Difference between revisions of "Asuaneï"

Revision as of 12:29, 8 December 2006

Asuaneï (or Asβanehi) is a major language in Baranxtu and is a sister language of the predominant Baranxeï, to the point of being partially mutually intelligible.

In contrast to Baranxeï, Asuaneï is much more conservative in that it retains many grammatical distinctions from its predecessor than Baranxeï does.

History

Status

Phonology

Phonetic Inventory

Consonants

Standard Asuaneï has 27 phonemic consonants. Like Baranxeï, it distinguishes between voiced and unvoiced consonants, but it has no uvular or glottal sounds (the orthographic <h> is silent) as well as it lacks a palatal fricative. However it does recognize four affricate consonants.

Vowels

Standard Asuaneï recognizes the same nine monophthongs as Baranxeï.

Alphabet

Asuaneï Alphabet

Asuaneï is written using the New Asuaneï Alphabet, which was introduced in 1967 to reduce the number of digraphs present in the Old Asuaneï Alphabet.

The digraphs <tj, dj, sj, zj> and the trigraphs <tsj, dsj> were replaced by <þ, ð, š, ž> and <tš, dž>, respectively, with letters taken from the Baranxeï Alphabet.

A similar plan to reform the Baranxeï Alphabet by eliminating the digraphs <jj, gg> by replacing them with Asuaneï <ñ, ŋ> was proposed multiple times but never actually imposed.

Romanization

The Romanization of Asuaneï is a letter-by-letter substitution of the Asuaneï Alphabet; therefore the system can easily be put in the same tables as those for the phonetic inventory.

Morphology

Nouns

Cases

Nominative Case

The nominative case marks the subject of a verb. It is also the citation form of a noun as it is marked by a null morpheme.

Genitive Case

The genitive case shows a relationship that may be thought of as one thing belonging to, being created from, or otherwise deriving from some other thing. It usually directly follows the noun it refers to.

Dative Case

The dative case marks the indirect object of a verb. In Baranxeï, it also marks the agent in a passive sentence.

Accusative Case

The accusative case marks the direct object of a verb.

Pre- and Postpositional Case

The pre- and postpositional case is needed if a noun is part of a pre-/postpositional phrase.

Declension

Nouns ending on a vowel are declined by removing the final vowel and adding the endings. For nouns ending on a consonant, a final fricative is usually changed into its respective plosive. Then, the endings is added.

Pronouns

Asuaneï formally has four personal pronouns which are declined like normal nouns. Thus, there are no special words for "my/your/his/her/its", instead the genitive form of the pronoun is used.

It should also be noted that the nominative form of a pronoun is usually absent and only used for emphasis.

Syntax

Dialects

Vocabulary

IDU Country Names

Language Names