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Re: Unilang: the Phonotactics

From:Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...>
Date:Sunday, April 22, 2001, 2:32
On Wed, 18 Apr 2001 11:59:51 -0400, Oskar Gudlaugsson
<hr_oskar@...> wrote:

>Based on the phonemic inventory I presented in the _Phonology_ thread >(which should have been called _Phonemes_, admittedly), I would have the >following rules: > >CC (onsets): > >/p b/ + /l r/ >/t d/ + /r/ >/k g/ + /l r/ > >/p b m f/ + /j/ >/t d s n l r/ + /w j/ >/k g h/ + /w/
I'm tempted to add /ts/ and /ds/ to this list; affricates, though almost exclusively coronal ones, appear to be a common feature in human languages, and would otherwise be unrepresented in my unilang scheme. --- On Fri, 20 Apr 2001 07:55:02 -0400, Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...> wrote:
>Reduced syllables are basically the "endings" used in the morphology; they >are unaccented, by definition. They have their own inventory of more >distinctive phonemes: the vowels /a i u/, and the finals /n s r/; if it is >a "stem syllable", i.e. part of a bisyllabic stem, it may have one onset C >from the following list: /p t k m n l r s/. So reduced syllabes are CVC, >and grammatic endings (a subset of reduced syllables) can only be VC.
I had already decided /b d g/ should be added to that list of consonants; I don't see why /f h/ shouldn't be there too, so I remove, effectively, any restriction on what consonant can be the onset of an unaccented stem syllable. Also, I find it nicer to designate the vowels /a e o/ in unaccented syllables, instead of /a i u/; it still just comes down to a three-way distinction, but I simply want to emphasize the laxness that most speakers will prefer in their unaccented vowels. It is also an orthographic concern, though orthography has not yet been discussed. Óskar