Huen-jyy

Huen-jyy (闞語, Huenanese) is one of the two official languages of Huenan (the other is English), and has close to 2 million native speakers (and another million at intermediate proficiency or higher). It is a mostly isolating language written in Chinese characters, and is usually classified as a Sinitic language with an unidentified substrate. The current grammar of the language seems to have developed mostly, but not completely, from Middle Chinese, and most of the vocabulary derives from Yue (Cantonese). Of the 3000 or so commonly used characters, less than 10% have a pronunciation that is not a phonological adaptation of Yue. For most of these indigenous words, it has been shown that they derive from Mon-Khmer words with similar meanings (Pearic languages may be the closest relative, but this is still debated). The grammatical deviation (from Chinese) is not Khmer, however, but seems to be inherited from an older, unknown language, perhaps the language of the pre-Khmer natives of Huenan. There are no records of the language(s) spoken on Huenan before the 20th century, however, so attempts at reconstruction are mostly speculative.

classification

Huen-jyy is usually classified as a Sinitic language with an unidentified substrate based on the facts that most of its grammar and vocabulary seem to derive from Middle Chinese; Yue (Cantonese) being the closest relative with regards to the latter (but not so much with regards to the former). There are several deviations, however. Huen-jyy grammar is much more conservative than other Sinitic languages (meaning that in many respects it is closer to Middle Chinese than to modern Sinitic languages). Furthermore, there are several features that do not occur among (other) Sinitic languages. For example, tone is not phonemic (as in Mon-Khmer languages, and many words are sesquisyllabic rather than monosyllabic. (The latter is also a typical feature of Mon-Khmer languages, but there are significant differences between the two forms of sesquisyllabity making it relatively implausible that there is a genetic connection.) Additionally, Huen-jyy has some grammatical features that are not found in any other language in the wider region. It is generally assumed that these are the last remains of the language spoken by the first immigrants before the first Khmer settlers migrated to Huenan. (Because of these deviations, the Sinitic classification of Huen-jyy is rejected by some linguists, who consider the language an isolate.)

history

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phonology

Main Article: Phonology of Huen-jyy

With 31 basic consonants, 8 basic vowels, and many variants and diphthongs, Huen-jyy has a relatively rich phoneme inventory. In contrast with other Sinitic languages, tone is not phonemic, however, which is a feature that Huen-jyy shares with Mon-Khmer languages. (And it is to compensate for the lack of tone that a relatively large phoneme inventory is necessary.) One of the most striking aspects of Huen-jyy phonology is the four-way contrast among plosives in aspirated voiceless, voiceless, voiced, and prenasalized voiced.

Huenanese words are either monosyllabic or sesquisyllabic. Words consist of an onset and a coda. The onset is either a single consonant or empty. The coda consists of an optional medial and a vowel, diphthong or vowel-consonant combination. There are 33 different onsets, and 89 different codas. Because all of these can combined, and there is an additional word consisting just of syllabic 'ng', the total possible number of phonetically distinct words (in the strict sense, excluding compounds) is 33x89+1 = 2938. There are many homonyms, however. (See the article about grammar on how those are distinguished.)

grammar

Main Article: Grammar of Huen-jyy

• isolating
• SOV order
• postpositional
• optional agent marking (particle)

(summary to be added)

transliteration

Main Article: Transliteration of Huen-jyy

(summary to be added)