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idea for a conlang [phon]

From:Shreyas Sampat <ssampat@...>
Date:Friday, February 7, 2003, 3:36
So, I was thinking of Dirk's comment on strident fricatives and some other stuff
on fortis/lenis distinctions. I decided to make a conlang about it. This lang
has contrastive fortition (phonemic, not phonetic) on top of several other
features, leading to a very sizeable phonology:

Consonants:
Any consonant can be breathy-voiced (like Indic voiden aspirate stops) or
palatalized. Orthographically, this is shown as a grave or acute on the
following vowel.

Stops:
Fortis stops are ejective (voiceless) or implosive(voiced).  Lenis stops are simple stops.
p       t       c       k
b       d       J\      g
ortho for palatals: c j

Nasals:
Fortis nasals are nasal-released stops; lenis nasals are simple nasals.
b_n     d_n     J\_n    g_n
m       n       J       N
ortho:
m n jn gn

Fricatives:
Fortis fricatives are defined as strident, while their lenis counterparts are nonstrident.
f       s       S       X
v       z       Z       G\
p\      T_a     s\      h
B       D_a     z\      h\
ortho:
f s x *
v z y *
*: These are kh, gh in isolation; after a stop they are |v|.

Vowels:
There are nine phonemic vowels /i I e E a o O u U/. Orthographically, lax vowels
duplicate the following vowel or suffix h: /kEtU/ |keutuh/
A stressed vowel neutralizes the tense/lax distinction in the vowel before it; it must be lax.
Vowels lengthen before lenis consonants. /kEtU/ [kE:tU]

Phonotactics:
Syllables are CV or TSV, where T is a stop and S a homorganic fricative of equal or
greater voicing (so pf, pv, bv, no bf.)
In a word, every consonant following a fortis consonant is fortis as well.

Roots:
A root is at least bisyllabic.  It has no fortition data.
There are three phases of roots, named after phases of the moon: new, half, and full.
New-phase has no fortition.
Half-phase has fortition of the second syllable and on.
Full-phase has fortition of the first syllable and on.

The phases have some weird grammatical usage.
The first fortis consonant in a word is written doubled (its first character, in multigraphs)

Sample text: (with breathy voice and palatalization as \ /)
Meizi p\iattako k/unu saddag\e-ppeagna. (meaningless)

I think I'll try and make a romanceconlang with this phonology.

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Shreyas Sampat