Introduction

Phonology

The phonology aims to be easy for native speakers of most languages, while having enough phonemes and syllables to avoid long or too similar words. Although some languages might not differentiate all the sounds, given the policy to avoid minimal pairs for some pairs of phonemes, it should be enough

Consonants

labial dental palatal/velar
m n  
p t k
b d g
f s ʃ (x)
w l j (y)

Vowels

front mid back
i   u
e   o
  a  

Phonotactics

A typical syllable structure is CV(C). Some consonants can only be used in syllable's onset or coda:

consonant onset? coda?
m YES YES
n YES YES
p YES NO
t YES NO
k YES NO
b YES* NO
d YES* NO
g YES* NO
f YES YES
s YES YES
x YES YES
w YES YES**
l YES YES
y YES YES**

Consonant clusters

Only some consonant clusters (pairs) are allowed to occur:

first \ second m n p t k b d g f s x w l y
m   mn       mb     mf ms mx mw ml my
n             nd ng nf ns nx nw nl ny
f fm fn   ft fk               fl  
s     sp st sk               sl  
x     xp                   xl  
w (u) um un       ub ud ug uf us ux   ul  
l lm         lb   lg lf ls lx      
y (i) im in       ib id ig if is ix   il  

Vocabulary

The words are divided into two main categories: core words and loanwords.

Core words

Core words are words created a priori for the language, they are meant to represent concepts, and while inspired by natural languages, they are not intended to be thought as an actual borrowings.

Loanwords

Loan words are words which try to transcribe the original word as close as possible using the available phonology. While the fonotactics for loanwords is more lax, it's highly encouraged to try to stick to the core word phonotactics. They are meant as labels for types of things, and most of the times need a core word as a suffix to describe it. Loanwords should use endonyms instead of English names. Example use cases for loanwords are:

  • Country names: Poska (Poland), Inlan (England), Nipon (Japan), Xonguwo (China)
  • Language names: Poski (Polish), Inlix (English), Italyano (Italian), Nipongo (Japanese), Xonwen or Kanyu (Chinese)
  • Nationalities: Polaka (Polish), Inlix (Englishman), Italyano (Italian), Niponxin (Japanese), Xonguwoxen (Chinese)
  • Food: Piyelogi (pierogi), Fixenxipis (fish and chips), Niyoki (gnocchi), Suxi (sushi), Xawsi (jiaozi)
  • People names: Matewux (Mateusz), Xon (John), Pawolo (Paolo)
  • Brand and product names: Timbalku (Tymbark), Nesle (Nestle)
  • Tons of other things

While for personal or family names everyone should choose the transcription they feel most comfortable with, for other types of loanwords there's an official loanword registry which aims to gather all loanwords. One might raise an argument against this approach, as it includes complexity and requires knowledge about the word. However, the aim is to simplify the language, not the way we think about the world, and loanwords should be considered more like learning about stuff, rather than learning the language. This approach allows for the most culturally neutral way of talking about real life entinties

Grammar

Sentence structrue

subject, (particle, verb, object)+

Particles

Sentence particles

  • ta - present tense particle
    • Ako ta moka supu - I eat soup, I am eating soup
  • le - past tense particle
    • Ako le moka supu - I ate soup, I was eating soup
  • sa - "while, at the same time" - not used as the first particle
    • Ako ta moka supu sa saya tomo
  • mi - subjunctive - hypothetical or future
  • sal - "then"

Word particles

  • ne - negation
  • ye - "and", "too"
  • aka - "or", "or else"

  • mei - imperative

    • "Ye ako ina domo" - I also go home

Adjectives and adverbs

Suffixes

Example texts

Ako-men

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