Re: Yes, another sketch for a new conlang! [very very long!]

Christophe:

I tried to find out what consonants and clusters are allowed in the
beginning of a sentence (and therefore, of an isolated word).

To make the references to your rules easier, I marked them with numbers as
follows:

#0 (the list of deep phonemes):
>V: a /a/, e /e/, o /o/
>L: n /n/, l /l/, r /r/, i /j/, u /w/ all voiced
>C: p /p/, t /t/, c /k/, ' /?/ stops (t is alveolar) all unvoiced
>   f /P/, s /s/, x /x/, h /h/ corresponding fricatives all unvoiced
-- NB: absence of /m/

#0' >The following morphophonemic syllables are possible:
>CV
>CL= (C followed by syllabic L)
>CVV (V's not necessarily identical)
>CLV
>CVL
>CLL= (C followed by consonnantic L followed by syllabic L, may be
>different)
>NOTE: syllabic i and j are obviously pronounced [i] and [u].
#1 >VV -> V: geminated vowels are pronounced long. Non-geminated double
>vowels are pronounced as diphtongs.
#2 >L(=)(#)C -> L(=)(#)C_v L(=) voices the following consonnant when
>present, even if there is a word frontier between them.
#2a >It doesn't voice ' or h
>however.
#3 >CL= -> C_vL= L= voices the preceding consonnant, except if it is ' or h.

#4 >CL is more complicated:
#4a >'L -> L the glottal stop disappears.
#4b >hL -> L_O h disappears and L is unvoiced.
#4c >Cn -> C_n Cn becomes a consonnant with nasal release.
#4d >Cl -> C_l Cl becomes a consonnant with lateral release.
#4e >Cj -> C_j Cj becomes a palatalised consonnant, except tj -> [t_S],
> sj -> [S]
>             kj -> [kC] xj -> [C]
#4f >Cw -> C_w Cw bcomes a labialised consonnant.

#2'/3' >NOTE: all those new consonnants can be voiced by the presence of
>another L(=).
#5 >n(=) takes the PoA of the nearest consonnant or vowel. When there is a
>conflict, the hierarchy is: following consonnant > preceding consonnant >
>following vowel > preceding vowel.
>NOTE: a vowel preceding a n is generally nasalised.
#5' >QUESTION: What are the PoA of the vowels a, e and o? I need them to
>know how to pronounce the n. Can I say for instance that o is labial, e
>alvolar and a velar, or something else?
#6 >CV# -> C# (V disappears) except if CV#C (next word begins by a
>consonnant).
-- The alternative can be only CV#L or CV#L_O (which emerge from #4a, #4b).
>As it follows from #9, L_O are not considered C here.
#7 >#'V -> #V (initial glottal stop is not pronounced) except after a pause
>(generally the beginning of a clause).
#7' >so CV1#'V2 -> CV2 (the word frontier nearly disappears).

#8 >C#L(=) -> CL(=) (the word frontier disappears).

#9 >C#L_O -> CL (idem, and L is voiced again).

#10 >CV1V2#V3 -> CV1V3 (the final vowel of a diphtong or geminate disappears
>as well as the word barrier when followed by a vowel).
#11 >CV1V2#V3V4 -> CV1V4 (idem, as well as the first vowel of the diphtong
>or geminate following the word barrier).
#12 >NOTE: All those changes are very complex, as when a new syllable is
>phonetically created when a word barrier disappears, this new syllable
>endures also all the possible changes that were already explained. <...>
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Indeed, I have some questions about the rules (actually I should probably
wait for your answers before proceeding, but I was not that patient...):

#0': What about CLVL? CiL and CuL (with syllabic i, u)?
#2: Does this also apply to iC, uC?
#3: Same question about Ci, Cu (with syllabic i, u).
#4c, #5: Did you mean something like pm-, tn-, kng-?
#4e: What are the voiced (by #3') correspondences of kC and C? (I guess
C stands for some palatal srirant here)

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Now, what happens to initial consonants.

#0: It seems that all deep obstruents may stay intact on the surface level:
p, t, c, ', f, s, x, h

#4a adds n, l, r, j, w.

#4b adds unvoiced hn, hl, hr, hj (different from C in #4e?), hw.

#4c (and #5): p_n, t_n, k_n, f_n, s_n, x_n

#4e: p_j, t_S, kC, f_j, S, C.

#4f: p_w, t_w, k_w, f_w, s_w, x_w.

#5' + #7': It seems that these rules add new nasals which I cannot account
for. I guess /m/ (not in a cluster) first appears here.

#6 and #8-9 (if applied *after* #4a-f) yield, in theory, combinations of all
new obstruents with all deep liquids. The results are far from obvious for
C_w/C_j + w/j, C_n/C_l/Cr + l/n/r (with n already "colored" by #5/5'?).
Further treatment of these may produce a set of totally new phonemes and
fill in the gaps in the system of sentence-initial phonemes and clusters
(i. e., add palatalised/labialized counterparts of C_n, C_l, L_O, Cr).

#3/3' produces voiced counterparts for all obstruents, but they appear only
before L=.

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Remarks:

1. Voiced obstruents appear only in combinations with L(=) and are not
opposed to voiceless ones, unless some additional rules are involved like
e. g.:

##'n=C -> ##C_v (sentence-initial voiced)
L(=)'VC -> L(=)C (with voiceless obstruent preserved)

2. kC (#4e) seems to remain the only permitted sentence-initial cluster of
two obstruents.

3. The cycle in #12 is dangerous, as any cyclic rule. For example, #6+#8+#4,
if applied cyclically, can produce unpronounceable clusters, while
#5/5'+#7'+#5/5' may make the distribution of nasals wholly complementary. So
I guess some restrictions or additional operations were meant here.

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Comments?

Best,
Basilius