Re: Vjatjackwa (the result of all those sound changes!)

Amanda Babcock wrote:
>
> This message is, as far as I can tell, being sent in Latin-1.
>
> Thanks to all those who suggested sound change rules to me when I was
> trying to make a Polynesian-sounding language end up sounding Germanic.
> Here is the phonology I settled on (which actually ends up sounding
> pretty Slavic, which is even cooler; thanks, Nik, for the i->ja and
> u->wa rules!  I never would have thought of that!)
:-)  I just borrowed it from one of the few settled sound changes
between Uatakassi and its descendant Ivetsian, altho in that case it was
only *long* /i/ and /u/ that underwent the change.  I originally got the
idea by simply reversing what happened in English's GVS, namely /i:/ ->
/aj/ and /u:/ -> /aw/

>         . Every third vowel dropped (except those following h) after
>           causing certain mutations upon the previous consonant.  If
>           a vowel divisible by three followed h, h dropped.
The "every third" rule sounds a bit odd

> "Mjatwam" as a title with which to address married women.
Derived from a contraction of _sjakwaPmjatwam_, "my mother"?
Interesting source!  Classical Uatakassi used _tinani_ "mother" as a
title of respect for a woman who was a mother (in later periods it
simply became a title for any woman above a certain age)

>
>                 Proto-Witicku     Wítickú         Vjatjackwa
>
> Cat             mimi              mími            mjamja
> a cat           mamimi            mámiw           *mOmju
> the cat         kamimi            kámiw           *kOmju
Did Vjatjackwa lose articles completely, or did it develop new articles
to replace the older ones?  Or perhaps analogizing those starred forms
to mOmjamja and kOmjamja?

Very interesting product!

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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