Re: Sound change rules for erosion

Amanda Babcock <ababcock@P...> wrote:
> Does anybody have a good set of sound change rules written up for
> eroding a language with few phonemes and all open syllables (polynesian
> feel) into one with shorter words, more phonemes, and complex Germanic-
> sounding syllables?  I've never had the patience to play with sound
> changes long enough to get a satisfying result.  It would be nice to
> start with some naturalistic changes (running them through Mark
> Rosenfelder's Sound Change program) and then tweak it.
>
> Whenever I've tried to run sound changes, they've come out trivial and
> lacking depth.
>
> Thanks,
> Amanda
I don't have anything really concrete, lacking your phoneme inventory, but one
thing I've done to liven up one daughter of my proto-language, which has all
open syllables and no consonant clusters, has been to instigate a Great Vowel
Shift where one of the vowels got reduced to schwa, then disappeared entirely
in most instances. Instant codas and consonant clusters. (It also did fun
things to the stress patterns.) That wasn't the only change I did, but that's
how I managed consonant clusters.

Sound changes are fun. I also highly recommend setting up your orthography before
you run your sound changes, especially your vowel shifts, because that makes
things nice and messy.

I know what you mean about trivial and lacking depth though... I've got two
daughter languages, and while I love how Fahri has turned out with its sound
changes, Edalan is really quite dull.

Heather

_____________________________________________________________
Save rainforest for free with a Planet-Save.com e-mail account:
http://www.planet-save.com