Re: Jovian phonological changes (WAS: Re: Re: Translation challenge: Fiat lingua)

Sorry for the delay, I'm not reading the list daily...


--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> wrote:

> > Oud dsix a lionga.  [od dziS @ liNg]  "That there be a language!"
> > Oud dsix lionga.  [od dziS liNg]  "That there be language!"
> > Oud fi facte a lionga. [o pfi vaXt @ liNg]  "That a language be made!"
>
> I'm curious about the phonological changes and the orthographic
> fossilisation that occurred to give the above correspondence! Care to
> share?
There's some info about the derivational processes on my Jovian
page, though I'm afraid it's the oldest part of the current
content, so it might be a bit unrefined:

  http://www.cinga.ch/langmaking/jovian.htm#voca

Also, the chapters "Mutation" and "Sandhi" might give you some
insight into what's happening.

The main reason why the spelling seems "fossilized" is that
while the results of mutation are reflected in writing within a
word (e.g. MACHINA -> maenga [mENg]), they are not marked
*between* words (UNA MACHINA -> a maenga [@ vENg]), i.e. a word
keeps its lexical form regardless of what its neighboring words
make it sound like.  This keeps all words nicely recognizable,
but makes it harder to read the text out loud correctly (though
I don't find it too hard myself, the mutations come rather
naturally to me by now).

In particular, the phrase |oud fi facte| [o pfi vaXt] is built
from the words |oud| [o], |fi| [fi] and |facte| [faXt].  The
|d| in |oud| is usually silent, but survives if it can attach
to the following word.  Here, *[odfi] -> [opfi].  The change
*[fifaXt] -> [fivaXt] is lenition.  The former process happens
wherever it can (e.g. |caede ed frize| [kajd e pfri:z] "hot
and cold"), whereas the latter only occurs between elements of
the same noun phrase or verb phrase: |ja fi facte| [ja fi vaXt]
"she is made" -- the |ja| does not lenit the |f| of |fi|
because the two words are not in the same phrase; the |fi| does
lenit the |facte| because they form the verb phrase |fi facte|
"is made".

As for |lionga| being [liNg], the |io| used to be a diphthong
[i@] which got monophthongized due to being in a closed
syllable.


|Pfero, ud dsuva.|  ['pfe:rA ud dzu:v]  "I hope it helps." ;)


-- Christian Thalmann

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