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
Consonants are: m, n, p, t, k, b, d, g, f, s, x, w, l ,y
Vowels
Five vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Phonotactics
A typical syllable structure is CV(C). Any consonant can be used as the onset (including no consonant at all). For the coda, only a subset of consonants can be used, namely:
- m/n (m is used before labial consonants, n otherwise)
- s
- f
- x
- y (written as i)
- w (written as u)
- l
Given some combinations are not allowed (yi iy wu uw), The total unique syllable count is about 1200
Core words vs loanwords
The words are divided into two main categories: core words and loanwords. 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. Loan words are words which try to transcribe the original word as close as possible using the available phonology. They are meant as labels for a particular type of thing, and 95% of the time 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)
Minimal pairs
Vocabulary
Grammar
Nouns
Verbs
Verbs always end with [a]. They can be both transitive and intransitive, however they are never bi-transitive. Inside a sentence, verbs can be chained in a following manner: SV¹O¹V²O²…
As an example, let's introduce following words:
| ako | I; me |
| saya | to be located at; to exist (at) |
| domo | home; house |
| moka | eat; drink; consume |
| supu | soup; stew; any liquid food |
Using them, we can create a following sentence:
Ako moka supu saya domo - I eat soup at home (lit. I eat soup be-in home)Important thing to notice is that while the natural translation suggests a usage of preposition (at home), the actual part of speech used is a verb. More literally this sentence could be translated as (and is equal in meaning to): "I eat soup and am at home"