The Coare language is one of six languages that belong to the Carian language group, in which it stands alone, next to the Kencari and Pocari subgroups. The Coare language is an official language in the Coare Republic and a minority language in the LUKP and in Tak.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
| labio-dental | alveolar | velar | ||||
| nasal | m | n | ŋ (ng) | |||
| nasal+stop | m͡p | n͡t | ŋ͡k | |||
| stop | p | b | t | d | k | g |
| nasal+fricative | n͡s | |||||
| fricative | s | z | ||||
| trill | r | |||||
| lat. approx. | l | |||||
Coare has a limited number of consonants. Most of them can appear at any position in a word, except the co-articulated nasal+stop and nasal+fricative sounds, which can only occur at the beginning of a word.
The afore-mentioned sounds are mostly spelled the same, except the k- and ŋ-sounds, which are spelled 'c' and 'gg' respectively. The ŋk-sound is spelled 'gc' (one 'g' is dropped). Common clusters include str- and sk- (spelled 'sc') at the beginning and -rs at the end of words.
Vowels[]
Coare vowels and diphthongs are the following: Stressed:
- spelled as 'a': /a/
- spelled as 'aa': /œi̯/
- spelled as 'ae': /ɛi̯/
- spelled as 'e': /e/
- spelled as 'ee': /i/
- spelled as 'eo': /ɑi̯/
- spelled as 'i': /ɔi̯/
- spelled as 'o': /ɔ/
- spelled as 'oa': /ɪ/
- spelled as 'u': /ɯ/
Unstressed:
- spelled as 'a': /ɑ/, /ɛ/
- spelled as 'y': /ʌ/
Morphology[]
Like the other Carian languages, Coare is a mostly analytic language, which means that there is little inflection and that many particles, and prepositions and postpositions are needed to elaborate the functional meaning of a word in a sentence. E.g. ntoaggy /'ntɪŋʌ/ means 'group' or 'multitude', so aasa ntoaggy /'œi̯sɑ 'ntɪŋʌ/ means 'goats'.
Usually these particles, prepositions and postpositions occur in isolation. An important exception is the postposition nsoa ('of', indicating possession or relation), which is often reduced to n and put before the noun group to which it refers. This causes the initial consonant to undergo a nasal sound change:
- n + vowels > nothing happens: aasa, 'goat' ; n'aasa, 'of the goat'
- n + p, b, m > no'm-: bulbart, 'boulevard' ; no'mulbart, 'of the boulevard'
- n + t, d > no'n-: deogat, 'tree' ; no'neogat, 'of the tree'
- n + c, g, gg > no'gg-: cosalaas, 'embassy' ; no'ggosalaas, 'of the embassy'
- n + s, z > t's-: zeobas, 'church' ; t'seobas, 'of the church'
- n + l > di'-: laas, 'house' ; di'aas, 'of the house'
- n + r > 'rr-: raedeo, 'radio' ; 'rraedeo, 'of the radio'
- n + n > n's-: nees, 'affair' ; n'sees, 'of the affair'