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English-based conlang idea

From:Trebor Jung <treborjung@...>
Date:Saturday, July 24, 2004, 19:38
Been thinking about ideas for a new conlang... and I came up with this:
Apply sound/grammar changes to English.

My 'lect's phonemic inventory is the following (1):

Consonants
Plosives: /p, b, t, d, k, g/
Nasals: /m, n, Ng, Nk/
Fricatives: /f, v, T, D, s, z, S, h/
Affricates: /tS, dZ/
Liquids: /l, r\/
Glides: /w, j/

Vowels (excluding diphthongs)
Front: /i, I, E/
Mid: /&/
Back: /V, A, u, U/

(1) I'm no linguist, so I could be wrong about this...

Many consonants stay the same, except /T, D, S, h, tS, dZ (> s, z, s, 0, ts,
dz)/ and maybe others. Vowels change radically tho: /I > i/, /E > e/, /& >
a/, /V > a/, /A > o/, /U > u/. Vowels nasalize before nasals: /TIn > si~/,
/&d > a~d/ etc. (Syllabic) rhotics disappear in syllable-final position. I'm
not quite sure how to deal with schwa and syllabic consonants... I've been
changing schwa to /i/ (exploiting David Peterson's "/I/ ~ /@/ vowel harmony"
theory - e.g. 'minute' = [mInIt] or [mIn@t]) which I guess is acceptable.
But how to deal with words like /pr\=sn=/ 'person' and /gr\=l/ 'girl', I'm
not sure. Diphthongs get reduced and the like: /AI > ai > e/, /&U > au > o/,
/EI > ei > e/, /OI > oi > o/ etc. (what about, e.g., /@U/ tho? /@U > IU > iu
> u/?).
Comments? Cheers, T