Re: Q (Caucasian Elf)

Danny Wier <dawier@...> writes:

[background on the Caucasian Elves snipped]

> CONSONANTS (I'm using modified Kirschenbaum here)
>
> Labials: p b p` f f~ v m w
> Dentals: t d t` tw dw t`w r D n (T T~)
> Alveolar: ts dz ts` s z tsw dzw ts`w sw ts~ ts~w dz` dz~w ts~` ts~`w s~ s~w
> Retroflex: ts. dz. ts.` s. z. ts.w dz.w ts.`w s.w ts.~ ts.~w dz.~ dz.~w
> Palatal: c J c` C j cw Jw c`w sw zw c~ c~w J~ c~` c~`w C~ j~
> Lateral: tl> dl tl` hl l3 l tlw dlw tl`w slw tl~ tl~w dl~ dl~w tl~` tl~`w
> hl~ hl~w (L)
> Velar: k k` g x kw gw k`w x`w k~ k~w g~ g~w k~` k~`w x~ x~w (Q)
> Uvular: q G q` X g" qw Gw q`w Xw g"w q~ q~w G~ G~w q~` q~`w X~ X~w
> Laryngeals: ? h H ?- h- H- ?w hw Hw ?-w h-w H-w
Whoah!  128 consonants, 132 if one also counts the local variants!
(Unless I have mis-counted, of course.)  AFAIK, no natlang has that many
consonants.  Not even Ubykh, which had 80 or so.  I wonder how they
write them.  LOTS of diacritics?  Must look cool!

Another question: how did Q evolve, and in which time?  I take it that
the Q Elves are the result of fairly recent Soviet genetics
experiments.  When is the "present" of your conworld?  Does the language
predate the experiments, and if yes, who spoke it?

I see that this language has fairly little to do with what we are used
to see as "Elvish" since Tolkien.  There's nothing wrong with that, of
course.  Feel free to invent what you feel right, that is what
conlanging is all about after all. Regarding my own "Elvish" languages,
I prefer sticking closer to Tolkien.  I use a mixture of Tolkienian,
Indo-European, Kartvelian, "Old European" (apparently non-IE roots
occuring in several European IE languages, such as *abal "apple"), and
freely invented roots, and the languages sound similar to Tolkien's.
Here, for comparison, the phoneme inventories of Proto-Quendian and
Nur-ellen:

Proto-Quendian

p  t  k  kw
ph th kh khw
b  d  g  gw
   s         h
m  n  N  Nw
   l r
     j w

22 consonants, or 18 if one does not count labiovelars which could be
analysed as clusters (velar+/w/).  (The ph, th, kh digraphs represent
aspirated stops.)

Nur-ellen

p    t  k
b    d  g
f  T s  x   h
v  D
m    n  N
     l r
       j w

20 consonants.  One could count 23 if once counts the clusters /gw/,
/xw/ and /ngw/ as single consonants (/kw/ has shifted to /p/).

As you can see, I don't try to have as few phonemes as possible, but
keep their number moderate.

Proto-Quendian has 10 vowel phonemes (a, e, i, o, u, each short and
long); Nur-ellen has 7 vowel phonemes (a, e, i, o, u, ö, y) plus a
non-phonemic schwa.

Well, these languages have a very different background than Danny's.
The idea behind them is that of a family spoken of culturally advanced
(for their time) pre-Indo-European people in western Europe (especially
in the British Isles) who gave rise to old tales of "Elves".  However,
these "historical Elves" were not a separate race, but entirely human.
I imagine the Quendian languages to be Nostratic, related to
Indo-European and Kartvelian.  Proto-Quendian was spoken in northwestern
central Europe in the 4th millennium BC, but it might have roots going
back into what is now Georgia, which might also explain Quendian
mythology telling of an Urheimat in the east (yes, I stole the Cuivienen
story).

Jörg.

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