Ởnh·Vú- Chamic Language

[All4Ɇn]

Historical Development of the Phonemes /n ŋ/
A number of complicated sound changes have affected both of these phonemes and so I thought I'd go in depth as to how these two sounds have changed over the course of Ởnh·Vú's development

Initial /ŋ/
At the earliest stages of Ởnh·Vú, /ŋ/, like /n/, could also occur initially. This was lost early on in the language's development eg:
/ŋɔʔ/ -> /no˧˩/ (東 <nò> "east")

Loss of syllable final /n/ before a consonant
In polysyllabic words syllable-final /n/ (but not /ŋ/) was lost and left a rising tone on the vowel preceding it eg:
/ʔantɔw/ -> /anto/ -> /a˧˥to˧/ (魔穌 <á·to> "ghost")

In the following word notice that syllable-final /ŋ/ was not lost before a consonant. /n/ was lost intervocalically as is typical of most consonants in Ởnh·Vú.
/bamənəŋɡəp/ -> /bamənəŋɡa/ -> /ba˧məːŋ˧ɡa˧/ -> /ba˧məŋ˦˧˥ɡa˧/ (𣎀粓西 <ba·mỡnh·ga> "dinner")

Despite their strong resemblance in modern Ởnh·Vú, the word for unripe, 無枚 (mớ·tả), is not actually composed of the Sinic negating prefix 無 (mưo) and the word for ripe 枚 (tá) but has merely come to resemble it in part because of this sound change
/tasaʔ/ -> /ta˧sa˧˥/ -> /taː˧˥/ -> /ta˧˥/ (枚 <tá> "ripe")
/məntah/ -> /mənta˧˩˧/ -> /mə˧˥ta˧˩˧/ (無枚 <mớ·tả> "unripe")

Complementary distribution of /n ŋ/ in Dialect A
After the loss of /n/ at the end of a syllable when not word-final, Ởnh·Vú began to split into two major dialects. While in Dialect B the distribution of /n ŋ/ remained unchanged, in Dialect A /n/ merged into /ŋ/ at the end of a word. This left /n ŋ/ in complementary distribution in Dialect A but still unique phonemes in Dialect B.
/kuan/ -> /kʉn˧/ -> /kɨn˧/ -> /kɨŋ˧/ (猿 <cưnh> "gibbon")
/khan/ -> /kʰaŋ˧/ -> /kaŋ˧˥/ (䘜 <cánh> "cloth")

Merging of Dialect A and Dialect B
Over time Dialect B began to slowly merge into Dialect A, with an increasingly large number of words with final /n/ coming to pronounce them as /ŋ/. For some words, the sound change never managed to happen. By the time that Chinese began to exert a huge influence over Ởnh·Vú, the dialect merging was still underway. Ultimately the merger was left unfinished, as the widespread adoption of final /n/ in countless Chinese loanwords stopped the spread of the merge. Eventually some of the pronunciations from dialect B became incorporated into modern standard Ởnh·Vú which otherwise took the Dialect A pronunciations. Below are all of the native words in modern Ởnh·Vú which have still maintained the final /n/ from Dialect B:
/bulaːn/ -> /blan˧/ -> /bwan˧/ -> /wan˧/ (𣎃 <van> "month")
/bulaːn/ -> /blaːn˧/ -> /bwaːn˧/ -> /waːn˧/ -> /wan˦˧˥/ (𦝄 <vãn> "moon")
/dian/ -> /dɨn˧/ (𢆭 <đưn> "candle")
/khin/ -> /kin˧˥/ (忼 <kín> "dare" or "brave")
/papaːn/ -> /paːn/ -> /pan˦˧˥/ (𤗲 <pãn> "board/plank")
/phun/ -> /pʰun˧/ -> /pun˧˥/ (𣘃 <pún> "plant")
/ralin/ -> /za˧lin˧/ (儿𦝥 <ra·lin> "wax") (final /n/ kept under influence from the word for candle)
/salun/ -> /slun˧/ -> /ɕun˧˩˧/ (𦚭 <xủn> "naked")
/thun/ -> /tʰun˧/ -> /tun˧˥/ (𢆥 <tún> "year") (only used in compound words; doesn't occur on its own anymore)
/tijaːn/ -> /tɨːjn˧˥/ -> /tɨjn˧˥/ (胣 <tứin> "stomach")

In the case of proto-Chamic /lən/ meaning "earth/soil", the Dialect A and Dialect B pronunciations eventually became two separate words in modern Ởnh·Vú:
/lən/ -> /lən˧/ (𡐙 <Lơn> "the Earth")
/lən/ -> /ləŋ˧/ (兜 <lơnh> "place")

