Re: New project of mine

 --- Pavel wrote:

> [...] So here's a 'fictional diachronic language',
> though I haven't thought of the name yet! But still, I suspect it'll
> fall into the category of 'North Slavonic', though it's going to be
> quite different from the Germanic-influenced ones (hiya Jan and James!
> :-)).
Welcome to the club, then!
Don't forget Libor Sztemon, who had already two North-Slavonic languages and
recently came up with a third one. If you don't know them, check 'em out:
Slavëni: http://www.volny.cz/sztemon/Artificial%20Language%202.htm
Seversk: http://www.volny.cz/sztemon/Seversk.html
Slavisk: http://www.volny.cz/sztemon/slavisk.htm

What reminds me: Jan could be either Jan Havlis or me.

> The principality (I am yet to think out the name and things, you know)
> continues until it is conquered by Mindaugas of Lithuania, and it is
> subjugated by Lithuania and then Poland for some three centuries. At
> that time the language experiences a heavy Lithuanian influence, mainly
> in the lexicon, of course.
Don't forget that the state language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in those
days was not Lithuanian, but Old-Belorussian; Lithuanian was still a typical
peasants' thing.

> Characteristic features I have worked out already:
> In phonology, the Finnic substrate did not allow the development of the
> palatalization correlation. However, the first palatalization of velars
> did take place whie the Slavonic population was still distinct. However,
> the Finns cannot cope with [tS] and [dZ], which they do substitute for
> [t_j] and [d_j]. Slavic *tj and *dj also yield these.
Fair enough.

> One important thing is the failure to lose diphthongs (so no second
> palatalization of velars, alas - cf. Russian 'cena' and unnamed lanuage
> 'kooina'). [...]
> No loss of the reduced vowels (now that's gonna be cool). In fact, the
> reduced vowels yielded [o] and [e], while the full *o and *e yeld
> respectively [uo] and [ie].
> Nasals are consistently realised as [uon]/[uom]/[uoN] and
> [ien]/[iem]/[ieN].
> I'll keep you posted, if you're interested (but then, I'll keep posting
> anyway!)
This sounds very interesting, so keep posting (but don't spoil your exams)!

Regards,
Jan

=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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