My original purpose in the creation of Naduta was to create a complex script that I could adapt to an unrelated language, creating an orthographic nightmare like Japanese or Akkadian. I didn’t originally plan to put too much thought into the Naduta language itself, since it was only supposed to be background for the other language. However, once I started working on it, I got attached to it, and have developed it in a bit more detail. The other language that I was going to use the script for, on the other hand, is still only in its infancy (because I trashed the entire thing except for about three words, and then tried to make it related to another language I have only somewhat invented, forcing me to back-form a proto-language).
The language has SOV word order. Nouns inflect for number (singular, plural), gender (animate, known, unknown), and case (nominative, objective). Verbs inflect for person, tense, mood, aspect, and voice.
The writing system is logosyllabic: It employs a large set of glyphs that can be used logographically, ideographically, or phonetically, often with little or no reliable visual differentiation.
The phonology of the language is as follows:
Code: Select all
Consonants:
stops nasals trills/etc. fric approximants
asp unvoc voc unvoc voc reg stop unvoc voc
labial pʰ p b m̥ m w̥ w
dental/etc. tʰ t d n̥ n ɾ~l t͡ɾ s j̊ j
velar kʰ k ɡ x
Vowels:
i u
æ ɑ
labial: ph, p, b, mh, m, wh, w
dental/etc.: th, t, d, nh, n, r, tr, s, yh, y
velar: kh, k, g, h
vowels: i u e a
- Any consonant can occur initially. Final consonants are limited to n, r, s, y, h, although some root morphemes end with disallowed consonants; these are elided most of the time, and only crop up in certain conjugations/declensions
- No consonant clusters are allowed within a single syllable except /tr/, which I have simply classified as a phoneme since it seemed easier.
- /rr/ is realized as /t͡ɾ/.
- syllable-final /h/ becomes a soft and sometimes nearly inaudible [ʁ] before voiced consonants
- EDIT: /ih/ is pronounced [iə̯x] (or [iə̯ʁ])
- EDIT: /r/ is pronounced [l] when adjacent to dentals
Initially, I considered the possibility of there being a secondary feature of vowels such as length, pitch, phonation, or whatever that is not indicated in the script (and thus is unknown) in order to allow for more apparent homophones, but I have not really explored this possibility at all. For now there appears to be nothing, but of course that was the initial idea, so maybe it does exist. If I make a descendant of Naduta (which, as far as the conworld is concerned, exists) I will have to look into this.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the language or script, and I will try my best to answer them. If there are no questions I will just add some random stuff to the thread eventually.