Iskel

Iskel, pronounced [ískel] natively or /ˈɪskəl/ in English, is Suqi's first and most developed conlang. It was originally heavily based on Italian, Spanish, Korean, English, and Latin (creating the acronym ISKEL), but has been leaning much more a priori as development has progressed. Iskel first originated from a much more relex-like, or even code-like language called Lanesil, which only combined elements of English and Spanish in a transparently jumbled way, but was quickly replaced with a new language structure as Suqi learned more about linguistics. Some remnants of Lanesil still exist in Iskel, such as the word kire (to want) based on the Spanish word quiere (he/she/it wants), or the word to (two) based on the English word two.

Setting

There are three settings where Iskel is spoken that canonically have no knowledge of each other. One setting is the real world, where it is Suqi's personal constructed language. Another setting is in an alternate history Earth, as the native language of the inhabitants of Iskeland, a moderately-sized island west of Africa overlapping with the coordinates 0,0. The third setting is in an island archipelago called Juya Gwaña which exists on the Agma Schwa Minecraft server, Nguhcraft. The primary structure of Iskel is determined by its real-world setting, with it being a personal conlang, however there are sometimes influences from its alternate history setting. There are no influences from Nguhcraft, however.

Dialects

There are three dialects spoken in Iskel which have different significance depending on which setting they're spoken in. The dialects are Lanikel, Kliqel, and Duskel. They differ primarily in phoneme inventory.

Real-World

In the real world, Lanikel and Kliqel are interchangeable forms of Iskel stemming from two different stages in the language's creation process, meanwhile Duskel is a rarely used form of the language most distinct for having an appalling phoneme inventory for no reason. Duskel can be interchanged for Lanikel and Kliqel, but any use of it would have a purpose which is not the case for the other two.

Iskeland

In the alternate-history Iskeland is a part of, the island used to be colonized by the French Empire and its multiple dialects are a result of that colonization.

Lanikel is the most common form of Iskel in Iskeland. Its phonology was heavily influenced by French during the colonial period, though native features like clicks remained. After decolonization, language leaders reformed Lanikel to remove French-influenced vocabulary.

Kliqel is the least common form of the language. It was created to modify the phonology of Lanikel to remove French influence, drawing inspiration from the neighboring dialect Duskel, which went almost untouched by French influence. Kliqel is only used by elites and did not catch on for every-day people due to the changes they'd have to make.

Duskel is a variety of Iskel that predates French colonization, spoken by a group on the island that repelled French invasion on their region of Iskeland. The dialect is not spoken much, however, because its speakers are heavily outnumbered on the island. Duskel does not use the Latin script unlike Lanikel and Kliqel, it uses a fusion of several phonecian-derived scripts, including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Devanagari, and Armenian. Duskel does not mark diacritics.

Juya Gwaña

Juya Gwaña only has the Lanikel dialect spoken on it. The other two do not exist in the world of Nguhcraft.

Phonology

Each dialect has the exact same number of phonemes, as their only phonological differences are phoneme pronunciation. They do not differ in allophony or phonotactics.

Pitch Accent

All dialects have the same pitch accent, which includes three tones and tonelessness. The three tones are high, mid, and low. Words can be entirely atonal or entirely tonal, but most often they are a mix of both. All tones are phonemic. Mid tones can occur in words with high, low, or no other tones.

The high tone is the most common and occurs in most words, usually once.

The mid tone is the second most common, and most often occurs in words with many syllables, but can occur in words with few syllables as well. The mid tone appears usually once as well, but occurs twice in a word more often than the high tone.

The low tone is the rarest and is more characterized by extratonal articulations like stronger airflow, slight devoicing, length across every sound in the syllable, and a visible, non-audible scrunching of the philtrum. The degree of scrunching in the philtrium is directly proportional to the intensity of the other extratonal articulations. A root word with a low tone cannot also contain a high tone, implying a mutual contrast. A low tone only ever occurs once in a root word.

