Felinese

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Felinese is the lingua franca of the felin people. See also the Dictionary and Phrasebook.

Name

TODO: Explain how and why Felinese is "the people's speech".

History

Why yes, I am trying to copy Wikipedia's style.

Classification

  • Firrhnian
    • Old Firrhnese
      • Upperspeech
        • Felinese

Dialects

This is where things like Klethan are elaborated upon, like how it and Fhuraian differ from standard Felinese.

Phonology

Consonants
Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m       n               
Plosive p b       t d    c k      
Fricative β f v θ s ʃ          h
Lateral approximant          l               
Approximant    ʋ          j         
Trill          r          ʀ   
Flap          ɾ               
Blends ŋg g͡ʀ h͡ɾ m͡ɾ
Vowels
Front Near-front Central Back
Close i:       u
Near-close    ɪ      
Close-mid ø̌       o o:
Mid       ə   
Open-mid          ʌ
Near-open       ɐ ɐ: ɐ̌1   
Polyphthongs ɛɪ ɪɐ ɔɪ

The subtext purr

One important thing about proper pronunciation of Felinese is a coarticulated purr that dramatically changes the meaning of an utterance in that an otherwise completely innocent statement becomes sexual, basically turning literally anything into a euphemism.

Grammar

Felinese has a mildly agglutinative, slightly fusional grammar. Verbs agree with the subject and mark for one of four tense-aspect combinations: present progressive, past, present, and future. On top of that, they can also inflect for imperative, interrogative, abilitative, and propositional moods. Furthermore, a noun can be zero-derived from a verb, and a verb or noun can take the -aw suffix to become an adjective. That's absolutely it for noun declensions. That's right: no numbers or cases are present in Felinese nouns, although pronouns do have number (singular and plural only). 

Syntax is largely head-final, with SOV order in the clause, and adjectives and numerals preceding the noun. However, nouns precede the relative clause, which is formed using a gapped construction with an overall adjectival structure.[1]

Conjugations
Present Past Future Progressive
Singular 1st -l -lw -sena -lite
2nd -e -ew -esew -ite
3rd -n -nwa -esen -nite
Plural 1st -li -lwi -senai -litei
2nd -ei -ewi -esewi -itei
3rd -n -nwa'i -eseni -nitei
Imperative Adjective Interrogative Agentive Abilitative Propisitive Noun Ordinal
-il -aw -ia -fhra -rhuw -iurh ø -rha
Personal pronouns
Subjective Posessive Reflexive
1st person¹ eun euna eunem
1st person inclusive iun iuna iunem
2nd person tiun tiuna tiunem
2nd person childish² chun chuna chunem
3rd person oun ouna ounem
3rd person animal uin uina uinem

¹: Lacking plurality, eun is both "I" and "we". First person inclusive is implicitly plural, eun being "the group I am in, but you are not" and iun being "all of us, including you." ²: The exact nature of chun is up for debate. Is it childish? Is it coolkid? Does it have an historical basis?

Writing

Felinese can be written in two ways, not counting transcription into the Latin alphabet. The simplest (and best-developed from a real world perspective) is upper style, a simple alphabet. The lesser-developed is lower style, which is a syllabary.

felinvol wra orshoi oen.

The Alphabet

a
a
a'iat
/ɐ/
æ
ae
aeiat
/ɛɪ/
à
ah
ahiat
/ɐ̌/
â
ai
aihat
/aɪ/
b
b
bihiat
/b/
C
ch
choiat
/tʃ/
d
d
doiat
/d/
e
e
eiat
/ə/
f
f
fie'iat
/f/
F
fh
fheiat
/v/
G
gr
grihiat
/g͡ʀ/
h
h
huiat
/h/
H
hr
hroiat
/h͡ɾ/
i
i
i'iat
/ɪ/
Á
ia
iahiat
/ɪɐ/
É
ie
ie'at
/i:/
k
k
keiat
/c/
K
kh
khahiat
/k/
l
l
luiat
/l/
m
m
moiat
/m/
M
mr
mriat
/m͡ɾ/
n
n
nuiat
/n/
o
o
ohiat
/o/
p
p
pahiat
/p/
r
r
ruiat
/ɾ/
R
rh
rharhiat
/r/
s
s
suhiat
/s/
t
t
toiat
/t/
þ
th
thoiat
/θ/
u
u
u'iat
/u/
v
v
veiat
/β/
w
w
waiat
/ʋ/

The syllabary

Lower style hasn't been developed enough to have its own font. An explanation and some examples will be provided in due time.


This is a work in progress. Gotta tweak up Template:Fel a bit for readability, add grammar info...