Chwakesha

Conworlds and conlangs
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Znex
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:59 pm

Chwakesha

Post by Znex »

So I've been rather obsessed (what else is new?) with a conlang a few years back called Chavakani, which as its base is a blend of Japanese, Niger-Congo, and Austronesian aesthetic. I really like the idea, but as far as I know, the project has been dead for six or so years, so I thought I might make my own take on the idea.

Some key differences:
  • A more synthetic grammar taking inspiration from Swahili and the wider Sabaki family, and from Japonic
  • More Japonic/EAsn influence in general (little to no grammatical number, classifiers, tonal accent, etc.)
Phonology
This is particularly taking influence from Old/Middle Japanese, Fijian, and Malagasy, as well as some African langs such as Swahili, Wolof, and Dinka.

Consonants:
/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ny ng>
/p t ts tɕ~c k/ <p t ts ch k>
/(ᵐ)b ⁿd ⁿz ⁿdʑ~ᶮɟ ᵑg/ <b d dz j g>
/f s ɕ x~h/ <f s sh h>
/β z ɣ~ɦ/ <v z x>
/r l j w/ <r l y w>

Most pre-nasalised consonants cannot occur initially, excepting /ᵐb/ which occurs not infrequently (but often unnasalised). Also /r l/ occur rarely initially. These restrictions don't apply to clitics however.

Common phonetic changes:
  • /n ts ⁿz/ before a yod merge with /ɲ tɕ ⁿdʑ/: Tsy → C
  • Intervocalic unvoiced fricatives may merge with their voiced c/parts (however /s/ is often resistant): VŦV → VĐV
Vowels:
/i ɨ u/ <i y u>
/(j)e (w)o/ <e o>
/a/ <a>

yod-glide:
/ja jo ju/ <ya yo yu>

waw-glide:
/wa we wi/ <wa we wi>

Yod/waw pre-glides cannot occur after palatal and labial onsets, respectively. Phonetically, plain vowels after these onsets are treated as their compound glide-vowel equivalents. (eg. chyo → cho, fwe → fe)

Syllable structure:
Chwakesha syllables consist only of three types:
  • V
  • CV
  • CRV ; where R = /jwrl
Typically consonant-glide clusters occur when the first consonant is an obstruent (ie. of the class /p t ts tɕ k ᵐb ⁿd ⁿz ⁿdʑ ᵑg f s ɕ x β z ɣ/), however intervocalic clusters where the first consonant is a liquid /r l/ do occur. Consonant-liquid clusters however occur only rarely, where the first consonant is a plosive.

All vowels can occur initially. For morfofo purposes, /e i/ and /o u ɨ/ are often treated as if they have a yod or waw pre-glide, respectively (/e o/ also often appear phonetically with a pre-glide, especially initially). If /a/ appears in hiatus, it either is given an off-glide from the previous vowel as according to just mentioned, or an epenthetic gutteral is inserted (often harmonious with the surrounding consonants: /ŋ/ or /ɣ~ɦ/); although it is also not rare that the vowel sequence will remain unmodified.

Prosody:
Chwakesha words occur with or without a high tonal accent, which occurs in one of the first two syllables. In monosyllables, a tonal accent is treated phonetically as a falling tone.

eg. /tɕwá/ → [tɕwáà] {people}

A word in isolation without a tonal accent receives a level tone throughout the word.

eg. /twa/ → [twāː] {egg}

But more commonly atonal words will receive a tone depending on the previous word. When there are two atonal words (especially with a proclitic classifier), the first will receive a high tone and the second a low.

eg. /pi twa/ → [pítwàː] {egg}

When the first word is tonal however, the atonal word often receives a rising tone, especially if the tonal accent occurs just before the atonal word.

eg. /zɨ́=uɕa/ → [zɨ̂ːwùɕá] {crabapple}
Last edited by Znex on Sun Feb 11, 2024 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Creyeditor
Posts: 233
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:15 am

Re: Chwakesha

Post by Creyeditor »

That looks really nice, especially the tones.
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foxcatdog
Posts: 1564
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2019 7:49 pm

Re: Chwakesha

Post by foxcatdog »

Do you have any grammar?
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