Gwapyeo

Gwapyeo
Gwapyuran
과펴 (Gwapyeo)
Pronunciation	[kwa.pʰjʌ]
Created by	Koyeniru
Native to	Gwacho
Native speakers	10 million (2014-2018)
Language family	Toiran West Toiran Gwapyeo
Early forms	Old Gwapyeo Middle Gwapyeo

Gwapyeo (Gwapyeo pinghyeo: 과펴), also sometimes referred to by the exonym Gwapyuran, is a Toiran language spoken by about 10 million people, mostly in Gwacho (Gwapyeo pinghyeo: 과초). Gwapyeo has had a lot of influence on neighbouring languages, primarily thanks to its liturgical nature, being the language in which the sacred texts of the Monghwa (Gwapyeo pinghyeo: 몽화) religion were written more than 600 years ago. Similarly, modern Gwapyeo has also borrowed some words from neighbouring languages, mostly from Daichan (Gwapyeo: 댜챃 (Dyachā)), the most spoken language on the Ramija (Gwapyeo: 라미작 (Ramijak)) continent.

Modern Gwapyeo is written using the pinghyeo (Gwapyeo pinghyeo: 핑혀) alphabet, which is a derivative of the modern Hangul system used for Korean. A romanization system is sometimes used alongside pinghyeo, especially in learning material, but also in old texts, from a time when pinghyeo was not yet as standardised as it is now.

History

The traditional periodization of Gwapyeo distinguishes:

• Old Gwapyeo (과펴·란; Gwapyeo Ran, 6th–11th century), the earliest attested stage of the language. Very little is known about it, but the consensus is to say it was the language in which very important authors like Wangsyo (왕쇼) and Hapyeo (핲여) wrote.
• Middle Gwapyeo (과펴·솅; Gwapyeo Syeng, 11th-17th century) was the language of the Monghwa religion. Thanks to the great extent of text written in this language, linguists have acquired a far more thorough knowledge of how Middle Gwapyeo worked and sounded.
• Modern Gwapyeo (과펴·뭍; Gwapyeo Mut, from the end of the 17th century) is the modern language, much more influenced by neighbouring languages than its earlier stages were.

Phonology

Gwapyeo's phonology is quite similar to that of Modern Korean, with some subtle differences. The main notable difference is the absence of tense consonants, yielding only a two-way distinction for plosives, between aspirated and plain plosives. The biggest divergence from modern Korean vowel-wise is the presence of the phoneme /ɒ/, also found in the Jeju language.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		[m] ㅁ	[n] ㄴ		[ŋ] ㅇ
Plosive	aspirated	[pʰ] ㅍ	[tʰ] ㅌ	[tɕʰ] ㅊ	[kʰ] ㅋ
	plain	[p] ㅂ	[t] ㄷ	[tɕ] ㅈ	[k] ㄱ
Fricative	aspirated		[sʰ] ㅅ			[h] ㅎ
	plain		[s] ㅆ
Liquid			[l~ɾ] ㄹ
Approximant		[w]		[j]

Plain consonants

/p, t, tɕ, k, s/ are often voiced [b, d, dʑ, ɡ, z] between sonorants (vowels, nasals and /l~ɾ/), and generally stay unvoiced outside this context.

Aspirated consonants

Contrary to plain consonants, the aspirated consonants do not undergo intervocalic voicing. However, the aspirated plosives /pʰ, tʰ, tɕʰ, kʰ/ become lenited [ɸ, s, ɕ, x] word-finally.

Fricatives

ㅎ h cannot happen in syllable final position, instead being used as a vowel length marker, as coda /h/ has historically been lost, causing compensatory lengthening on the previous vowel. However, it can, similarly to plain consonants, become voiced [ɦ] intervocalically.

The status of sʰ ㅅ is quite controversial, as a number of dialects, including the standard one, have merged this sound with s ㅆ, yet retaining the effect of aspirated consonants on pitch (see Vowel pitch).

Sonorants

ㄹ r is pronounced anywhere between /l/ and /ɾ/, with free variation between the two, although it is sometimes dropped in coda positions, especially for younger speakers.

m ㅁ, n ㄴ, and ㅇ ng assimilate depending on the following phoneme:

Nasal assimilation
Following consonant	Nasal realization
Labial	/m/
Alveolar	/n/
Palatal	/ɲ/
Velar	/ŋ/

ㅇ ng cannot be the onset of a syllable. The symbol is instead used to mark the absence of a consonantal onset, like in Korean.

Positional allophony

As mentioned previously, Gwapyeo consonants are pronounced differently depending on their position in the word. The initial form is found at the beginning of words and in non-leniting medial environments. The medial form is found in voiced environments (intervocalic, between sonorants). The final form is found at the end of words.

Phoneme	m ㅁ	n ㄴ	ŋ ㅇ	pʰ ㅍ	tʰ ㅌ	tɕʰ ㅊ	kʰ ㅋ	p ㅂ	t ㄷ	tɕ ㅈ	k ㄱ	sʰ ㅅ	h ㅎ	s ㅆ	l~ɾ ㄹ
Initial	/m/	/n/	Ø	/pʰ/	/tʰ/	/tɕʰ/	/kʰ/	/p/	/t/	/tɕ/	/k/	/sʰ/	/h/	/s/	/l~ɾ/
Medial			/ŋ/					/b/	/d/	/dʑ/	/g/		/ɦ/	/z/
Final				/ɸ/	/s/	/ɕ/	/x/	/p̚/	/t̚/		/k̚/		Ø	/s/

Palatalisation

Before /i/ and its semivowel counterpart /j/, some of the consonants "palatalise". Most notably, the aspirated plosives /tʰ/ and /kʰ/ merge into [tɕʰ] in most dialects, although some dialects still maintain a distinct pronunciation (pronounced in the vicinity of [tʃʰ] and [cçʰ] respectively).

Palatalisation
Base consonant	Palatalized realization
/t/	[dʑ]
/tʰ/	[tɕʰ~tʃʰ]
/s/	[ʑ]
/sʰ/	[ɕʰ]
/k/	[dʑ~ɟʝ]
/kʰ/	[tɕʰ~cçʰ]

Vowels

Most Gwapyeo speakers have eight vowels. All of them have short and long versions, the latter being marked with a coda ㅎ h.

	Front	Back
		Unrounded	Rounded
Close	/i/ ㅣ	/ɯ/ ㅡ	/u/ ㅜ
Mid	/e/ ㅔ	/ʌ/ ㅓ	/o/ ㅗ
Open	/a/ ㅏ	/ɑ~ɒ/ㆍ

Front vowels

The front vowels are extremely stable in the speech of older people, but they are the subject of multiple mergers in younger people's speech:

• The most common of those mergers is between /i/ and /e/—both realised as [ɪ] or as either of the two original vowels. For example, one might pronounce 폫 (pyē) anywhere between /pjiː/, /pjɪː/ or /pjeː/.

• In some dialects, the vowels /i/ and /ɯ/ sometimes merge into a single [ɨ] vowel. This merger usually doesn't occur alongside the previous one, except in some sparse parts of southern