Napkožæc

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Napkožæc
Pronounced: /nɑp.ˈko.tsɛtʃ/
Timeline and Universe: Alternate Earth, modern era
Species: Human (Napž)
Spoken: Napž-tawra
Total speakers: unknown
Writing system: Napžic script
Genealogy: Indo-European

 Indo-Napžic

  Napkožæc
Typology
Morphological type: Fusional
Basic word order: SVO
Credits
Creator: DiZ
Created: late 2006 - present

Napkožæc (or Napkotzaetch) - literally "language of the cloud-walkers" - is a language spoken by the fictional Napž people.

Alphabet

Napkožæc is usually written in the Napžic script. However, the language can be transliterated into the Latin alphabet using digaphs and diacritics that correspond to character combinations in Napkožæc. For the purposes of convenience, the majority of words will be written using this transliterated Latinized form. The alphabet is as follows:

Aa Ââ Ææ Bb Cc Dd Ðð Ee Êê Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Ôô Pp Rr Ss Šš Tt Uu Vv Ww Zz Žž Þþ

With three additional graphemes:

Dd, Ng, Wr

These graphemes, as they represent their own distinct sounds, are treated as separate letters in the Napžic script.

Phonology

Vowels

A - [ɑ] father; some dialects, /a/ amor (Spanish)
 - [æ] sat
Æ - [ɛ] bed
E - [e] entender
Ê - [ɪ] pit
I - [i] meet
O - [o] sobre
Ô - [ə] lemon; when stressed, /ʌ/ run
U - [u] too

Consonants

Table

Type Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Palatal Post-alveolar Labial-velar Velar Uvular Glottal
plosive p b t d k g
fricative ɸ f θ ð s z ʃ
affricate
trill r
tap ɾ
approximant l ɹ j w h
nasal m n ŋ
  • As a general rule, voiced consonant stops never occur in the middle of words.

Per Latin alphabet

B - [b] bite
C - [tʃ] cheat
D - [d] den
Ð - [ð] then
F - [f] fire
G - [g] gut
H - [h] harm
J - [j] your
K - [k] cast
L - [l] lie
M - [m] mine
N - [n] no
P - [p] pit
R - [r] "trilled" R, ratón (Spanish)
S - [s] say
Š - [ʃ] shine
T - [t] ten
V - [ɸ] (no English equivalent, see below)
W - [w] week
Z - [z] zoo
Ž - [ts] mats
Þ - [θ] thin
Dd - [d] as in ladder, add
Ng - [ŋ] long
Wr - [ɺ] rock

The letter V

The sound of the letter has no equivalent in the English language. In most dialects, it is somewhat similar to the voiceless labiodental fricative (f), but it is made without touching your top teeth to your bottom lip, and with a smaller opening between the lips. If need be, [f] is an acceptable substitute, and "V" is in fact pronounced this way in several dialects.

Further transliteration

The Napkožæc alphabet can be further transiletarated using the most basic Latin characters, without diacritics:

  • Â â - Aa, aa
  • Æ æ - Ae, ae
  • Ê ê - Ii, ii
  • Ô ô - Uu, uu; sometimes omitted altogether
  • C c - Ch, ch; tch
  • Ð ð - Th, th
  • Š š - Sh, sh
  • Ž ž - Tz, tz
  • Þ þ - Th, th

Sometimes wr is simply changed to r.

Dialects

Lexicon

Main article: Napkožæc lexicon