KIÂKUI scratchpad

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Quetzalcoatl
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KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-02, 15:22

Kiâkui [kjɑ:.'kɯɪ] is a project of mine which I have been working on for some times. Until now only the phonology and ortography is finished, but I thought I'd give you a look at it.

Phonology


Consonants (Onset):

p pʰ b~ɓ t tʰ d~ɗ tɕʰ dʑ k kʰ g ʔ
m n ɲ
f s h
w l j ʀ

Note: [ɓ] and [ɗ] appear only in absolute initial position and after glottal stops.

Romanization:

p ph b - t th d - ch j - k kh g / m - n - nh
f - s - h / w - l - y - r

Consonant clusters:

pw pj bw bj tw dw tɕw dʑw kw kj gw <pw pi bw bi tw dw cw jw kw ki gw>
mj <mh>
sw sj <sw x>

Vowels (monophthongs)

a æː/ɑ:/ɜ: - ɛ ɛɪ~e: - ɔ ɔʊ~o: - ɪ~i i: - ɯ~u ɯ:~u:
<a â - e ei - o ou - i î - u û>

Allophony:
1. [ɪ] occurs in closed syllables, [i] in open syllables
2. [ɯ] and [ɯ:] occur in closed syllabes, [u] and [u:] in open syllables respectively.
3. [ɑ:] is used in open syllables before back vowels, [æ:] is used in oppen syllables before front vowels, [ɜ:] in closed
4. [ɛɪ] and [e:] as well as [ɔʊ] and [o:] are in free variation.
syllables

Vowels (diphthongs)

aɪ aʊ - iw iɐ - ɯɪ ɯɐ <ai ao - eo ê - ui ô>

Note: <ai ao eo ui> appear only in open syllables, <ê> and <ô> only in closed syllables

Coda consonants:

ʔ ħ/χ/ç m n ɲ ŋ <k ch m n nh ng>

Note: [ħ] occurs after low vowels, [χ] after mid and high back vowels and [ç] after mid and high front vowels
Last edited by Quetzalcoatl on 2018-04-15, 20:04, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-05, 20:05

ALPHABET

A Â B C D E Ê F G H I Î J K L M N O Ô P R S T U Û W X Y

Only in loanwords:

<Q> [k]; <Z> [s]

If used in a loanword:

<X> [ʔ.s]
Last edited by Quetzalcoatl on 2018-04-15, 20:05, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Dormouse559 » 2018-04-07, 3:00

I don't have a lot to say so far, other than that the allophonic range of the <â> phoneme is eye-catching, but I'm reading your posts with interest. :)
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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-12, 19:48

Update on the phonology

The idea behind "Kiakui" is to turn it into a language which looks somewhat like Thai or Vietnamese, but with two important differences:

I am not sure yet if I will turn Kiakui into a tonal language. I noticed that I tend to change the pitch when I pronounce certain words, but I am not sure yet if I want the pitch to affect the meaning of a word or not. It could be that Kiakui will become a conlang with a pitch accent or a simple tone inventory like Swedish or Serbocroatian for example, but it is not decided yet. In the beginning I will just create words without tone and add tones later if I get the feeling that my phonology is not complex enough yet.

ANother thing that I would like to mention is that the inclusion of sounds like [ʀ], [x] and [ç] is not a coincidence but a deliberate choice. I don't want to "re-invent" a South-Eastern Asian language that already exists, so I thought it would be a nice idea to add some guttural sounds as they are highly unusual in South-East Asia except in the language Hmong.

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-12, 20:32

First grammar bits

(1) Kiâkui has four articles.

