New lang, Sil

Whether it is the unstable local weather, the ini/nine-discussions or
effects of sleep deprivation that caused this I don't know, but
yesterday the seeds of a new language were planted in my brain, so here
goes (Sil-names with first letter capitalized to separate them from
taruven onesi, all examples use mock-up words for now):

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Conbackground:
Sil started out as a pidgin of taruven (providing lexicon) and some
unknown language(s) (providing much the rest).

The speakers of Sil are thought to be closely related to the original
speakers of taruven, the gven, however they are not reborn, though they
do enjoy eternal youth and limited psi-powers are quite common.

There are several factions, as yet with names unknown.

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Phonology:
Kirshenbaum used for IPA
(http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Evan_Kirshenbaum/IPA/faq.html)

Phonemes:
a i u
t d
s sh
n
l r

i covers front to center, high to upper middle, unrounded,
u covers center to back, high to upper middle, rounded,
a covers low

n l r are syllabic if not next to a vowel, r is a tap.

Syllable-structure:
C = any consonant except t, d
V = any vowel, or if no vowels in syllable one of n, l, or r
S = t, d

(h)(S)(C)V(V)(C)

Vowel-combinations:
Vowels are pronounced separately except for a+i and a+u which are always
pronounced as diphthongs [taruven: aì and aò respectively]

Breathiness:
Syllables can be breathy or non-breathy, it is marked by an `h' as the
first letter of the syllable.

Voicing:
Voicing is predictable except in word-onsets, where the stop can be
either `t' or `d', elsewhere it is always pronounced [d].
`d' makes a plosive+non-plosive combo (S+C) voiced (even in compounds), so
{ds} is pronounced [dz]. Another way of saying it, a `t' in a combo does
not change the voicing of the following consonant, but a `d' will voice
it if it isn't voiced already.

dsa > [dza]

Effects of compunding:
A lone consonant between vowels is always voiced.

If there are two consonants in a row, and both are non-plosive,
the second's voicing is not changed.

sil+sil > [silsil]

If there ever are to similar consonants in a row, they are pronouced as
one but *keep original voicing*.

us+sil > [usil]

If there are three consonants in a row, the first one is pronounced [n]
regardless.

sil+dsa > [sindza]

VshV is always s+h, VshhV is always sh+h

us+hu > [uzu<?>]
ash+hu > [aZu<?>]

Variations, dialects and similar:
These roughly named groups overlap somewhat.

The "harmonizers":
An `u' in a word rounds all other vowels, including `a', except when
overruled by diphthonigization.

dsa+n+us > [dza.nus]
sil+us > [si.lus]

The "breathers":
Breathiness spreads to all syllables in a word following the mark, not just
the syllable carrying the mark.

sil+hu+sil > [silu<?>z<?>i<?>l<?>]

The "aspiraters" (subgroup of the breathers):
`t' when in onset of word is aspirated, the rest of the syllable is
breathy. This does not spread to the rest of the word however.

The "diversifiers":
If a word has two or more of the non-low vowels, the second is pronounced
differently from the first.

sil+sil > [silsel] or [selsil]
us+us > [uzos] or [ozus]

The "dissimilators" (subgroup of the diversifiers):
If the previous word's last syllable contained the same vowel as the
current word's first syllable, the latter vowel is pronounced
differently from the first.

hu+sil sil+ash > [u<?>z<?>il selaS] or [u<?>z<?>el silaS]

The "voicers":
All consonants are voiced except in word-onset or in word-onset
preceeded by `t'.
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I might add more non-syllabic, non-voiced, non-plosive consonants, and I
might change the spelling of `sh', but the rest holds.

I don't know much of its morphology and syntax etc. yet, apart from that
it isn't as affix-dominated as taruven.


t.