Re: Conlang for giant caterpillars

Pablo Flores wrote:

>Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...> wrote:
>>
>> Pablo Flores wrote:
>>
>> >Vowels: i a u (unrounded, and all of them unvoiced!)
>>
>> Just a suggestion, what about considering fricative vowels
>> instead? This makes more sense to me for a whispered insectisoid
>> language with the very basic triangular vowel system. In other
>> words, <i> would be a syllabic palatal fricative, while <u> would
>> be a syllabic bilabial fricative - all voiceless. Proto-Bantu is
>> said to have had such vowels, and some Chinese dialects also have
>> fricative vowels (though voiced, so yours would have to be
>> voiceless of course). Your <a> could just be a syllabic /h/. So
>> your vowel inventory would look something like /S h P/.
>
>Well, it certainly looks interesting. The problem is that
>these guys have no glotis (not like ours) and no lips, so
>/h/ and /P/ are impossible.
Oh yeah, that's right, you mentioned no lips. But that's easily
solved. Instead of syllabic /P/, why not use a syllabic version of
the bidental fricative. Afterall, you already have a bidental
fricative. And instead of syllabic /h/, you could have a syllabic
/x/. If they don't have a velar section, then /X/. If no uvular
section, then a syllabic pharyngeal fricative (the barred <h>
in the IPA). If no pharyngeal section, then an epiglottal. I have
seen your diagrams, so the possibilities are always there -
somewhere.

-kristian- 8)