Yabushionese (Basic conjunctions)

[clawgrip]

Vocabulary: numbers and dates

Yabushionese uses both native and Chinese numbers, just like modern Japanese.

Sino-Yabushionese numbers:
一 1 ichi
二 2 ni
三 3 san
四 4 shi
五 5 go
六 6 roku
七 7 shichi
八 8 fachi
九 9 kifu
十 10 jifu
百 100 hyaku
千 1000 sen
萬 10,000 man
億 100,000,000 oku

Native numbers, as in Japanese, never appear alone; they are always followed by some sort of counter. The default is -tsu, like Japanese:
1 fitotsu
2 futatsu
3 mittsu
4 yottsu
5 itsutsu
6 muttsu
7 nanatsu
8 yattsu
9 kōnotsu
10 tofo

The modern Yabushionese months and days of the week are aligned with the international standard. I've always found the numbered months of Japanese to be really boring, so I'm sticking with the traditional month names for Yabushionese.

January: 睦月 Mutsuki
February: 如月 Kisaragi
March: 弥生 Yayoi
April: 卯月 Udzuki
May: 皐月 Satsuki
June: 水無月 Minadzuki
July: 文月 Fumidzuki
August: 葉月 Fadzuki
September: 長月 Nagatsuki
October: 神無月 Kannadzuki
November: 霜月 Shimotsuki
December: 師走 Shọ̄su

For the days of the week, I decided to go with the common Chinese-based system that is used in Japanese, Korean, Khmer, Thai, Lao, Mongolian, seemingly every Asian language except Chinese languages.

Sunday: 日曜日 Nichiyōbi
Monday: 月曜日 Getsuyōbi
Tuesday: 火曜日 Kayōbi
Wednesday: 水曜日: Shīyōbi
Thursday: 木曜日 Mokuyōbi
Friday: 金曜日 Kin'yōbi
Saturday: 土曜日 Doyōbi

The ending 日 -bi is dropped more frequently than it is in Japanese.

Days of the month employ native numbers most of the time:
1st 一日 Chītachi
2nd 二日 Futsuka
3rd 三日 Mikka
4th 四日 Yokka
5th 五日 Itsuka
6th 六日 Mīka
7th 七日 Nanoka
8th 八日 Yōka
9th 九日 Kōnoka
10th 十日 Tofoka
11th 十一日 Tofontofi, Jifīchinichi
12th 十二日 Tofofutsuka, Jifuninichi
13th 十三日 Tofomikka, Jifusannichi
14th 十四日 Tofoyokka, Jifuyokka, Jifushinichi
15th 十五日 Tofoitsuka, Jifugonichi

etc.

20th 二十日 Fatsuka
21st 二十一日 Nijifīchinichi
22nd 二十二日 Nijifuninichi

etc.

30th 三十日、Misoka
31st 三十一日 Sanjifīchinichi


Counters are generally the same as Japanese, but I don't want to get into those too much. Some examples:

一本 iffon "one long, thing object"
二枚 nimai "two sheets"
三泊 sanpaku "three nights of sleep" (or sanbaku, I haven't figured out if I want to keep the -h -> p/b changes the same as Japanese)
四件 shiken "four affairs"
五匹 gofiki "five animals"
六台 rokudai "six machines"
七列 shichiret "seven rows"
八秒 fachibyō "eight seconds"
九畫 kifukaku "nine strokes"
十疊 jifudefu "ten tatami mats"

etc.

[zyma]

November: 霜月 Shimotsuki

Spoiler:

Just kidding.

So I guess my username would be written 霜英雄 or something in Chinese/Japanese?

---

Anyway, I like the numbers and day/month names you've posted. It's cool how you haven't done exactly what Japanese does in each situation.

[clawgrip]

November: 霜月 Shimotsuki

Spoiler:

Just kidding.

So I guess my username would be written 霜英雄 or something in Chinese/Japanese?

---

Anyway, I like the numbers and day/month names you've posted. It's cool how you haven't done exactly what Japanese does in each situation.

I don't really know what baatar means, but if it is hero then I guess so. But shimo more than one meaning. This one, 霜, means frost.
Thanks for you comments.


On another note, I have decided to define in writing a couple of vowel mergers I have been using for Yabushionese that don't exist in Japanese.

