with varied lexical, phonological, and grammatical influences from the Aurwean language altered the language and led to a linguistic rift primarily between rural and urban areas. While connections between the cities improved causing the formation of the modern standard dialect, more isolated parts of the country became more isolated from the language and saw stagnation or independent change. After this period of chaos, the government of the region attempted a new linguistic purist movement which was poorly received in general and was soon discontinued after some relatively minor orthographic reform. The standard dialect has been gradually replacing other dialects.
   
 
==Classification==
  
==Classification==
Line 68: Line 68:
 
| width="240px" |(†) Extinct.<br>(*) A Tev language. <!-- However, it has grammatical, phonological, and lexical similarities to the Vimnic languages and is partially derived from Old South Vimnic. -->
  
| width="240px" |(†) Extinct.<br>(*) A Tev language. <!-- However, it has grammatical, phonological, and lexical similarities to the Vimnic languages and is partially derived from Old South Vimnic. -->
 
|}
  
|}
−
South Vimnic is a Vimnic language, but one of the least related languages in this family as it has been heavily constructed. South Vimnic is the indirect descendant of Old South Vimnic as it was mainly constructed from texts in Old South Vimnic, but it features significant amounts of reconstructions based on other Vimnic languages and Southern Mountains Tev Creole as well as borrowings and abstractions. Unlike most Vimnic languages—which are generally isolative—South Vimnic is agglutinative. But like most Vimnic languages, South Vimnic has a fairly flexible VSO-VOS word order, a large range of freely movable particles, no adjectives, and an active-stative morphosyntactic alignment.
 +
South Vimnic is a Vimnic language, but one of the least related languages in this family as it has been heavily constructed. South Vimnic is the indirect descendant of Old South Vimnic, being largely constructed from texts in Old South Vimnic. It also has large amounts of reconstruction via other Vimnic languages and Vimnic-Tev creoles, as well as influences from Aurwean. Like most Vimnic languages, South Vimnic has a fairly flexible VSO-VOS word order, a large inventory of consonants and particles, no adjectives, and an active-stative morphosyntactic alignment. Unlike most Vimnic languages—which are generally isolative—South Vimnic is agglutinative.
   
 
===Dialects===
  
===Dialects===
−
{{Fixup}}
  
 
Modern South Vimnic has numerous dialects:
  
Modern South Vimnic has numerous dialects:
−
* Standard dialect: The dialect generally considered to be standard as it is spoken in all of the major cities and by approximately 68% of the population. It could potentially be split into slightly deviating regional dialects.
 +
* Standard dialect: The dialect spoken in nearly all of the major cities and by approximately 68% of the population. It could potentially be split into slightly deviating regional dialects.
   
 
==Phonology==
  
==Phonology==
Line 196: Line 195:
   
 
===Phonotactics===
  
===Phonotactics===
−
There are no vowel diphthongs in South Vimnic. When a vowel precedes another vowel due to morphemes or foreign origin, ''ʔ'' is inserted between them, including between words (see Syntax). Regular vowels also become nasalised before nasal consonants except for ''l'', ''r'', and ''ŕ'' (see Writing system).
+
There are no vowel diphthongs in South Vimnic. When a vowel precedes another vowel due to morphemes or foreign origin, ''q̇'' is inserted between them, including between words (see Syntax). Regular vowels also become nasalised before nasal consonants except for ''l'', ''r'', and ''ŕ'' (see Writing system).
   
