Dàzn̂a is a language spoken by the birdfolk of Kvember. This document describes the dialect spoken by the nomadic peoples of the highlands.
A dictionary can be found here.Phonotactics
Syllables take the form, CV. Unusually, the vowel quality is not phonemic although it can carry a tone. The vowel "hue" does not convey any meaning beyond the attitude of the speaker and emphasis. Weak syllables (with neither a fortis consonant or tone) are pronounced with a more centralized vowel.
Phonemes
The consonants along with their glyphs and romanizations (with default vowel representations) are as follows.
| Lenis | Fortis | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unvoiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Voiced |
| /t/ it ⟨te⟩ | /d/ id ⟨de⟩ | /tˤ/ iT ⟨ta⟩ | /dˤ/ iD ⟨da⟩ |
| /k/ ik ⟨ke⟩ | /g/ ig ⟨ge⟩ | /q/ iK ⟨ka⟩ | /ɢ/ iG ⟨ga⟩ |
| /s/ is ⟨se⟩ | /z/ iz ⟨ze⟩ | /t͜s/ iS ⟨tsa⟩ | /d͜z/ iZ ⟨dza⟩ |
| /n/ in ⟨ne⟩ | /ŋ͜!/ iN ⟨n̂a⟩ | ||
A syllable may carry a rising or falling tone. High and high dipping tones result only from sandhi rules.
| Rising | it́ ⟨á⟩ |
|---|---|
| Falling | it̀ ⟨à⟩ |
| High | ⟨ā⟩ |
| High Dipping | ⟨ă⟩ |
Syllables with a tone are always romanized with ⟨a⟩ which creates ambiguity in the fortis-lenis distinction. This is resolved by marking lenis consonants in strong syllables with an underdot or overdot when unclear.
Sandhi
The following rules are applied left-to-right:
- A falling-falling sequence becomes high-falling.
- A rising-rising sequence becomes rising-high.
- A falling-rising sequence becomes a dipping-neutral sequence, potentially weakening the second syllable.
- A se, ze, or ne syllable has its vowel ellided unless preceded by another ellided vowel or followed by a consonant that differs in voicing. Vowels preceding tsa or dza are never ellided. The first vowel in a word is never ellided.
Morphology
The limited phonetic inventory is made up for with the extensive use of concatenative morphology to derive new words. These can be chained together indefinitely.
| -iz | -ze | Verbalizer |
| Attaches to a noun to make the verb that is the typical thing done with that noun (eye → to see) | ||
| -id | -de | Nominalizer |
| Attaches to a verb to make a noun that does that verb. This is often used for occupations (to write → scribe). | ||
| -iD | -da | Result |
| Attaches to a verb to make a noun that results from doing that verb. This might be physical (to hunt → food) or non-physical (to make → creation). | ||
| -is̀ | -sà | Instrument |
| Attaches to a verb to make a noun that is used for doing that verb (to drink → beverage). | ||
| -ig | -ge | Collective |
| Attaches to a noun to make a group of that noun (document → book). | ||
Grammar
Word order is verb-object-subject with modifiers going after the word that they modify. Modifiers are marked with the a- prefix which is indicated in the orthography by a mark beneath the initial stroke. Adjectives, possessives, and adverbials are all formed using this prefix.