Re: Igassik Morphophonology

Hey everyone! I'm back! What's been going on the last couple of
months in the conlang-world?

Marcus Smith wrote:

> I'm taking a new approach to conlanging with Igassik: I've invented a new
> theory of grammar which I believe to be fairly natural but not found in
> real languages. I'm developing the Igassik particular grammar based on what
> is allowed by this "theory". I hope it will come out looking somewhat like
> a real language, but still be pretty exotic. This is the morpho-phonemic
> aspect of the grammar.
>
> Roots
>
> Each syllable must be able to fit into the following template CCVCC.
> In roots and stems, only the V is obligatory, all C's are optional for a
> given syllable.
Hmm. I'm not sure I would characterize that as one template, but rather
as the shorthand for the great many possible syllables that are allowed.
I'm not a phonologist, but I'd think that's important to take note of because
I'm not sure there's any single *mental representation* in such a simple
form like that.  That aside, it's fairly unusual to allow so much clustering
of consonants (but by no means unheard of -- look at any IE language).

> A word may have up to two syllables in it: CCVCCCCVCC.
> There are lots of rules about what kind of consonant may occur adjacent to
> another.
> Vowels may never be adjacent.
Does this apply at the word, phrase, or sentence level, or all three?
That is, how do you handle hiatus? Is it filled with an epenthetic
glottal stop, or do you get some kind of apocope or what?

> Basically, the consonants follow the Sonority Heirarchy and a Place Heirarchy.
[snip of concise synopsis]

Both imminently naturalistic.

> Now for some fun word structure. I'll give a general outline, then give
> some specific examples.
[snip outline]

> If you made it this far, I'm very impressed. What do you think?
Very interesting, elegant even.   But I wouldn't call it a theory, so much as a
description, since theories are supposed to have predictive value (i.e., be
Kantian synthetic propositions like "All Model-Ts are black" rather than
analytic like "all husbands are married").

-- Tom Wier