Re: Root Structures

Ed Heil <edheil@...> wrote:
>=20
> Do people's conlangs have well defined possible root structures?
Drasel=E9q roots were devised from an ancient language that I've
called NL (_Nolt Lethar_ 'Old Speech', in the words of Drasel=E9q
linguists). NL was mainly CV, mainly with roots CVCV or CVCVCV,
though some consonantic codas were allowed. Drasel=E9q produced
a lot of vowel syncope and as a result a lot of roots are now
of the form FCVC (F =3D fricative) or (C)VCVC. For example:

        NL /se'teve/ > D. /stef/
        NL /fi'kwen/ > D. /fqen/

Most (C)VCVC roots continue to produce vowel syncope when syllables
are added:

        /'etam/ 'heron' > genitive /'etmes/
        /'tepet/ 'hull' > locative /'teptyr/
        /'palal/- 'to complete' > /'pallaj/ 'he completes'

but most of these roots are *inherently* (C)VCVC.

There are also a great number of CLVC roots (L =3D /l, r/), from
CVLVCV roots where the first and last vowels were syncoped.

Many FCVC and CLVC noun roots sometimes alternate with verbal roots
due to stress shift, analogous (though reverse) to English stress
shift in pairs like 'a record' / 'to record'.


        /'nivil/- 'to boil, to bubble'
        /ni'vilor/ 'hot springs' (<-or> is a suffix of place).
        /'daRen/- 'to secure, to put barriers around'
        /dren/ 'barrier, parapet'
=20
[the change /R/ (in my IPA, alveolar trill) > /r/ (flap) is regular]


--Pablo Flores