Liðakuin

Liðakuin (IPA: [ˌli.ðɐ.ˈkɵ̞jn]), also referred to as Lidakuin or Lidhakuin, is a Gomensayan language spoken on the continent of Gomensai. It is spoken by about 10,000,000 people, being the official language of the Fennril Federation.

Out-of universe context

Liðakuin is Astaryuu's third conlang, first started in 2023 as part of Drawn to AfterLife. However, it also sees use in tjeir Pokémon AU and other projects.

Liðakuin is meant to be similar to natural languages in terms of scope. It is inspired by Icelandic and English.

In-universe etymology

The kuin part of Liðakuin's name means "language." Liða is a proper noun whose origin is unclear - while Proto-Gomensayan *linhuda "barrier" is somewhat close, "Liða" does not match what would be expected from it (as that would end up being "ljuda"). On the other hand, yðakka "spirit" does descend from a word very similar to the expected precursor to "Liða", being *ihtāka. It is possible that the name was made by mushing these two words together into "līnhtāka" or something similar, making the name of Liðakuin "soul-shield language" or something like that. Given the former Liðahjal royal regalia prominently included a sacred shield named Ljunþakka, it is possible - albeit as yet unknown - that the land of Liða got its name from being given this shield by the gods.

The name "Liðakuin" does conjugate for case like kuin itself - for example, the accusative form is Liðakui. This is, for example, the telajang letters loaned from Liðakuin are called lizakoi in Rokadong.

Phonology

Main article: Liðakuin phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n		(ɲ)		(ŋ)
Stop		p	b	t	d	(c)	(ɟ)	k	g
Affricate				ts	dz	tɕ	dʑ
Fricative	plain	f		θ̠	ð̠	ç		x	ɣ
	sibilant			s	z	ɕ	ʑ
	lateral			ɬ	tɬ
Approximant			ʋ		l	j	(ʎ)	(w)	(ɫ)
Trill				r̥	r

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Central		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y uɥ			(ɯ)	u
Close-mid	e	ø	ə	(ɵ̞)		o
Open-mid	ɛ					ɔ
Open	æ		a aj		ɑw
Diphthongs	ju jo jɔ ja ɵj (ej ow)

//ɵ ɯ ej ow// are considered diaphonemic, rather than regularly phonemic, in Liðakuin. In the latter two's case, while no known dialect appears to have all of /ej e ɛ/ and all of /ow o ɔ/, the exact results are heavily dialect-dependent. In the former two's case, in the standard dialect of Liðakuin these have merged with other phonemes /ə o/.

Stress

Liðakuin is a dynamic-accent language. Stressed syllables are louder and longer than non-stressed syllables. Additionally, several of the vowel phonemes are laxened in unstressed syllables.

Stress is unpredictable in Liðakuin. It usually falls on "long" vowels, specifically one of /æ aj e o i uɥ/, but can fall on any vowel.

Liðakuin speakers also tend to reduce the vowels /a i y u uɥ e ei o ou/ to [ɐ ɪ ʏ ʊ ʉ ɛ e ɔ o] when unstressed. This results in /e ɛ/ and /o ɔ/ to be merged in unstressed position. Some dialects of Liðakuin do this even in stressed position, referred to as the sehn-rénn merger.

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure in Liðakuin is CCVCC. Liðakuin generally abhors hiatus that does not occur at word boundaries - that is, within the same word, two vowels are not allowed to touch, and compounded words or affixed words that would result in two vowels touching frequently have a consonant inserted between them, such as a sonorant or the otherwise non-phonemic glottal stop. This inserted consonant is epenthetic and is rarely written orthographically, and is also one of the key differences between different dialects of Liðakuin.

Orthography

Main article: Liðakuin orthography

Liðakuin may be either written using the Latin alphabet or the native Liðakuin script.