−
There is also consonant harmony—mostly defined by voicing in bilabial to velar plosives, affricates, and fricatives—which prevents "voiced" consonants from being in a word with "unvoiced" consonants and vice versa. In South Vimnic, the "voice" harmony rules can be unintuitive. For example, while both ''r'' and ''ŕ'' represent voiced consonants, they are considered "unvoiced" and share the "voiced" form ''ṙ''. If ''ṙ'' becomes "devoiced" however, it can only become ''r''. When an "unvoiced" particle is appended a "voiced" stem, the consonants in that particle assume their "voiced" form and vice versa. There are also "neutral" consonants which do not affect a word's "voice". If a word consists of only neutral consonants, the "first-appended particle" rule applies to determine "voice" (see Syntax). The "voiced" consonants and their counterparts are detailed below with the neutral consonants.
 +
There is also consonant harmony—mostly defined by voicing in bilabial to velar plosives, affricates, and fricatives—which prevents "voiced" consonants from being in a word with "unvoiced" consonants and vice versa. In South Vimnic, the "voice" harmony rules can be unintuitive. For example, while both ''r'' and ''r̈'' represent voiced consonants, they are considered "unvoiced" and share the "voiced" form ''ṙ''. If ''ṙ'' becomes "devoiced" however, it can only become ''r''. When an "unvoiced" particle is appended a "voiced" stem, the consonants in that particle assume their "voiced" form and vice versa. There are also "neutral" consonants which do not affect a word's "voice". If a word consists of only neutral consonants, the "first-appended particle" rule applies to determine "voice" (see Syntax). The "voiced" consonants and their counterparts are detailed below with the neutral consonants.
   
 
{| class="wikitable article-table" style="text-align: center"
  
{| class="wikitable article-table" style="text-align: center"
Line 206: Line 205:
 
|ḋ
  
|ḋ
 
|g
  
|g
−
|ǵ
 +
|ġ
 
|ṙ
  
|ṙ
 
|v
  
|v
 
|z
  
|z
−
|ź
 +
|ż
 
|-
  
|-
 
! style="width: 60px" |Unvoiced
  
! style="width: 60px" |Unvoiced
Line 217: Line 216:
 
|ṫ
  
|ṫ
 
|k
  
|k
−
|x (h, ḣ)
 +
|x (h, ẋ)
−
|r (ŕ)
 +
|r (r̈)
 
|f
  
|f
 
|s
  
|s
−
|ś
 +
|ṡ
 
|}
  
|}
 
{| class="wikitable article-table" style="text-align: center"
  
{| class="wikitable article-table" style="text-align: center"
 
! style="width: 60px" |Neutral
  
! style="width: 60px" |Neutral
−
|ʔ
 +
|q̇
 
|j
  
|j
 
|l
  
|l
 
|m
  
|m
−
|ḿ
 +
|ṁ
 
|n
  
|n
−
|ń
 +
|ṅ
 
|q
  
|q
 
|w
  
|w
 
|}
  
|}
 
South Vimnic is a consonant-heavy language with a syllable structure of (C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)—it can have consonant clusters with up to seven (7) consonants. However, no roots occur with the theoretical maximum of fourteen (14) consonants per vowel and there are only nine roots with a seven-consonant cluster (see Lexicon):
  
South Vimnic is a consonant-heavy language with a syllable structure of (C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)—it can have consonant clusters with up to seven (7) consonants. However, no roots occur with the theoretical maximum of fourteen (14) consonants per vowel and there are only nine roots with a seven-consonant cluster (see Lexicon):
  +
* ajtfsxwq̇
−
* ajtfsxwʔ
  
  +
* ḋjdżġwq̇ạ̇ńġ
−
* ḋjdźǵwʔạ̈ńǵ
  
  +
* jdżbġwq̇eld
−
* jdźbǵwʔeld
  
  +
* jëjtṡxwpq̇
−
* jǝjtśxwpʔ
  
  +
* jpṡxṫwq̇apwq̇
−
* jpśxṫwʔapwʔ
  
  +
* jvwdzġq̇ẹ̇ṁ
−
* jvwdzǵʔẹ̈ḿ
  
  +
* ṅjqṡxwq̇ẹ̈
−
* ńjqśxwʔǝ̣
  
  +
* rjtsxwq̇ı̣tṡxw
−
* rjtsxwʔı̣tśxw
  
  +
* ṙjqżġwq̇ọḋd
−
* ṙjqźǵwʔọḋd
  
   
 
==Writing system==
  
==Writing system==
Line 251: Line 250:
 
|+Standard dialect
  
|+Standard dialect
 
! scope="row" |Letter
  
! scope="row" |Letter
−
!ʔ
 +
!q̇
 
!a
  
!a
 
!ạ
  
!ạ
−
!ä
 +
!ȧ
  +
!ạ̇
−
!ạ̈
  
 
!b
  
!b
 
!d
  
!d
Line 261: Line 260:
 
!e
  
!e
 
!ẹ
  
!ẹ
−
!ë
 +
!ė
  +
!ẹ̇
⚫
!ẹ̈
  
 
|-
  
|-
 
! scope="row" |Sound
  
! scope="row" |Sound
Line 281: Line 280:
 
!f
  
!f
 
!g
  
!g
−
!ǵ
 +
!ġ
 
!h
  
!h
−
!ḣ
 +
!ẋ
 
!ı
  
!ı
 
!
  