/ɯi/ and /ɯe/ will merge to /iː/ and /eː/ respectively. There are some conditions, though:
This cannot happen word-initially;
This technically cannot happen when a compound morpheme is combined with an additional morpheme, but colloquially it does.
In certain names and basic words, an /f/ may be irregularly dropped, resulting in one of these sequences, which will then be merged.

Examples:

睡眠 "sleep"
JA: suimin
YB: shīmin

無鹽 "saltless"
JA: muen
YB: mēn

田上 surname
JA: ta + ue = Taue
YB: ta + ufe = Taē (/f/ irregularly dropped)

but:

迂遠 "roundabout way"
JA: uen
YB: uen

Example of a compound that disallows the merger officially, but can gain it colloquially:
髄膜炎 "meningitis" (髄膜 meninges, 炎 inflammation)
JA: zuimakuen
YB: jīmakuen (but colloquially jīmakēn)

[Lao Kou]

無縁 "saltless"

Typo? 無鹽 (I ask, 'cause you never know with them Japanese... )

[clawgrip]

無縁 "saltless"

Typo? 無鹽 (you never know with them Japanese... )

Typo, though the rule still applies to 無縁 (which should be 無緣, but is pronounced mēn). You're good at these. I don't need a spellcheck.

[zyma]

I don't really know what baatar means, but if it is hero then I guess so. But shimo more than one meaning. This one, 霜, means frost.

Yeah, it's meant to be "frost + warrior/hero" (baatar "hero/warrior" as in Ulaanbaatar - has Mongolian ever been written with Chinese characters?).

---

The fact that those vowel mergers only happen colloquially in some cases is pretty cool. The mergers also seem so intuitive that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they occur in some real-world dialects of Japanese.

Are there any specific conditions, phonological or otherwise, that lead to the irregular dropping of /f/ other than a word being a name or something "basic"? I think it could be interesting to see how common Japanese names, both first and last, might come out differently in Yabushionese.

I also love how the "official" pronunciation of jīmakuen has an example of when the merger would happen and when it wouldn't.

[clawgrip]

I have to change my example for the surname, because 上 ue is actually uwe, not uhe, in old Japanese, so Taē is actually a perfectly regular formation.

I think the number of surnames will be few. Like say, 縫原 JA: Nuibara, YB: Nufibara or Nībara. I figure some given names could have it though. like maybe 彦 fiko and the various -firo kanji will optionally drop the f and, if possible, merge with the previous vowel. This could be based on the whim of the parents. So you could have say:

康彦
JA: Yasuhiko
YB: Yasufiko, Yashīko

將弘
JA: Masahiro
YB: Masafiro, Masairo

Also that rule that I used for the prevention of vowel mergers is actually a rule that already exists in Japanese, but for completely different sounds. it governs the merger of ku + k into kk. Example:
洗濯機 (選択 sentaku + 機 ki) officially sentakuki, but basically always pronounced sentakki.

[clawgrip]

Basic forms of Adjectival Verbs

I have been slack on really defining how these work, so some previous examples of this language may have used them incorrectly. For this reason, I want to get these defined properly for future reference. So let's get at it.

Like Japanese, Yabushionese has two types of adjectives: adjectival nouns, and adjectival verbs. Adjectival verbs, our topic in this post, are verb-like in that they can be conjugated in a variety of ways.

All adjectival verbs have three forms: adverbial, conclusive, and attributive (in modern Japanese, conclusive and attributive have merged)

Unlike modern Japanese, Yabushionese retains a distinction between so-called -ku and -shiku adjectives, though these are known as -u and -shū adjectives in Yabushionese. The difference is entirely lexical. Let's take a look at the forms:

Both forms have a conclusive form that ends in -shi. Thus, in this form, they are indistinguishable.

Examples of -u adjectives:
大きし ofokishi "big"
狭し semashi "narrow"
寒し samushi "cold"
赤し akashi "red"

Examples of -shu adjectives:
苦し kurushi "painful; difficult; strenuous"
望まし nozomashi "desirable; wanted; hoped for"
險し kewashi "steep; difficult; dangerous"
美し utsukushi "beautiful"

They differ, however, in their attributive and adverbial forms.

