Another phonological extreme, was: Nine

The discussion of Nine made me envious. I screamed 'Me too!', and
frightened my poor cat. And I invented another 7-phoneme system,
completely different, which I outline below.

Please tell me what you think of it.

Basilius



1. Deep

Consonants (C): p t k m

Vowels (V): l= u a

Allowed syllable structures: (C)V (total 15 'deep syllables', each
denoted by a separate letter). All combinations of 'deep syllables'
are allowed within a word.


2. Surface realizations

Consonants (C): p t k s m n

Glides (G): l w j

Vowels (V): a o u e i @ au ai eu

Allowed syllable structures: V (word-initial only), CV, GV, CGV.

Allowed CG-clusters: /pl kl tw kw sw nw pj kj mj/

Combinations /wu/, /ji/ are impossible.

No vowel clusters (except the diphthongs listed above) are allowed
within a word.


3. Deep-to-Surface

a) Vowel contractions and vowels becoming glides:

l= (+ V) /l/
al= /@/
aal= /ai/
otherwise l= /i/ (!)

aa /e/
aa (+ V) /j/
au /o/

auu /eu/
uu /au/
u (+ V) /w/

b) Further restructuring of CG-clusters:

pl /pl/
tl /s/ (!)
kl /kl/
ml /n/ (!)

pw /tw/ (!)
tw /sw/ (!)
kw /kw/
mw /nw/ (!)

pj /pj/
tj /sj/ (!)
kj /kj/
mj /mj/


4. Examples (same morphemes in different environments):

/swaukila/ tu.-u.u.kl=.-l=.-a
/suwauklai/ tl=.u.u.-u.u.kl=.-a.a.l=

/nunwisja/ ml=.u.mu.l=.-ta.-a.a
/numule/ ml=.u.mu.l=.-a.a
/nunwiju/ ml=.u.mu.l=.-a.a.-u

/nulau/ ml=.u.l=.u.-u
/miwiwa/ ml=.u.l=.u.-a