Re: Some Boreanesian Phonological History

En réponse à Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg.rhiemeier@...>:

>
> It has almost developed into a private thread between us two
> (everybody who reads this is invited to join); well, it is pretty
> advanced theory-heavy matter that probably baffles quite a number of
> list members.  But it is highly interesting stuff which inspires me to
> experiment with phonology as well.
>
Well, I'm following the discussion, but cannot add anything since it goes far
beyond my own knowledge of phonology. I just follow it because my conlang
Itakian (which is also a trigger language :)) ) also has (had? I'm revising it,
so I'm not sure how much I will keep of the complex rules between phonemic and
phonetic realisations) a complex phonology. The list of phonemes itself is
deceptively simple and nearly symmetric. There are four places of articulation
(labial, alveolar, velar and glottal) and one stop and one fricative per PoA
(voice is not phonemic, so they are considered inherently voiceless). So we
have /p/, /P/, /t/, /s/, /k/, /x/, /?/ and /h/. From that you add the
liquids /n/, /r/, /j/ and /w/, which can be syllabic or not, and the
vowels /a/, /e/ and /o/ (no /i/ and /u/, they are the syllabic equivalents
of /j/ and /w/, i.e., phonemically /i/ = /j=/ and /u/ = /w=/). To that you also
have to add the tones (high, low, falling and rising). But the phonetic
realisation of these phonemes is very dependent on the environment. I didn't
revise those rules, so I cannot tell much about it, but as a teaser, let's say
that /n/ has any nasal as allophone, depending on the place of articulation of
neighbouring vowels and consonnants, stops and fricatives can be voiced or
voiceless (except /?/ and /h/ which behave differently), rounded, palatalised
(then palatalised /t/ and /s/ often become affricate [tS] and fricative [S]),
with nasal release, with retroflex release for dialects which have a
retroflex /r/ (this /r/ can be an alveolar tap, a trill, an uvular trill or
fricative, or a retroflex, or even a lateral approximant [l] depending on the
dialect), vowels can be nasalised (then again, depending on dialect), they
disappear at the end of words before a pause, etc... Finally the tone line must
never be broken, so there are tone sandhi rules. Add to that the fact that some
tone pattern changes are grammatical, that affixes can be prefixes, suffixes,
infixes, but can also blend with the first or last syllable of the word, making
it completely different (this acting in the phonemic level, so that afterwards
you have to add the phonetic rules to know how all this is pronounced), then
you have an idea of the kind of hoaxlang Itakian is :))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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