Iniital fragments of a non-human language

I'm riffing here, so try to bear with me while I try not to spill over into
the realms of the hard-to-follow or barely-literate.

Hmm.

I think it's Werewolf language, but that's open to change. In some of my
notes, I describe it as "Lizardman".


The Consonants.

        d       j       g       q
        /d_m/   /J\/    /g/     /G\/

        dh      jh      gh      qh
        /z_m/   /j\/    /G/     /R/

Intervocalically, these may be "Long" (i.e. geminate stops, or long
fricatives). The long Consonants are written as follows.

        dd      jj      gg      qq
        dhh     jhh     ghh     qhh

Voicing is non-phonemic, but is normally present.


The Vowels.

        i       y       u       o
        /i/     /i\/    /M/     /7/

Vowels may be long. If so, they're written doubled.


The syllable structure is CV, plus an optional C word-finally.

Syllables may be pharyngealised. If so, an apostrophe is used between the
consonant and the vowel, thus:

gyddu ghiqh'ood /gi\d_m:M: GiR_?\7_?\:d/

I know very little of the grammar just yet. I know that adjectives and
adverbs behave like verbs, and that in general words are built from
collections of gender-like particles and prepositions, and a small number
of underlying core verbs, such as using "say-keep-make-scratch-onto" for
"write" and "say-keep-make-scratch-TOOL-SKINNY" for "pen", where "TOOL" and
"SKINNY" are a nominal gender classifiers. And I know I have made a number
of terminological blunders in this paragraph, but I hope the gist was
clear.

I have the rudiments of a Lords Prayer kicking around somewhere. I'll post
it when it's finished.




Paul

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