Uwulang 2: Ewectwic Boogawoo

Also known as Uwulangii /u.wu.lei.ŋi:/, though natively referred to as [furry][text][face][speech], Uwulangii is essentially a sequel to Uwu. However, Uwulangii is not in the same family as Uwu, they just are quite similar.

Uwulangii has two registers: the informal "*notices your tail*" register, and the formal "UwU!~~~~~" register, though for human readability, they are also given the names of "Tailed" and "HyperUwU." HyperUwU is such a beast that I have not been able to decipher it just yet, it took years just for me to understand Tailed Uwulangii.

Okay, to cut the in-character explanation: Uwulangii has two facets to its cursedness, both of which are related to the furry fandom: it is phonologically comprised almost exclusively of sounds that could reasonably be transcribed with u, w, or o, either in natural languages or in "furry speak" (the English dialect where the rhotic becomes a wotic), and turning ASCII or ASCII-adjacent face emoticons, which are commonly associated with furry roleplayers - after all, some, who probably speak HyperUwU, have turned "uwu" into a verb - into a language. Only the first of these jokes is shared with Uwu, so don't worry, while this is technically a sequel, it is its own brand of cursed.

Phonology

Vowels: /ɑ ɔ ə ɨ o u/ ɨ [ɯ], ɔ [ɒ] are preferred Consonants: /ʕ ʁ̞ ʋ ɰ w m n ɲ ʔ ɹ/

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Laryngeal
Nasal m mː mːː n nː nːː ɲ ɲː ɲːː
Plosive ʔ ʔː ʔːː
Approximant ʋ ʋː ʋːː ɹ ɹː ɹːː j̈ j̈ː j̈ːː ɰ ɰː ɰːː
w wː wːː
ʁ̞ ʁ̞ː ʁ̞ːː ʕ ʕː ʕːː

/j̈/ is central /j/. While yes, the nasals would be ludicrous to transcribe as u, w, or o, m and n are common letters to use in emoticons for the mouth, so I felt like they had to be included.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close ɨ ɨː ɨːː u uː uːː
Close-mid o oː oːː
Mid
Open-mid
ə əː əːː ɔ ɔː ɔːː
Open ɑ ɑː ɑːː

Allophony

/ɨ ɔ/ are in free variation with [ɯ ɒ]. Uwulangii phoneticists say that this, alongside /ə/ [ɤ̞], is the "correct" way to speak Uwulangii.

/ə/ often undergoes vowel harmony: if the next vowel is /ɑ/ it becomes [ʌ], if the next vowel is /ɨ/ it becomes [ɘ], and if the next vowel is /u/ it becomes [ɵ].

Phonotactics

All Uwulangii words are comprised of one to two syllables. There are four "tactical classes" (so-called because they affect orthography and phonotactics) in Uwulangii:

  1. VCV (vowel first)
  2. CVC (consonant first)
  3. RVCVR (rhotic vowel first)
  4. RCVCR (rhotic consonant first)

C is any consonant. V is any vowel. R is any one of the rhotics /ʁ̞ ɹ/, wotics /ɰ w/, or ∅. Only one of the Rs can be ∅. This creates a total of 544,320 valid Uwulangii words.

Accent is stress accent and is not phonemic; typically stress falls on the first syllable of a word.

Orthography

Uwulangii has a very complex set of orthographical rules, which are dependent on the word's tactical class:

Sentences end in ! by default, as the period is a phoneme (and even if it wasn't, furries stereotypically talk in high pitched voices). Use !! where bang <!> would be used in English. Use ? for questions. Use !? for interrobang. A tilde ~, music note ♪, or star ★ ☆ may be included for emphasis after these punctuation marks.

When a word takes on an adjective or is part of a compound word, place <:> after the word. When there is ambiguity as to what each adjective in a phrase belongs to, as in the phrase "quick brown fox", you can place each part in brackets. In English this would look like "[quick] [brown] fox." Brackets may also appear around adjective-noun phrases instead of a colon. However, brackets are optional, and native Uwulangii speakers would probably not use them if their information can be garnered by context, such as how in the phrase "quick brown fox," "brown" usually isn't "quick," so it's clear that the fox is both quick and brown.

Grammar

Word formation

Words not natively found in Uwulangii are created through agglutination. This may involve appending of class modifiers, chaining of different words, and so on. In orthography, the colon <:> comes after a noun whose next noun should be treated as part of it, but in spoken Uwulangii <:> does not mean anything. One may also substitute the colon for brackets surrounding both nouns.

So for example, there is no native word that just means "catgirl" (a girl with cat ears), but you can form it by putting "queen" (English for female cat) into the human or anthro class. That being said, there is no separate word for that in Uwulangii, so you form that word by the phrase "female cat", for the final construction:

<wɔ: UvU: >øn
/mɨɰ ɨʋɨ ɲɑn/
cat-female-G1
"catgirl"

Word order

Uwulangii uses an SOV word order.

