Kwoudangese

see also: Proto Onpotcor-Qhalqon Swadesh Lists
Kwoudangese ([kʰwoutaŋk]) is a language in the Onpotcor-Qhalqon family, and it is notable for being spoken far outside the range of the rest of the family, and for having a significantly different phonology from any of the other members of the family. It is the original language of the Kwoudangese people of Daihexi. It was split into two major varities, Northern and Southern Kwoudangese. The split occurred after 3500 BEA, during the Kwoudangeses' colonization of the archipelago. All the northern dialects are found on Ngaoqte, the peninsula north of the archipelago they first settled.

Phonology[]

Consonants[]

The Kwoudangese language is notable for having a fully functional palatalization system, something that few other languages in the area have.

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m mʲ <m mj>	n nʲ <n nj>
Plosive	Plain	p <b>	t <d>		k <g>	ʔ <q>
	Aspirated	pʰ <p>	tʰ <t>		kʰ <k>
	Palatalized	pʲ <bj>	tʲ <dj>		kʲ <gj>
	Aspirated Palatalized	pʰʲ <pj>	tʰʲ <tj>
Fricative	Plain	f v <f v>	s z <s z>		x <x>
	Palatalized	fʲ vʲ <fj vj>	sʲ zʲ <sj zj>	ç <xj>
	Lateral		ɬ ɬʲ <l lj>
Approximant				j <y>	w <w>
Flap			ɾ ɾʲ <r rj>

Note that nasals match the position of any stops of other stops that follow them, (except for the glottal stop, which can only appear intervocally), and also match the palatalization of any nasal that follows them. Also any two consonants that come together across a syllable boundary that share a MOA (ignoring differences in palatalization and aspiration) and POA become geminates, with the second consonant determining if the resultant geminate is palatalized or aspirated.

Doubled consonants are geminates, and anything besides ʔ and the varying forms of k can be geminated. (Though the clusters [ŋk] and [ŋʲkʲ] can be analyzed as [kː] and [kʲː]) The <j> for palatalized consonants is only listed once in a geminated form, following the doubled consonant.

Vowels[]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Central	e		o
Low		a

Kwoudangese also has the following diphthongs:

ae
ai
ao
ea
ou

Phonotactics[]

The syllable structure in Kwoudangese is (C)(L)V(V)(C) where C equals any consonant, including geminates and the clusters [ŋk] and [nʲkʲ]; V any vowel; and L either [j] or [w]. Any consonant combination is allowed over syllable breaks, though the nasals will shift to match the POA and palatalization of following stops.

Stress[]

Stress is on the first syllable if it is an closed syllable, and on the second if the first syllable is open.

Grammar[]

Nouns[]

Like other members of its family, Kwoudangese lacks cases, and instead uses word order to determine a noun's role in a sentence.

Plurals[]

Like the other languages of the Onpotcor-Qhalqon family, Kwoudangese has several different forms of plurals, though unlike Qhalqon and Onpotcor, it lacks the specific plurals. Kwoudangese plurals are mandatory on human based nouns, and optional on all other nouns.

	Form
Base	Ø
Paucal	fjeg- [fʲek]
General	kwou- [kʰwou]
Greater	yig- [jik]
Nullar	ta- [ta]

The paucal is used for small amounts, or unexpectedly small amounts, while the greater plural is used for large amounts or unexpectedly large amounts. (Such as two eclipses in one day) The general plural is used for an unspecified number of objects but more than one, or for a number inbetween that which would take the paucal or greater. The origin of Kwoudangese's form for the general plural is unknown, and the cognate of the other languages form is an indefinite article in Kwoudangese.

Pronouns[]

Kwoudangese has the following pronouns:

Note that gender is not distinguished.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Normal	mug [muk]	zox [zox]	yet [jetʰ]	gu [ku]
Reflexive	zjiwmug [zʲiwmuk]	zjiwzox [zʲiwzox]	zjiwyet [zʲiwjetʰ]	zjiwgu [zʲiwku]

The plural forms are the same as with all other nouns. The 4th person pronoun is used either as the subject to indicate the passive form, or just as a generic pronoun like the English "one" or "someone."

The plural forms are the same as with all other nouns.

Also, like its relatives, Kwoudangese is pro-drop.

Articles and Demonstratives[]

Kwoudangese only has indefinite articles, without any definite articles, and its demonstrative does not make any distance distinctions.

The article has been treated differently in each of the two main dialect areas. Northern dialects simply nullified the number element and use kyar for any indefinite noun, singular or plural. This lack of distinction spread to the demonstratives by analogy. Southern dialects instead harmonized by copying the other plurals: kyar became the singular and kwoukyar the plural.