Adverbial form
-shū adjectives are simple: simply replace ～し -shi with ～しゅう -shū

苦しゅう kurushū "painfully; difficultly; strenuously"
望ましゅう nozomashū "desirably"
險しゅう kewashū "steeply; difficultly; dangerously"
美しゅう utsukushū "beautifully"

The few ～じ -ji adjectives take ～じゅう -jū
同じ onaji "same"
同じゅう onajū "similarly; in the same way"

-u adjectives react differently depending on the vowel before -shi:

-ashi → -ọ̄
赤し akashi "red" → 赤う akọ̄ "redly"

-ishi → -yū
大きし ofokishi "big" → 大きゅう ofokyū "largely; 'bigly'"

-ushi → -ū
寒し samushi "cold" → 寒う samū "coldly"

(I do not believe there are any adjectives that end in -eshi)

-oshi → -ọ̄
強し tsuyoshi "strong" → 強う tsuyọ̄ "strongly"

(I cannot think of any adjectives that end in -ọshi but they may exist)

Attributive form
The attributive form is marked by the suffix -i.

The attributive form is very simple for -shū adjectives: just change ～し -shi to ～しい -shī:
忙し isogashi → 忙しい isogashī "busy"
正し tadashi → 正しい tadashī "correctly"

(note: there is almost certainly a complementary pitch change here, but I have not worked out the exact details of the pitch accent yet)

For -u adjectives, -u is replaced with -i, which may alter the final vowel of the root:
-ashi → -ai
赤し akashi "red" → 赤い akai "red"

-ishi → -ī
大きし ofokishi → 大きい ofokī "big"

-ushi → -ī
寒し samushi → 寒う samī "cold"

-oshi → -oi
強し tsuyoshi → 強い tsuyoi "strong"

(You may notice these are identical to modern Japanese adjectives; no coincidence here)

明日けえ寒うなるや。
Asu kē samū naru ya.
tomorrow from cold-adv become EMPH
"It's going to get cold tomorrow."

輕い方の良し。
Karī fō no yoshi.
be.light-ATTR side NOM be.good
"The lighter one is better."

最初けえ正しゅうせずと後の大變なや。
Saisho kē tadashū sezu to ato no taifen na ya.
beginning from be.correct-ADV do-NEG then afterward NOM difficult COP EMPH
"It'll be more trouble for you later if you don't do it correctly at the beginning."

[DesEsseintes]

(I cannot think of any adjectives that end in -ọshi but they may exist)

<ọ> originates from middle Japanese /wo/ and non-initial /wa/.

What about the Yabushio cognate of Japanese 怖い kowai? What happens to the sequence owa?

Enjoying this thread a lot.

[clawgrip]

That one has the following forms:
conclusive: 怖し kọ̄shi
attributive: 怖い kọ̄i
adverbial: 怖う kọ̄u or just kọ̄

It's a bit short-looking, so I may replace it with the invented word 怖たし kọ̄tashi.

[zyma]

I apologize if I've overlooked an explanation of this somewhere, but for those of us who aren't that familiar with Japanese, what's the difference between the two types of adjectives and between the three forms of adjectival verbs? What are the semantic differences? When would you use one kind as opposed to another, and how do their usages differ?

I feel bad since I'm sure the glossed sentences are supposed to demonstrate these things, but like I said, I'm not too familiar with any Japonic languages, and Japanese glosses are always hard for me to follow considering how pro-drop the language seems to be and how little I know about Japanese syntax.

Sorry for the trouble.

[clawgrip]

You don't need to apologize...I'm happy you're interested.

There are no true adjectives in Yabushionese, only noun-like ones and verb-like ones. Noun-like adjectives (adjectival nouns) require a form of the copula, both as predicates and modifiers. Verb-like ones, on the other hand, never take the copula, and can be conjugated on their own. The difference is lexical; there are either few or no roots (haven't decided yet) that occur in both forms. Japanese has a very small number of pairs, and the difference between the two is mainly one of register.

The three main forms of adjectival verbs are used in the following ways:

attributive: used when directly modifying a noun, e.g.
高い山
takai yama
high-ATTR mountain
"a high mountain"

conclusive: used when the adjectival verb is used as the predicate, e.g.
山の高し。
Yama no takashi.
mountain NOM high-CONCL
"The mountain is high."

adverbial: this is both a standard adverb and a clause-subordinating form:
As an adverb:
高う登る
takọ̄ noboru
high-ADV climb
"climb high"

As a clause subordinator:
山の高う登れず。
Yama no takọ̄ noborezu.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG
"The mountain is so high that I can't climb it." (Lit. "The mountain being high, (I) can't climb (it).")

