wonderful diacritic barf — Exxi, 2025

Note: Diacritics are horrendously inaccurate in some versions and devices for some reason I will never understand.

Another note: This page is now heavily outdated. For a pdf of the most recent version please ask @gaytwink_889 on discord.

Table of Contents

About the Name

The English name Tunese (also known as Tenese) comes from the Tunese word for “words”, ṯṵn̄. However, there is some speculation that it actually comes from the Tunese word for “people”, te̱̰n.

Phonology

Phonemic Inventory

Consonants

Vowels

Orthography

The transliteration of Tunese was made in 1832 by the Dutch-Czech linguist Arjen Peter Pešek. The area where the Tunese live is often called Tsaw, or Tsau, from what they call their land, ṡaw (literally, “land”).

Tones

There are seven tones in Tunese:

Grammar

Each aspect of phonology (for example nasalization or palatalization) conveys a different part of Tunese grammar. Therefore, instead of separating this section based on the type of grammar, or the part of speech, each aspect will be given it’s own section.

Nasalization

Nasalization is particularly important in Tunese to indicate number and formality, and is marked with a tilde underneath the vowel. However, first it is important to understand the three different levels of politeness in Tunese.

Politeness / Honorific System

There are three different levels of “politeness” in the Tunese language, and each level applies to a different person or hierarchy.

• Level 1: used for customers, or people that are below you in terms of status but are either helping you, or should be respected for another reason. This level is also used for holidays and national events.
• Level 2: used for adjectives and nouns that show respect or politeness, as well as colleagues or comrades that are the same status as you or work under the same person as you, but you are not quite acquainted with yet, or you are talking about them in front of someone who you should use level 1 or level 3 to.
• Level 3: sometimes called “double politeness”, it is used for anyone who is above you in terms of status and hierarchy, such as your boss, kings and queens, or even your father or mother depending on the situation. Also used for all things natural or provided by mother nature, as well as places within Tsaw, and religious concepts.

Indication

Now that the three levels in the Tunese honorific system have been vaguely covered, let us talk about how they are indicated / signified.

• Level 1: nasalization of the vowel of the first syllable of the word.
• Level 2: nasalization of the vowel of the last syllable of the word.
• Level 3: nasalization of the vowels of the first and last syllables of the word.

It is important to know that level 2 politeness is also used to signify plural, regardless of the noun’s actual status. When using level 3 politeness for religious words, the nasalization is applied to verbal phrases, prepositional phrases, and adverbial phrases etc. related to the action as well.

Palatalization

Palatalization (marked with an underdot on the consonant) and creaky voice (marked with a cedilla on the letter) is used on verbs to mark the mood of the action.

• Interrogative: palatalization + creaky voice of the onset consonant of the first syllable of the verb.
• Subjective: palatalization of the onset consonant of the last syllable of the verb.
• Indicative: no palatalization
• Subjective Declarative: palatalization of the onset consonants of both the first and last syllables of the verb (reduplication when necessary).

Note on the moods: Interrogative indicates questions, subjective indicates an opinion or thought of the speaker, and indicative states a fact that is true. Subjective declarative indicates a statement that encodes someone’s opinion or thought while the main verb remains true; for example, “I wish to eat the food,” “he thinks the movie is bad,” and so on. The verbs “wish” and “think” are both true, because they do wish to eat the food, and he does think the movie is bad, but what they actually want to do or think is an opinion they themselves hold.

When forming possessive phrases, the possessor(s) and possessee become one word in the order of possessee-possessor, with the first consonant of the entire word palatalized.

The Mood Marker

A few thousand years ago, there was actually a word called a Mood Marker, “ǩdan̄j”, at the beginning of every sentence. It changed form (palatalization) based on the mood of the sentence, but it was later morphed into the verb. The rules originally were:

• Subjective: palatalization of the onset consonant of the first syllable of the mood marker.
• Interrogative: palatalization of the onset consonant of the last syllable of the verb.
• Indicative: palatalization of the onset consonant of the last syllable of the mood marker.
• Subjective Declarative: palatalization of the onset consonants of both the first and last syllables of the mood marker.

Nominalization

Nominalization of a word is marked with the palatalization of the last syllable of the word.

Tones

The use of tones is different depending on the part of speech. Here I will talk about nouns and verbs.

Verbs

Tenses (nucleus of the last syllable of the verb):

• Mid Tone: present progressive / present
• Half-Low Tone: perfective / past
• Low Tone: perfective / far past
• Half-High Tone: future
• High Tone: far future
• Rising Tone: perfective progressive / past progressive
• Falling Tone: future progressive

Moods / Voices (nucleus of the first syllable of the verb):

• Mid Tone: indicative
• Half-Low Tone: prohibitive
• Low Tone: imperative
• Half-High Tone: involitive
• High Tone: causative
• Rising Tone: passive