Nisukil Pʰakwi
Posted: 06 Mar 2016 12:24
Just figured I might showcase what I've been working on most recently, since I might not have time to really work on it too much due to uni/college/whathaveyou. Nisuese, or "Ancient Monster" is the ancient language spoken by monsters for my Undertale fan project.
Up until the Monster-Human war, Nisuese and its various dialects was spoken by the Kingdom of Monsters, spread primarily across Britain. Nisuese soon came to be supplanted by the growing influence of human languages, and following the banishment of the remnant of monsters to the Underground, the language only remained spoken by the royal family and the elder generation. Much of the old culture was preserved through song and poem in the Nisuese dialects on the cavern walls, now illegible to most monsters.
Nisuese is written in a derivative of the Old Italic scripts.
Western Nisuese
PHONOLOGY
Inventory
/m n/
/p t ts tʃ k/
/pʰ tʰ tsʰ~tʃʰ kʰ/
/f s ʃ x~h/
/l~ɾ j w/
/i u/
/e a/
/ei ai/
/eu au/
Phonological processes
TT > T[+asp] / _
NT > T / _
V[-high] > Ø / V..C_[-stress]..V
V[-high] > Ø / _#
penultimate stress
L > N / L..._V[+back]
L > F[+front] / L..._V[+front]
F/AF > [+vcd] / [+vcd]_
more maybe?
others:
/tsʰ/ > [tʃʰ] / _V[+front]
/l/ > [ɾ] / V_V
/e/ > [a] / h_
/n t tʰ/ are denti-alveolar, in contrast to /ts tsʰ s l/ which are alveolar
vowel allophony to be figured out
more maybe?
Phonotactics
(C)V(C)
Word final vowels allowed: /i u/
Word final consonants allowed: /m n t ts k s ʃ l/
Stress and prosody
Stress without condition is penultimate, marked by volume and low pitch. Enclitics (particularly monosyllabic postpositions) are considered part of words and hence shift the stress of the preceding word to the new penultimate position.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Pronouns and Interrogatives
{1SG} [mi]
{2SG} [tsi]
{3SG} [ʃi]
{1DU} [wit]
{2DU} [lit]
{3DU} [hit]
{1PL} ['wenu]
{2PL} ['lenu]
{3PL} ['haɾu]
{DEM near} [has]
{DEM far} ['huni]
{who} [mu]
{what} [sek]
{where} ['tsʰedʒi]
{why} [se'dʒaki]
{how} [pu]
Numbers
{1} [jak]
{2} [pʰi]
{3} [fiʃ]
{4} [lu]
{5} ['munwei]
{6} ['lukʰi]
{7} [han]
{8} [mai]
{9} [ʃai]
{10} [tʰis]
----
More to be added at some later date.
Up until the Monster-Human war, Nisuese and its various dialects was spoken by the Kingdom of Monsters, spread primarily across Britain. Nisuese soon came to be supplanted by the growing influence of human languages, and following the banishment of the remnant of monsters to the Underground, the language only remained spoken by the royal family and the elder generation. Much of the old culture was preserved through song and poem in the Nisuese dialects on the cavern walls, now illegible to most monsters.
Nisuese is written in a derivative of the Old Italic scripts.
Western Nisuese
PHONOLOGY
Inventory
/m n/
/p t ts tʃ k/
/pʰ tʰ tsʰ~tʃʰ kʰ/
/f s ʃ x~h/
/l~ɾ j w/
/i u/
/e a/
/ei ai/
/eu au/
Phonological processes
TT > T[+asp] / _
NT > T / _
V[-high] > Ø / V..C_[-stress]..V
V[-high] > Ø / _#
penultimate stress
L > N / L..._V[+back]
L > F[+front] / L..._V[+front]
F/AF > [+vcd] / [+vcd]_
more maybe?
others:
/tsʰ/ > [tʃʰ] / _V[+front]
/l/ > [ɾ] / V_V
/e/ > [a] / h_
/n t tʰ/ are denti-alveolar, in contrast to /ts tsʰ s l/ which are alveolar
vowel allophony to be figured out
more maybe?
Phonotactics
(C)V(C)
Word final vowels allowed: /i u/
Word final consonants allowed: /m n t ts k s ʃ l/
Stress and prosody
Stress without condition is penultimate, marked by volume and low pitch. Enclitics (particularly monosyllabic postpositions) are considered part of words and hence shift the stress of the preceding word to the new penultimate position.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Pronouns and Interrogatives
{1SG} [mi]
{2SG} [tsi]
{3SG} [ʃi]
{1DU} [wit]
{2DU} [lit]
{3DU} [hit]
{1PL} ['wenu]
{2PL} ['lenu]
{3PL} ['haɾu]
{DEM near} [has]
{DEM far} ['huni]
{who} [mu]
{what} [sek]
{where} ['tsʰedʒi]
{why} [se'dʒaki]
{how} [pu]
Numbers
{1} [jak]
{2} [pʰi]
{3} [fiʃ]
{4} [lu]
{5} ['munwei]
{6} ['lukʰi]
{7} [han]
{8} [mai]
{9} [ʃai]
{10} [tʰis]
----
More to be added at some later date.