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Re: CHAT: I'm back!

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Tuesday, February 2, 1999, 22:50
Hi everybody!  I'm back!

I've recently updated my Watya'i'sa pages, following a reform of the
language itself.  I've made several changes:

Phonology:
Note: for all of the above, the consonant alone followed by i is
pronounced like Cy, thus ti is [tSi]
_ty_ was [tSj] (/tj/), now [tS] (/tS/), and so on, thus:
py = /P/
ky = /x/ (originally /C/, moved back)
by = ? (bilabial approximant, no IPA symbol, except [B] with "more open"
diacritic)
dy = /r\/
gy = /M\/
sy = /S/
zy = /Z/
tsy = alternate for ty (derived from tasyV', V' = stressed vowel)
dzy, dty = /dZ/ (derived from dazyV' and datyV')

Note: some dialects pronounce ky as /S/ (forward movement from /C/),
while others retain /C/, but the "correct" pronunciation is /x/

Diacritics: Except in dictionaries, only one exists, the acute.  The
acute indicates high tone, no diacritic is low tone.  In dictionaries,
the grave is used to indicate that the tone falls off after the vowel,
it's used at the end of root words to indicate that suffixes are low
tone, thus _saga`_, to predict, would be inflected as _saga'udh_, "I
predict", while _saga'_, to say, would be inflected as _saga'u'dh_, "I
say" (note the importance of tone).  The circumflex is used mostly with
monosyllablic roots to indicate that pitch falls if there are no
syllabic prefixes, and is level if there are, thus _klu^_, to hit, is
_klu'qinki_, you hit (present tense), but qaklu'qi'nki', you did hit
(qa- = past tense).

The aspectual system has been changed, new confidentiality morphemes
have been added, and the gender system of nouns has been changed.  Also,
the third-person free pronouns have been simplified.
--
"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." --English proverb
http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Conlang/W.html
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