yet another new lang sketch (sorry) [ + pitch-stress, + Welsh]

J. Barefoot <ataiyu@...> wrote:

(snipped bits)

> Phonology
> fric-           dental  s
> atives         alveolar x /S/
>                 glottal h
What exactly is <s>? Is it like English <th>? The common
use of <s> is for the *alveolar* fricative. (And /S/ is
postalveolar, not alveolar.)

> liquids        alveolar
>              /palatal   l
How do you pronounce this <l>?


> Any suggestions on this? I think pitch-accent is really nifty but I don't
> have any experience with it.
I like pitch accent too, but I can't tell you if your system is
natural or not. However, I noticed that you have marked high and
low pitch, but some syllables are unmarked, so you actually have
three level tones (assuming unmarked is 'middle' pitch?). Is that
what you wanted?

BTW, for anyone who knows, what's the difference between a pitch
accent system and a tone system? Predictiveness?

I'm using a mixed system for Wamen, my latest conlang. Stressed
monosyllables (generally non-grammatical words) are high pitch;
longer words are stressed in the first syllable, and all syllables
but the last are low pitched. The last syllable is high. I took
the idea from Welsh, of which I've read (someone correct if I'm
wrong) that it's quite rare for the fact that the pitch of syllables
rises *after* the stress (while in all languages I've heard,
stressed syllables tend to be higher).



> Verbs
>
> Two types. One has only one stem, the lexical (infinitive). Mostly
> monosyllables. The other has a present/future stem  ending in a vowel (the
> lexical form), and a past stem formed by dropping the final vowels.
>
> ex.     one stem-       wa'a to cover
>         two stems-      nasinai to be present
>                         nasin to have been present
I like that! Do any vowels or vowel clusters drop the same way?
FWIW, I'd describe the present/future stem as an extension of the
past stem, instead of the other way round. Otherwise, one might
think that two present/future stems differring only in the final
vowel(s) could give two identical past stems when dropping them.
Or is that the case?


> aspect infixes - fall after the initial consonant of the verb
Ooh, I love infixes!


> nominal stems
> final vowel > 0
> final l > r
> final k > h
> final t > s
> final n > no change
> greater than 3 syllbles, drop final syllable
Sorry, I'm lost. What does this mean? When does this change
happen?


> part.           -ia                     -i
What is this part.? And rel.? I think you told us about this
before, but I can't find the post.


> Suggestions? Comments? It's meant to feel sort of Native American,at least
> at first glance, so what else can I do it to this end? Does anyone actually
> read these all the way through?
I don't know that much about NA langs, so I can't tell you about the first
question. As for the second one, I usually try to read everything; I don't
delete things unread unless I'm in a severe hurry.


--Pablo Flores
  http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/