New lang (was: Betreft: PHON: Xkanxey and a question)

Rob Nierse wrote:

> Pablo Flores:
> > Speaking of which, I'm going to change some things about Xkanxey.
> > First of all I have to get rid of that horrible <x>. And then
> That's funny. I'm struggling to get /x/ into one of my langs (I want =
to
> give it an Aztec look).
That's exactly what I have spent the evening doing!=20
(well, rather {x}, than /x/)
I'm trying to create a language for a friend of mine.
She is making up a new elven character to use in a
live role-playing game, and she want to have a
language of her own. So obviously she turned to me. :)

Anyway, first I thought I'd base it on Quenya, with
some phonological changes and a grammar that'll be
easier for a Swede. But now I'm trying to do something
different and give it an Indonesian feel. The=20
phonological base of the language is that I really
like the graph {x} for the sound [S] and also words
that end in '-ai' and '-ao'. (Somewhat vague base,=20
I know :)

One thing I noticed when making up some words was that
although I decided to have voiced fricatives, I somehow
unconsciously managed to leave them out, so there may be=20
something to the claim that conlangs are already done=20
in one's head.=20

This far the phonology:

consonants:

p b     t d       k g
    f   c   s x        h
  m     n           ng
            l
            r
  w             y

{t}{d}{n} etc. are dental and not alveolar.
{c} is /T/
{x} is /S/
I thought about making /N/ {q} to get rid of
the final digraph, but I think that just looks=20
too nasty.

vowels:

i     u
e  @  o
   a

diphthongs:
rising: ai ei oi ui @i ao
falling: iu io ia ie

syllable structure: (C) V(:) (N)
where 'N' is any nasal

stress is on the penultimate syllable except
when the final syllable contains a diphthong.
Then the stress is on the diphthong.

Examples: 'kat@'   /'kat@/
          'etaane' /E'ta:nE/=20
          'etanao' /Eta'naw/

As you see there is nothing extraordinary with
the phonology.

As for the grammar (preliminary):

* isolating
* grammatical gender
* mixed ergative/accusative
* head final

I have my doubts that she'll be able to speak
this lang, but I'll keep you posted about the progress.


- Daniel Andreasson
  daniel@conlang.nu       [ e-mail ]
  http://conlang.nu    [ main page ]
  http://rinya.conlang.org [ Rinya ]
 =20
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Lech dhis lirenya.  /lEx DIs lI'rEnja/
"Curiousity is the origin of learning."
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