Re: vowel scheme for new language

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> Oh, yes I know about the guilt. But how about going
> over the top with the consonants? Try some ejectives,
> and breathy sounds are fun to pronounce, too!
Or go the opposite route for extreme simplicity.  The very first version
of what later became W. had the following consonants:
p   t   k
    n
    s
w    y

With vowels /i/, /a/, /u/, /i:/, /a:/, and /u:/, with syllable structure
(C)V(n/s).  Later, I complicated the consonants up a bit, but removed
long vowels, while adding diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/

In my since-rejected Kizval, I had over 50 consonants, with affricates
for ever stop, implosives, ejectives, clicks, the works.  Vowels were
simple, tho, just the common 5-vowel system, with length, IIRC.  I've
never been really tempted to do anything exotic with vowels.  I can't
think of any of my conlangs with more vowels (quality-wise) than my
current Eastern, which has /i/, /e/, /E/, /&/, /u/, /o/, /O/, /A/, and
/@/, with nasal vowels /e~/, /&~/, /o~/, and /A~/, for a grand total of
13 vowels; these were all evolved from a quite bland 5-vowel system.
IIRC, Kizval had all five vowels being short/long and nasal/nonnasal, 20
grand total.

But, in general, I don't worry about having exotic phonologies, I tend
to use relatively unexceptional phonologies, and put my exoticness in
the grammar.

--
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was hanged." - Irish proverb
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