Tchilkenva Unified Languages

The language family **Tchilkenva Unified** is a family of constructed tonal languages located in Tchilkenva State, Nookipedian, with each city having their own language. Although English, French and Nookipedian are official languages, there are other languages that people can speak.

## History

The languages of Tchilkenva Unified were developed by Chungon Hinanta, in 1235 CE (221 years before the country, Nookipedian, was created in 1456 by King Tsenonkuro Laudanmo who merged 10 empires into 1 country), and Chungon Hinanta was the first speaker. The number of speakers of Tchilkenva Unified Family increased to 3,560 in 1267 CE. By 1456, when King Tsenonkuro Laudanmo created a new country, Nookipedian, it had 3,180,693 speakers.

When French became the official language of Tchilkenva State in 1458 CE (2 years after the country Nookipedian was created) by Sentusas' request, the number of speakers had increased to approximately 5,680,782. English did not became an official language of Tchilkenva State until roughly 1688 CE.

The new language family, Tchilkenva Unified, was created in 1690 CE by Tanwoon Karmiste and put the unclassified, constructed languages into a new language family, Tchilkenva Unified.

## Phonology

All languages in Tchilkenva Unified have the nasals [m], [n] and [ŋ]. There was used to be a palatal nasal [ɲ], but has been replaced by a palatalised nasal [nʲ] in Tchilkenvan in 1709 CE, and has been dropped from other Tchilkenva Unified languages between 1707 CE and 1720 CE. Nasal vowels survive in Tchilkenvan and Yutarlei, but had been eliminated in other Tchilkenva Unified languages by 1836 CE.

### Vowels

Most languages in the Tchilkenva Unified family have only oral vowels. Nasal vowels are only found in Tchilkenvan and Yutarlei. (Most languages in Tchilkenva Unified have lost their nasal vowels roughly around 1830s.)

 Close
 Close-mid
 Open-mid
 Open

#### Nasal vowels

These nasal vowels are intended for use in Tchilkenvan and Yutarlei. In the 1906 version of the Tchilkenva reference alphabet, nasalisation of vowels is marked with an ogonek, but in the 1986 version, it uses the letter 'n' to represent nasalisation (being a double-duty: representing an alveolar nasal [n] and vowel nasalisation).

 ɑ̃
 ɛ̃
 ɔ̃

### Tones

Because all languages in Tchilkenva Unified are tonal, there are six tones in most languages, but eight in Tchilkenvan and Yutarlei. The 1906 version of the Tchilkenva reference alphabet used final letters resembling numerals, but in the 1986 verion of the Tchilkenva reference alphabet, it used final consonant letters to indicate tone. Some of the letters pull double-duty, representing consonants.

## Tchilkenva reference alphabet

The current alphabet was created in 1906. In 1986, after 80 years, the letters with diacritics, lettwers resembling numerals and IPA letters have been replaced with digraphs and trigraphs. The 1986 alphabet uses the English alphabet.

Notes:

* The letter ***c*** was used for /s/, because of its letter similarity to the lunate sigma.
* It is unusual to have the th-sound (/θ/) represented by the letter ***s***, as elsewhere it is a voiceless alveolar sibilant. The voiceless alveolar sibilant on the Tchilkenva Unified Languages should be represented by ***c***.