Myacha language

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Myacha
Tuocha
Myâcâ, Tùocâ
Pronunciation[mja˥˦˩.t͡s̠a˥˦˩],
[tʊo̯˨˩.t͡s̠a˥˦˩]
Native toHondonia
RegionSouthern Thuadia
EthnicityMyacha
Native speakers
~ (2010)
Proto-Hamaric (?)
  • Honoic
    • Eastern
      • Myacha
Latin,
Tùotáisi script
Official status
Official language in
 Hondonia
File:SekideanUnionNoStarsFlag.png Sekidean Union
Language codes
ISO 639-1tc
ISO 639-2tuc
ISO 639-3tuc
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Myacha (/ˈmjat͡ʃə/), or Standard Northern Myacha (Myâcâ [mja˥˦˩.t͡s̠a˥˦˩] - "mountain language"; Tùocâ [tʊo̯˨˩.t͡s̠a˥˦˩] - "thunder dragon language"), is a Honoic langauge spoken in the mountains of southern Thuadia, mainly in the nation of Hondonia, where it's one of the 3 official languages, it is also official in the Sekidean Union. The language is the most spoken out of the Honoic family and serves as a lingua franca in the mountains of Hondonia from the times of the Tùocóng empire.

The standard form of the language is based on the northern dialect, known natively as Tùocâ which translates to "Thunder Dragon language". Myacha is a tonal and analytical language, majority of it's core vocabulary is monoyllabic, meaning it is comprised of one syllable, dysillabic words exist but are very rare. The language is written in a modyfied latin alphabet, it also has its own native script, known as Tùotáisi - "thunder dragon script", which is getting revived among the common population, as during the Moldanian expansion of it'sNoua Românie colony into the Tùocóng empire, the script was able last only in the isolate and hard to reach monesteries and temples in the mountains.

History

Phonology

The following summarizes the sound system of the northern dialect of Myacha, the most influential variety of the spoken language, of which the standard language is based on.

Consonants

The consonants are the following: The languauge dosent have phonemic voicing in the plossives, affricates and fricatives, they could appear as voiced allophonically in intervocallic possitions.

Labial Coronal Palatal Velar
Nasal m ŋ
Plosive p k
Affricate t͡s̠
Fricative x
Approximant ʋ ɺ j
  • The sound /ʋ/ can be realized as voiceless [ʋ̥~f] depending on the speaker.
  • Depending on the speaker, the sounds // and /t͡s̠/ can be realized as dentalized [] and [t͡s̪] or as postalveolar [ʃ] and [t͡ʃ] depending on the dialects.

Vowels

Ioan Dimintrescu describe five vowels in the standard language:

Front Central Back
Close i (ɪ) u (ʊ~ɤ)
Mid e (ə) o
Open a

The vowels in brackets are common allophones for the other sounds: /i~ɪ/, /u~ʊ~ɤ/ and /a~ə/.

Allophonically nasalized vowels exict as some speakers, especially younger ones, don't fully pronounce nasals when they are in the coda position of a syllable, for example in these scenarios words like cám (two) and màn (horse) would be pronounced as /t͡s̠ãɰ̃˦˥/ and /mãɰ̃˨˩/ instead of as /t͡s̠am˦˥/ and /man˨˩/.

Dimintrescu also describes eighteen (modern linguist concider there to be only fourteen) phonemic diphthongs in the standard language:

-i -e -a -u -o
j- ji ja ju jo
ʋ- wi wa wu wo
e- eɪ̯
a- aɪ̯ aʊ̯ ao̯
u- uɪ̯ uɐ̯ uo̯
o- oɪ̯ oɐ̯ oʊ̯
  • /ʋ/ dipthongs appear in dailects where the old Myacha /w/ sound remained to nowadays.
  • Some speakers may pronounce the /aɪ̯/ and /ja/ diphthongs as /ɛɪ̯/ and /jɛ/.
  • In some dialects the /i/ plus back vowel diphthongs can become umlauted: /uɪ̯/, /oɪ̯/, /ju/, /jo/ → /yɪ̯/, /øɪ̯/, /jy/, /jø/.

Tones

Myacha is a tonal language, which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel.

In the standard language there are four proper tones as well as a 'neutral tone', in the table below the tones are shown in minimal pairs:

Tone Word IPA Meaning
High [ma˦˥] Mother
Low [ma˨˩] I
Rising [ma˩˨˥] Eight
Falling [ma˥˦˩] Water
Neutral ma [ma˨]* Question particle
  • The neutral tone has no specific contour, it appears on weak syllables on particle words; its pitch depends chiefly on the tone of the preceding syllable, if there is no preceding syllable, it is realized as a low tone.

Writing system

Nowadays the Myacha langauge is most commonly written in the Latin script, however it used to be written in it's native Tùotáisi script, which is bneing revived in some araes withing Hondonia.

Romanization

The language was first romanized from the Tùotáisi script after the Tùocóng empire was absorbed into the colony of New Roumania, the romanization was enforced by the rouman speaking ruling class and eventually the Tùotáisi script was only preserved in the monestaries and temples in the mountains.

The following is the current Latin Myacha alphabet:

А а B b C c D d E e F f G g
H h I i J j K k L l M m N n
Ng ng O o P p Q q R r S s T t
U u V v W w X x Y y Z z
  • Characters in gray are used only in foreign loanwords such as names.
  • Ŋ ŋ and Ň ň have been proposed as substitutes for Ng ng.

Besides the twenty seven letters there are also four accent markes used to mark tone on vowels:

High tone: ◌́
Low tone: ◌̀
Rising tone: ◌̌
Falling tone: ◌̂
Neutral tone: unmarked

There are two commonly used ways to write the language, the standard way is written in word blocks where compound words and and words with particles that mark derivation, conjugation and/or declension are direclty written as if they are one singular word, while the secondary common way writes every word separately: For example the sentance "i saw the rabbit" can be written as either 'mà téngya nâisa' or as 'mà téng ya nâi sa' , this can also be seen in the language's names 'Myâcâ' and 'Tùocâ' , which can also be written as 'Myâ Câ' and 'Tùo Câ' .

Tùotáisi script

Grammar

Honorifics

Speech levels

Verbs

Numerals

Sample text