Re: DECAL: Examples #2: Phonotactics

On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 06:28:51PM -0800, Sai Emrys wrote:
> Same deal as last time.
>
> Q1: What are your allowable syllable structures?
> Q2: Onset clusters?
> Q3: Codas?
Ebisédian: (C)VCV...CVC(V). Yes, pretty boring, although there are a
small limited number of allowed clusters: mainly [k], [k_h], [t],
[t_h], [p], [p_h], combined with either [r`] or [l], in that order.

Tatari Faran: Same deal. In fact, a lot more constrained, in that the
only allowed clusters are a nasal plus another consonant, e.g. /n'/
[n?].


> Q4: Any changes depending on place in word, etc.?
Yes, /r/ is realized as [d] word-initially, and [4] medially. I
decided to write initial /r/ as /d/ nevertheless, just to spice things
up a bit. :-)


> Q5: Motivation / reasoning / goals behind this?
[...]

I don't like consonant clusters. :-)

Well, that's not strictly true... Tamahí, one of the descendents of
Ebisédian spoken during the Era of Scattering, sports a LOT of
consonant clusters and vocalic consonants, etc.. For example, _l3ri_
is pronounced [lr`i:]; _l3r3si_ is pronounced [lr`=sI]; and _t3m3_ is
pronounced [tm=]. Basically came from dropping all unaccented /3/ from
Ebisédian.

For Tatari Faran, the reason for not using too many clusters was
because I wanted it to have a certain kind of sound (specifically, an
Austronesian-like sound).

For Ebisédian... if I may reveal this dirty little secret... the
motivation was that I already had a good idea about what the writing
system, sanokí, was going to be like; and because of the way the
system works, consonant clusters are a Bad Thing(tm). Also, I was just
too inexperienced back then, and felt like I didn't want to deal with
unpronunciable clusters (at least for me---I wanted, and still want,
to be able to pronounce my own conlangs, you see).


T

--
Turning your clock 15 minutes ahead won't cure lateness---you're just making
time go faster!