!
 
ı̣
  
ı̣
−
!ï
 +
!i
 
!
  
!
  +
ị
−
ı̣̈
  
 
!j
  
!j
 
!k
  
!k
Line 310: Line 309:
 
! scope="row" |Letter
  
! scope="row" |Letter
 
!m
  
!m
−
!ḿ
 +
!ṁ
 
!n
  
!n
−
!ń
 +
!ṅ
 
!o
  
!o
 
!ọ
  
!ọ
−
!ö
 +
!ȯ
 
!
  
!
  +
ọ̇
−
ọ̈
  
 
!p
  
!p
 
!q
  
!q
 
!r
  
!r
−
!ŕ
 +
!r̈
 
|-
  
|-
 
! scope="row" |Sound
  
! scope="row" |Sound
Line 340: Line 339:
 
!ṙ
  
!ṙ
 
!s
  
!s
−
!ś
 +
!ṡ
 
!t
  
!t
 
!ṫ
  
!ṫ
Line 349: Line 348:
 
!x
  
!x
 
!z
  
!z
−
!ź
 +
!ż
 
|-
  
|-
 
!Sound
  
!Sound
Line 366: Line 365:
 
|-
  
|-
 
!Letter
  
!Letter
−
!ǝ
 +
!ë
  ⚫
!ẹ̈
−
!ǝ̣
  
 
!˧*
  
!˧*
 
!˧˩*
  
!˧˩*
Line 375: Line 374:
 
|/ə/, /ə̃/
  
|/ə/, /ə̃/
 
|/ə̃/
  
|/ə̃/
  +
|—
−
|/˧/
  
  +
|—
−
|/˧˩/
  
  +
|—
−
|/˧˥/
  
 
|}
  
|}
 
(*) Tone.
  
(*) Tone.
 
* Regular vowels become nasalised before nasal consonants.
  
* Regular vowels become nasalised before nasal consonants.
−
* The letters ''l'', ''r'', and ''ŕ'' are pronounced as /n/, /ɱ/, and /ŋ/ respectively before other consonants and at the end of words. This occurrence never triggers nasalisation in preceding vowels.
 +
* The letters ''l'', ''r'', and ''r̈'' are pronounced as /n/, /ɱ/, and /ŋ/ respectively before other consonants and at the end of words. This occurrence never triggers nasalisation in preceding vowels.
   
 
==Grammar==
  
==Grammar==
Line 392: Line 391:
   
 
==Lexicon==
  
==Lexicon==
  +
* '''ajtfsxwq̇'''
−
* ajtfsxwʔ:
  
−
** v. (tone I) perservere
 +
** verb: (tone 1) perservere
−
** v. (tone II) ''(literary)'' survive, outlast; ''(derogatory slang)'' elect; ''(dialectal)'' hold status, govern, get killed
 +
** verb: (tone 2) ''(literary)'' survive, outlast; ''(derogatory slang)'' elect; ''(dialectal)'' hold status, govern, get killed
−
** n. (tone II) ''(slang or dialectal, derogatory)'' appointed official
 +
** noun: (tone 2) ''(slang or dialectal, derogatory)'' appointed official
  +
* '''ḋjdżġwq̇ạ̇ṅġ'''
−
* ḋjdźǵwʔạ̈ńǵ:
  
−
** n. (tone I) warbler
 +
** noun: (tone 1) warbler
−
** n. (tone II) wren; ''(dialectal)'' robin
 +
** noun: (tone 2) wren; ''(dialectal)'' robin
−
** n. (tone III) cotton plant; ''(dialectal)'' cat, small bird, bulrush
 +
** noun: (tone 3) cotton plant; ''(dialectal)'' cat, small bird, bulrush
  +
* '''jdżbġwq̇eld'''
−
* jdźbǵwʔeld:
  
