Re: Syllable structure - HELP!!!

* John-Emmanuel said on 2002-01-08 07:45:50 +0100
> I am currently appealing to everyone's creative and artistic abilities :D
> I have finally polished the phonology and blends/diphthongs for my upcoming
> conlang, and started creating a few roots and designing the grammar (at
> least for nouns so far).  However, I want to create a syllable structure
> that doesn't have too many big consonant structures, but at the same time
> doesn't sound like Japanese or a Polynesian language.  (I have nothing
> against them, of course, but I prefer the, well, Elvish sounds ;)
What about this:
CCVC + CCVC > CCVCCVC etc.

You then need rules to simplify the CCC-clusters to CC-clusters, here's
some ideas:

    - the first C is removed: n+ks > ks
    - the first is removed but changes the next: n+ks > Ns
        you'll probably end up with a table of changes but that's worth
        it for a smooth flow
    - the middle C is removed: n+ks > ns etc.
    - some sounds are "magic" (and disappears), like the weird behavior of
        s in many (most) germanic languages, the only sound allowed first
        in triple C or more beginning clusters! r+sk > rk
    - only specific clusters are allowed between vowels so all
        clusters are changed into the allowed ones:
        r+m > mbr
        t+s > st or zd
        v+k > kv or gv or kf etc.

> Consonants:  Nasals:  M, m, N, n;
I've seen the mju-sign for M, and both my lang and ceqli uses q for N

> Vowels:  a, e, é, i, o, ó, u, y (rounded i), ö (rounded é), @ (schwa)
> (using Tolkien's orthography - for Quenya at least)
> (y and ö are not common)
What happens if two vowels end up next to eachother, for instance in
a compound? a+a > aha a?a a: a ei, what?

> So basically, what are your ideas?  Should I stick to monosyllabic roots, or
> should ones like VCVC be possible?  Should roots only end in vowels,
> consonants, or both?  And how should I combine roots?  I have spent many a
> sleepless night on this problem, and have yet to come up with an
> aesthetically pleasing solution.  So I make a call to arms brother (and
> sister) conlangers to smite this evil beast! :)
Heh, the important thing is choosing an orthography so that it
becomes easy to -change- the orthography later :) I haven't lost
nights to this question but've changed orthography QUITE a few
times, as a matter of fact there's a message with a thrown-together
7-bit version sent yesterday, and I'm working on unicode-versions
of the web-pages so that I can use all the diacritics I want ;)


t., who misses being able to write emails on a *proper* computer...