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fynotek is a personal language created by Mochaspen (me!). as a personal language, its sole purpose is to be aesthetically pleasing to me, not to be naturalistic. it is still a work in progress, so this document is subject to change.
consonants: /p t k m n ɲ ɾ* f s x j w l/ < p t k m n ñ r f s h j w l >
vowels: /a(:) e(:) i(:) o(:) u(:) ɪ(:)/ < a e i o u y >
syllable structure: (C)(C)V(V)(C)(C) (no CCCC in between syllables; CCC is allowed)
consonant clusters are allowed, as long as no two stops end up next to each other. two identical consonants next to each other are pronounced as one geminated consonant.
clusters of 2 vowels are allowed, pronounced as either consecutive vowels or diphthongs. two identical vowels next to each other are pronounced as one long vowel.
stress falls on the penultimate syllable in all cases.
*the rhotic is ideally pronounced as /ɾ/, but other rhotics are also allowed, as long as it is still understandable.
fynotek ablaut changes the last vowel (or diphthong, in some cases) of a word. if this vowel is already identical to the one it’s supposed to be changed to (i.e. “i” ablaut on the word “fowi” would seem to do nothing), you add a second vowel after it:
(fowi -> fowiy)
if this creates a VVV sequence (i.e. “u” ablaut on the word “mumiu” would seem to create “mumiuo”), the first V is dropped (mumiuo -> mumuo).
reduplication ablaut reduplicates the last vowel. if it’s already a double vowel, it instead becomes singular (i.e. a -> aa and uu -> u).
word order is very free; there is no default order for the subject, verb, and object.
content phrases are introduced with the word “i.” for example: ratas i ywaomplana.= i know that you are sad.
yes or no questions are marked with the word “sta,” placed anywhere in the clause. responding to a “sta” question works as follows:
other questions are asked using "saraso". for example:
commands are marked with the word “ni,” placed anywhere in the clause.
the words “ak” and “ka” mark context clauses, which give context for the following sentence. for example: "ak ilynak ka ratasñy." = "in the context of computers, i don't know." or "i don't know anything about computers."
if multiple ak/ka clauses are stacked, “ak” is skipped for all except for the first, and they each apply only to the clause/sentence directly after it. for example: "ak ilynak ka ratasñy ka mikipñy yramo." = "in the context of computers, i don’t know; in the context of i don’t know, i don’t use them." or "i don’t know anything about computers, so i don’t use them."
they can also be flipped around: ak X ka Y = Y ka X ak
similarly, the words “ki” and “ik” mark relative clauses. for example:"awtakut ki skafyso iknonawtau ik fmutuepyumoumiy." = "boy who has black hair is my love person." = "the boy with the black hair is my boyfriend."
"ki" and "ik" can be stacked and flipped around just like "ak" and "ka."
case is marked through ablaut:
on proper nouns, suffixes are used instead:
if a noun doesn’t fit into any of these cases, it is left unmarked with more words clarifying its meaning. for example: "ñawa piino ñue rikoa." = "the cat ate on the floor."
“rikoa,” or “floor,” is unmarked, which would seem like nominative, but “ñue,” or “on/at,” clarifies that this is not nominative, but locative. without ñue, this would say “the cat and the floor ate,” as “rikoa” would be nominative.
to mark vocative, the word “to” is placed adjacent to the noun, and the noun is given no case marking.
suffixes are applied in the following order:
for example: "ñawaakñynawtaunejimi" = "not their black cats" (cat + plural + negation + black + 3rd person plural animate genitive)
shortened genitive forms of pronouns can be suffixed onto nouns like so:
tense is marked through ablaut:
hypothetical tenses are used in any of the following situations:
the person of the subject is marked with a suffix:
if the subject is a singular pronoun, it can be dropped. if it’s a plural pronoun or a noun, it cannot be dropped. if the subject is the impersonal pronoun, it cannot be dropped and the verb is marked as 3rd person.
suffixes are applied in the following order:
for example: "hyrñyoweifsa" = "they aren’t weirdly speaking" (speak + negation + 3rd person + weird)
proper nouns cannot be used as verbs.
the first modifier must be suffixed directly to the verb/noun it modifies, but any other modifiers are detached, appearing adjacent to the verb/noun and going through the same ablaut as the verb/noun. attached modifiers do not go through any ablaut.
proper nouns can be used as modifiers. when detached, they take a suffix instead of ablaut; for example, the name "aspen" is "aspenu" when matching U-ablaut, not "aspun." reduplication ablaut is shown with the last vowel of the word suffixed twice; i.e. "aspen" -> "aspenee"
if there is any confusion on if a word is a noun, modifier, or verb, you can add one of the following prefixes to disambiguate:
when adding affixes, infix “a” or “n” between them to avoid CCCC, VVV, or stop+stop sequences.