Thagojian phonology (was Re: oh no, not Tech phonology again)

On 23 Feb 00, at 16:04, Daniel A. Wier wrote:

[snip]
> I came up with this large
> phonology because I'm taking a protolanguage which itself has more than a
> few consonants, and mixed it with Celtic mutation, German umlaut, you name
> it.  The result was obvious overkill.
>
> Believe it or not, I didn't just throw everything in the IPA book out;
> there's a regular system of how it all worked out:
>
> Stop/affricate in three classes: plain aspirate ejective/glottalized.
> Fortition (voiceless) and lenition (usually voiced, but it varies depending
> on factors), then spirantization and nasalization added.  Pretty much the
> same four mutation types as in Welsh, actually.  Soft/neutral/hard (or
> palatal/neutral/labiovelarized) result from vowels in proto-language, but
> vowels change in sundry ways to indicate various grammatical stuff, like IE
> ablaut and Arabic "broken plurals" and "verb classes".  Three becomes six
> becomes twelve becomes thirty-six *per articulatory location*.
>
> Everything fell apart from then on.
>
That's the same basic idea that I have with Thagojian, except that it's
realised in a slightly different way.  The proto-lang is PIE, i.e. maybe
not as phonologically complex as proto-Tech, but I hope that the 'modern'
form is nearly up to Techs standards. :-)

Since I'm currently updating ang fiddling with Thagojian, here's VERY 'in-
progress' updated repost of something I originally posted in October last
year.  This is a much reduced set of consonants, there were originally 288
'regular' consonants including palatalised and labialised versions, but
these have been absorbed into the (semi)vowel system.

The Methods of Articulation are defined as a combination of 3 levels of
'Emphasis' and four different 'Types':

Emphasis
  MN Reduced
  NR Normal
  MX Increased

Type
  SP Stop
  FR Fricative
  NS Nasal
  GT Glottalic

This results in the twelve MOAs listed below:

MN-SP Voiceless Aspirated Stop
NR-SP Voiceless Stop
MX-SP Voiced Stop

MN-FR Voiceless Fricative
NR-FR Voiced Fricative
MX-FR Voiced Affricate

MN-NS Voiceless Nasal
NR-NS Voiced Nasal
MX-NS Prenasalised Voiced Stop

MN-GT Click
NR-GT Ejective
MX-GT Implosive

Along with the 8 POAs, these make a 12x8 grid, as illustrated below.

Bilabial     ph  p  b    f  v  bv     mh  m  mb     p!  p'  b'
Linguolabial p[h p[ b[   f[ v[ b[v    m[h m[ mb[    p[! p[' b['
Interdental  t[h t[ d[   s[ z[ d[z    n[h n[ nd[    t[! t[' d['
Alveolar     th  t  d    s  z  dz     nh  n  nd     t!  t'  d'
Retroflex    t.h t. d.   s. z. d.z.   n.h n. n.d.   t.! t.' d.'
Palatal      ch  c  j    s' z' jz'    n~h n~ n~j    c!  c'  j'
Velar        kh  k  g    s, z, gz,    n,h n, n,g    k!  k'  g'
Uvular       xh  x  q    s^ z^ qz^    n^h n^ n^q    x!  x'  q'

The linguolabial series is distinguished from the bilabial series by being
slightly pharyngealised, though this effect varies in intensity.

In non-ascii, the following substitutions can be made:

<[>            = underbar, or a sign like the IPA 'dental' diacritic
<.>            = underdot
<n~>           = <n-tilde> (aka "enya")
<s'>, <z'>     = <s-acute>, <z-acute>
<s,>, <z,>     = <s-cedilla>, <z-cedilla>
<n,>           = <n-hook> (aka "eng")
<s^> <z^> <n^> = <s-caret> <z-caret> <n-caret>


In addition to the grid above, there are:


'Irregular' consonants.  These appear not to fit in the grid above.

<s~> = <s-tilde> = voiceless bidental fricative
<z~> = <z-tilde> = voiced bidental fricative
<m'>             = simultaneous bilablial nasal and glottal stop
<n'>             = simultaneous palatal nasal and glottal stop
<tlh>            = voiceless alveolar lateral affricate
<dlh>            = voiced alveolar lateral affricate
<klh>            = voiceless velar lateral affricate
<glh>            = voiced velar lateral affricate


Semivowels.  These can be syllabic.

<y'> = <y-acute> = velar approximant
<ly'>            = velar lateral approximant
<y>              = palatal approximant
<ly>             = palatal lateral approximant
<r>              = alveolar approximant
<l>              = alveolar lateral approximant
<w'> = <w-acute> = labio-palatal approximant
<w>              = labio-velar approximant


The vowels are all allophones of /e/ and /o/ which are generated according
to both the preceeding and following consonant (or semivowel).  A lot more
work is required on the exact rules and relationships that are used, so I
will avoid posting them for the time being.


I'm preparing a post on the preliminary grammar of thagojian, but it may
take some time to become readable.


---
Pb