−
** n. (tone I) alder
 +
** noun: (tone 1) alder
−
** n. (tone II) willow
 +
** noun: (tone 2) willow
−
** v. (tone III) droop, sag
 +
** verb: (tone 3) droop, sag
  +
* '''jëjtṡxwpq̇'''
−
* jǝjtśxwpʔ:
  
−
** n. (tone I) rain
 +
** noun: (tone 1) rain
−
** n. (tone II) dew
 +
** noun: (tone 2) dew
−
** n. (tone III) juice; ''(vulgar slang)'' semen; ''(dialectal)'' blood, sweat, anger, jealousy
 +
** noun: (tone 3) juice; ''(vulgar slang)'' semen; ''(dialectal)'' blood, sweat, anger, jealousy
−
** v. (tone III) ''(dialectal)'' ring out, sqeeze, anger
 +
** verb: (tone 3) ''(dialectal)'' ring out, sqeeze, anger
  +
* '''jpṡxṫwq̇apwq̇'''
−
* jpśxṫwʔapwʔ:
  
−
** n. (tone I) ''(literary)'' spirit, soul
 +
** noun: (tone 1) ''(literary)'' spirit, soul
−
** v. (tone I) ''(slang or dialectal)'' entrance; ''(dialectal)'' die, euthanise
 +
** verb: (tone 1) ''(slang or dialectal)'' entrance; ''(dialectal)'' die, euthanise
−
** n. (tone II) ''(literary)'' ghost
 +
** noun: (tone 2) ''(literary)'' ghost
−
** v. (tone II) ''(dialectal)'' die, haunt, frighten, starve
 +
** verb: (tone 2) ''(dialectal)'' die, haunt, frighten, starve
−
** n. (tone III) ''(literary)'' demon; ''(dialectal)'' corpse, evil, evil person
 +
** noun: (tone 3) ''(literary)'' demon; ''(dialectal)'' corpse, evil, evil person
−
** v. (tone III) ''(slang or dialectal)'' murder
 +
** verb: (tone 3) ''(slang or dialectal)'' murder
  +
* '''jvwdzġq̇ẹ̇ṁ'''
−
* jvwdzǵʔẹ̈ḿ:
  
−
** v. (tone I) tap (''furnish with taps'')
 +
** verb: (tone 1) tap (''furnish with taps'')
−
** v. (tone II) extract (''a resource''); ''(dialectal)'' suckle
 +
** verb: (tone 2) extract (''a resource''); ''(dialectal)'' suckle
−
** v. (tone III) ''(colloquial)'' extract (''a resource''); ''(dialectal)'' block
 +
** verb: (tone 3) ''(colloquial)'' extract (''a resource''); ''(dialectal)'' block
  +
* '''ṅjqṡxwq̇ẹ̈'''
−
* ńjqśxwʔǝ̣:
  
−
** v. (tone I) dry, solidify
 +
** verb: (tone 1) dry, solidify
−
** n. (tone II) ice
 +
** noun: (tone 2) ice
−
** v. (tone II) ''(dialectal)'' freeze
 +
** verb: (tone 2) ''(dialectal)'' freeze
−
** v. (tone III) ''(colloquial)'' suffocate
 +
** verb: (tone 3) ''(colloquial)'' suffocate
  +
* '''rjtsxwq̇ı̣tṡxw'''
−
* rjtsxwʔı̣tśxw:
  
−
** v. (tone I) compress
 +
** verb: (tone 1) compress
−
** v. (tone II) bind, restrain, command
 +
** verb: (tone 2) bind, restrain, command
−
** v. (tone III) stupidify
 +
** verb: (tone 3) stupidify
  +
* '''ṙjqżġwq̇ọḋd'''
−
* ṙjqźǵwʔọḋd:
  
