Historical description of Tzingrizhîl

I don't see a lot of a priori historical linguistics on this list, but I'm
going to post this breif discussion of the development of Tzingrizhîl
for comments and criticism.

Briefly, Yivrindíl belongs to a branch of closely related languages called
the Yivríndanil languages.  There are three languages in this
branch currently known and described: Yivríndil, Praçí, and
Tzingrizhîl.  These Yivríndanil languages are all descended from a
reconstructed language termed Common Yivríndanil, which was itself a
development of the much older Proto-Yivril.  There exist other Yivril
languages outside of the Yivríndanil branch, but so far only two have been
sketched: Hiksilipsi and Paarik.  This e-mail, however, only concerns
itself with the development of Tzingrizhîl from Common Yivríndanil.

Tzingrizhîl was invented to satisfy my fascination with the Slavic
languages and my desire to make a language that sounded and looked rather
Slavic.  I've borrowed sound changes and orthographies from the Slavic
languages to create this sound.  To begin, here are the essential phonemes
and their orthographies:

Consonants:
/p/ {p}   /b/ {b}   /v/ {w}   /f/ {v}

/t/ {t}   /d/ {d}   /s/ {s}   /z/ {z}

/ts/ {t-cedilla}, written {tz} in this letter
/dz/ {d-cedilla}, written {dz} in this letter
/S/ {s w/ acute accent}, written here as {sh}
/Z/ {z w/ acute accent}, written here as {zh}

/r/ {r}  /l/ {l}

/k/ {k}  /g/ {g}   /j/ {j}   /x/ {h}

Vowels:
/a/ {a}
/e/ {e}; {é} or {ey} finally
/i/ {i}; {y} or {iy} finally
/o/ {o}
/u/ {u}
/@/ {ê}; {e} finally
/1/ {î}; {i} finally
/u~/ (centralized [u], IPA symbol u-bar) {ü}
/o~/ (centralized [o], IPA symbol u-bar) {ö}
/ai/ {ai}
/Ou/ {ou}

This sound system is derived from the older, simpler sound system through
a few important changes, most notably palatalization, centralization,
and a vowel shift.  The Common Yivríndanil consonant system contained /p b
f v w t d T D r l k g ks x j/ as the vowels /a e i o u/ with phonemic
pitch-based accent and vowel length.  Not every word had to contain an
accent in Common Yivríndanil.  In writing Common Yivríndanil,
the phonetic symbols are used and accent is marked with /`/.  The sound
changes leading to Tzingrizhîl were:

Voicing:  Intervocalic [s] became [z]

Palatalization:  [t d s z] were palatalized to [ts dz S Z] before front
vowels and /j/

Centralization: Unaccented short vowels were centralized

Lenition:  /k/ became /j/ before a consonant

Accent shift:  The accent became a stress accent and moved to the heaviest
syllable in the word.  Between syllables of equal weight, the accent
tended to the beginning of the word.  Every word had to contain an accent.

Long vowel shift:  Long accented vowels /i: u:/ diphthongized to /ai
ou/; the other long accented vowels raised in height.

Retraction:  /T D/ became /s z/


Now let's look at some sample derivations.  Blank lines indicate that a
particular change doesn't affect that form:

Common Yivríndanil:  /ede:/ "mother"
Voicing:
Palatalization:      /edze:/
Centralization:      /@dze:/
Lenition:
Accent shift:        /@dz`e:/
Long vowel shift:    /@dz`i/
Retraction:
Tzingrizhîl:          /@dz`i/ {êdziy}

Common Yivríndanil:  /v`aksi:/ "song"
Voicing:
Palatalization:      /v`akSi:/
Centralization:
Lenition:            /v`ajSi:/
Accent shift:
Long vowel shift:
Retraction:
Tzingrizhîl:          /v`ajSi/ {wajshy}

Common Yivríndanil:  /tingr`i:sil/
Voicing:             /tingr`i:zil/
Palatalization:      /tsingr`i:Zil/
Centralization:      /tsingr`i:Z1l/
Lenition:
Accent shift:        /ts`ingri:Z1l/
Long vowel shift:
Retraction:
Tzingrizhîl:        /ts`ingriZ1l/ {Tzingrizhîl}


Okay, if you've made it this far, I'll show you what a sample nominal
declension looks like in Tzingrizîl.  All of the forms are derived from a
regular Common Yivríndanil paradigm with infixing:

From Common Yivríndanil /kalas/ "mountain"
Phonemic:
        Sing        Pl
Nom    /k`@l@s      k`@l@Z1
Acc     k`@l1m@s    k`@l1m@Z1
Instr   k`@lv@s     k`@lv@Z1
Dat     k@l`uz@s    k@l`uz@Z1
Gen     k@l`on@s    k@l`on@Z1/

Orthographic
        Sing        Pl
Nom     kêlês       kêlêzhi
Acc     kêlîmês     kêlîmêzhi
Instr   kêlwês      kêlwêzhi
Dat     kêluzsês    kêluzsêzhi
Gen     kêlonnês    kêlonnêzhi


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_