Lanikel Inventory

Lanikel's phonology is the oldest, though slight modifications have been made over time. It resembles Lanesil's parent languages English and Spanish more than the other dialects. The original phonology was /m n ɲ ŋ p b t d t͡ʃ d͡ʒ k ɡ ʔ f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ x h w ɹ j l ɾ i ɪ ʊ u e ə ʌ o a ɑ/.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		ɱ		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	Voiceless	p		t	t͡ʃ		k	ʔ
	Voiced	b		d͡z	d͡ʒ		ɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	θ	s	ʃ	ʎ̝̊	x	h
	Voiced	v	ð	z	ʒ
Approximant	Oral	w		l		j
	Nasal	w̃		l̃		j̃
Vibrant				ɾ			ʀ
Click	Oral		ŋ͡ʇ	ŋ͡ǃ¡		ŋ͡ǂ
	Nasal		k͡ʇ	k͡ǃ¡		k͡ǂ

The consonants /ɱ n ɲ ŋ v ð z ʒ w l j ɾ ʀ/ and their long counterparts can be syllabic and receive the same pitch accents as vowels.

	Front		Near-Front		Near-Back		Back
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	i	iː	ɪ	ɪː	ʊ	ʊː	u	uː
Mid	e	eː	ə	əː	ʌ	ʌː	o	oː
Open	a	aː					ɑ	ɑː

Kliqel Inventory

Kliqel was created for two purposes: 1) in order to reduce the amount of words that sounded like they came from English and Spanish, and 2) for Suqi to practice pronunciation of unfamiliar clusters. Many of the phonemes were shifted to different values, but kept the same place in their words.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Uvular	Glottal
				Median	Lateral
Nasal	Unrounded	m		n		ɲ	ɴ
	Rounded	mʷ		nʷ		ɲʷ
Plosive	Voiceless	p		t			q
	Voiced	b
Affricate	Voiceless			t͡s
	Voiced			d͡z
Fricative	Voiceless	ɸ	θ	s	ɬ	ç	χ	h
	Voiced	β	ð	z		ʝ
Glide		w		ɾ	l	j
Trill				r			ʀ
Click	Nasal		ŋ͡ʇ	ŋ͡ǃ¡		ŋ͡ǂ
	Aspirated		k͡ʇʰ
	Tenuis		k͡ʇ	k͡ǃ¡	k͡ǁ	k͡ǂ

The consonants /m n ɲ ɴ β ð z ʝ w l j ɾ ʀ/ and their long counterparts can be syllabic and receive the same pitch accents as vowels.

	Front		Back
			Unrounded		Rounded
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	i	iː	ɯ	ɯː	u	uː
Close-Mid	e	eː	ɤ	ɤː	o	oː
Open-Mid	ɛ	ɛː			ɔ	ɔː
Open	a	aː			ɑ	ɑː

Duskel Inventory

Duskel is the second oldest, created much closer to Lanesil than Lanikel's current phonology. It was created to be an "evil" version of Iskel, but only for aesthetics. Duskel was never prioritized, so it only changed once after it was created, which was upon the creation of this wiki when it was finally updated to have sounds corresponding to all the new Iskel phonemes that have been added.

		Bilabial	Bidental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Guttural
Nasal		m			ɳ
Stop	Voiceless	pʰ		t͡s		c	ʔ
	Voiced			d͡z		ɟ	ɢ
Fricative	Voiceless	ɸ		s	ʂ	ʃ	x
	Voiced	β		z	ʐ	ʝ	ɣ
Approximant				ɹ	ɭ	j	ɰ
Vibrant		ʙ		r	ɽ
Glottalic	Voiceless	pʼ			ʂʼ		kʼ
	Voiced						ʛ
Click	Nasal			ŋ͡ǁ	ŋ͡ǃ		m͡ʞ
	Tenuis			k͡ǁ	k͡ǃ		m̥͡ʞ
Percussive			ʭ

The consonants /m ɳ ɢ ɟ β z ʐ ɣ ʝ ɭ j r ɹ/ and their long counterparts can be syllabic and receive the same pitch accents as vowels.