−
** n. (tone I) blonde hair; ''(slang or dialectal)'' jaundice, bleach
 +
** noun: (tone 1) blonde hair; ''(slang or dialectal)'' jaundice, bleach
−
** v. (tone I) ''(dialectal)'' age
 +
** verb: (tone 1) ''(dialectal)'' age
−
** n. (tone II) yellow; ''(dialectal)'' canary, coat of arms, bathrobe, footwrap, jaundice
 +
** noun: (tone 2) yellow; ''(dialectal)'' canary, coat of arms, bathrobe, footwrap, jaundice
−
** v. (tone III) fade
 +
** verb: (tone 3) fade
   
 
==Example text==
  
==Example text==
 
===Basic sentences===
  
===Basic sentences===
  +
* e˧˩npṡo˧x le˧q̇ạ˧ṁqa˧ e˧nqa˧la˧ qq̇ë˧sı˧ṫxȧ˧˥ẋa˧?
−
* e˧˩npśo˧x le˧ʔạ˧ḿqa˧ e˧nqa˧la˧ʔ qʔǝ˧sı˧ṫxä˧˥ḣa˧?
  
 
** Translation: Why are you going home?
  
** Translation: Why are you going home?
−
** IPA (standard pronunciation): /ˈɛ̃ː˧˩n.p͡ʂo˧x lɛ˧ˈʔãː˧.ɱqa˧ ɛ̃˧nˈqaː˧.laʔ qˀə˧.sɨ˧ˈθ͡xæː˧˥ħa˧/
 +
** IPA (U˧ Hı˧jkna˧˩rw pronunciation): [ˈɛ̃³²n.p͡ʂo⁴⁴x lɛ³³ˈʔã⁵⁵.ɱqa³ ɛ̃⁴nˈqa⁴⁴.la³ qʼə³.sɨ⁴ˈθ͡xæ³⁵ħa³]

Revision as of 01:07, 10 August 2020

South Vimnic
u˧ e˧nvġa˧q̇o˧m
Type Agglutinative
Alignment Active-stative
Head direction First
Tonal Yes
Declensions No
Conjugations No
Genders No
Nouns decline according to...
Case Number
Definiteness Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect
Meta-information
Progress 0%
Statistics
Nouns 0%
Verbs 0%
Adjectives 0%
Syntax 0%
Words of 1500
Creator U Kataka

South Vimnic (Vgha) is spoken on the southeast coast of the Mainland and throughout the Southern Mountains. It has had extensive and artificial reconstruction and simplification from its archaic predecessor and is the official language of several small nations.

History

The southeast coast of the Mainland and the Southern Mountains were invaded and colonised twice by the Tev Empire, during which Old South Vimnic became extinct and much of the language was lost. Once the region regained independence, the linguistic composition of the region was mainly Tev with various Tev-based creoles and pidgins. The nations of this region formed a multinational government and founded an institution to create the new South Vimnic language based on Old South Vimnic (via surviving texts) as well as reconstruction via other Vimnic languages and regional creoles. This effort also involved compounding, abbreviation, abstraction, and the elimination of most non-Vimnic lexical and grammatical influences—the latter most notably excepting the agglutinative morphology (which is widespread in Tev creoles due to Old South Vimnic's isolativity and Tev's fusionality). Various grammatical rules were also simplified, with most grammatical exceptions eliminated. The initiative to educate the population in the new South Vimnic language was largely handled by a newly-formed religious institution.

This initiative was well-received both internally and externally and achieved great success. However, this effort gradually slowed and then halted due to a plague whose aftermath led to civil war and an invasion by Aurwe. During this time, compounding with South Vimnic's large amount of particles with varied lexical, phonological, and grammatical influences from the Aurwean language altered the language and led to a linguistic rift primarily between rural and urban areas. While connections between the cities improved causing the formation of the modern standard dialect, more isolated parts of the country became more isolated from the language and saw stagnation or independent change. After this period of chaos, the government of the region attempted a new linguistic purist movement which was poorly received in general and was soon discontinued after some relatively minor orthographic reform. The standard dialect has been gradually replacing other dialects.

Classification

Vimnic language tree
  • Proto-Vimnic†
    • North Vimnic†
    • Old Far North Vimnic†
      • Far North Vimnic
    • Old South Vimnic†
      • South Vimnic
      • Southern Mountains Tev Creole*
    • Old Upper Vimnic†
      • Middle Upper Vimnic†
        • East Vimnic
        • West Vimnic
    • Southwest Vimnic†
(†) Extinct.
(*) A Tev language.

