That Hùi Wá
I have been thinking about creating a language with grammatical aspects as opposed to tenses, as well as with tones and topics. It is going to be isolating and somewhat Sinoesque. As for the transliteration (I have not created a written system for it yet, but know what I want it to look like), I wanted it to look something like PinYin meets Wade-Giles meets Korean RR. I think it does that pretty well. Consonants k t p h kh th ph hh g d b gg dd bb n ng m l r w y s c z x q j sh ch zh X-SAMPA k t p h k_h t_h p_h X/* g d b ?g ?d ?b These are glottalized, akin to Japanese っか n N m 5 4 w j s ts dz s/* ts/* dz/* S_h tS_h dZ_h k t p n ng m may all appear in the final position of a syllable. w y may appear within a syllable either as a consonant or a semivowel. Vowels a ae ao ai e ei eo i o oi ou u ui uo á áe áo ái à àe ào ài é éi éo è èi èo í ì ó ói óu ò òi òu ú úi úo ù ùi ùo X-SAMPA a { au ai 3 E 3: i O Oi Ou u y uI ´ is _H or _R ` is _L or _F No mark is a neutral or mid tone. There is no difference between high and rising or between low and falling. Some Vocab ~Some words for I~ Wae – I (neutral) w{ Nyá – I (young female) nja_R Bbòuk – I (young male) ?bOu_Fk Thyèn – I (adult, superior) t_hj3_Fn or tS_h3_Fn Xyèn – I (monk) s\j3_Fn Wae rang – We w{ 4a~N Nyá rang – We (girls) nja_R 4a~N Bbòuk rang – We (boys) ?bOu_Fk 4a~N Thyèn rang – We (adult, sup) tS_h3_Fn na~N Xyèn rang – We (monks) s\j3_Fn na~N ~Some words for You~ Nòu – You (neutral) nOu_F Níng – You (respectful) ni~_RN Chi mei – You (female child) tS_hi mE Chi kòut – You (male child) tS_hi kOu_Ft Xyén xyèn – You (monk) s\j3_Rn s\j3_Fn Lì – You (disrespectful) 5i Nòu rang – You (NPL) nOu_F 4a~N Níng rang – You (res. PL) ni~_RN na~N Chi mei / kòut rang – You (F/M PL) tS_hi mE / kOu_Ft 4a~N Xyén xyèn rang – You (Monk PL) s\j3_Rn s\j3_Fn na~N Lì rang – You (dis. PL) 5i_F 4a~N ~A few Verbs~ To be – Hai (hai) To see, look – Jein (dz\En) To want – Syè (sj3_F) To thank – Gám (ga_Rm) To understand – Thyán (t_hja_Rn or tS_ha_Rn) To speak – Hwèi (hwE_F) To be able to – Shúo (S_hu_RI) To think, believe (rude) – Kháp (k_ha_Rp) To be correct - Khyein (k_hjEn) ~Some Nouns~ Cat (housecat) - Nyá (nja_R) Tiger - Shì (S_hi_F) Panther (black tiger) – Hhák Shì (X\a_Rk S_hi_F) Lion (hairy tiger) – Mùo Shì (mu_Fi S_hi_F) Island – Hùi (hy_F) Language – Wá (wa_R) Hair – Mùo (mu_Fi) Girl (child) – Mei (mE) Boy (child) – Kòut (kOu_Ft) Child - Bbwò (?bwO_F) ~Aspects~ Làe – rescent past, within this day 5{_F ~Enders~ Nei – positive sentence ending, neutral nE Nou – neutral sentence ender nOu ~Negation~ Phá – general verbal negative p_ha_R ~Conjunctions~ Kwè – and kw3_F Dòung - but dOu~_FN And now, a sentense! Nyá jein làe shì kwè mùo shì nei, dòung phá jein hhák shì nou. Anyone care to try and translate it and transliterate it into X-SAMPA? * those slashes should be backslashes. For what ever reason in the pronunciation area the backslashes did not appear.

Re: That Hùi Wá
Amazing work! Just a couple things: Why are the postalveolar sibilants <sh ch zh> aspirated? I'm really curious. The vowel system kinda reminds me of Finnish: /i E u O a y 3 {/ (though /3:/ admittedly doesn't fit), while still being "Sino-esque", as you intended. The pronoun system is great! Do children use "wae" for "I"? It seems like they'd have no other option, but I for some reason wouldn't expect them to. Are the 1st person plurals only exclusive, or are they inclusive as well? I'd like to see some more aspects. Do you have some in the works, or is "làe" all you're going to have? I'm guessing that the basic phonotactics is C(G)V(C), 'G' being 'glide'. Is there any tone sandhi? I hope so, since that would add new levels of interesting to your three-tone system. Oh, and: Nyá jein làe shì kwè mùo shì nei, dòung phá jein hhák shì nou. /nja_R dz\En l{_F S_hi_F kwE_F mUI_F S_hi_F nE dOuN_F p_ha_R dz\En X\ak_R S_hi_R nOu/ A cat saw (today) a tiger and a lion, but (it) did not see a panther. (I'm guessing that if the subject of a verb is dropped, the previous subject is assumed to be the subject.) Again, great job! I look forward to seeing more...

Weird, I just noticed in my own post as well.

Here are all the aspects I have currently, though I intend to have more. I will include some moods soon as well. ASPECTS ~Past~ Làe – rescent past, within this day Ddì - experiential perfective, “was but am no longer” ~Present~ Zhè – continuous action (I am hanging pictures up) Ró – static action (The pictures are hanging on the wall) Reduplication – Goes on for a little bit ~Future~ Píng – rescent future, within this day PARTICLES Particles always follow the noun, just as aspects follow the verb. Su – possessive Ní – in, at a place Dèng – to, for QUESTIONS Má - Question marker. Always appears at the end of the sentence or thought, even with other question words in the sentence. Nán – how Nán bèk – how many <námbèk> Khu – who Jei - what A few examples! What is your name? - Níng yóu jei myèo má? (You have what name?) I lived in the mountains for 42 years. - Wae zùo ddì sàjísí òng zì dèng sèot dèng já. (I did indeed live in the mountains for 42 years, but do no longer) Please, sit of a bit - Qíng wòn wòn I'll go to your house later today - Nyá xìm píng nái'n su qúi ní lào. (I will go to your house later today, I assure you) I am jogging - Nyá qùip zhè nei. So, are you seeing anyone? - Nyá chèin qíng, nái’n jein ró en hùn má? (May I ask , are you seeing some one?) I will go to the temple and tell the other monks! - Xyèn xìm gá xyènxyá ní, shùo shùo phyén xyèn lào! (I go to the temple, tell the other monks, I assure you> (I may have forgotten that I have a tonne of pronouns until the end there...)

Thanks. I chose to go with aspects this time because I am also beginning to study Chinese. That and it seems that there are rarely any ConLangs with a more Asian feel to them. I really like a lot of the aspects grammatical aspects...> of many Asian languages. Honourifics and all that. I wanted to play around with Grammatical Aspects with a lang. Unfortunately I am not at my computer so I haven't any of my notes or anything. And I am without Internet for a few weeks, so my lang will have to be on hiatus until I get internet back. But I will be back! And with more info for the lang!