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Re: Yemls Phonology (long)

From:Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
Date:Thursday, June 7, 2001, 3:39
On Wed, 6 Jun 2001 14:45:32 +0200, Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:

>En réponse à Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>: > >[snip] >> >> 1.3.1. Syllabary
[snip]
> >He he, there was a discussion not long ago about how to use the Latin >alphabet as a syllabary. Seems that you found a way :).
Yes. It was that discussion which inspired the phonology.
>[snip] >> >> 1.4.2. Diphthongization >> >> Phonetically, the V (i.e. null consonant) syllables combine with the >> vowel of the preceding syllable to produce diphthongs. In careful >> speech, this is limited to syllables within the same word. The >> following table gives the approximate phonetic values for these >> combinations. The columns are for the V syllables and the rows give the >> vowel phoneme of the preceding syllable. >> >> | {e} {E} {O} {o} >> -----+------------------------- >> /I/ | [i:] [j&:] [jA:] [ju:] >> /E/ | [EI] [&:] [&O] [EU] >> /O/ | [OI] [AE] [A:] [OU] >> /U/ | [wi:] [w&:] [wA:] [u:] >> >> 1.4.3. Consonant Mapping >> >> The following table gives the phonetic values for the consonant >> phonemes. If an entry has 2 forms, the first is the usual value, and >> the second is an assimilatory value. Consonants in the third group have >> variants conditioned by the following vowel, while those in the first >> group don't vary significantly between front and back versions. Of >> particular note are the consonants in the second group, which are >> "historically" conditioned; the values are now distinct enough so that >> the vowel itself need distinguish low vs. high. >> >> | front back >> -----+--------------------- >> /b/ | [b], [p] [b], [p] >> /f/ | [f], [v] [f], [v] >> /m/ | [m] [m] >> /l/ | [l] [l] >> -----+--------------------- >> /t/ | [tSH] [tH] >> /d/ | [dZ] [d] >> /s/ | [S] [s] >> /z/ | [Z] [z] >> -----+--------------------- >> /n/ | [N] [n] >> /k/ | [cH] [kH] >> /g/ | [y] [g], [q] >> /x/ | [C] [K], [G] >> > >I like it. My conlang Tj'a-ts'a~n has a phoneme /s/ which can have up to >four different pronunciations [s], [z], [S] or [Z] depending on whether >the next vowel is front unrounded or back rounded, and whether the >preceeding consonnant (if any) is voiceless or voiced/voiced nasalised. >But I didn't dare go as far as you :) .
Thanks, Christophe. I don't think I went too far with the phonetic variation here. Someday I'll have to post my Rubaga phonology. I think you'd like it -- it has at least 9 ways to pronounce the letter 'g'.
>[snip] >
[snip]
>> >> 1.4.6. Default Stress >> >> Word-stems of 1 syllable are stressed only if suffixed or lengthened. >> Word-stems of 2 syllables are stressed on the penult. Word-stems of 3 >> or more syllables may be stressed on the antepenult if the vowel of the >> penult can be dropped, otherwise the penult is stressed. > >So if I take all those rules, the name of the language Yemls should really >be phonemically /nEImU'lIsU/, pronounced [NEImU'lIs]. Or did you >capitalize the first letter only because of English rules, and it should >be yemls: /nIImU'lIsU/, pronounced [Ni:mU'lIs]? Did I understand >correctly? If so, I find it nice that a word people would naturally tend >to pronounce /jEml=z/ has in fact such a different pronunciation :).
That is correct (although I'm considering adding an apostrophe to move the stress to the beginning). It was a lucky coincidence that the sound I wanted happened to follow English capitalization rules (and more importantly, *Windows* capitalization rules). Jeff
>Christophe. > >http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>