South Vimnic is a Vimnic language, but one of the least related languages in this family as it has been heavily constructed. South Vimnic is the indirect descendant of Old South Vimnic, being largely constructed from texts in Old South Vimnic. It also has large amounts of reconstruction via other Vimnic languages and Vimnic-Tev creoles, as well as influences from Aurwean. Like most Vimnic languages, South Vimnic has a fairly flexible VSO-VOS word order, a large inventory of consonants and particles, no adjectives, and an active-stative morphosyntactic alignment. Unlike most Vimnic languages—which are generally isolative—South Vimnic is agglutinative.

Dialects

Modern South Vimnic has numerous dialects:

  • Standard dialect: The dialect spoken in nearly all of the major cities and by approximately 68% of the population. It could potentially be split into slightly deviating regional dialects.

Phonology

Consonants

Standard dialect
Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Labio-velar Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Nasal m ɱ n ŋ
Plosive p b t d k ɡ q ʔ
Sibilant affricate t͡s d͡z ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ
Non-sibilant affricate k͡x ɡ͡ɣ
Sibilant fricative s z ʂ ʐ
Non-sibilant fricative f v θ ð x ɣ ʁ ħ h
Approximant j w
Tap ɾ
Lateral approximant l
Lateral tap ɭ̆

Vowels

Standard dialect
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
High-mid e o
Mid ə
Low-mid ɛ œ
Near-low æ
Low a

Phonotactics

There are no vowel diphthongs in South Vimnic. When a vowel precedes another vowel due to morphemes or foreign origin, q̇ is inserted between them, including between words (see Syntax). Regular vowels also become nasalised before nasal consonants except for l, r, and ŕ (see Writing system).

There is also consonant harmony—mostly defined by voicing in bilabial to velar plosives, affricates, and fricatives—which prevents "voiced" consonants from being in a word with "unvoiced" consonants and vice versa. In South Vimnic, the "voice" harmony rules can be unintuitive. For example, while both r and r̈ represent voiced consonants, they are considered "unvoiced" and share the "voiced" form ṙ. If ṙ becomes "devoiced" however, it can only become r. When an "unvoiced" particle is appended a "voiced" stem, the consonants in that particle assume their "voiced" form and vice versa. There are also "neutral" consonants which do not affect a word's "voice". If a word consists of only neutral consonants, the "first-appended particle" rule applies to determine "voice" (see Syntax). The "voiced" consonants and their counterparts are detailed below with the neutral consonants.

Voiced b d ḋ g ġ ṙ v z ż
Unvoiced p t ṫ k x (h, ẋ) r (r̈) f s ṡ
Neutral q̇ j l m ṁ n ṅ q w

South Vimnic is a consonant-heavy language with a syllable structure of (C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)(C)—it can have consonant clusters with up to seven (7) consonants. However, no roots occur with the theoretical maximum of fourteen (14) consonants per vowel and there are only nine roots with a seven-consonant cluster (see Lexicon):

  • ajtfsxwq̇
  • ḋjdżġwq̇ạ̇ńġ
  • jdżbġwq̇eld
  • jëjtṡxwpq̇
  • jpṡxṫwq̇apwq̇
  • jvwdzġq̇ẹ̇ṁ
  • ṅjqṡxwq̇ẹ̈
  • rjtsxwq̇ı̣tṡxw
  • ṙjqżġwq̇ọḋd

Writing system

Romanised system

Standard dialect
Letter q̇ a ạ ȧ ạ̇ b d ḋ e ẹ ė ẹ̇
Sound /ʔ/ /a/, /ã/ /ã/ /æ/, /æ̃/ /æ̃/ /b/ /d/ /ð/ /ɛ/, /ɛ̃/ /ɛ̃/ /e/, /ẽ/ /ẽ/
Letter f g ġ h ẋ ı

ı̣

i

ị

j k l
Sound /f/ /ɡ/ /ɣ/ /h/ /ħ/ /ɨ/, /ɨ̃/ /ɨ̃/ /i/, /ĩ/ /ĩ/ /j/ /k/ /l/, /n/
Letter m ṁ n ṅ o ọ ȯ

