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Ch’owatlok language

Ch’owatlok
Ch’owatlok, Choangal ohliiwa
Pronunciation	[t͡ʃ’owɐˈt͡ɬok], [t͡ʃoɐ̯ŋɐl oˈɬiːwɐ]
Created by	Tobias Mosbæk Søborg (ca. 2020–2023)
Setting and usage	Fictional language of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the Ertebølle culture in Denmark at the turn of the Neolithic Revolution, ca. 4000 BCE, as featured in the movie Stranger
Purpose	constructed languages artistic languages fictional languages Ch’owatlok
Writing system	none (in-universe) Latin script
Sources	constructed languages  a priori languages
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	none
Glottolog	None
IETF	none

The Ch’owatlok language (pronounced [t͡ʃ’owɐt͡ɬok]) is a fictional constructed language originally made for the 2024 film Stranger. In the movie, the language is spoken by a local hunter-gatherer tribe, identifiable with the archaeological Ertebølle culture. The language was created by Tobias Søborg, a historical linguist with a PhD in Indo-European linguistics. Ch’owatlok was designed to have a different sound and structure from both modern Indo-European languages as well as from the native language (Khuthuri) of the main character Aathi's family and tribe of invasive farmers. Set at the arrival of agriculture in Denmark, the film portrays the culture clash between the local hunter-gatherers and the invading population of farmers who would take over the area both culturally and genetically (see Funnelbeaker culture). The language was also designed to fit moviemaker Mads Hedegaard's conception of what the language should sound like in the film and had to be realistically learnable by the actors of the film.

Development

Ch’owatlok was created by Søborg as needed for the script of the movie. By the time casting for Stranger began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Ch’owatlok dialogue during auditions. Before and during shooting, Søborg worked intensively with the cast, in workshops and one-on-ones, and was present throughout the shooting period in Hungary where he was able to modify or create new lines on the spot.

Phonology

Consonants

Ch’owatlok has a series of ejective consonants contrasting with plain voiceless stops or affricates. The language is also notable for having several laterals, including a voiceless lateral fricative and both plain and ejective voiceless lateral affricate. There is a glottal stop and series of palatal and labiovelar consonants.

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			plain	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	ŋʷ ⟨ngw⟩
Stop	plain	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	t͡ɬ ⟨tl⟩	t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩	k ⟨k⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	ejective	pʼ ⟨p'⟩	tʼ ⟨t'⟩	t͡ɬʼ ⟨tl'⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨ch'⟩	kʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kw'⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨hl⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩		(ʍ ⟨hw⟩)	h ⟨h⟩
Liquid			ɾ ⟨r⟩	l ⟨l⟩	ʎ ⟨ly⟩
Semivowel					j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Vowels

Ch'owatlok distinguishes short and long vowels, each with a four-vowel system. Of these four vowels, three are in the close/close-mid specter and one in the open/near-open. As could be expected in a limited vowel inventory, there is some variation in pronunciation of these phonemes, especially in the three short close/close-mid vowels with realizations ranging from close and near-close to close-mid. The three differ in vowel height, with the front vowel /i/ varying between close [i] and near-close [ɪ], the central vowel /ɨ/ between close [ɨ] (even better near-close "[ɪ̵]", although the IPA does not distinguish close and near-close central vowels), close-mid central [ɘ] and close-mid back [ɤ] variants (the latter being distinguished from /o/ by not being rounded), whereas the (rounded) back vowel /o/ has no close variant, altering between near-close [ʊ], close-mid [o] and rarely mid/open-mid [ɔ]. Although there is a level of free variation within these realizations, the lower qualities are especially prominent in closed syllables or in proximity to /r/ or labiovelar consonants, while the higher qualities are more common in open syllables. The long vowels are more consistent in their pronunciation, mostly at the extremities of the vowel chart apart from /oː/ which is close-mid, there being no close variant like its short counterpart. There is less variation in the open central vowel, the short version being a near-open [ɐ], while the long version is fully open [äː].

Ch'owatlok short vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close/Close-mid	i~ɪ ⟨i⟩	ɨ~ɘ~ɤ ⟨ï⟩	ʊ~o ⟨o⟩
Near-open		ɐ ⟨a⟩

Ch'owatlok long vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close/Close-mid	iː ⟨ii⟩/⟨ī⟩	ɨː ⟨ïï⟩/⟨ï̄⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩/⟨ō⟩
Open		äː ⟨aa⟩/⟨ā⟩

There is also a set of (falling) diphthongs, descriptively consisting of all combinations of the four vowel phonemes going toward one of the other.

Diphthong phonemes

Starting point		Ending point
		Front	Central	Back
Close/Close-mid	unrounded			iʊ̯
	rounded	uɪ̯
Mid	unrounded	əɪ̯	ɪə
	rounded	œɪ̯, ɔɪ̯, oːɪ̯	ʏə, ʊə	œʊ̯
Open	unrounded	aɪ̯, ɑːɪ̯