Re: CHAT: Another NatLang i like

Nik Taylor wrote:
>Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>> Consonnant harmony is rather difficult, with three ranks (unvoiced, voiced,
>> voiced nasalised) and I won't explain it further (unless you want me to).
>
>Aack!  Don't you know that that's the surest way to get us to *want*  to
>hear more about it?  :-)  Please, do share.
>
and Raymond A. Brown wrote:

>Oui, oui!  Si'l vous plait!
        Okay, I'm going to explain it (it always works :) ). But beware, it will
be long.

        The consonnant present in Tj'a-ts'a~n are:

stops:
        unvoiced: p t k
        voiced: b d g
        voiced nasalised: ~b ~d ~g

fricative: s (pronounced /s/, /z/, /S/ or /Z/ depending on its surroundings)

nasals: m n ~n (it's 'ng' in 'sing')

approximants: w j r (trilled)

's' is pronounced /s/ or /z/ if near to a front vowel, /S/ or /Z/ if near a
back vowel. It is pronounced /s/ or /S/ if near to an unvoiced consonnant
and /z/ or /Z/ if near to a voiced or voiced nasalised consonnant. 'sj' is
always pronounced /S/, 'sw' is always pronounced /s/.

Prefixes and suffixes are uniformly (C')(V')(A) (with at least one), where
C' is any consonnant (which undergoes consonnant harmony), V' is any vowel
(undergoes vowel harmony) and A is an approximant and never undergoes
harmony. So the following rules of consonnantal harmony concern C', which
undergoes harmony with the nearest consonnant of the root.

        If this consonnant is an unvoiced stop, s pronounced /s/ or /S/, sj or sw,
C' is 'unvoiced':
- stops are pronounced unvoiced (p t k),
- s is pronounced /s/ or /S/,
- w becomes pw and j becomes tj.
- the others don't change.

        If the consonnant is a voiced stop, s pronounced /z/ or /Z/, w, j or r, C'
is 'voiced':
- stops are pronounced voiced (b d g),
- s is pronounced /z/ or /Z/,
- the others don't change.

        If the consonnant is a voiced nasalised stop or a nasal, C' is 'voiced
nasalised':
- stops are pronounced voiced nasalised (~b ~d ~g),
- s is pronounced /z/ or /Z/,
- w becomes mw and j becomes nj,
- the others don't change.

        Here is an example to show how it works:
roots: sjem /Sem/: sky, roj /roj/: human
affixes:
        new-: past prefix
        k'a-se-: gender prefix: human group
        m-: gender prefix: "material"
        -mi-ki: case suffix: adlative (place where you come from)
        ni: attributive affix (can be either a prefix or a suffix depending on
whether the attributee is before or after the attributer).

And the phrase is:

new-k'a-se-m-sjem-mi-~gi-ni ga-so-roj
/new-ka-sem-Sem-mi-~gi-ni gQ-Zo-roj/
=
new-, k'a-se-, m-, sjem, -mi-ki, ni     k'a-se-, roj

In the first word, prefixes undergo consonnant harmony with 'sj' and vocal
harmony with 'e' and suffixes undergo consonnant harmony with 'm' and vocal
harmony with 'e'.
In the second word, prefixes undergo consonnant harmony with 'r' and vocal
harmony with 'o' (vocal harmony is front unrounded <-> back rounded, with
the vowels /a Q e o i u/).

        That's all (it's complex enough, and the syntax is complex enough too).

                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html