Gwaxol

Gwaxol
gwaxol⁵
File:??? *gwaxol⁵* in the Tesemka script
Pronunciation	[gʷɑ˩xo˥ɮ̊]
Created by	Dillon Hartwig
Date	2022
Setting	Pollasena
Native to	N/A
Language family	Wasc Gwaxol
Official status
Official language in	N/A
Range Map of Gwaxol (brown), alongside Kelajw (white), 'Oa (pink), and Thuosha' (purple)

Gwaxol /ˈgwɑhoʊl/ (Gwaxol:  gwaxol⁵ [gʷɑ˩xo˥ɮ̊]) is a mixed Wasc-Nentammmi language spoken in the southeastern Thotthashnem Desert.

Etymology

Gwaxol⁵, the language's autonym, is inherited from the Wascotl's autonym *wasc-otl.

Orthography

Gwaxol is written with the Tesemka script. Its romanization is as follows.

Gwaxol Romanization

(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)
A a	Ä ä	D d	E e	Ë ë	G g	Gw gw	Ğ ğ
/ɑ/	/ɛ/	/d/	/e/	/ə/	/g/	/gʷ/, /gʷ/	/ɣ/
(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)
H h	I i	Ï ï	K k	Kw kw	L l	Ł ł	M m
/h/	/i/	/ɨ/	/k/, /kʷ/	/kʷ/	/ɮ/	/ɬ/	/m/
(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)
N n	Ng ng	Nw nw	Nz nz	O o	Ö ö	R r	S s
/n/, /ŋʷ/	/ŋ/	/ŋʷ/	/z̃/	/o/	/ɵ/	/r/	/s/
(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)
T t	Th th	U u	Ü ü	W w	X x	Xw xw	Y y
/s/	/θ/	/u/	/ʉ/	/ɣʷ/	/x/, /xʷ/	/xʷ/	/ʝ/
(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)	(img)
Z z	¹	²	³	⁴	⁵	⁶
/z/	/˥-˥/	/˩-˩/	/˥-˧/	/˧-˩/	/˩-˥/	/˥-˩-˧/

• ⟨w⟩ as /ʷ/ is unwritten before labialized consonants
• Hyphens disambiguate /Cʷ, CʷCʷ, θ, ŋ, z̃/ ⟨Cw, CCw, th, ng, nz⟩ from /Cw, CCʷ, th, ng, nz/ ⟨C'w, C'Cw, t'h, n'g, n'z⟩
• Tone numbers are written word-finally

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Labialized velar		Glottal
Nasal stop	m	n				ŋ		ŋʷ
Nasal fricative			z̃
Stop			t	d		k	g	kʷ	gʷ
Fricative		θ	s	z	ʝ	x	ɣ	xʷ	ɣʷ	h
Lateral			ɬ	ɮ
Trill			r

• /ŋ, z̃, θ/ only occur in loanwords.
• All consonants can be geminated intervocalically
• All consonants assimilate in voicing to following consonants and all voiced consonants devoice word-finally, but this voicing change does not change fortition; for example /ɮ/ devoices to [ɮ̊] rather than [ɬ], and /ɬ/ voices to [ɬ̬] rather than [ɮ].

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central		Back
High	i	ɨ	ʉ	u
Close-mid	e		ɵ	o
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ
Low				ɑ

• /ɛ/ only occurs in loanwords.

Tones

Gwaxol has six word tones.

Tones

High	Low	High falling	Low falling	Rising	Dipping
˥-˥	˩-˩	˥-˧	˧-˩	˩-˥	˥-˩-˧

• /˩-˩, ˧-˩/ only occur in loanwords.

Tones are realized with pitch shifting throughout the word from the first tone to the second; in words with dipping tone, pitch is lowest at the end of the penultimate syllable and rises in the final syllable.

