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Re: gradation (was: Sibling)

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Thursday, December 13, 2001, 16:42
On Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 11:37:45PM -0800, Anton Sherwood wrote:
> "H. S. Teoh" wrote: > > after I incorporate the recent vowel length and vowel gradation changes > > I've been toying with... (sigh, I *never* get round to these things). > > is gradation like ablaut?
[snip] Yep. My conlang actually pushes the idea a little further, and has the concept of vowel "contour". Each noun case is characterized by its characteristic vowel on the last syllable of the noun; the preceding syllables will shift the vowels according to a "contour". For example, the originative case has _0_ (/A/) as the characteristic vowel, and a "contour" that mandates less open vowels preceding this vowel. Hence, for a word like _th0'tai_ (/TAta.i/), the originative form is tho't30 /Tot@.A/ The conveyant case, OTOH, has a characteristic vowel _3_ (/V"/ or /@/), and a contour that centralizes preceding vowels. Hence, _th0'tai_ becomes tha't33' /TatV":/ (In this case there's also syllable assimilation, but that's another topic I won't get into.) I personally find vowel contouring quite pleasing aesthetically(sp?), in such words as the feminine intimate pronoun _jubi'_: Originative: jub0' /jubA/ Receptive: jobu' /jobu/ Instrumental: jwba' /ju"ba/ Conveyant: jwb3' /ju"bV"/ Locative: jubi' /jubi/ T -- Fact is stranger than fiction.