Shingōan Language

**Shingōan** (新郷語, *Shingōgo*) is a language spoken throughout Tōkai, primarily in Shingō, where it is the national language, and northern Yokoze. It is a member of the Shingōic language family, and its ultimate derivation and relation to other languages is unclear. Shingōic languages have been grouped with other language families such as Konwe, Tsukimotoan, and some dialects of the Ankikan language, but none of these proposals have gained widespread acceptance. Shingōan is recognized as a minority language in Ankika and Tsukimoto.

Shingōan is a an agglutinative, mora-timed language with relatively simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person. Shingōan adjectives are also conjugated. Shingōan has a complex system of honorifics, with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned.

Shingōan has no clear genealogical relationship with Weian, though in its written form it makes prevalent use of Weian characters, known as *giji* (魏字), and a large portion of its vocabulary is borrowed from Weian. The Shingōan writing system also uses two syllabic (or moraic) scripts: *hiragana* (ひらがな or 平仮名) and *katakana* (カタカナ or 片仮名), however the script of the Traveler's Tongue is used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms). Weian numerals are occasionally used in the language's numbering system.

## Phonology

### Vowels

 Mid
 Open

All Shingōan vowels are pure – that is, there are no diphthongs, only monophthongs. The only unusual vowel is the high back vowel /u/, which may be compressed rather than rounded and fronted. Shingōan has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron) in the Traveler's Tongue script, a repeated vowel character in hiragana, or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana.

### Consonants

Some Shingōan consonants have several allophones, which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic.

The "r" of the Shingōan language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant. The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ŋ], in the Chūō prestige dialect and in other northern dialects.

The phonotactics of Shingōan are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant, a glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant (っ/ッ, represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda (ん/ン, represented as N).

The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃]. Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant.

Shingōan also includes a pitch accent, which is not represented in syllabic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし (*hashi*), and are only differentiated by the tone contour.

## Grammar

### Sentence structure

Shingōan word order is classified as subject–object–verb. Unlike many languages in Agosia, Erleste, and Ocellis, the only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Shingōan sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions.

The basic sentence structure is topic–comment. For example, *Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu* (こちらは田中さんです). *kochira* ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle *wa*. The verb *de aru* (*desu* is a contraction of its polite form *de arimasu*) is a copula, commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, *Tanaka-san desu* is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Ms. Tanaka." Thus Shingōan is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence *Zō wa hana ga nagai* (象は鼻が長い) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is *zō* "elephant", and the subject is *hana* "nose".

In Shingōan, the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. As a result of this grammatical permissiveness, there is a tendency to gravitate towards brevity; Shingōan speakers tend to omit pronouns on the theory they are inferred from the previous sentence, and are therefore understood. In the context of the above example, *hana-ga nagai* would mean "[their] noses are long," while *nagai* by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: *Yatta!* (やった!) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Shingōan sentence (below), a single adjective can be a complete sentence: *Urayamashii!* (羨ましい!) "[I'm] jealous [of it]!".

While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in Agosian, Erlestan, and Ocellic languages, and function differently. In some cases Shingōan relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group; and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, *oshiete moratta* (教えてもらった) (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, *oshiete ageta* (教えてあげた) (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]".