Japanese actually has two separate forms for these (高く takaku and 高くて takakute), but there is no such distinction in Yabushionese so far, and I probably will leave it that way.

[clawgrip]

The Copula, and Basic forms of Adjectival Nouns

So here is the other type of adjective. As they are noun-like, they have a single, invariable form. They require the copula in all instances, so I will need to introduce that too. Here are some adjectival nouns:

新た arata "new"
特別 tokubet "special; outstanding"
丁寧 teinei "polite"
必要 hitchọ̄ "necessary; needed"

Conclusive: just add the conclusive form of the copula, な na:

車が新たな。
Kuruma ga arata na.
car NOM new COP
"The car is new."

錢が必要な。
Zeni ga hitchọ̄ na.
money NOM necessary COP
"You'll need money."

Attributive: add the attributive form of the copula, の no:

丁寧の言ひ方
teinei no ifikata
polite COP.ATTR speak-way
"a polite way of speaking"

特別の日
tokuben-no fi
special COP.ATTR day
"a special day"

Unlike adjectival verbs, adjectival nouns do in fact have two distinct adverbial forms:

The standard adverb form uses に ni, while the subordinating adverbial uses ない nai.

丁寧に言ふ
teinei ni ifu
polite ADV say
"say it politely"

この部屋が静かない寛げる。
Kono heya ga shizuka nai kutsurogeru.
PROX-ATTR room NOM quiet COP.ADV relax-POT
"I can relax in this room because it's quiet." (Lit. "This room being quiet, I can relax.")

You may have noticed there are two different nominative particles. I'll explain that at some point.

[zyma]

Thanks for the explanations; they're very helpful!

I look forward to more grammatical topics whenever you get the chance.

[clawgrip]

Core Noun Marking
Now, I will discuss the three core noun forms: topic, subject, and object.

Topic
The topic works like Japanese, in that it is a noun that has no requirement to be bound to the verb, and that acts as a frame to contextualize and delimit the following comment. It can be marked with the particle は fa, though it is often simply left unmarked. In writing, when a topic is unmarked, a comma is inserted. It may be left out when the topic is marked explicitly.

Subject
The grammatical subject of a verb is marked with one of two particles: が ga and の no. They are mostly not interchangeable, and each are used in specific circumstances.

の no:
This is used as the subject marker when:
- the predicate is headed by an adjectival verb;
- the predicate is headed by a standard verb, and the subject appears immediately before it with no intervening arguments.

が ga:
This is used as the subject marker when:
- the predicate is headed by the copula;
- the subject and predicate are separated by at least one other argument.

These restrictions apply to the class of the base verb root, not the final morpheme. So, for example, an adjectival verb with a standard verb suffix added on will still take no.

The existence of these two forms is important. Earlier, we learned that Japanese has two separate adverbial forms for adjectival verbs, but Yabushionese only one. Let's look at the example sentence from that lesson:

山の高う登れず。
Yama no takọ̄ noborezu.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG
"The mountain being high, can't climb.")

Without the distinction between adverb and subordinating adverbial, it becomes ambiguous, with two possible meanings:
a. "The mountain is so high that I can't climb it."
b. "The mountain can't climb high."

Since Japanese does distinguish, there is no problem. Yabushionese, on the other hand, relies on the way the subject is marked, since sentence a., where yama is the subject of takashi would require no, while sentence b., where yama is the subject of noborezu, would require ga, as there is an intervening verbal argument that disallows no. Thus Yabushionese has a different way of disambiguating.

Japanese and Yabushionese comparison:

Spoiler:

"The mountain is so high that I can't climb it."
JA: 山が高くて登れない。
Yama ga takakute noborenai.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG

YB: 山の高う登れず。
Yama no takọ̄ noborezu.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG

"The mountain can't climb high." (I fully realize this sentence is nonsensical)
JA: 山が高く登れない。
Yama ga takaku noborenai.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG

YB: 山が高う登れず。
Yama ga takọ̄ noborezu.
mountain NOM high-ADV climb-POT-NEG

You can see clearly how Japanese employs two different adverbial forms but only one subject particle, while Yabushionese employs one adverbial form and two different subject particles to accomplish the same task.

