Fuheko Ver 2.0

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Shemtov
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Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

I've decided to redo Fuheko, the flagship language of my major conworld.

/ t~t͡s~t͡ʃ t͡ʃ k p: t:~t͡s:~t͡ʃ: t͡ʃ: k: / <t~ts~ch ch k pp tt~tts~cch kk>
/s~ʃ ʃ h~ɸ/ <s~sh sh h~f>
/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/ɾ/ <r>
/ʋ j/ <v j>

/i y u/ <i ü u>
/i: y: u:/ <ii üü uu>
/e ø o/ <e ö o>
/e: ø: o:/ <ee öö oo>
/æ ɒ/ <ä a>
/æ: ɒ:/ <ää aa>
/æy æø æi æe / <äü äö äi äe>
/ɒu ɒo ɒi ɒe/ <au ao ai ae>
/ei øi oi/ <ei öi oi>
/yæ yø yi ye/ <üä üö üi üe>
/uɒ uo ui ue/ <ua uo ui ue>
/iæ iɒ ie iø io iy iu/ <iä ia ie iö io iü iu>


There is front-back vowel harmony, with i, i: e, e: being neutral. /t/ is realized as [t͡s] before /y/y:/u/u:/ and fuses with /t͡ʃ/ before /i/i:/e/e:/. /s/ fuses with ʃ before /i/i:/e/e:/. /h/ is realized as [ɸ]before /y/y:/u/u:/

(C)V(V)(N)



Morphophonetics:

Fuheko has consonant gradation. This evolved from a period where most consonants could be codas, and a coda consonant would weaken the initial consonant of the syllable, but since the shift to nasal codas only, empethetic vowels have been inserted, so the origin is obscured. Note that this does not effect a syllable with a long vowel or a diphthong that does not end in /i/ /y/ or /u/

There are three gradations, like so (using my romanazation):

pp>h/f>v

tt>t>r

tch>ch>j

kk>k>v

(Note that h/f [*/p/] and k weakened to */w/ in an earlier stage, which shifted to /ʋ/)



An example is the accusative suffix tsü/tsu (from older *t).



So Nominative <jäätä>, acc. <jäärätsü> "Ice"

Nominative <musuko> acc. <musuvotsu> "Son"



Sometimes a compound will show gradation, esspecially a commonly used one. Example:

Kätänärövi (The Military regime of Fuhe) from:

*Kätänä-to-Ki

sword-CONJ-Ki

As seen, these compounds have shifted to VH, which does not exist in all compounds. While all compounds with gradation show VH, not all compounds with VH show gradation.





Nouns:

Nouns have 11 cases and do not inflect for number. I will show two nouns, a font vowel noun, ad a back vowel noun inflected for all cases.

Jäätä "Ice"

Nominative: Jäätä

Accusative: Jäärätsü

Dative: Jäätäni

Topical: Jäätävä

Genetive: Jäätänö

Inessive: Jääräsä

Elative: Jääräsütä

Illative: Jäätän

Adessive: Jäätärä

Ablative: Jäärärütä

Allative: Jäätäre

Instrumental: Jäärän



Musuko "son"

Nominative: Musuko

Accusative: Musuvotsu

Dative: Musukoni

Topical: Musukova

Genetive: Musukono

Inessive: Musuvosa

Elative: Musuvosuta

Illative: Musukon

Adessive: Musukora

Ablative: Musuvoruta

Allative: Musukore

Instrumental: Musuvon



The topical case needs explanation. It is used instead of the nom or acc if the noun is the topic of the sentence; whether it is a subject or object in a transitive utterance can be seen from the case of the other arguement. It is also required when asking questions about that noun; It is also required with stative verbs, unless the utterance is answering a question that needed the topical.
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Vlürch »

So, it's like Finnish/Hungarian and Japanese thrown in a blender? Nice.🤠
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

That was exactly my aim. As I said, this is a redo of an older project, but I became unsatisfied with the phonology and morphophonology, and as I thought about it, the verb system was a mess.
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

A bit of history, to provide context for the language:

In the area that is now Northen Fuhe, there were two major kingdoms, Suomi (*Swaɵ̯mi) and Kan (*Xan). There was a dynastic dispute in Suomi, which caused a civil war. . The Eastern Dynast of Suomi allied with Kan and began to import Kan influence, including making the Kan language co-official with Suomi, and using the Kan-Suomi phrase for "Dawn Portion" as part of the name of his kingdom, Nihon-Suomi (*Nippon-Swaɵ̯mi), which eventually became known as just Nihon (*Nippon). Over time, Nihon's kings lessened in power, because they followed the Kan system of in wartime, declaring martial law, and giving power to the military. The border between Suomi and Nihon became fixed on the Fuhe (*Pupe) river, near the Suomi capital of Herushingi (*Persinki) on the western bank, while Nihon built a fortress on the eastern bank called Tookio (*To:k.jo) . The Kan became embroiled in a war with a southern empire, Momčalsum, and began to crumble. Nihon, fearin Momčalsum, offered Suomi a reniuon, where the King would have his capital in Herushingi, and the milatary commanders would have Tookio as a capital. They agreed, but many outside of the Fuhe valley rebbelled, thus the main kingdom became known as Fuhe-Nihon-Suomi (*Pupenipponswaɵ̯mi) eventually just Fuhe (*Pupe), and the two capitals fused into Herushingirookio (*Persinkido:k.jo). By courting the nĆaolusz tribes into an alliance, they consolidated their rule over the rebels, and Momčalsum fell, their territory becoming part of Fuhe. The nĆaolusz were granted independent status. Fuhe established their lingua franca as a heavily Kan-influenced version of the Fuhe valley dialect, as spoken in Herushingirookio. Eventually, their writing system shifted from Kanchi, the Kan logography, to the Katavan syllabary. (Note that Kanchi and Katavan are very different from their IRL inspirations, Kanji and Katakana). The name Katavan was a falling together of to older names Kata-kana (Shortened writing) and Kata-Kanchi (shortened Kanchi), given the coincidence that both names had the string /kan/ near their end.
Last edited by Shemtov on 28 Oct 2020 06:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

