Re: New conlang?

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003, John Cowan wrote:

> I got a spam with a subject line of "Set up ywm fegghig".  Now plainly
> Ywm Fegghig is the name of a conlang; what conlang is it?
Clearly pronounced /win fEdZi/, it is the new form of Lam Fegghig (Old
Fegghig), and in dire need of a spelling reform.

In Lam Fegghig, _ywm_, 'clean', was pronounced /yu:m/, but a series of
sound changes (turning the y into a semivowel, velarisation before the
velar vowel, followed by fronting and subsequent derounding; finally, the
distinction of length was replaced by one of tenseness).

In Lam Feggihg, there was already a tendency to palatise non-geminate
velars in palatal areas, so it was not uncommon to see a <h> placed after
the geminate velars. Later, the palatalisation spread throughout, though
attacked geminate /gg/ different from non-geminate /g/. /ij/ eventually
simplified into /i:/ and then /i/.

The language is spoken on Crange /krAJ/, a planet populated by aliens with
a ruling elite consisting of Welshmen who fell through a wormhole at just
the right time to take advantage of the coup and the fact that this planet
is almost exactly like earth, except that it's populated by aliens and
ruled by Welshmen. Somehow they managed to remain dominant these past 800
years (which is about 1100 earth years). These days, though, they've
allowed much of the remote northern hemisphere to rule themselves, and
they've formed a relatively eco-anarcho-socialist society. For much of the
rest of the northern hemisphere, they're content to have a rule something
like Mrs Windsor's in Australia. The much more habitable south, though, is
still under an authoritarian regime.

(Ywm Fegghig is spoken in the north. hemisphere.)

--
Tristan

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