Object
The object is marked with the particle を ọ. This particle sometimes combines with the final vowel or consonant of the noun it modifies.

i: 鳥 tori "bird" + を ọ = 鳥を toryọ̄
i: 虫 mushi "bug" + を ọ = 虫を mushọ̄
ọ: 泡 awọ "foam" + を ọ = 泡を awọ̄
n: 試驗 shiken "examination" + を ọ = 試驗を shikenọ
t: 解説 kaiset "explanation" + を ọ = 解説を kaisetọ

Note that for -i, there is complementary lengthening of /ɔ/ to /ɔː/ in order to account for the loss of moraic /i/.

In less careful speech, a and o, and even u can sometimes merge with ọ to form ọ̄.

unmarked topic:
今日の天氣、良しなあ。
Kefu no tenki, yoshi nā.
Today GEN weather, be.good HORT
"Nice weather today, isn't it?"

marked topic:
飯は殘んめずや！
Meshi fa nokonmezu ya!
food TOP remain-CONT-NEG EMPH
"There's no food left!"

adjectival verb with subject marked with no:
ハンバーガーの欲し。
Fanbāgā no foshi.
hamburger NOM be.desirable
"I want a hamburger."

adjectival verb with verbal suffix and subject marked with no:
この部屋の狭過ぐ。
Kono feya no semasugu.
PROX-GEN room NOM narrow-go.beyond
"This room is too small."

standard verb with subject marked with ga:
友が明日の夕方に來っ予定な。
Tomo ga asu no yūgata ni kut-chotei na.
friend NOM tomorrow GEN afternoon at come-ATTR plan COP
"My friend is coming tomorrow afternoon."

standard verb with subject optionally marked with no or ga:
我の出づや。 / 我が出づや。
Wai no idzu ya. / Wai ga idzu ya.
1 NOM come.out EMPH
"I'll get it [the phone]."

standard verb with adjectival verb suffix and subject marked with ga:
我が遣りたし。
Wai ga yaritashi.
1 NOM do-DESI
"I want to do it."

object marked with ọ and undergoing sound mutation:
少い辛子を足す。
Sukoi karashọ̄ tasu.
a.little-ATTR spice-ACC add
"I'm going to add a little spice."

[zyma]

The situation with the subject markers is quite an interesting, yet simple, deviation from Japanese. I also quite like how the object particle can sometimes combine with the object itself.

[Bristel]

おもろい言語やねん！

[clawgrip]

有難う御座り侍る。
Arigatọ̄ gozarifaberu.

[clawgrip]

Overview of the agglutinative verbal system

I haven't yet fully described the overarching system that governs how verbs are classified and conjugated, so I will do it now. Yabushionese inherited the very logical verbal system of Classical Japanese, which has been partially lost and partially obscured in Modern Japanese, though it has a few irregularities, which we have seen in the conjugations of the past and perfect, and the adjectival verb conjugations.

There are five verb types: two main verb types, two auxiliary/suffix types, and the copula. All (well, almost all) conjugate into six distinct stems: irrealis, adverbial, conclusive, attributive, realis, and imperative. I will get to the meaning of this in a while. For now, let's look at the details of the verb types.

Main verb types
The two main verb types are standard verbs and adjectival verbs. These carry the main content of the verb phrase.

Standard verbs: these are just what they seem. They are further subdivided into eight conjugation types, but the vast majority of verbs belong to one of four of these conjugations; the other four classes have only one or two verbs each.

1. Quintigrade: five unique stems, no additional suffixes
2, 3. Upper & lower monograde: one unique stem, additional suffixes to differentiate stems
4, 5. Upper & lower bigrade: two unique stems, additional suffixes to differentiate stems
6, 7. S & K consonant stems: three unique stems, additional suffixes to differentiate stems
8. N consonant stem: six unique stems, no additional suffixes

(Note: I may have to adjust this classification scheme soon)

Adjectival verbs: These are usually equivalent to adjectives, but with verbal elements, which we have already seen some of. There are two conjugation types:
1. shu-type: these all have -shi appended to the root and before the conjugation ending
u-type: These add the conjugation suffix directly to the root

Auxiliary verb types
The two main types of auxiliary verb types are conjugable and non-conjugable auxiliaries. They carry the grammatical content of the verb phrase. Each auxiliary can usually only attach to one of the six conjugation stems mentioned above, so whatever verbal element the auxiliary is attaching to must be conjugated appropriately.

Conjugable auxiliaries: These carry all of the internal grammatical information of a verb phrase. They mark tense, aspect and mood. There are several irregularities in their conjugation stems, so they cannot be further subdivided. Several of these cause onbin (sound changes) in the preceding morpheme, obscuring the agglutinative structure somewhat.