Objects are marked by a preceding -u- /ʕuʕ/ for direct objects, or -u̱- /ʕuːʕ/ for indirect objects.

Adjectives and adverbs follow the noun they modify. Possessors are adjectives, and if the possessor is not a pronoun, the particle -u̬- /ʕuːːʕ/ precedes it.

Names and loanwords are supported, which are surrounded by <(e:> /ɹə/ and <)̂> /ɹː/. The ending parenthesis immediately follows the name or loanword, while the initiating parenthesis is treated as a separate word. In orthography, both names and loanwords are written in katakana. Examples follow:

Word or name Phonemes Uwulangii transcription
Astaryuu /astəɾʲɨː/ (e: アスタリュウ)̂
Agma Schwa /ægmə ʃwa/ (e: アグマ シュワ)̂
schadenfreude /ʃadɛnfrɔʏdɛ/ (e: シャデンフロイデ)̂

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Object Subject Possessive
1sg uwu /uwu/ ùwú /uːwuː/ ú.ù /uːːʔuːː/
2sg owo /owo/ òwó /oːwoː/ ó.ò /oːːʔoːː/
3sg 0w0 /ɑwɑ/ 0̀w0́ /ɑːwɑː/ 0́.0̀ /ɑːːʔɑːː/
1pl (uwu) /ɹuwuɹ/ (ùwú) /ɹuːwuːɹ/ (ú.ù) /ɹuːːʔuːːɹ/
2pl (owo) /ɹowoɹ/ (òwó) /ɹoːwoːɹ/ (ó.ò) /ɹoːːʔoːːɹ/
3pl (0w0) /ɹɑwɑɹ/ (0̀w0́) /ɹɑːwɑːɹ/ (0́.0̀) /ɹɑːːʔɑːːɹ/

Demonstrative pronouns

Uwulangii's demonstrative pronouns agree with the noun class of the object:

Noun class this, those that, these
furry ɔ_v /ɰəʋ/ .wv /ʔɨʋ/
human v.@ /ʋəɹ/ n.n /non/
feral <wn /mɨn/ v.@ /ʋoɹ/
object vw. /ʋɨʔ/ .n. /ono/
abstract U.0 /ɨʔɑ/ eʌe /əʁ̞ə/

Noun classes

There are five noun classes that roughly follow an animacy distinction, which go as follows, with the preferred glossing abbreviations after them:

Nouns can be moved up and down the animacy ladder using a different adjective-like article after them: >0n /ɲɑn/ for anthro class, e-e /əɹə/ for human class, ʌoʌ /ʁ̞ɔʁ̞/ for feral class, .3. /oɲo/ for object class, @v@ /ɹɨɹ/ for abstract class.

Verbs

Verbs do not technically conjugate for tense or aspect; these are accomplished using affix-like adverbs and linking verbs respectively. However, verbs do conjugate for the noun class of their agent and direct object, as follows:

ɰ w ʁ̞ ɹ ∅
Noun class Agent Direct object
furry (- /ɹ/ -) /ɹ/
human {- /ʁ̞/ -} /ʁ̞/
feral \(- /w/ -)/ /w/
object <(- /ɰ/ -)> /ɰ/
abstract (;- /∅/ -;) /∅/

If a pronoun is to be used for the agent or direct object of the verb, then it may be replaced with /∅/. Null-phoneme endings are only written if one ending is non-null.

Numbers

Uwulangii uses a base 6 numeral system, whose naming scheme for large numbers is myriad-based (grouped into four digits rather than three) and uses a long scale. Numbers are usually written in word form, with the multiple of a power preceding the word(s) for that power. If a digit is zero it is not written in word form.

Numeral Word
0 .-. /oɹo/
1 o-o /ɔɹɔ/
2 0-0 /ɑɹɑ/
3 e-e /əɹə/
4 u-u /uɹu/
5 U-U /ɨɹɨ/
10 nwn /nɨn/
100 əwə /wɨw/
1000 (written as 10 100)
1 0000 >w< /ɲɨm/
10000^2
(myrmyriad)
(written as myriad myriad)
10000^3
(trillion)
(0-0) /ɹɑɹɑɹ/
mymyriad trillion (0n0) /ɹɑnɑɹ/
myriad septillion (0̀-0́) /ɹɑ:ɹɑ:ɹ/
undecillion (0̀n0́) /ɹɑ:nɑ:ɹ/
mymyriad undecillion (0́-0̀) /ɹɑ::ɹɑ::ɹ/
myriad quindecillion (0́n0̀) /ɹɑ::nɑ::ɹ/
novendecillion <(@.@)> /ɰɹoɹɰ/

For myriads above novendecillion chain the words for numbers above from smallest power to largest power. Any chain can be used to get to the requisite power. For example a googol, 10^100, is 10^(4+36+60), or myriad undecillion novendecillion, translated as >w< (0̀n0́) <(@.@)>.

Also, the individual numbers 69 and 420 have their own words, which are respectively {əwə} /ʁ̞wɨwʁ̞/ and (@w@) /ɹɹwɹɹ/.