Re: Phonological Relay Proposal

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> taliesin the storyteller wrote:
> > I can see one problem though. As soon as a lang with a very strict
> > and simple phonology/syll-structure has adapted the words, it's unlikely
> > that complexity can increase again, hmm...
>
> Not necessarily.  Suppose that one language has a word like [sa'ga],
> second language turns it into [s@'ka], third language turns it into
> ['ska], thus, you've gone from CVCV to CCV.  Of course, I'm sure that
> the end result would be far shorter than the original.
>
And then, if Ajuk was the 4th language, it would turn it to [se'kar].

That was my idea of contractions and such increasing the complexity. Of
course, some lazy relay members might neglect to look for possible
contractions & such.

> Incidentally, that example comes from my experimenting in a creolized
> version of Watakassí.  The voiced and voiceless stops were turned into
> unaspirated and aspirated stops, and the substrate langs tended toward
> more complex syllables, so unstressed vowels (especially /a/) tended to
> be dropped.  So, sagáuki, "I am speaking" would become sgosh ([skoS]),
> "to speak".  <ki> in W represents /C(i)/, the dropping of the /i/ is not
> absolute, but has a high rate of occurence in word-final position or
> before voiceless consonants, never before voiced consonants or when
> following another consonant or in word-initial position.
>
Sounds mighty intersting. I'd like to hear some more about this as it
develops.

--
Robert