Re: beginnings of Prevli

On Oct 20, 2007, at 2:15 PM, Roger Mills wrote:

> Well, summer and its vagaries* are over; it's back to school, i.e.
> conlanging :-)))
>
> I'm beginning to try to formalize Prevli, the 3rd Cindu language
> spoken by aboriginals on one of the Kash islands-- the Lañ-lañ
> [laNlaN] in Kash, [la?laNta] natively-- a different species,
> similar, but only distantly related, to the Kash. I'm deliberately
> aiming for a "weird" language.....
It sounds great!

>
> The first phonology is/was:
> p,b  t,d  k,g  m n N, v r l s z y h
> i e a u o
> mainly CVCV(C)-- final -CVC undergo metathesis > -CCV for one word-
> form (function yet to be decided), initial CVC- can also undergo
> metathesis > VCC for another word-form. There is also initial-C
> reduplication, and a vocalic (/-i-/?) infix.  The various clusters
> so produced result in a great deal of C allophony.
Sounds like some cool processes. AFMCL, I also like the idea of
initial CV/VC metathesis; my idea was to use it for some sort of
valency lowering. I'm not sure if I'll use it though, because I feel
the urge to explain how it came about, first.

>
> In view of the allophony-- esp. involving b/v, d/r -- I'm thinking
> of eliminating phonemic v and r from the inventory. Does that seem
> natural/unnatural ?
I think you could go either way. If you kept them as separate
phonemes, you could have a consonant gradation system like in Finnic
or Celtic. That way, the different sounds could still alternate, but
based on morphology instead of phonology.

>
> Most forms are bisyllabic, and stress is on the first vowel. Then
> there is a sort of V-harmony: in version 1, in CVCVC the second,
> unstressed V mutates, e.g. /ú---a/ > [ú---O], /é--u/ > [é--2]; now
> I'm wondering if it might be better if it's the stressed vowel that
> mutates-- /ú--a/ > [ó--a], /é--u/ > ['2--u] etc. etc. Again, which
> strikes y'all as more natural/unnatural ? (Incidentally only /i a
> u/ can appear in the final syllable.) There are different mutations
> in CVCV and rare CVV(C) forms...
I've wondered that same thing. Certainly there are examples of the
preceding, stressed syllable mutating (e.g. Romance and Germanic),
but I would assume the unstressed syllable could mutate too.
Actually, my gut tells me the unstressed vowel would be more likely
to change, since unstressed vowels sometimes tend to be less distinct
than stressed ones, but I don't know what's actually known about the
likelihood.

>
> Lots of deciding to do, and it's becoming quite a Frankenstein's
> monster......
>
> As to grammar, almost nothing yet, except it will be VSO. A while
> back I posted about the subject+object pronoun forms, and those
> will stay. (But what about IO??) Possibly a realis/irrealis verb
> system, active and passive. (how to handle agents in that case?)
> There will be alienable/inalienable possession. A plural suffix,
> but no noun cases (so far).
> ====================
> *The vagaries included 43 days of radiation treatment for prostate
> cancer :-(((( though not as horrendous an experience as I'd
> imagined-- and all seems well now, though I won't know for sure for
> a while; and a corresonding 2+ month visit from my sister, who
> indeed helped out a lot but kept me away from the computer as much
> as she could.
Wow. I truly hope it's take care of now.