A note about the above post, since I realize some things might not be clear, and may be colored by IRL biases:
My Suomi and Nihon are just named so as nods to the source languages; they both spoke a language that was related, and they were ethnically related; Their languages are supposed to be dialects of what's already a mix between PFinnic and PJaponic. The differences between their administrative languages was basically the same level as Early Middle English and contemporary Old Frisian- clearly related, but one language having been heavily influenced by a separate language. The Nihon were the followers of the Eastern Dynasts of old Suomi, who took in heavy Kan (representing China) influence in language and culture. They took the name Nihon-Suomi, which became shortened to just Nihon as a way to differentiate themselves from the Western Dynasts- *Nippon being the Nihon-Suomi pronunciation of a Kan phrase for "Dawn Portion". The thing is, when they proposed a reconciliation , much of the Western Dynasts declared independence, and since the concentration of power was on the Fuhe river valley, they became the Fuhe-Suomi, which became shortened to just Fuhe, basically "The Suomi of the Fuhe region". Eventually, they conquered the other Suomi kingdoms, but kept the name Fuhe, and their language was that of Nihon remixed with the administrative language of the Western Suomi Dynasts, reviving some old words that had been replaced with Kan loans, but with different shades of meaning.
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

History of the writing system:

The Nihon state used the Nihon-Kan pronounciation of Kanchi, with some Manyogami-like Kanchi for Personal and Placenames (Nimivanchi). A Scribal/Reading class was cultivated to translate Nihon-Suomi to and from the Nihon-Kan Kanchi.

The Suomi used a Manyogam-like system called Aanivana. Since Aanivana led to deficient spelling, when clarification was needed Kanchi was used as Taxograms (Called Serittaavana). They also produced native Serittavana, called by scribes Tsuchivivana.

At reunification, the Suomi system of Aanivana and Serittaavana was used for Court Fuheko. Slowly, Aanivana were simplified and modified for Fuheko. These became the Katavan. Modern writing, given that Kan words created many homophones, uses a Serittaavana-like system, called Imivanchi, of around thirty Taxograms.
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

Fuheko has Casual and Polite levels of speech. This may be seen in the pronouns, which in the polite level may be marked by the status of the speaker to the listener. The language is pro-drop, though, and these are only used for emphasis.

The casual pronouns are the original pronouns, and thus are unusual for case in the accusative, dative, and genetive. The polite pronouns are from old titles and are treated like regular nouns.

The casual pronouns (note that the dative has collapsed into the accusative):

Nominative:

1P sing: Minä

2P Sing: Shinä

3P Sing: Hän

1P Plr: Me

2P plr: Che

3P plr: He



Dative-Accusative:

1P sing: Minutsu

2P Sing: Shinutsu

3P Sing: Hänetsü

1P Plr: Meerätsü

2P plr: Cheerätsü

3P plr: Heerätsu



Genitive:

1P sing: Minun

2P Sing: Shinun

3P Sing: Hänen

1P Plr: Meerän

2P plr: Cheerän

3P plr: Heerän



The Polite pronouns, unmarked for status:

1P Vätäshi

2P Anata

3P Sang



To superiors:

1P Boku

2P Anatakushi

3P: Sämä (to those of much higher rank <Sempäi> may be used)



To inferiors:

1P: Vätäküshi

2P: Anta/Ömäi

3P: Kung/Soitsu
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

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Regular verbs inflect for person, number, register and tense.

The citation form ends in -ru.

Example verb Kakiru "To listen"

1P sing: Kavin

2P Sing: Kavitsu

3P Sing: Kaki

1P Plr: Kavime

2P plr: Kakivatsu

3P plr: Kakitaan



The polite forms of the above:

1P sing: Kavinumasu

2P Sing: Kavitsumasu

3P Sing: Kakimasu

1P Plr: Kavimemasu

2P plr: Kakivatsumasu

3P plr: Kakitaanumasu



The past tense:

1P sing: Kavinta

2P Sing: Kavitta

3P Sing: Kakita

1P Plr: Kavimeta

2P plr: Kakivatta

3P plr: Kakitaanta



The polite past:

1P sing: Kavinumashita

2P Sing: Kavitsumashita

3P Sing: Kakimashita

1P Plr: Kavimemashita

2P plr: Kakivatsumashita

3P plr: Kakitaanumashita
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Re: Fuheko Ver 2.0

Post by Shemtov »

Negation of verbs is formed by using the aux <Ei>, which takes person and number, with the citation form for non-past or the past participle for past (This is for the casual register; I am still thinking about how to do it in the polite register).

Negative of Kakiru

Non-Past:

1P sing: En kakiru

2P Sing: Etsü kakiru

3P Sing: Ei kakiru

1P Plr: Eme kakiru

2P plr: Evätsü kakiru

3P plr: Ette kakiru



Past:

1P sing: En kakitta

2P Sing: Etsü kakitta

3P Sing: Ei kakitta

1P Plr: Eme kakitta

2P plr: Evätsü kakitta

3P plr: Ette kakitta
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
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