Re: DECAL: Examples #3: Phonological change rules

* Sai Emrys said on 2005-01-13 22:18:20 +0100
> Try to use /UR/->[SR] / X_# type rules (e.g. /C/ -> [-vd C] / [-vd C]
> _ ) (# = word boundary).
We might need a little schooling on such, especially as there are many
new faces on the list :)

> 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.
This is dialect-dependant, and I haven't worked out which dialect has
what. Furthermore, the orthography is morphemic to morphphonemic, an
agreed upon abstraction.

Some things I do know, depending on dialect there's quite a bit of
metathesis going on, and dissimilation (especially of /l/ and /r/, if
there's three /l/s in a word for instance, the middle one is likely to
change to /r/ so a lullaby going "lalala" would end up "larala".
Furthermore, there's quite a bit of sandhi involved. I'm planning a big
table of dialect vs. phenomenon but after the loads of things discovered
during christmas I need time to recharge :)

You didn't ask about stress. Taruven has short, long and overlong
syllables (or light, heavy, superheavy) and this shows up differently
per dialect. One I have worked out is how "stress" is marked in
/xAlde.A/ which utilizes pitch accent: rightmost heavy or superheavy, else
penultimate gets high pitch, all other get low pitch.

So (hypthetical), stress marked with " before nucleus

C"VCV
CVC"VCV
CVC"VC
C"V:CV
CVC"V:
CVC"VC:

etc.

Neat thing about /xAlde.A/n dialect, given names have three syllables
and the rightmost is always heavy, but the high pitch doesn't
necessarily fall on the rightmost syllable! This is probably due to
sheer tradition. Still, the pitch is rarely on the *middle* syllable...

> 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.
The future tense is marked by the suffix -ui (falling diphthong) after
consonants, -sse after /i/ and -i after other vowels but this haven't
gelled properly and is subject to change.

> Q3: Motivation, again? (If anything other than purely aesthetic, or
> you can give details of why you think your choices made for better
> aesthetics.)
Dialects makes for testing several aesthetic decisions at once :)


t.