Non-conjugable auxiliaries: These are really just suffixes that place the verb phrase in the context of the sentence. Most of them are some form of conjunction.

Order of Agglutination
This is quite logical and interesting. First look at this little chart:

A: 1. standard verb → 2. adjectival verb / copula
B: 1. conjugable auxiliary → 2. non-conjugable auxiliary

Group A can be modified by anything in group B.
Class 1 can be modified by anything in any group.
Class 2 cannot be followed by anything in its group.

To explain plainly, standard verbs and conjugable auxiliaries can be followed by any of the four types. Adjectival verbs and the copula can only be followed by things in group B. Non-conjugable auxiliaries cannot be followed by anything at all.

This is recursive to some extent, so you can get, say, a verb followed by a string of two or three conjugable auxiliaries, or a standard verb followed by a conjugable auxiliary followed by an adjectival verb followed by two conjugable auxiliaries followed by a non-conjugable auxiliary.

When a verb from group A modifies another verb from group A, the base verb always takes the adverbial conjugation stem. Group B, on the other hand, as I mentioned previously, is entirely dependent on which conjugation the auxiliary requires.

Example
Here is an example of how this agglutination works (morphemes separated by hyphens, conjugation endings underlined):

First, we take a standard verb. The citation form of verbs is the conclusive conjugation:
呼ぶ yobu "call"

We put into the adverbial stem to be followed by another standard verb, 止む tomu "stop" (vt):
呼び止む yobi-tomu "call (someone) to a halt"

Then we put this into the irrealis stem to be followed by the conjugable auxiliary raru (passive):
呼び止めらる yobi-tome-raru "be called to a halt"

Then we put this into the adverbial stem to be followed by the adjectival verb 難し nikushi ("be difficult"):
呼び止められ難し yobi-tome-rare-nikushi "be difficult to be called to a halt"

Then we put this into the (agglutinative) adverbial stem to be followed by the conjugable auxiliary け ke (past tense):
呼び止められ難かいけ yobi-tome-rare-nikukai-ke(Ø) "was difficult to be called to a halt"

Then we put this into the irrealis stem to be followed by the conjugable auxiliary ず zu (negative):
呼び止められ難かいけらず yobi-tome-rare-nikukai-kera-zu "was not difficult to be called to a halt"

Then we put this into the realis stem to be followed by the non-conjugable auxiliary ば ba (conditional):
呼び止められ難かいけらずれば yobi-tome-rare-nikukai-kera-zare-ba "if (someone) was not difficult to be called to a halt"

So we are left with our final verb phrase, yobitomerarenikukaikerazureba. Usually though, verbs aren't this complex. They will usually only have a few stems. I hope I have explained this clearly enough.

I have swapped the order of negative and tense/aspect between Classical Japanese and Yabushionese (negative is before T/A in CJ, but after it in YB). Not sure what would cause this or why, but I just decided to do it.

[clawgrip]

Phonology (expanded)

I didn't post a full-enough description of the phonology in the initial post, so I will describe it here once more, as completely as I can.

1. Vowels
Yabushionese has the following vowels:

Short: <i u e o a ọ> /i ɯ e o a ɔ/
Long: <ī ū ē ō ā ọ̄> /iː ɯː eː oː aː ɔː/

The six-vowel Yabushionese system diverges from Japanese, which has a very standard five-vowel system. The sixty vowel, ọ, derives from middle Japanese /wo/ and non-initial /wa/, including from the classical sequence /kwa/ The long form ọ̄, derives from a number of sources, including middle Japanese /aɯ/, /eɯ/ /woɯ/, and non-initial /waɯ/. It also results from the sequence /oɔ/. There are a number of minimal pairs resulting from the existence of this new vowel:

顔 kao "face"
川 kaọ "river"

鹽 shio "salt"
皺 shiọ "wrinkle"

The vowel /a/ is pronounced a little more fronted than modern Japanese /a/, a result of the existence of /ɔ/.

Initial /e/ is always pronounced [je]. I will always write it as <ye>. The [j] is dropped even in compounds, so it does not form consonant clusters or mutations, e.g. 圧延 is aten, not *achen i.e. *atjen

Vowel sequences
Yabushionese, like Japanese, does not really have diphthongs, but it allows most vowels to appear in any sequence. However, there are a few sequences which result in vowel mergers.

