Asakai

Akasi is my attempt at a "universal language". While I do not believe a universal language is either possible or recommendable, this is a project devoted to that specific task. It is not based on any language or language group, but rather strictly upon linguistic regularities.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive (Voiceless)	p	t		k
Plosive (Voiced)1	b	d		g
Nasal	m	n
Fricative (Voiceless)	f	s			h
Fricative (Voiced)	v	z
Approximant		r3	j ‹y›	w

1. Voiced consonants only occur word-medially and may instead be articulated as making the preceding vowel long.
2. Affricates are allophones of their corresponding plosives before certain high vowels ([t~ts~tɕ] _[HIGH]) but are phonemic elsewhere.
3. Any rhotic.

Vowels

	Back	Front
High	i	u
Low	a

Diphthongs

/aɪ/, /aʊ/

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)V(Q), where Q is a nasal, fricative, or rhotic.

([[13 onsets * 5 nuclei] + 12 affricates+/a/,/aɪ/,/aʊ/)] * 6 codas {[[ + 5 voiced onsets * 5 nuclei] + 12 voiced affricates+/a/,/aɪ/,/aʊ/] * 6 codas} = 462 monosyllables, 222 word-medial syllables.

• Coronal (labial and alveolar) consonants assimilate place regressively in contact.
• Voicing assimilates regressively in contact.

Grammar

SVO, head-initial.

Analytical language with minimal differentiation.

These larger cattle-dogs here that we saw to buy were cheaply purchased by my father.

SUBJECT	Noun adjunct	Adjectival Phrase	Number	Adnominal	Complement	Determiner/Genitive	Infinitive Phrase	Relative clause		VERB+Adverb+Tense+Voice		Preposition	OBJECT	Noun adjunct	Adjectival Phrase	Number	Adnominal	Complement	Determiner/Genitive	Relative clause	Infinitive Phrase
(The) Dog	cattle	large +more	[plural]	here		these	to buy	that we saw		were cheaply purchased		by	father			my.

Nominal Suffixes

To:
Noun	'ar
Verb	'in
Adjective	'ish
Adverb	ri

Pronominal Suffixes

• Plural: ti
• Reflexive: sif