Taalen mutations

Heb y Pavel,

    (I'm taking Middle Welsh this term, can you tell? ;)

> > If  soft mutation looks like this: p,t,c,b,d,g > b,d,g,m,n,ñ (or /N/);
>f,/T/,/X/>v,/D/,/G/
> > And breathed like this: p,t,c,b,d,g > f,/T/,/X/,v,/D/,/G/; m>v; s>sh,
>sh>h
> > What would happen to l and lh (the famous welsh ll)?
> > (soft - from old nasals; breathed  from intervocalic position,stop
>clusters, and -s)
>
>Hmm, if it runs like this, I find it a bit strange (especially the nT >
>D part).
     The /nT/ > /D/ is actually an analogical development. Originally, the
fricatives did not mutate, but eventually the voicing that applied to
unvoiced stops applied to unvoiced fricatives as well. "Ancient scholars"
believe that it was simply voice assimilation that caused the change, so
that's another thought on the matter.

>Based on the rationale alone, I'd suggest _l_ change into respectively
>an unrounded [w] (what's the X-SAMPA?) and _lh_ respectively, and _lh_
>into _l_ and its own geminated form.
>The Noldo in me also whispers something asbout _nl_ > _ll_ or _nn_
>(hmm... a _l_ > _nn_ mutation is piquant!)
     Hmm... I don't know how to make this unrounded [w], so that's a strike
against it. Also [r] vocalizes frequently [ar > aa] , and I don't want to
add another liquid vocalizing (particularly because the name of the lang
would become Taan or Tauren, which sound great, but just aren't *right* - I
hope you understand what I mean).

   On the other hand, the Noldo in me likes the l>n change too, but I think
levelling would return it to [l] or remove the [l] altogether. For example,
_emeth_ 'shrine' < nemeton, where the [n-] was interpreted as part of the
article (i, in before vowels).

   What I'm going to go with is this:

   l > soft: no change, breathed: lh
   lh > soft: l, breathed: no change

   Thanks for the help Pavel.

   By the way, I have an interesting idea that you might appreciate: French
is, of course, the language of love, and German the language of Psychiatry.
Similar categorization for other langs exist, but here's my suggestion for
Welsh: it's the lang of adventure and fantasy. I mean, every significant
fantasy novel with a lang is either blatantly ripped off from Welsh
(Jordan's Wheel of Time series) or greatly inspired by it (Sindarin).
Whaddaya think?

   Aidan

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