ọ̇

p q r r̈
Sound /m/ /ɱ/ /n/ /ŋ/ /o/, /õ/ /õ/ /œ/, /œ̃/ /œ̃/ /p/ /q/ /ɾ/, /ɱ/ /ʁ/, /ŋ/
Letter ṙ s ṡ t ṫ u ụ v w x z ż
Sound /ɭ̆/ /s/ /ʂ/ /t/ /θ/ /u/, /ũ/ /ũ/ /v/ /w/ /x/ /z/ /ʐ/
Letter ë ẹ̈ ˧* ˧˩* ˧˥*
Sound /ə/, /ə̃/ /ə̃/ — — —

(*) Tone.

  • Regular vowels become nasalised before nasal consonants.
  • The letters l, r, and r̈ are pronounced as /n/, /ɱ/, and /ŋ/ respectively before other consonants and at the end of words. This occurrence never triggers nasalisation in preceding vowels.

Grammar

Nouns

Verbs

Syntax

VSO/VOS word order

Lexicon

  • ajtfsxwq̇
    • verb: (tone 1) perservere
    • verb: (tone 2) (literary) survive, outlast; (derogatory slang) elect; (dialectal) hold status, govern, get killed
    • noun: (tone 2) (slang or dialectal, derogatory) appointed official
  • ḋjdżġwq̇ạ̇ṅġ
    • noun: (tone 1) warbler
    • noun: (tone 2) wren; (dialectal) robin
    • noun: (tone 3) cotton plant; (dialectal) cat, small bird, bulrush
  • jdżbġwq̇eld
    • noun: (tone 1) alder
    • noun: (tone 2) willow
    • verb: (tone 3) droop, sag
  • jëjtṡxwpq̇
    • noun: (tone 1) rain
    • noun: (tone 2) dew
    • noun: (tone 3) juice; (vulgar slang) semen; (dialectal) blood, sweat, anger, jealousy
    • verb: (tone 3) (dialectal) ring out, sqeeze, anger
  • jpṡxṫwq̇apwq̇
    • noun: (tone 1) (literary) spirit, soul
    • verb: (tone 1) (slang or dialectal) entrance; (dialectal) die, euthanise
    • noun: (tone 2) (literary) ghost
    • verb: (tone 2) (dialectal) die, haunt, frighten, starve
    • noun: (tone 3) (literary) demon; (dialectal) corpse, evil, evil person
    • verb: (tone 3) (slang or dialectal) murder
  • jvwdzġq̇ẹ̇ṁ
    • verb: (tone 1) tap (furnish with taps)
    • verb: (tone 2) extract (a resource); (dialectal) suckle
    • verb: (tone 3) (colloquial) extract (a resource); (dialectal) block
  • ṅjqṡxwq̇ẹ̈
    • verb: (tone 1) dry, solidify
    • noun: (tone 2) ice
    • verb: (tone 2) (dialectal) freeze
    • verb: (tone 3) (colloquial) suffocate
  • rjtsxwq̇ı̣tṡxw
    • verb: (tone 1) compress
    • verb: (tone 2) bind, restrain, command
    • verb: (tone 3) stupidify
  • ṙjqżġwq̇ọḋd
    • noun: (tone 1) blonde hair; (slang or dialectal) jaundice, bleach
    • verb: (tone 1) (dialectal) age
    • noun: (tone 2) yellow; (dialectal) canary, coat of arms, bathrobe, footwrap, jaundice
    • verb: (tone 3) fade

Example text

Basic sentences

  • e˧˩npṡo˧x le˧q̇ạ˧ṁqa˧ e˧nqa˧la˧ qq̇ë˧sı˧ṫxȧ˧˥ẋa˧?
    • Translation: Why are you going home?
    • IPA (U˧ Hı˧jkna˧˩rw pronunciation): [ˈɛ̃³²n.p͡ʂo⁴⁴x lɛ³³ˈʔã⁵⁵.ɱqa³ ɛ̃⁴nˈqa⁴⁴.la³ qʼə³.sɨ⁴ˈθ͡xæ³⁵ħa³]
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