	Front		Central		Back
					Unrounded		Rounded
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Nasal					ɯ̰̤̃́ːː
High	ɪ	ɪː	ə	əː	ɯ	ɯː	ʊ	ʊː
Mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ʌ	ʌː	ɔ	ɔː
Low			ɐ	ɐː	ɑ	ɑː

Romanizations

Polyphthongs are mostly written by simply juxtaposing vowel letters together, but in cases with vowels that use digraphs, an overdot is placed on the non-first grapheme(s) of a diphthong to distinguish them (e.g. /ɪ i͡e/ are ⟨ie iė⟩, and /a͡ʌ ɑ͡e a͡o͡e/ are ⟨aȯe aoė aȯė⟩). Since all two- or three-vowel clusters contrast with a polypthong, a diaerisis is placed on the non-first grapheme(s) of such clusters to distinguish them (e.g. /ɪ i.e/ are ⟨ie ië⟩, and /a.ʌ ɑ.e a.o.e/ are ⟨aöe aoë aöë⟩).

Geminated single-letter consonants are written by doubling their letter. Geminated digraphic clicks and affricates are written by doubling their first letter, and the other geminated digraphic consonants are written by doubling their last letter. Consonant clusters are distinguished from consonant clusters by placing an apostrophe between each consonant until ambiguity is removed (e.g. /θ th/ are ⟨th t'h⟩, and /ʀː ɾʀ ʀɾ/ are ⟨rrr r'rr rr'r⟩).

Toneless syllabic consonants are written with an overdot. On digraphs, the overdot is written only on the first letter (e.g. /ŋ̩ ʀ̩/ get written ⟨ṅg ṙr⟩). For the syllabic palatal nasal, the ⟨ñ⟩ is replaced with ⟨ny⟩, upon which the overdot can be placed ⟨ṅy⟩. All syllabic /v̩ ð̩/ are written with ⟨b d⟩ instead of ⟨v dh⟩, and so receive the overdot as ⟨ḃ ḋ⟩.

High tone is marked with an acute accent on vowels without a diacritic. On vowels with a macron (denoting length), the macron is replaced with a circumflex (e.g. /í íː/ are ⟨í î⟩). High tone syllabic consonants /ɱ̩́ ń̩ ɲ̩́ ŋ̩́ ź̩ ʒ̩́ ẃ̩ ĺ̩ j̩́ ɾ̩́ ʀ̩́/ have their overdots replaced with the acute accent ⟨ḿ ń ńy ńg ź źh ẃ ĺ ý ŕ ŕr⟩. High tone syllabic consonants /v̩ ð̩/ are written with a bar instead of an acute accent ⟨ƀ đ⟩.

Because word-initial high tone words are most common, Iskel romanizes them differently to avoid extensive diacritic use: a high tone on a multisyllabic word is not written if there is only one high tone and it's word initial. Multisyllabic words with no tones are written as if they have a word-initial high tone.

Mid tone is marked with a grave accent on vowels without a diacritic. On vowels with a macron (denoting length), the macron is replaced with a caron (e.g. /ī īː/ are ⟨ì ǐ⟩). Mid tone syllabic consonants are written the same as their toneless forms, but followed by an apostrophe. Some may choose to not add the apostrophe and instead replace the overdot with an underdot.

Low tone is marked with an exclamation mark preceding the syllable.

