Re: Conlang puzzles (Was: Re: New monster word in Maggel ;))))

En réponse à "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:

>
> I asked, because I too couldn't imagine any normal diachronic
> process to that would make lengthen the *following* vowel.  In
> Greek, for example, historical /w/ was lost, which meant for a
> word like */odwos/, the second syllable was missing an onset.
> In compensation, the /d/ shifted to become an onset, BUT since
> codas were moraic in Greek, the mora of the originally coda /d/
> reassociated to the preceding vowel, creating /o:dos/.  But that's
> more or less the opposite of what I see happening in the word
> <Maggel>.  Maybe it has something to do with the stress assignment?
>
Maybe. Maggel's stress assignment is the only regular thing in the language,
and it's heavily related to length. Basically the first heaviest syllable gets
the stress. And in order of decreasing weight are syllables:
- with a long diphtongue,
- with a long vowel,
- with a simple diphtongue,
- with a simple vowel.

The language doesn't seem to contain triphtongues so I didn't consider them. If
they appeared though, they would probably be treated like long diphtongues.

Now it means that a syllable beginning with a "lengthening |g|" will more often
than not get the stress. What it relates with a possible process explaining the
use of preposed |g| for length I don't know :)) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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