"Y" [ʔi:] is the definite article or the singular
"UI" [ʔuɪ] is the indefinite article for the singular
"AI" [ʔaɪ] is the definite article for the plural
"CHU" (ʔtɕu] is the indefinite article for the plural

(2) Nouns in kiâkui don't have plural forms:

y warui - the man
ui warui - a man
ai warui - the men
chu warui - men

(3) Possessive constructions are constructed like this: [ARTICLE + NOUN + PERSONAL PRONOUN]

ming = I, me, myself

y warui ming = my man
ui warui ming = one of my men
ai warui ming = my men
cu warui ming = some of my men

(4) Standard sentence have SVO order:

Ming mhan ui bach. = I eat an apple. (mhan = eat, bach = apple)
Y warui dui ui chên. = The man reads the book. (dui = read, chên = book)

(5) Yes-No-Questions are formed by adding "kha". "Kha" has a rising tone (no matter, if Kiâkui will become tonal or not. If Kiâkui stays a non-tonal language, count it as an element of prosody that the pitch goes up at "kháááá???!!")

Ming mhan ui bach kha? = Do I eat an apple?
Y warui dui ui chên kha? = Does the man read a book?

(6) Verbs in Kiâkui permit only one object, but allow verb serialization. Verbs in Kiâkui cannot have obligatory "indirect" complements like in Indoeuropean languages.

S > NP VP
VP > V NP or V S (= V (NP VP))

thao (S V O) = see
nam (S V O) = take
rai ... nam ... (S V O V O) = give
rai ... thao ... (S V O V O) = show

Ming rai sai nam y chên. (Literally: I give you take the book.) => Meaning: I give you the book.
Ming rai sai thao y chên. (Literally: I give you see the book.) => Meaning: I show you the book.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s1otELzrMi6M

(I think my language sounds more like a mixture of Welsh, Quechua and Arabic than like Vietnamese or Thai at the moment :P )

(7) As you may have noticed already, inflectional plurals, verb conjugations and noun genders are absent in Kiâkui. Core cases are usually not marked morphologically. Instead they are simply indicated by word order (SVO).
Last edited by Quetzalcoatl on 2018-05-14, 14:53, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-13, 20:35

bach Apfel Nomen
cha Hund Nomen
chên Buch Nomen S V O
dui lesen Verb
ka *PART Frage-Partikel
kitui Junge Nomen S V O
lai sein Verb S V O
lang suchen Verb S V O
mhan essen Verb
ming ich Personalpronomen
nang und Konjunktion S V O
sai du Personalpronomen S V O
sao dies Dem.-Pron.
sui wollen Modalverb
thao sehen Verb
ui ein/eine Artikel
warui Mann Nomen
y der/die/das Artikel
rai … nam … geben Verbserie S V O (V O)
nam nehmen Verb S V O
rai … thao … zeigen Verbserie S V O (V O)
rai … sak … sagen Verbserie S V O (V O)
mak aber Konjunktion
hao machen, tun Verb S V O

----

more random sentences:

Y cha mhan y chên. = The dog is eating the book.
Ui kitui lang ai bach. = A boy is looking for the apples
Sai lai ui warui kha? = Are you a man?
Y warui sui thao ai kitui. = The man wants to see the boys.
Ai kitui sui mhan ui bach kha? = Do the boys want to eat an apple?
Y warui lang chu chên, mak y kitui lang chu cha. = The man is looking for books, but the boy is looking for dogs.
Last edited by Quetzalcoatl on 2018-05-14, 14:53, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Dormouse559 » 2018-04-14, 22:03

Quetzalcoatl wrote:Y warui dui ui chên. = The man reads the book. (dui = read, chên = book)

Should the English be "The man reads a book"?

Quetzalcoatl wrote:(I think my language sounds more like a mixture of Welsh, Quechua and Arabic than like Vietnamese or Thai at the moment :P )

Admittedly, you're the one in Vietnam, and I don't listen to Vietnamese often, but I think it sounds pretty Vietnamese.
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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-15, 17:30

Dormouse:

Yes correct, it should be "a" book. As for the sound: The vowel system sounds South East Asian because of the presence of unrounded back vowels and the many diphthongs, but I think the absence of lexical tone and the guttural consonants are quite strange for that region, or have you ever head an Asian person using a uvular "R" in his language? :p

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Re: KIÂKUI scratchpad

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2018-04-15, 20:04

I just made a decision. The letter <x> will stand for [sj]. [sjao] means "not", but I just think it would look much cooler to spell it "xao" than "siao" :P


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