Mounsande Language

The **Mounsande language** (すなやま語ぐ/砂すな山やま語ぐ, Sunayamagu) is a language spoken in the Mounsande Federation. It is the official language of the country, and a member of the Sunayaman-Kapunyan Languages. It is written in a mixed script of Chinese characters and the Japanese kana syllabery.

Being one of the languages spoken on a landmass as massive as Australia, Mounsande has had a its presence on the landmass ever since the ancient times. While originally developing on its own, immigration of ethnic Tsuans to the country brought significant Chinese (Sinitic) influences to the vocabulary of the language. During the last few hundred years, Mounsand underwent a process of cultural alteration based on Japanese culture, which caused an enormous amount of Japanese influence to the Mounsande language, including the adoption of the current writing system. However, many foreigners mistaken the language to be Japanese due to the similar writing system. On the other hand, the Japanese influence on Mounsande often cause learners of Mounsande who also know Japanese to misuse Japanese vocabulary and grammar when speaking and writing Mounsande, generating confusion for Mounsande speakers. Such a way of speaking and writing is often jokingly referred to as "Suna-Nichi Creole" (砂すな日にちクレオール).

While being the official language used by Mounsand, Mounsande is not the only language spoken in the country. The Kapunyan language, which belongs to the same family as Mounsande, and the Tsuan language, spoken by ethnic Tsuans, are also spoken in various regions in Mounsand. There are also different regional varieties of the Mounsande language, which had been subjected to different levels of Japanese influences. Multual intelligibility between these regional variants are not guaranteed, but the Matsusaka dialect, which is considered the standard variety, is usually understood throughout the whole country.

## Etymology

The name "Mounsande" is a derivation of the name of the country "Mounsand", which is a combination of "moun(tain)" and "sand". This is a literal translation of the country's name in the Mounsande language itself, which is 砂すな山やま (砂すな suna "sand" + 山やま yama "mountain").

In the Mounsande language itself, the name of the language is 砂すな山やま語ぐ (Sunayama-gu). This is a compound of the country's name, 砂山 (Sunayama), and 語ぐ (gu), which is the word for "language" in Mounsande. The name 砂山, as explained before, appears to be a compound of 砂 and 山. However, this is actually a transliteration of the country's original name, Sunirim (󰠱󰡁󰠧󰠾󰠬󰠸󰠾󰠥 in the Ancient Mounsande script), using Japanese-origin vocabularies. The name Sunirim in turn means "to unify from tribes" in the Old Mounsande language.

Prior to Japanese influences to the language, the endonym of the language itself used to be Sunirimmat (󰠱󰡁󰠧󰠾󰠬󰠸󰠾󰠥󰠥󰠴), which is a compound of Sunirim, which means "Mounsand", and mat (󰠥󰠴), which means "language".

## Phonology

The phonology of the Mounsande is almost identical to that of Japanese, which is a result of the long-term influence from Japanese. Mounsande has 20 consonants and 5 vowels. The "consonant + vowel" syllable structure is most commonly seen in Mounsande. However, Mounsande does not have the a pitch-accent system, which is in contrast to the phonology of standard Japanese.

### Consonants

The consonants of Mounsande is in most part the same as those in Japanese. However, it is known to vary to some extent between dialects. One significant difference is the pronunciation of the character ふ (fu) and フ (fu), which is [ɸɯ] for the Standard variety but [hɯ] for most varieties, including the Matsusaka dialect.

### Vowels

The 5 vowels of Mounsande is practically the same as those in Japanese.

### Phonotactics

The usual syllable structure in Mounsande is "consonant + vowel". However, with Sokuon (促音) and Hatsuon (撥音), a coda consonant is possible. With Yoon (拗音), palatalisation happens to the initial consonant of the syllable. This is basically the same as the phonotactics of Japanese.

### Accent

Mounsande does not have pitch-accent. Instead, the identification of words solely depends on the differences in combination of syllables. This can generate confusion between words with the same pronunciation. For example,
the words 替え, 換え, 返え and 代え, which are all かえ (kae), can only be distinguished through context.

