Laean [LAEAI]
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Typology
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11 words
Laean
Laeai [laeai]
LaeanLaeai [laeai]
Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 29 August 2019
Language type
Mixed
Species
Human/humanoid
About Laean
Laeai is a highly analytic, virtually verbless language spoken by the Laeai people inhabiting an island of the same name. It's strongly contextual, intuitional and subjective, reflecting the unusual ways of thinking of the speakers.
Sample of LaeanCan't find any yet.
Language family relationships
[view] About IsolatesThis is a family for isolate languages.
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | p | t | k | ʔ | ||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||
| Vowels | Front | Back | ||
| Close | i | u | ||
| Mid | e̞ | o̞ | ||
| Open | a | |||
Syllable StructureSyllables in Laean have an obligatory, one-consonant onset. The vowel nucleus can have from one up to four (or rarely more) vowel units, which are pronounced as merged (although there is a slight dynamic stress on the penultimate vowel unit). Coda is optional and one-consonant as well.
Stress informationStress in Laean is only residual, and falls on the penultimate vowel in a vowel chain forming the syllable nucleus.
OtherWhen 2 consonants meet, a consonant hierarchy applies: h>s>l>nasal; if a higher consonant falls after a lower one, they must switch; so, for example, a cluster /hn/ is permissible, but /nh/ is not, and so on (glottal stop disappears completely). Stops can either be switched or not (but they merge with the other consonant, and that causes nasalization before a nasal, aspiration before /h/, etc).
There are 2 modes of consonant pronunciation: soft and hard. When in soft mode, initial plosives and /s/ are lenited, /l/ is pronounced as lateral approximant, and final plosives are without an audible release. Final nasals often disappear, leaving a vowel nasalization instead. When in hard mode, plosives are not lenited, and even slightly aspirated, and they are fully pronounced even at final position. /l/ is realised as /r/.
There are 2 modes of consonant pronunciation: soft and hard. When in soft mode, initial plosives and /s/ are lenited, /l/ is pronounced as lateral approximant, and final plosives are without an audible release. Final nasals often disappear, leaving a vowel nasalization instead. When in hard mode, plosives are not lenited, and even slightly aspirated, and they are fully pronounced even at final position. /l/ is realised as /r/.
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Laean. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 LaeanOrthography [edit] | |||||||||||||
| Aa aa /a/ | Ee ee /e̞/ | Hh haa /h/ | Ii ii /i/ | Kk kaa /k/ | Ll laa /l/ | Mm maa /m/ | Nn naa /n/ | NG ng ngaa /ŋ/ | Oo oo /o̞/ | Pp paa /p/ | Ss saa /s/ | Tt taa /t/ | Uu uu /u/ |
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | |||||||||||||
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Laean: Overview
Overview of the Laean history and culture
13-Sep-19 19:38