Romanization

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n		nj		ng
Stop		p	b	t	d	kj	gj	k	g
Affricate				ts	dz	tj	dj
Fricative	plain	f		þ	ð	hj		h	q
	sibilant			s	z	sj	zj
	lateral			ʒ	tʒ
Approximant			v		l	j	lj		w
Trill				hr	r

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Central		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y uy			ú
Close-mid	é	ö	u			ó
Open-mid	e					o
Open	ä		a æ		á
Diphthongs	eu ei ju jó jo ja ui ou

Native script

Liðakuin uses an evolved version of the original runes from around the time of Proto-West-Gomensayan. Since the Fenril Federation has historically mandated that most of its languages use this script, it is referred to in modern times as the Fenrilian script or alphabet. Natively it is referred to as the  fúþad, after the first five letters of the alphabet.

The Fenrilian script is a bicameral alphabet with 35 letters, each in capital and lowercase letters. Each letter is commonly referred to by a word that starts with that letter, though the sound value may have shifted since its coining to one that is no longer the primary sound of the letter.

The romanization is significantly more regular than the native script.

(WIP table)

IPA Name  f [f] féhr  ú [u w] wódän  þ ð [þ ð] þóda  a [ɑ] aður  d [d] darkur  s [s] sahrun  k [k c] kuimja

IPA Name

IPA Name

Notes

<þ ð> are not normally distinguished in modern Liðakuin, thanks to how the common way Middle Liðakuin made an altered version of a rune when converting to the bicameral system is not very distinct for the letterforms . Liðakuin dictionaries (and orthographies for other Gomensayan languages) often add a diacritic to þóda to represent /ð/ separately; although not mandated or standard, the resulting letter  is sometimes used for /ð/ in words with it. This especially holds for areas of the Fenril Federation where multilanguage contact is common.

The letters for /æ o/   are technically ligatures (specifically, of  ), but are considered distinct letters.

Morphology

Nouns

Liðakuin nouns have one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Nouns decline based on this as well as one of several declension classes, named after the nominative ending:

• 1: lax vowel/ur class. Masculine nominative nouns end in -ur, feminine nominative nouns end in -un, and neuter nominative nouns end in -us. Some (typically loaned) words do not end in any of these vowels but are still considered class 1, chiefly the endings -os and -as (typically pronounced the same, as -as was seen as verb specific).
• 2: ing class; masculine nominative nouns end in -i, feminine and neuter nominative nouns end in -ing. This class is sometimes referred to as the "neuter-neutralizing class" as neuter declension 2 nouns are usually identical to feminine declension 2 nouns.
• 3: a/ar class; nominative nouns end in one of those two endings. Generally a noun ending in -ar in class 3 is neuter, while a noun ending in -a in class 3 is feminine, but nouns with either ending of any of the three grammatical genders are still considered class 3, as the declension pattern only depends on if there is an r after the a or not.
• 4: -n(n) class; masculine nominative nouns end in -n or -nn, and neuter nominative nouns generally end in -nt. Feminine nominative nouns may end in -n, -nn, or -na, but despite ending in -a, the rest of the forms of such nouns will not decline as if they were class 3 nouns.
  • 4a: nouns in this sub-class do conjugate for plurality by adding an -s (-us in nominative) to the end of the word.
  • 4b: nouns in this sub-class do not conjugate for plurality, and have the same form in singular and plural forms. As this sub-class is larger than sub-class 4a, often sub-class 4b is considered simply "class 4", with sub-class 4a nouns being considered exceptions.
• 5: sonorant class; nouns in this class end in -l, -r, -hl, -hr, or -m in their nominative and accusative forms. The other forms do not care which of the above sounds ends the word, solely that it is one of those five sounds. While nouns of any gender can have any of the class 5 nominative endings, -hr is more commonly associated with neuter, while -m is more commonly associated with masculine.
• 6: hard nouns, so-named for the final sound many nouns in this class have in their roots. Any noun whose nominative form ends in a stop or fricative is almost certainly declension class 6, but nouns ending in vowels can still readily occur in declension 6, it is simply that, for vowel-ending nouns, declension 6 looks more like an irregular case of declension 1. Class 6 is often separated into subclasses based on the number of vowels present. These are solely for phonotactics, however, with a k being added before the ending for declension 6 nouns that end in a vowel in their accusative case.

Other resources

• Liðakuin on Star Dragon's Den