Examples

	High	Low	High falling	Low falling	Rising	Dipping
Monosyllable	ën¹ "it is it" /ən˥˥/ [ə˥n̥]	gey² "it counts it" /geʝ˩˩/ [ge˩ʝ̊]	zis³ "it gives it" /zis˥˧/ [zi˥˧s]	dëy⁴ "it laughs at it" /dəʝ˧˩/ [də˧˩ʝ̊]	hëgw⁵ "it finds it" /həgʷ˩˥/ [hə˩˥g̊ʷ]	thöt⁶ "it savors it" /θɵt˥˩˧/ [θɵ˥˩˧t]
Disyllable	sekën¹ "I am it" /sekən˥˥/ [se˥kə˥n̥]	sekgey² "I count it" /sekgeʝ˩˩/ [se˩k̬ge˩ʝ̊]	sekzis³ "I give it" /sekzis˥˧/ [se˥k̬zi˧s]	sekdëy⁴ "I laugh at it" /sekdəʝ˧˩/ [se˧k̬də˩ʝ̊]	sekhëgw⁵ "I find it" /sekhəgʷ˩˥/ [se˩khə˥g̊ʷ]	sekthöt⁶ "I savor it" /sekθɵt˥˩˧/ [se˥˩kθɵ˧t]
Trisyllable	sekëni¹ "I was it" /sekəni˥˥/ [se˥kə˥ni˥]	sekgeyi² "I counted it" /sekgeʝi˩˩/ [se˩k̬ge˩ʝi˩]	sekzisi³ "I gave it" /sekzisi˥˧/ [se˥k̬zi˦si˧]	sekdëyi⁴ "I laughed at it" /sekdəʝi˧˩/ [se˧k̬də˨ʝi˩]	sekhëgwi⁵ "I found it" /sekhəgʷi˩˥/ [se˩khə˧gʷi˥]	sekthöti⁶ "I savored it" /sekθɵti˥˩˧/ [se˥kθɵ˩ti˧]
Quadrisyllable	sekënilen¹ "I was not it" /sekəniɮen˥˥/ [se˥kə˥ni˥ɮe˥n̥]	sekgeyilen² "I did not count it" /sekgeʝiɮen˩˩/ [se˩k̬ge˩ʝi˩ɮe˩n̥]	sekzisilen³ "I did not give it" /sekzisiɮen˥˧/ [se˥k̬zi˦si˦ɮe˧n̥]	sekdëyilen⁴ "I did not laugh at it" /sekdəʝiɮen˧˩/ [se˧k̬də˨ʝi˨ɮe˩n̥]	sekhëgwilen⁵ "I did not find it" /sekhəgʷiɮen˩˥/ [se˩khə˨gʷi˦ɮe˥n̥]	sekthötilen⁶ "I did not savor it" /sekθɵtiɮen˥˩˧/ [se˥kθɵ˧ti˩ɮe˧n̥]

• For some speakers non-monosyllable /˥-˥/ and /˩-˩/ are realized as weakly rising [V˦...V˥] and [V˩...V˨].

Atonal words bear the last tone in the preceding word, but word-initially either bear the first tone in the following word or have variable pitch.

Prosody

Stress

Stress is root-initial and is realized with increased volume and/or vowel length, the latter especially in contrastive stress.

Intonation

Emphasized words have more volume across the word and length in the word's stressed vowel. Emphasized atonal words in isolation have sharply falling pitch.

In semantically imperative and hortative sentences pitch starts higher than in declarative sentences.

In nonpolar questions and expressions of surprise or doubt pitch is lower before the most emphasized word and sharply rises after the word.

Phonotactics

Syllables are CV(C). Obstruents except /z̃, θ, ʝ/ cannot occur before consonants of different voicing except on morpheme boundaries.

Morphology

Pronouns

Pronouns are marked for case, class, and number.

A reduced set of pronouns is used to mark possession on preceding nouns. In familial and very informal speech these pronouns are also used as ergative and intransitive pronouns.

Personal Pronouns erg acc intr gen dat 1sg lïm² lïn⁵ lön⁴ ye¹ yil² 1pl yäl⁴ lossa⁶ tön⁴ nwu⁴ yil⁵ 2sg ha³ hu⁴ ngäm³ mäy³ yil¹ 2pl nëm¹ kwon⁴ keng¹ mey¹ yil³ 3sg.hum xo¹ xö¹ ngul¹ ngö¹ hox² 3pl.hum thëm¹ thï⁵ yi¹ 3.anim1 ngex¹ rer¹ mäk⁶ kwon¹ küy¹ 3.anim2 ngel¹ rel¹ mäl⁶ kwol¹ kül¹ 3.inan1 hus¹ tïnz⁴ xanz⁵ nzë² 3.inan2 hut¹ hanz¹

Possessive Pronouns sg pl 1 se¹ nes⁵ 2 kwës¹ gwës³ 3.hum kwas¹ 3.anim1 nal³ 3.anim2 gi³ 3.inan ho¹

Adverbs

Adverbs are morphologically verbs and are treated and marked as such.

Postpositions

Most adpositional meanings are conveyed with the locative or lative cases, with two exceptions: nem "from" and ze "past, beyond". When these two postpositions are used, their head noun takes intransitive marking.

Numerals and classifiers

Gwaxol uses base-60 and subbase-6 numerals, with non-compound words for one through twelve and multiples of six up to sixty. Numerals one through twelve agree in gender with their noun.

Inanimate nouns require classifiers when numerated.

Derivational morphology

-käng and -ke

Nouns and pronouns can take the locative and lative suffixes -käng and -ke, with the (pro)noun's original case agreeing with the head the new locative/lative word modifies.

Possessive/informal pronouns use -ha in place of -ke, and definite nouns use häng and he in place of -käng and -ke.

Reduplication

Full reduplication is used to broaden adjectives (for example töng² töng² "somewhat narrow" from töng² "narrow"), and to derive new iterative or reflexive meanings from some verbs (for example har³ har³ "it returns to it" from har³ "it goes to it").

Syntax

Constituent order

Word order is flexible but predominantly VSO.

Dependent clauses

Dependent clauses directly follow the head they modify, and are marked with the particle ngë both before and after the clause; the head's other dependents then follow the clause.

Example texts

• Linguifex translations
• CALS translations

Other resources

CALS

Pollasena Wiki