Pesky phonology questions
From: | Peter Clark <peter-clark@...> |
Date: | Friday, November 1, 2002, 23:07 |
I've been merrily working on Proto-Enamyn's mutation system, and after a
couple of tweaks, think that I have something quite unique, yet still
perfectly plausible. One thing continues to bother me, however: initial
vowels.
Enamyn's system 1 mutations evolved as a result of lenition, which means that
any intervocalic initial consonant mutated. Great. Now, what about the
vowels? For instance, in Proto-Enamyn, we have the words
*lhéwam - "child"
*ena - "mouth"
Now, if we had a word final vowel preceeding those words, it's clear how
lenition would affect *lhéwam but less so *ena.
*/a K@wam/ -> */a l@wam/
*/a ena/ -> ?
One possibility is to create diphthongs. But this would not produce a regular
pattern at all. Another would be to insert a glottal stop (/a ?ena/, but what
could a glottal stop eventually change to? Or maybe a glide (/a jena/)? What
would likely be inserted between two vowels?
System 2 mutations are easier, since they are partially grounded in a nasal
mutation. Hence:
*/1m ena/ -> */1m e~na/ -> */1m emna/
Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
:Peter
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