Re: Loss of Syllables
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, December 3, 2004, 7:27 |
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On Thursday, December 2, 2004, at 12:27 , Carsten Becker wrote:
> But which syllable are likely to be lost?
Unstressed ones. Final unstressed vowels are particularly prone to
disappear. Initial unstressed vowels also have a tendency to go.
> Are there some rules
> or is the system indeed chaotic and depends on fashion or
> social status, region or whatnot?
No - it is not chaotic. There will be a system, but it will depend to the
dynamics of the language concerned. Other factors like fashion & status
may give rise to the odd exception.
In CL stress fell on either the second from last ('paroxyton') or third
from last ('proparoxytone') syllable according to certain well-defined
rules. In VL there was marked tendency, especially in the Iberian
peninsula & in Gaul for stress to become second from last, so there was a
tendency for the second from last syllable to be dropped in the
proparoxyone words, e.g.
oculu- --> *oclu- French: oeil, Port. olho, Span. ojo (<-- earlier /olo/)
> Is it just me or is there
> much assimilation in the examples above?
There's some - but that's another matter :)
>
> It's just because I was told Ayeri would be nice so far, but
> the fictional speakers of course would not notice its beauty
> and many syllables would get lost. "Nu-micyo-ican-eng" ...
> *shudder* AGT-strong-very-COMPARATIVE_FOR_ADVERBS
I would suggest looking at one or two examples of languages where there
has been extensive shortening of words over the ages. French is an obvious
one and it should not be difficult to find information. Then try playing
around with Ayeri in a similar sor of way and see how it goes. But it is
not a random process - you will have to work the phonological changes from
Ayeri to Neo-Ayeri - but it should be fun :)
Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
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as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]