/ɯi/ unilaterally results in /iː/.
/oɔ/ as mentioned above, unilaterally results in /ɔː/.
/ɔo/ unilaterally results in /oː/

Examples:
上水 ｊọ̄shī "(clean) waterworks" (derived from older jausui)
蛸を takọ̄ (tako + ọ) "octopus (ACC)"
川岡 Kaōka (kaọ + oka) "Kaōka" (surname)

/iV/ always results in /jVː/ in conjugations and with following particles. However, in compounds and morpheme-internally, it typically does not contract after /s t z d/. It does not contract in loanwords.

Examples:
瀧を takyọ̄ (taki + ọ) "waterfall (ACC)"
氣圧 kyāt (ki + at) "air pressure"
寂しゅう sabishū (sabishi + u) "in a lonely way"

but:
鹽 shio "salt" (not *shō)
キアヌリーブス Kianu Rībusu "Keanu Reeves" (not *Kyānu)


2. Consonants
<m n n> /m n ɴ/
<p t k> /p t k/
<b d g> /b d ɡ/
<f s z (ts) (dz) sh ch j> /f s z (t͡s) (d͡z) ɕ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ/
<w j> /w j/
<r> /ɺ/
/Q/

/t͡s/ and /d͡z/ as identifiable phonemes are extremely rare, occurring in limited loanwords only. However, they are relatively common as allophones of /t/ and /d/ respectively when followed by /ɯ/.

/f/ is analogue to modern Japanese /h/. Rendaku (compound-initiated voicing) will cause /f/ to voice to /b/.


3. Phonotactics
The Yabushionese syllable is relatively simple: (C)(y)V(F), where C is any consonant, V is any vowel, and F is /ɴ/, /t/ and /Q/.

/Q/ only appears immediately before stops, nasals, and fricatives, where it forms a geminate with the following consonant.

Cj sequences
When /s t z d/ are followed by /j/, they become /ɕ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ d͡ʑ/ respectively.

FC and FV sequences
When a word ending in F is followed by another word or particle, some changes can occur.

/ɴ/
/ɴ/ can appear as any nasal consonant, depending on the letters it appears before. In a strong departure from Japanese, it forms syllables with following vowels, rather than nasalizing and lengthening the previous vowel.

cf. Yabushionese
谷 /tani/ [tani]
單位 /taɴi/ [tani]

vs. Japanese
谷 /tani/ [tani]
単位 /taɴi/ [tãːi]

Final /t/
Final /t/ often is not actually pronounced as [t]. Before voiceless consonants and nasals, /t/ forms a geminate. Before anything else, it remains /t/:

發行 fakkō (發 fat + 行 kō)
發熱 fannet (發 fat + 熱 net)
發煙 faten (發 fat + 煙 yen)
發露 fatro (發 fat + 露 ro)


4. Accent
First, a caveat: I don't have knowledge of or access to enough information regarding the pitch accent of Middle Japanese, so I have to use contemporary Tokyo Japanese pitch accent as a basis, which is the only one I know and the one for which there are ample resources to confirm words whose pitch patterns I am not sure of. Pitch patterns have regular correspondences between Japanese dialects, so I think it is not entirely out of line to do it this way.

Yabushionese pitch accent is a toneless, three-pattern system. Using native terminology, Yabushionese has the following three patterns: 中高 (nakadaka, "middle-high"), 尾高 (odaka, "tail-high") and 平板 (feiban, "flat"). It lacks the 頭高 (atamadaka, "head-high") accent found in several other dialects.

First, it should be stated that accent in Yabushionese, as in Japanese, is identifiable as a predictable rise in pitch, augmented by lexical downsteps. After each downstep, the rise resets the pitch to high in preparation for the next downstep. There can only be one downstep per phrase, which here is defined by any base morpheme and all the suffixes/particles that are associated with it.

The downstep is typically called the accent, but there can be some confusion in how this works. The downstep occurs between morae, so when discussing an accented mora, this means the mora immediately before the downstep.

The Yabushionese accent has three pitch patterns as mentioned above:

• 中高 Nakadaka (fixed-middle) refers to words that have a fixed accent in the base morpheme on a mora other than the first.
• 尾高 Odaka (fluid-penultimate) refers to words that have a fluid accent which occurs on the penultimate mora of the phrase, or the final mora if there are only two. The position of the accent will shift depending on the number of affixes, etc. in the phrase. Utterance-final odaka is realized as a falling pitch.
• 平板 Feiban (unaccented) refers to words that have no accented mora. Pitch rises gradually accross the word.

