Re: Questions about Japanese historical phonology.

 --- "Isaac A. Penzev" <isaacp@...> schrieb:

> I'm not sure. Somewhen in the Middle Ages.
> You should ask Nik Taylor (he is now available at
> <conculture> list), he may
> know better.
Thank you; I'll ask him.

> PJ         OJ
> *p         p
> *m         m
> *b-, -w-   w
> *t         t
> *n-, -N    n, -Ø
> *d-, -j-   j
> *-r-       r
> *s         s
> *k         k
> *i         i
> *u         u
> *@         o
> *a         a
Didn't Japanese at some stage have eight vowels, in
addition to [a], [i], [u], [e] and [o]? I just read a
book about them, and the only conclusion I could come
to was that these vowels were possibly [E], [@] and
[y/1]. The book didn't provide a decent phonetic
transcription, so, except in the case of [@] (which
I'm pretty sure about), the other two vowels were
guesswork on my part.

This looks like a job for Nik, then.

> Other changes from PJ > OJ:
> - voicing after *n:
> *-mp- > b
> *-nt- > d
> *-ns- > z
> *-nk- > g
I was told that the modern voiced consonants were once
pre-nasalized like that, which would explain why they
rarely appear at the beginning of a word. That answers
another question.

> > =====
> > "Alle Idole müssen sterben."
> > "All idols must die."
>
> A nice phrase. And a good reason to apply ObConlang
> rule: So, in Kuman-Tyli
> it may sound like "Bary ydol ölürýe kerek"...
In Gi-an-nain (tentatively; I'm still fuddling around
with everything): "àin-mà-nù súirà-bàh"; pronounce the
final -h (as breathy voice if you like) and the
accents are tone marks.

=====
"Alle Idole müssen sterben."
"All idols must die."

--Einstürzende Neubauten, "Seele Brennt" (Soul is on Fire)

"Where am I? What is this thing called 'the world'? Who is it who has lured me into
the thing, and now leaves me here? How did I come into the world? Why was I not
consulted?"

--Søren Kierkegaard

"You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need
not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and
solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no
choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."

--Franz Kafka, Journals


	

	
		
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