Re: telepaths, sound changes, age changes, v changes, and lexicon

Muke Tever sikayal:

> > I don't know.  There's some pretty weird stuff out there, like s > r,
> > which is attested multiple times, but which I can't justify in my own
> > mind.
>
> I believe that it passes through 'z' first usually (s > z > r), although I'm
> not sure that's much better ;)  Hadwan has that change, itself, actually.
As do some of my conlangs ;-).  But I still can't see how people would
confuse [z] with [r], especially if that [r] is a trill or flap, as in
Latin.  On the other hand, I have some weird things going on in the
Proto-Yivril to Yivríndil transformation, like n > r.

> > Forgot to mention this--Rosenfelder's sound change program (it can be
> > found at http://www.zompist.com) is useful for brute-force application of
> > sound changes, though I find the fact that it can't handle digraphs
> > unless you write up special rules yourself annoying.  If my programming
> > were any less rusty I would try to write a version that *could* handle
> > strings instead of just single letters.
>
> Heh, you and me both ;)   I had to use practically all the punctuation on my
> keyboard to convert all the digraphs and higher Unicode characters to
> monogr... (er, neither 'monogram' nor 'monograph' is the right word!!)...
> but it came out okay in the end, even if I have to end up with rules like
> K/>/_y  (er, that is Proto-Hadwan <sy> <s,y> and <s'y> all become <s'>...
> the rule to delete the <y> is later).
How do you use this soundchange program?  I downloaded it and ran it, and
all it did was ask me for a .lex file (which I don't have), and a .sc file
(which I also don't have).  Is there some way to create these files, and
if so, how do I find out?  It is worth the trouble, or should I stick with
Langmaker?

> Yo hey, maybe anyone can help me.  Proto-Hadwan has these three pure
> sibilants (i.e., non-affricates) <s> /s/, <s,> (s-cedilla), and <s'>
> (s-caron) /S/.   As you can see I have reasonable phonetic values for <s>
> and <s'>, but not one for <s,>, anybody have any ideas?  It develops from IE
> palatal *k, and results in Hadwan /s/  (...eventually).
You might try [ç] (c-cedilla), which is a reasonable evolution from *ky.
Or [tS] or [ts].

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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