The characteristic feature of the Yabushionese accent is that it resists placing the accent on the first mora of a word (i.e. atamadaka "head-high") whenever possible.

1-mora words
Single-mora words will have either odaka or feiban accents, which allows the higher pitch to be offloaded to a non-initial syllable most of the time.

Examples:

feiban (unaccented):
實 mi (fruit; nut; seed)
實が mi.ga
實まで mi.ma.de
實までも mi.ma.de.mo

odaka (fluid-penultimate):
木 kiꜜ (tree)
木が ki.gaꜜ
木まで ki.maꜜde
木までも ki.ma.deꜜmo

2-mora words
Words with two morae can take all three patterns. Some examples:

feiban (unaccented):
底 so.ko (bottom (of e.g. a hole, ocean, etc.))
底が so.ko.ga
底まで so.ko.ma.de
底までも so.ko.ma.de.mo

nakadaka (fixed-middle):
猫 ne.koꜜ (cat)
猫が ne.koꜜga
猫まで ne.koꜜma.de
猫までも ne.koꜜma.de.mo

odaka (fluid-penultimate):
川 ka.ọꜜ (river)
川が ka.ọꜜ.ga
川まで　ka.ọ.maꜜde
川までも ka.ọ.ma.deꜜ.mo

3+ mora words
In longer words, the pattern is the same for all three patterns, with feiban lacking an accented mora, and odaka falling on the penultimate mora. The only difference is that location of the nakadaka accent is not necessarily the final mora:

feiban (unaccented):
時計 to.ke.i (clock)
時計が to.ke.i.ga
時計まで to.ke.i.ma.de

odaka (fluid-penultimate):
男 o.toꜜko (man)
男が o.to.koꜜga
男まで o.to.ko.maꜜde
男までも o.to.ko.ma.deꜜmo

nakadaka (fixed-middle):
烏 ka.raꜜsu (crow; raven)
烏が ka.raꜜsu.ga
烏まで ka.raꜜsu.ma.de

椎茸 shi.iꜜta.ke (shiitake mushroom)
椎茸が shi.iꜜta.ke.ga
椎茸まで shi.iꜜta.ke.ma.de

英語辞典 ye.i.go.jiꜜte.n (English dictionary)
英語辞典が ye.i.go.jiꜜte.n.ga
英語辞典まで ye.i.go.jiꜜte.n.ma.de

As I said, these are derived regularly from the Tokyo accent of Japanese, meaning Japanese odaka are the same as Yabushionese odaka and so on. I have just slightly redefined what those patterns mean. Tokyo Japanese atamadaka words have their accent pushed forward by one mora, making them nakadaka. Single-syllable accented words in the Tokyo dialect become odaka in Yabushionese, and two-mora odaka words in Tokyo dialect become odaka in Yabushionese.

Realization of pitch rise
In Standard Tokyo Japanese, pitch predictably rises on the second mora of a word, or across the first two morae of a word if the second mora begins with a vowel, and this high pitch continues until the downstep. In Yabushionese, however, there is a gradual rise across the word, only reaching the highest pitch immediately before the downstep.

This should help illustrate the difference:


As I mentioned previously, in words where an accented mora is last in an utterance, it will acquire a falling pitch.


Accents and compounding

Compounds sometimes eliminate the accent of the first morpheme(s), or sometimes gain new, unpredictable patterns.

顔 kao (feiban)
色 iroꜜ (odaka)
顔色 kaoiro (feiban)

酢 suꜜ (odaka)
桃 momo (feiban)
李 sumomo (feiban)

英語 yeigo (feiban)
辞典 jiten (feiban)
英語辞典 yeigo-jiꜜten (nakadaka)

Some verbal morphemes do not influence the pitch of previous elements of the verb, while others do.

食ぶ ta.buꜜ
食べず ta.beꜜzu (not changed)
食べたっけ ta.be.taꜜkke (changed)

Some verbal morphemes with an odaka accent, such as raru, actually may shift their pitch back rather than forward, in order to place it on the penultimate mora:

～らる ra.ruꜜ
食べられず ta.be.ra.reꜜzu

but:
食べらる ta.be.raꜜru