Re: A polymorphic language

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:17:35 +0000, Peter Bleackley
<Peter.Bleackley@...> wrote:

>Here's an idea that I'd like to play around with in the near future. I'm
>defining a polymorphic language as one where most morphemes have several
>possible allomorphs, and it's not always predictable which one will occur
>in a given situation.
>
>To do this, I'm going to start off with an ancestor language with a more
>simple and predictable morphology. The phonemic inventory will be
>
>p t  k ?
>f s  x h
>w r j
>m n  N
>
>i  u
>
>  a
>
>and the allowed syllables will be [C]V[L][n]
>
>However, each phoneme will have more than one allophone, eg
>
>/hi/ = [Ci]
>/ha/ = [ha]
>/hu/ = [Wu]
>
>Then, I'll introduce sound changes that turn the different allophones into
>separate phonemes. That should leave me with the effect I desire.
>
>I'd welcome suggestions for what allophones different phonemes should have,
>and how to break allophony.
>
>Pete
>=========================================================================
It seems like the easiest way to go about making allophony is to have
palatalization next to /i/ and labialization next to /u/.  You've probably
already thought of that, though, given your allophones for /h/. :)

The only phonemes I see discouraging allophony are the (bi)labial ones, due
to their disconnection with tongue articulation.  However, you may be
satisfied with having simple coarticulations (i.e. palatalized, plain (=
null), labialized) for this series.

Another thing to watch out for is allophones of different consonants
merging together (unless you actually want that :P).  For example, /ti/
and /ki/ could both easily be realised as [tS)i] as a result of
palatalization.  There are ways around that, however.  In the above
example, /ti/ could instead be [ts_m)i], with /ki/ staying as [tS)i].

- Rob

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