Terra Novan update

Here's what I have so far of Terra Novan

Phonology

Stops: p t k p_h t_h k_h b d g
Nasals: m n N
Fricatives: f s S x v z Z G
Affricates: ts tS dz dZ
Glides: w j ;h
Liquids: l

Vowels (Oral)
i y    u
 e 2   o
  E    O
   &   A
An earlier stage had contrastive length, but long vowels were never
common.

Vowels (Nasal)
i~ y~  u~
 e~ 2~ o~
       A~

Diphthongs
ej ow 2;h
eo oe 2e
e2 o2 2o
e& o& 2&
eA 2A oA

I'm not yet sure about nasal diphthongs, probably the same as oral
diphthongs, except none with /&/

In addition, onglides must have the same rounding and backing as the
following vowel, thus jE is legal, but jO is not

Grammar

Terra Novan has evolved from an agglutinative system into a fusional
system.  For instance, future positive declarative verbs and present
positive declarative use the prefixes (in IPA) (slightly simplified,
before some words they can change):

    Future           Present
   S       P        S       P
1  e~Ne~   jeGe~    E       je
2  jEGe~   wOGe~    jE      wO
3m ege~             e
3f Sege~            Se
3n &tsge~           &t
3e d&ge~   OzANe~   dE      OzA~

So, much of the old agglutination survives, but not entirely.

Past tense is formed from forms derived from {pronoun+did}, since the
past tense morpheme was often lost in a period of coda-simplification,
for instance, both /hElp/ and /hElpt/ became /h&p/ after a series of
sound changes.  However, some seperate past tenses survive.  These
examples are not fixed, I may subject some to analogy, but:
/no/ -> /nu/; /nu/ -> /ny/ (know/knew)
/l&f/ -> /lAf/; /l&ft/ -> /lAtf/ (laugh/laughed) - regular methathesis
of word-final stop-fricative sequences - thus "ask" is, in fact, "ax"!
:-)  (Pronounced /Aks/, past tense - if analogy hasn't taken over -
/Ats/ < /&st/)
/plej/ -> /plE/; /plejd/ -> /plEd/ (play/played)

So, sound changes would create some more irregularities.  :-)  Of
course, analogy would destroy some (perhaps including those above), I've
yet to decide what verbs would be analogized, an in what direction.
Perhaps the 2nd and 3rd examples would be simple complications.  In
words ending in oral vowels, /d/ is added, while in those ending in
fricatives, the infix /t/ or /d/ is added?

However, even these that retained distinctive past tenses take the
past-tense prefixes.  Thus "I laughed" is /EdzlAtf/ < I did laughed
(ajdId -> ajdEd -> edEd -> Ed&d -> Ez&d -> Edz)

The singular they took over as an epicene 3rd person, losing it's
pluralness.  To compensate, a new form was created, taken from "all of
them", which became "allthem"

Free pronouns are derived from the reflexive forms, originally used for
emphasis, thus:
1st singular: mEf (majsElf -> mesElf -> mEs&lf -> mEs&f -> mEf)
2nd singular: wuf (jorsElf -> jurs&lf -> jus&f -> juf -> wuf)
3rd singular m: A~f (hImsElf -> hEmsElf -> &ms&f -> &~s&f -> A~s&f
3rd singular f: Ef (hr=sElf -> hEs&f -> Es&f -> Ef
3rd singular n: &f (ItsElf -> EtsElf -> &ts&f -> &f
3rd singular epi: dA~f (DEmsElf -> dEmsElf -> d&ms&f -> d&~s&f -> dA~s&f
-> dA~f
1st plural: Ovz (ArsElvz -> Ors&lvz -> Os&vz -> Ovz
2nd plural: wuvz (jorsElvz -> jurs&lvz -> jus&vz -> juvz -> wuvz
3rd plural: dA~vz (DEmsElvz -> dEmsElvz -> d&ms&vz -> d&~s&vz -> dA~s&vz
-> dA~vz)

In my provisional orthography (somewhat conservative, somewhat
reforming), they are written
   S      P
1  my'f   ar'vz
2  wor'f  wor'vz
3m im'f
3f er'f
3n i'f
3e dem'f  dem'vz
The apostrophes I'm not sure of.

--
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