/ŋ/ -> /n/
In the specific case of the proto-Chamic root /buŋa/ meaning flower, the sound change /ŋ/ -> /n/ took place word finally. This was because of influence from the word 𣘃 (pún "plant") and the Chinese loanword 瓣 (bèn "petal")
/buŋa/ -> /buŋ˧/ -> /bun˧/ (葻 <bun> "flower")

Proliferation of final /n/
After the widespread influence of Chinese took over Ởnh·Vú, final /n/ became extremely widespread from its occurrence in Chinese loans eg:
伴 (Bàn)- 2s.Informal or Friend
年 (Nen)- Year
人 (Nin)- Common nominal suffix meaning person/people

[Man in Space]

Your labors impress me. I like the depth you go into when crafting and describing this language.

[All4Ɇn]

Your labors impress me. I like the depth you go into when crafting and describing this language.

Thank you :). Ởnh·Vú is definitely a language that is very easy for me to get lost in. And I’m always glad to see other people appreciate it

[All4Ɇn]

哥𢭫 (Ca·Dưnh)- Fingers
The words for the fingers on the hand remain largely Austronesian in origin. Because of this they’re pretty long words by Ởnh·Vú standards. I’ve put them next to their Malay equivalents to make it easy to compare them.

Thumb
拇哥𢭫 (mé·ca·dưnh) (literally mother finger)
ibu jari (literally mother finger)

Index/Pointer Finger
拄𢭰哥𢭫 (tớ·giũ·ca·dưnh)
jari telunjuk

Middle Finger
魔穌哥𢭫 (á·to·ca·dưnh) (literally ghost finger)
jari hantu (literally ghost finger)

Ring Finger
味哥𢭫 (mãy·ca·dưnh) (literally sweet finger)
jari manis (literally sweet finger)

Pinkie/Little Finger
甥脛哥𢭫 (sính·kính·ca·dưnh)
jari kelengkeng

[zyma]

I've realized that, even though I've been following this thread for years now, it seems as though I've somehow never commented on anything that's been posted here. I'm hoping to be able to go back through all 15 pages and rectify that sometime soon, but until then, I just wanted to say that I'm very fond of Ởnh·Vú & very impressed by all the work you've done.

[eldin raigmore]

This too is interesting!

Thanks! Is there anything in particular you find interesting?

Are ordinal number terms and unit fraction terms at all related? Like “third” in English?

[All4Ɇn]

I've realized that, even though I've been following this thread for years now, it seems as though I've somehow never commented on anything that's been posted here. I'm hoping to be able to go back through all 15 pages and rectify that sometime soon, but until then, I just wanted to say that I'm very fond of Ởnh·Vú & very impressed by all the work you've done.

Thanks :). I'll definitely be looking forward to any comments you have on it!

[All4Ɇn]

Are ordinal number terms and unit fraction terms at all related? Like “third” in English?

Ordinal numbers are formed by preceding a number + a counter with 第 (Đè) such as in 第𠀧任總統 (đè sỏ nìm túnh·tũonh) "the third President"

Fractions are formed by taking the Sinic form of a number and following it with 分 (Pun) such as 三分 (sam·pun) "one third". The word for half is irregularly 姅分 sả·pun

[Khemehekis]

What would the names of the U.S. presidents become in Ởnh·Vú-? (If you want, you can go back just as far as FDR, although if you do that you might still want to include such big-namers as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.)

[sketch]

Interesting, I like this.

[Visions1]

Let be tell you the truth.
Until I saw this lang, I kind of had a negative feeling about languages that were just evolved forms of real life ones.
You've completely changed my mind, Allen. The depth here is fantastic. I'm now going to take them a lot more positively from now on.

[Arayaz]

Until I saw this lang, I kind of had a negative feeling about languages that were just evolved forms of real life ones.

Hm, could you tell me more about this?

[Visions1]

Hm, could you tell me more about this?

It felt a little like cheating to me. Also a little boring.
But again - now, no more. This knocks me out the water completely.

[All4Ɇn]

What would the names of the U.S. presidents become in Ởnh·Vú-? (If you want, you can go back just as far as FDR, although if you do that you might still want to include such big-namers as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.)

All of the presidents would simply use their Roman script English names. Proper nouns and other non-nativized vocabulary are written in the Roman alphabet but may be accompanied by Ởnh·Vú Roman script approximations of their names to help with pronunciation

Interesting, I like this.

Glad to hear it

Let be tell you the truth.
Until I saw this lang, I kind of had a negative feeling about languages that were just evolved forms of real life ones.
You've completely changed my mind, Allen. The depth here is fantastic. I'm now going to take them a lot more positively from now on.

I'm extremely happy to hear this . So glad my conlang could help you respect a posteriori conlangs more