Aquan

Aquan is the language of the sea. It is the "common" tongue of those dwelling under the waves, amidst the currents and eddies of the world's wide oceans.

Natively known as: wemyi /weˈmji/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mi pa kiy nten fu twuntetsu mi pufnu fu ponyyi mwik tsu mwowo
Pronunciation: /mi pa kij nten fɨ twɨnˈteʦɨ mi pɨfˈnɨ fɨ poˈɲji mwik ʦɨ mwoˈwo/
Wemyi word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: f j k m n p t w x ɲ ʔ ʦ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n	ɲ
Stop	p		t		k	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f			x
Approximant				j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o ɨ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ
High-mid	e		o
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɨ	u
j	y
ɲ	ny
ʦ	ts
x	kh
ʔ	ʻ

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix nyow /ɲow/ the dog	Suffix -ij nyowiy /ɲoˈwij/ the dogs
Indefinite	Suffix -ɨw nyowuw /ɲoˈwɨw/ a dog	Suffix -e nyowe /ɲoˈwe/ some dogs

Articles

Wemyi encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

1st singular	ok /ok/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	nya /ɲa/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	pa /pa/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	yek /jek/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	pik /pik/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	pwi /pwi/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	tso /ʦo/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	aw /aw/ my
2nd singular	kwo /kwo/ your
3rd singular masc	fu /fɨ/ his
3rd singular fem	many /maɲ/ her
1st plural	naw /naw/ our
2nd plural	tu /tɨ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mek /mek/ their

Verbs

Singular	No affix toew /toˈew/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ap toewap /toˈewap/ (we/you all/they) learn

Wemyi uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: jo - yo toew /jo toˈew/ learned

Wemyi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mwew - mwew toew /mwew toˈew/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Wemyi uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: e - e toew /e toˈew/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Wemyi uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate first part of first syllable totoew /toˈtoew/ have learned

Numbers

Wemyi has a base-10 number system:
1 - wu
2 - u
3 - me
4 - pway
5 - kwik
6 - komop
7 - pitmo
8 - nyuk
9 - nop
10 - yokhfi
100 - mon
1000 - tsuko

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ik
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ja
Else: Suffix -oja
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -txe
Else: Suffix -ɨtxe
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ɨp
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -i
Noun to verb = Suffix -in
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -o
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ɨp
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ow
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -j
Else: Suffix -ej
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mpe
Else: Suffix -ompe
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ
Else: Suffix -ɨɲ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p
Else: Suffix -ip
Augmentative = Suffix -e

Dictionary

2989 Words.

Spoken by

• Aquans