## Grammar

Grammar is perhaps the least Japanese-resembling aspect of Mounsande. Nevertheless, Mounsande has its similarities with Japanese in terms of sentence structure, use of particles, verb conjugation and politeness diglossia, which may or may not be a result of Japanese influences to the language.

### Syntax

Mounsande sentences usually follows the SOV structure, which is Subject-Object-Verb. This sentence structure resembles that of Japanese.

 Gu
 I
 **Meaning**:I go to Mounsand.

However, it is possible to change the order due to the extensive use of particles in Mounsande. This is most commonly seen in colloquial speech, when a particular part of the sentence is to be emphasized.

### Particles

Much like Japanese, particles are used in Mounsande to specify the role of a word in a sentence. Some common particles in Mounsande include か, え, て, へ, い and げ.

Mounsande particles may or may not have been originated from Japanese. Since many of the particles doesn't seem to be analogous to those in Japanese, nor are they very similar to Japanese particles in pronunciation, the latter is most likely the case. This is also evident as some of these particles are also present in other languages in the area such as Tsuan, suggesting a long presence of these particles, thus the low probability that they originates from Japanese.

### Verbs

Verbs in Mounsande are conjugated through time and aspect of an action.

Conjugations of verbs in Mounsande are devided into 2 groups, where the first group of conjugations is achieved by modifying the root of the verb, and the second group is achieved by adding suffixes.

### Adjectives

Adjectives in Mounsande are devided into 2 groups: i-adjectives and na-adjectives. Both are unchanged no matter in what position of the sentence are they used in.

 I-Adjective
e.g. 古い
(furui)
e.g. 神殿か古い。
(Shinden ka furui.)
e.g. 古い神殿
 Na-Adjective
e.g. 綺麗な
(kireina)
e.g. 女か綺麗な。
(Wonna ka kireina.)
e.g. 綺麗な女
(kireina wonna)

### Adverbs

Adjectives in Mounsande can be used as is as an adverb.

 I run quickly.
(速い “hayai” is an adjective which means “quick”.)

## Vocabulary

Mounsande vocabulary originates from a variety of languages. According to official statistics on the etymology of Mounsande vocabulary, Chinese-origin words make up the largest portion of Mounsande vocabulary (29.4%), and Japanese-origin words make up the second largest portion (28.7%-29.2%). A large portion of Chinese vocabulary entered Mounsande via Japanese, which shows the significant influence of Japanese to Mounsande. Mounsande native words only makes up 26.2%-26.7% of all of Mounsande’s vocabulary. The 0.5% variation in the Japanese and Mounsande portions are due to vocabularies with uncertain etymologies. English also makes up for a large portion of Mounsande vocabulary (13.3%).

### Pronouns

Mounsande has numerous pronouns, which are used by different people in different situations according to the sex of the speaker, politeness, etc.

中性
Chūsei
男性
Dansei
女性
 1st person singular
第一人称単数
Daiichi ninshou tansū
gu, ware
ore, boku
 1st person plural
第一人称複数
Daiichi ninshou fukusū
 2nd person singular
第二人称単数
Daini ninshou tansū
 2nd person plural
第二人称複数
Daini ninshou fukusū
 3rd person singular
第三人称単数
Daisan ninshou tansū
ki, konomono
konootoko
 3rd person plural
第三人称複数
Daisan ninshou fukusū
kibui, kitou
konootokoebui
konowonnaebui

### Verbs

The suffix -し can be added to words to form a verb.

### Adjectives

The suffix -な can be added to words to form an adjective.

## Orthography

Mounsande is written in a mixed script of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

## Regional varieties

* 沙山語
	+ 京畿方言
		- 松坂方言
			* 沙山標準沙山語
			* 松坂市區話
			* 船坂話
		- 翠津方言 (千里標準)
			* 翠沙話
			* 津灣話
		- 六本木方言
		- 車坂方言
		- 杉鳥方言
	+ 加波座方言
		- 加波座市區話
		- 葵州話
	+ 西都方言
	+ 北沙山方言
	+ 南沙山方言
	+ 東部方言

## See also

* Pwekish language
* Inglesh language
* Sisaidian language
* Kapunyan language
* Tsuan language