new lang idea . . .

i'm incubating a new language, possibly with the
ultimate aim of colliding it with bac with disasterous
consequences . . . ( it's deliberately classic to
counter bac's deliberate arcanity )

anyway, it is without a name at the moment, but i can
sketch what i've come up with so far :

phonology :

m p b f v w n t d s z 4 r N k g (X\ or h\)

i e a o u

i and e are allophones but written with different
letters, so are o and u. e and o occur in stressed
syllables and in the syllable following a stress.
elsewhere they close to i and u

long vowels only occur when two vowels meet because of
an elided intermediate consonant

4 and r are allophones of /r/ on the italian model

m n and N only occur in certain circumstances ( as
prenasalisation of stops and as reduced forms of these
clusters )

i'm not sure whether to use X\ or h\ at the moment

stress can fall on any but the final syllable. it's
regular, and occurs on the last closed syllable before
this final

morphology :

late(ish) stage agglutinator

consonant gradation ( cf finnish ) :

a closed syllable weakens the preceding consonant
along these series :

mp-mb-mm
p-f-w
b-v-w
nt-nd-nn
t-s-X\
d-z-0
r
Nk-Ng-NN
k-X\-0
g-0

verbs :

so far i've only come up with a system of primary and
secondary endings. they affix to the tense stem in
various ways, with or without thematic vowels.

the thematic vowel is e for the first and second
persons and o for the third. in the plural the o is
dominant, so persons 1+2 has e but persons 1+3 ( or
1+2+3 ) has o

anyway, here are paradigms for 0, 1 and 2 syllable
stems :

  b-      des-      tarak-

primary
sing :
1 bebe    desebi    tarakibi
2 bete    deseti    tarakiti
3 boko    desoku    tarakuku

plur :
1 beveg   desevig   tarakivig ( or bovog &c )
2 beseg   desesig   tarakisig ( or bosog &c )
3 boX\og  desoX\ug  tarakuX\ug

secondary
sing :
1 eveb    deX\eb    tarakib
2 evet    deX\et    tarakit
3 ovok    deX\ek    tarakuk

plur :
1 ivevga  diX\evga  tarakivga ( or uvovga &c )
2 ivezga  diX\ezga  tarakizga ( or uvozga &c )
3 uvogga  diX\ogga  tarakugga

you'll see from the secondary endings on b- that a
vowel has to be added before a reduced consonant

pronouns

these are form a deictive letter ( here : e, three :
a, yonder : o ) associated with each person, followed
by a nasal, the consonant associated with the person (
b, t, k ), the thematic vowel and the letter g ( which
causes consonant gradation ) :

sing :
1 emmeg
2 andeg
3 oNgog

plur :
1 embeeg < enbegeg ( or emboog )
2 anteeg ( or antoog )
3 oNkoog

------------------------------------------------------
that's currently it. what do people think ?

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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