Lanikel				Kliqel				Duskel
Consonants		Vowels		Consonants		Vowels		Consonants		Vowels
IPA	Rom	IPA	Rom	IPA	Rom	IPA	Rom	IPA	Rom	IPA	Rom
/ɱ/	m	/i/	i	/m/	m	/i/	i	/m/	m	/ɪ/	i
/p/	p	/iː/	ī	/p/	p	/iː/	ī	/pʰ/	p	/ɪː/	ī
/b/	b	/ɪ/	ie	/b/	b	/ɯ/	iu	/ʙ/	b	/ɯ/	iu
/f/	f	/ɪː/	īe	/ɸ/	f	/ɯː/	īu	/ɸ/	f	/ɯː/	īu
/v/	v	/ʊ/	uo	/β/	v	/ɑ/	ao	/β/	v	/œ/	oe
/w/	w	/ʊː/	ūo	/w/	w	/ɑː/	āo	/ʝ/	j	/œː/	ōe
/w̃/	w'	/u/	u	/mʷ/	m'	/u/	u	/ɰ/	w	/ʊ/	u
/θ/	th	/uː/	ū	/θ/	th	/uː/	ū	/x/	h	/ʊː/	ū
/ð/	dh	/e/	e	/ð/	dh	/e/	e	/ɣ/	g	/ɛ/	e
/ŋ͡ʇ/	qz	/eː/	ē	/ŋ͡ʇ/	kz	/eː/	ē	/ŋ͡ǁ/	nl	/ɛː/	ē
/k͡ʇ/	qs	/ə/	eo	/k͡ʇ/	ks	/ɛ/	ae	/k͡ǁ/	kl	/ɯ̰̤̃́ːː/	ũ
/n/	n	/əː/	ēo	/n/	n	/ɛː/	āe	/ɳ/	nr
/t/	t	/ʌ/	oe	/t/	t	/ɤ/	eu	/ɾ/	d	/ʌ/	eo
/d͡z/	dz	/ʌː/	ōe	/d͡z/	dz	/ɤː/	ēu	/pʼ/	p'	/ʌː/	ēo
/s/	s	/o/	o	/s/	s	/o/	o	/s/	s	/ə/	ea
/z/	z	/oː/	ō	/z/	z	/oː/	ō	/z/	z	/əː/	ēa
/l/	l	/a/	a	/l/	l	/a/	a	/ɭ/	lr	/ɑ/	a
/l̃/	l'	/aː/	ā	/nʷ/	n'	/aː/	ā	/ɽ/	dr	/ɑː/	ā
/ɾ/	r	/ɑ/	ao	/ɾ/	r	/ɔ/	oa	/r/	rr	/ɔ/	oa
/ŋ͡ǃ¡/	qn	/ɑː/	āo	/ŋ͡ǃ¡/	kn	/ɔː/	ōa	/ŋ͡ǃ/	nq	/ɔː/	ōa
/k͡ǃ¡/	ql			/k͡ǃ¡/	kr			/k͡ǃ/	kq
/t͡ʃ/	ch			/t͡s/	ts			/t͡s/	ts
/d͡ʒ/	j			/r/	rr			/d͡z/	dz
/ʃ/	sh			/ç/	ch			/ʂ/	sr
/ʒ/	zh			/ʝ/	j			/ʐ/	zr
/ɲ/	ñ			/ɲ/	ñ			/c/	c
/ʎ̝̊/	hl			/ɬ/	hl			/ʛ/	g'
/j/	y			/j/	y			/j/	y
/j̃/	y'			/ɲʷ/	ñ'			/ʂʼ/	s'
/ŋ͡ǂ/	qñ			/ŋ͡ǂ/	kñ			/m͡ʞ/	mk
/k͡ǂ/	qy			/k͡ǂ/	ky			/m̥͡ʞ/	pk
/ŋ/	ng			/ɴ/	gn			/ɟ/	gy
/k/	k			/q/	q			/kʼ/	k
/ɡ/	g			/k͡ʇʰ/	kt			/ɢ/	gr
/x/	x			/x/	x			/ʃ/	sh
/ʀ/	rr			/ʀ/	gg			/ɹ/	yr
/ʔ/	c			/k͡ǁ/	kl			/ʭ/	x
/h/	h			/h/	h			/ʔ/	h