Hapšâw'l language

Hapšâw'l, or Hapshaw'l is the language spoken by most residents of Hapšâw, where it is the main official language, as well as by the Hapšâw'l diaspora, which is concentrated mostly in La Rossa and T'vaqi. Hapšâw'l is believed to be the descendant of an earlier language (sometimes referred to as Proto-Hapšâw'l A) with significant influence by at least one additional language, leading to a large amount of loanwords in it's modern form. Hapšâw'l was first standardized during the reign of Kapahapšâw, and this form, known as Classical Hapšâw'l remains the formal register of the language, used in political or educational settings, as well as written prose or the majority of poetry.

Phonology

Classical Hapšâw'l

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b	t d			k g
Nasal		ɱ	n		ŋ
Trill			r		ʀ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		h ɦ
Approximant		ʋ	l	j	ɰ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Middle	e	ɘ	ʌ ɔ
Open			ɑ

Structure

Hapšâw'l largely adheres to a CV(F) syllabic structure, wherein a consonant is followed by a vowel which can be followed by one of the approximants (/w, j, l, ŵ/), as well as a nasal, which takes on the place of articulation of the consonant succeeding it, but is pronounced as /n/ when at the end of a word and corresponds to /n/ in roots. However a pair consisting of a stop (/p, b, t, d, k, g/) followed by a sibilant (/s,z ʃ, ʒ/) of matching voice (for example /b/ and /ʒ/) can also be placed at the start of a syllable, without a vowel separating them. The consonants /w, l and n/ can function as syllabic consonants and can form a syllable with no vowel as well as no initial. Stress is almost universally placed on the last syllable.

Modern Spoken Hapšâw'l

Speakers of modern Hapšâw'l are split into two main dialects: Tokšahalnal: spoken in most of the country as well as among the Boatmen and Goyhalnal: spoken by inhabitants of the western coast of Hapšâw, west of the mountain range. Although the dialects are quite different from each other speakers of one usually do not struggle to understand the other.

Consonants

	Tokšahalnal							Goyhalnal
	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	P.alveolar	Velar	Glottal		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	P.alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b	t d			k g			p b	t d
Nasal	m[1]		n[5]		ŋ				ɱ	n[6]	(ɲ)	ŋ
Trill			r							r		ʀ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ	ɣ[2]	h ɦ			f v	s z[6]	ʃ ʒ	x ɣ[7][8]	[9]
Affricate			(ts dz)[3]	(tʃ dʒ)[3]						(ts dz)[3][6]	(tʃ dʒ)[3]
Approximant	w[4][5]		l[5]	j	ɰ			w[4]		l[6]	j	ɰ

1. /ɱ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
2. /ʀ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
3. not pronounced as affricates in Classical Hapšâw'l, proscribed in both dialects.
4. /ʋ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
5. syllabic consonants are pronounced as /ɪC/.
6. palatalized when next to /i/ or /e/, /l/ is palatalized to /j/. More common among poor speakers and young speakers.
7. /k g/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
8. /ɣ/ corresponds to /ɦ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
9. /h/ is dropped.

Vowels

	Tokšahalnal				Goyhalnal
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close	i[1]	ɪ[3]	u		i	ʉ[4]
Middle	e[2]	ə[3]	ʌ ɔ		e	ɜ[4] ɘ	ɔ
Open			ɑ			a[4]

1. corresponds to both /i/ and /e/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
2. /ɘ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.
3. vowels are reduced to /ɪ/ (if /i/ or /e/) or /ə/ (otherwise) when not in stressed syllable.
4. correspond to /u ʌ ɑ/ in Classical Hapšâw'l.

Orthography

The Hapšâw'l language is written in an abugida, with vowels being written as small signs above the consonants. Historically the script was written with no vowels, which were only added in 66 PC, vowels are still often omitted if the writer believes the word to be understandable without them. The Hapšâw'l script is written from left to right, with lines moving from top to bottom. It was traditionally written using reed pens but pencils and metal pens have become common since the calming.

PUT ASSET OF ALPHABET HERE LATER.

Grammar

Native Hapšâw'l words follow a triconsonantal root structure, substituting different vowels between them to create different tenses of the verb which the root refers to.

Present	Past Imperfect	Past Perfect	Future	Imperative	Infinitive
CaCaC	CoCCâ	CiCiC	CêCCê	CaCCa	CêCâC

If a consonant which is not a final is placed at the coda of the syllable the last vowel is repeated (for example the present tense of t-t-t becomes tatata). If the root contains a stop-sibilant pairing the vowel between them is elided (the present tense of t-s-t becomes tsata).

Loaned words can be used as verbs if followed by the dummy root y-k-s.

The agent of the verb is marked by the prefix ši- for first person, l- for second and hen- for third. Hapšâw'l does not distinguish between singular and plural.

Nouns

Nouns are formed by attaching the prefix ho- (for the subject) or ha- (for the object) to the verb. They are typically formed using the infinitive, in which case the prefix may be dropped. Nouns can also be formed using other tenses of the verb, in which case the action of the verb is assumed to have taken place in accordance with the verbs tense (for example hakikši - group is formed from the past perfect form of k-k-š - to join, unite). Nouns are virtually never formed from the Present and Imperative forms of the verb.

Any noun can function as an adjective if placed before a second noun. The prefix ba- forms the comparative while the prefix ksi- forms the superlative. The suffix -l forms genitive nouns and the prefix de- forms instrumentative nouns. The suffix -yi negates both nouns and verbs.

Hapšâw'l has three pronouns: šiw - I, li - you and hen - they.

Numbers

Main Article: Hapšâw'l numerals.

Hapšâw'l uses base-6 numbers. It's named numbers are:

Name	Value (sexary)	Value (decimal)
wetsê	1	1
kapa	2	2
paw	3	3
hora	4	4
gil	5	5
řa	10	6
higân	100	36
yone	10 000	1 296
tokŝayone	100 000 000	1 679 616
řotânyone	10 000 000 000 000 000	2 821 109 907 456

Numbers placed before the noun are ordinal and express position or rank, numbers placed after the number are cardinal.

Sentence Structure

Hapšâw'l sentences follow a Subject-Verb-Object structure. Yes/no questions are formed by adding the suffix -may to the verb. the particle -la signifies asking for confirmation.