Re: Iain M. Banks: Marain language

> > http://homepages.compuserve.de/Mostral/artikel/marain.html
> >
> > Unfortunately, this is mainly only about the writing system -- not
> > much about the language.  But still, that's something.
> >
> > What do you think?
>
>My impression is that it's not a very well-developed
>conlang; if it has any phonology or lexicon
>it's more than I've seen evidence of in the
>few books I've read yet, or Banks fan sites
>I've looked at (admittedly few).
>Jim Henry
The phoneme inventory seems to be:
/p t tS k/
/b d dZ g/
/m n N/
/f T K s S x/
/v z/
/l r j w h/
/i I e E @ a o u/
Looks pretty generic to me, except for the vowel system hinting of an older
stage with /i e a u/ plus ATR harmony... that bit makes me feel there might
be more to the language than shows. But it might be just an anglicism too:
start with the GenAm system, drop difthongs, rhotacization & the rare /U/,
and merge the low vowels, and you'd get this system. Most "nooblangs" I've
seen usually go for some sort of simplification of the English vowel system,
or the classic /i e a o u/; this certainly fits the former bill.

(For the record, I've never read any of the books.)

John Vertical