"Nine" a la Oskar

Okay, I said I'd make my own Nine.

When I go and make languages, they hardly ever get much beyond the
phonology. Cause I love phonology and it's what I'm best at. So why bother
with the rest?

Right...My Nine phonology:

Plosives

/p t k/

(surprise surprise!) :)

Syllabics

/n r l/

Vowels

/a i u/

Syllable structure

(C) V (V)(V/C)


Simple enough. But that's not it, of course. Allophones! ...

Plosives

Initial: [p t k]
Final: [P s x] (become fricatives, but note that /t/ is not [T])
After a syllabic: [b d g]
Syllabics

Initial: [m r l] ([r] is the dental trill of Spanish etc)
Final: <don't know the proper SAMPA code>
       /n/ nasalizes the vowel
       /r/ rhoticizes the vowel (like in English)
       /l/ is heavily velarized; distinctive by the greater length of
           the vowel
After syllabic: [m dr dl]

Vowels

Pre-syllabic: [a e Q]
Word-final: [a e o]

/i/ after or before /k/ (in one syllable): [e]

/i/ + /a u/: [j]
/u/ + /a i/: [w]
/au ai ii uu/: [aw aj ei wQ]

Illegal vowel combinations (in one syllable):

/uau iai aa auu aii aui aiu/

Plosives and diphthongs:

Initial syllabics cannot precede glides. However, /ui/ is allowed there, but
is instead produced as [oi].

/k/ cannot precede or succeed a gliding /i/.
/p/ cannot precede a gliding /u/.


Examples of words:

/kun/ [kQ~]
/pit/ [pis]
/kit/ [kes]
/nunpai/ [mQ~baj]
/kuikkal/ [kwexkal] (how do I transcribe with SAMPA a velarized 'l'?)
/nuitpii/ [noispei]
/ranta/ [ra~da]


Whatever Nine we make, I believe the Latin alphabet is quite superfluous in
its representation. The Nine script could get away with only nine different
characters, which would allow for some very simple forms. Pretty cool, eh?
What about someone designing a script for it (or perhaps for our whole
family of Nines popping up at the moment)?

Just my nine cents,

(oh my God, I just wrote that subconsciously, I swear it) ;)

Oskar

P.S. I'm flying to France in a few hours, so I want be around. Have an
enjoyable discussion, au revoir! :)
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