KWMs
KWMs /ʷǂ͡ʘs/, or in English /kwʊms/, is a language inspired by the Hush language
Phonology
Inventory
KWMs only has consonants, all of which use nasal voiceless velaric airstream[1], meaning someone can speak the language for any amount of time without needing a break to breathe. Most phonemes have weak articulation, except for percussives because they are already comparatively quiet. Velaric airstream and weak articulation are not transcribed since they do not provide any phonemic contrast and can be assumed to apply to the language rather than the individual sounds. Any phonemes that are able to be coarticulated can do so to produce new phonemes. When this happens, the romanization reflects this by capitalizing all the graphemes of the coarticulated sound.
| Phonemes | Labial | Bidental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat | Prerounded[2] | |||||||
| Trill | ʙ̥ ⟨wb⟩ | r̥ ⟨r⟩ | ɽr̥ ⟨wr⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | Egressive | ʷf[3][4] ⟨f⟩ | s[5] ⟨s⟩ | |||||
| Ingressive | ↓ʷf[3][4] ⟨v⟩ | |||||||
| Click | Noisy | Median | ʘ ⟨m⟩ | ʷʘ ⟨wm⟩ | ʇ[6][7] ⟨x⟩ | |||
| Lateral | ʖ[6][8] ⟨j⟩ | |||||||
| Abrupt | ↓p[9] ⟨b⟩ | ǃ¡ ⟨l⟩ | ǂ ⟨k⟩ | |||||
| Percussive | ʬ[10] ⟨p⟩ | ʭ ⟨t⟩ | ||||||
Coarticulations
Coarticulations are not always simultaneous, but do occur with the same "breath" (or whatever the velaric equivalent to breath is), which adjacent phonemes do not do. Below are all the allowed coarticulations. There are 39 double-articulation phonemesː
/r̥͡ʙ̥, ɽr̥͡ʙ̥, ʷf͡ʙ̥, s͡ʙ̥, ʭ͡ʙ̥ ʷr̥͡f, r̥͡s, r̥͡ʭ ʷɽr̥͡f, ɽr̥͡ʭ ʷs͡f s͡ʭ, ʬ͡ʭ ʷʇ͡f, ʷʖ͡f, ʷ!͡f¡, ʷǂ͡f, ʇ͡ʘ, ʖ͡ʘ, !͡ʘ¡, ǂ͡ʘ, ʷʇ͡ʘ, ʷʖ͡ʘ, ʷ!͡ʘ¡, ʷǂ͡ʘ, ʇ͡p, ʖ͡p, !͡p¡, ǂ͡p, ʖ͡ʇ, !͡ʇ¡, ǂ͡ʇ, ʇ͡ʭ ʖ͡!¡, ǂ͡ʖ, ʖ͡ʭ ǂ͡ǃ¡, !͡ʭ¡, ǂ͡ʭ/
Exact Pronunciations
These are detailed instructions on how to pronounce each single-articulation phoneme because KWMs has a very atypical phonology.
| Non-Ingressive | Ingressive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Pronunciation | IPA | Pronunciation |
| [ᵑ̥ʙ͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric bilabial trill | [↓ʷᵑ̥f͉] | Ingressive voiceless nasal velaric pre-rounded labiodental fricative |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed, loosened lips become trilled due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips rounded. As the lips unround, bottom lip makes contact with top teeth and air is pushed inward as a fricative due to retraction of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥r͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric alveolar trill | [ᵑ̥ʘ͉] | Voiceless nasal bilabial noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip pressed against alveolar ridge, but loosened, becomes trilled due to advancement of the back of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed lips tightly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ɽr͉̊] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric retroflex trill | [ʷᵑ̥ʘ͉] | Voiceless nasal pre-rounded bilabial noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue underside pressed against hard palate, but loosened, becomes trilled and pushed forward due to advancement of the back of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips closed and rounded. As the lips unround, lips tightly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ʷᵑ̥f͉] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric pre-rounded labiodental fricative | [ᵑ̥ʖ͉,ᵑ̥‖͉] | Voiceless nasal lateral noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Lips rounded. As the lips unround, bottom lip makes contact with top teeth and air is pushed outward as a fricative due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue sides suctioned to inner cheeks gets released due to the lowering of the tongue side(s). Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥s͉] | Egressive voiceless nasal velaric alveolar fricative | [↓ᵑ̥p͉] | Voiceless nasal bilabial abrupt click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip reaches alveolar ridge and air is pushed outward as a fricative due to advancement of the tongue (still pressed against velum). Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Closed lips mildly suctioned to each other get released due to the lowering of the jaw. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ʬ] | Voiceless nasal velaric bilabial percussive | [ᵑ̥ʇ͉,ᵑ̥ǀ͉] | Voiceless nasal median noisy click |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Bottom lip strikes top lip forcefully to create a sound. Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip suctioned to roof of mouth gets released due to the lowering of the tongue tip. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ʭ] | Voiceless nasal velaric bidental percussive | [ᵑ̥!͉¡] | Voiceless nasal alveolar abrupt click with subalveolar percussive release |
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Bottom teeth strike top teeth forcefully to create a sound. Vocal folds not vibrating. | Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue tip mildly suctioned to alveolar ridge gets released due to the lowering of the tongue tip. The tongue underside incidentally strikes floor of the mouth. Vocal folds not vibrating. | ||
| [ᵑ̥ǂ͉] | Voiceless nasal palatal abrupt click | ||
| Back of tongue pressed against velum. Open velum to allow air to pass through the nose. Tongue body suctioned to hard palate gets released due to the lowering of the tongue. Vocal folds not vibrating. | |||
- ^ Nasal velaric airstream is an articulation where the dorsum is pressed against the velum throughout the articulation. In such articulations, the air required to produce a sound is limited to what is in front of the dorsum. The nasalization allows for constant breath in and out the nose throughout speech.
- ^ Prerounded consonants begin labial protrusion before the consonant is made. During its articulation, the lips begin to return to their normal position, but they are protruded for long enough to make the interior of the lips the place of articulation instead of the edges.
- ^ a b /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ are primarily distinguishable because egressive velarics tend to have a high tongue position and ingressive velarics tend to have a low tongue position, so /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ can be described as [ʷf𐞢 ↓ʷfᵓ] .
- ^ a b /ʷf/ and /↓ʷf/ may be pronounced as buccalized [ʷↀ͡f] and [↓ʷↀ͡f].
- ^ /s/ can only appear word-finally.
- ^ a b ⟨ʇ⟩ and ⟨ʖ⟩ are alternative ways of writing the dental ⟨ǀ⟩ and lateral ⟨ǁ⟩ clicks used to avoid confusion with the minor ⟨|⟩ and major ⟨‖⟩ prosodic breaks, or in this language, to distinguish a single lateral click from two dental clicks in a row.
- ^ /ʇ/ is in free variation between a dental, alveolar, and retroflex click.
- ^ /ʖ/ may be pronounced as any place of articulation between alveolar and palatal in order to make pronunciation easier and allow for coarticulations.
- ^ While an unusual notation, ⟨↓p⟩ is used here to represent the abrupt bilabial click due to there being few alternatives.
- ^ Due to this language's /ʬ/ being articulated so close to the source of airstream (the velar closure), it may have an egressive or ingressive plosive release upon the parting of the lips, notated ⟨ʬᵖ⟩. No reference is made to the airstream direction due to them being nearly impossible to retroactively distinguish.