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Re: DECAL: Examples #3: Phonological change rules

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Saturday, January 15, 2005, 18:48
On Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 01:18:20PM -0800, Sai Emrys wrote:
> Same deal. > > Try to use /UR/->[SR] / X_# type rules (e.g. /C/ -> [-vd C] / [-vd C] > _ ) (# = word boundary). > > Q1: What are your *phonologically driven* sound change rules? I.e., > these will apply to *all* situations, once higher-level UR processes > are done (e.g., morphology). Be sure to include the order of > application, if it's relevant (e.g., you have feeding). This includes > cases that are caused by word boundaries, syllable boundaries, cluster > conflicts (e.g. VC + CV in a CVCV limit), etc.
There are no such processes in Ebisédian. Main reason: I had no idea what I was doing when I designed Ebisédian phonology. :-) Well, there is a complicated system of ablaut-like vowel shifts in nouns to indicate case, but I believe that qualifies under morphology proper. In Tatari Faran, the only truly general sound change rule is the pronunciation of the phoneme /r/. When word-initial, it is pronounced [d], and when medial, it is pronounced [4].
> Q2: Ditto - but for *morphophonology* or otherwise non-general cases. > E.g., the prefix in- for English (-> r, l, m by context) - it only > applies to that morpheme, not generally AFAIK. Again, include order of > application. > > (Note: don't go into morphology just yet; that'll be another post. For > this, all I'm asking for is underlying -> surface representation > rules.)
Again, for Ebisédian, there's none. It's pretty boring in that sense. :-) For Tatari Faran, however, there are quite a number of such changes. Although individual words may well have repeated syllables, for example _nana_, a complement meaning "to ridicule", Tatari Faran generally dislikes repeated syllables (or adjacent syllables that sound too alike) that result from the juxtaposition of words in a verb or noun phrase. This drives a lot of sound change processes, among which are: 1) If a noun ending with _na_ (or _nV_ where V is a vowel) is immediately followed by one of the receptive particles (_na_, _nei_, or _no_), /n/ is appended to the noun and the consonant on the particle shifts to /r/ (which comes out as [d] because it is word-initial). For example: huna + na -> hunan da If the noun ends with _nan_ (or _nVn_), the particle mutates but the noun stays the same: misanan + nei -> misanan dei 2) Some special cases of nouns and particles involving sV syllables will assimilate. For example: asusu + sei -> asusei isi + sa -> isa isi + sei -> isei isi + so -> iso 3) The feminine case particles merge if immediately followed by the interrogative particle _ta_: kei + ta -> kita sei + ta -> sita nei + ta -> nita 4) Words ending with _ei_, if followed by a word whose initial syllable also has _ei_, will shift the vowel to _i_. For example: kei + ei -> ki'ei sei + ei -> si'ei nei + ei -> ni'ei fei + kei -> fikei fei + sei -> fisei fei + nei -> finei If there are 3 _ei_ words in succession, only the 2nd will mutate: fei + kei + ei -> fei ki'ei One could rationalize this by saying that the change is applied in reverse order, so _kei_ + _ei_ forms _ki'ei_ first, and then it no longer has _ei_ in the initial syllable and so the mutation ends there.
> Q3: Motivation, again? (If anything other than purely aesthetic, or > you can give details of why you think your choices made for better > aesthetics.)
The TF sound changes appear to be driven by euphonic considerations [hunanda] sounds "better" than [hunana], and [fikej] sounds "better" than [fejkej]. What is euphonic and what isn't, of course, is determined by the "sound" that I wish TF will have. For example, there is a predominant use of [a] to get a vaguely Austronesian feel to it, as well as the use of circumfixes (e.g. the compositive, _i-...-an_). T -- Chance favours the prepared mind. -- Louis Pasteur