	Singular	Singular	Plural
	Northern	Southern
Article	kyar [kʰjaɾ]	kyar [kʰjaɾ]	kwoukyar [kʰwoukʰjaɾ]
Demonstrative	zjaig [zʲaik]	zjaig [zʲaik]	kwouzjaig [kʰwouzʲaik]

Numbers[]

Unlike Onpotcor and Qhalqon, Kwoudangese numbers are used independently of the plural system, and are used as separate words. Because of this, the plural forms of nouns must be used for numbers greater than one if the noun requires it. Kwoudangese has a mostly base 10 system, with several forms based off of either other numbers or nouns. The modifications usually consist of adding/removing palatalization or the addition of the prefix si. The number system starts out like this:

1: vjed [vʲet]
2: vob [vop]
3: vux [vux]
4: vjam [vʲam]
5: sibug [sipuk] (from hand)
6: ved [vet]
7: vjob [vʲop]
8: vjux[vʲex]
9: vam[vam]
10: vobsibug [vopsipuk] (from two hands)
11: vjed vobsibug [vʲet vopsipuk] (1 + two hands)
12: vob vobsibug [vop vopsipuk] (2 + two hands)
13: vux vobsibug [vux vopsipuk] (3 + two hands)
14: vjam vobsibug [vʲam vopsipuk] (4 + two hands)
15: sipjab [sipʰʲap] (from foot)
16: ved vobsibug [vet vopsipuk] (6 + two hands)
17: vjob vobsibug [vʲop vopsipuk] (7 + two hands)
18: vjux vobsibug [vʲux vopsipuk] (8 + two hands)
19: vam vobsibug [vam vopsipuk] (9 + two hands)
20: sidang [sitaŋk] (from person)
21: kan [kan] (from man)
22: kin [kin] (from woman)
23: vux sidang [vux sitaŋk] (3 + person)

Adjectives/Adverbs[]

Adjectives/adverbs are formed from nouns by adding the suffix a [a], or qa [ʔa] if the word ends in a vowel.

Verbs[]

Most Kwoudangese verbs are created by taking a noun or adjective and adding the appropriate class marker.

Class[]

Kwoudangese verbs have 5 different classes, each of which have somewhat different meanings.

mju [mʲu]: Class 1, normally used for intransitive verbs, with some exceptions.
rjo [ɾʲo]: Class 2, normally used to transitive verbs.
zjiw [zʲiw]: Class 3, normally used for reflexive verbs.
a [a]: Class 4, used to mean "to be 'state'".
rai [ɾai]: Class 5, used to mean "to be 'object'".

The difference between class 4 and class 5 is the difference between adjectives and nouns, with class 4 being used with adjectives and class 5 with nouns. All of the class markers are suffixes on the verb.

Note that class 2 changes on a verb ending in <r(j)>, where it instead geminates the <r> and palatalizes it if applicable, the final <o> is not added.

Tense[]

In contrast to the moon system, the tense system of Kwoudangese is quite simple, with only a past, present and future tense.

zon [zon]: Past
present is unmarked
kyiv [kʰjiv]: Future

The tense markers are prefixes, and can be dropped if they can be understood from context.

Moods[]

Like the other Onpotcor-Qhalqon languages, Kwoudangese has a complex mood system, though it has simplified somewhat compared to the other languages in the family.

Mood	Meaning	Details
∅	indicative	Used for ordinary statements.
zi [zi]	abilitative	Used when the action is actually possible.
kwa [kʰwa]	permissive	Used when the action is permitted.
li [ɬi]	conditional	Used to lead up to a conditional statement.
gi [ki]	desiderative	Used for both optative and desiderative purposes.
ri [ɾi]	relative	Used for marking the verb of a relative clause.
ro [ɾo]	dubitative	Used for an action that may or may not be the case, with no clue either way.
wu [wu]	inferential	Used for an action that is believed to be the case, but not for sure.
kwu [kʰwu]	necessitative	Used for a necessity of doing something
fa [fa]	generic	Used for actions that are generally the case.

Multiple moods can be stacked, with the order following the order in the above chart, from top to bottom. All the mood markers are prefixes.

Negative[]

Verbs are negated by adding the prefix ta [ta].

Order[]

The order of the affixes on the verb are as follows:

Postpositions[]

Kwoudangese postpositions are sometimes formed from nouns directly with no change, and they can also be used as verbs to indicate something is in the state of the postposition. (As in "The cat is in the tree".) These verbs take the class 2 ending.

Some commons postpositions and their meanings:

yan [jan]: in, on
tjag [tʰʲak]: inside, within
zjev [zʲev]: outside of
od [ot]: below, under
oz [oz]: above
mjan [mʲan]: to the left of
rjax [ɾʲax]: to the right of
djao [tʲao]: (together) with
rwa [ɾwa]: With, using

Word Order[]

Basic word order is OVS, with direct objects preceding indirect objects. Adjectives/adverbs and postpositions precede the word they modify.