Re: Delurking...

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Henrik Theiling wrote:
>Hi!
'Lo!


> > original language, some of them have become quite mangled (eg 97:
>b'rk'li
> > /b=.r`=k.'lI/, 106 sieboaRgi /siI.'boOR\.G\I/).
>
>Could you give the phonotactics of that language?  Looks like fun.
They're still kinda in progress... but anyway:

Onset clusters: /ss`/, /s`s/, /tl/, /pl/, /qR\_0/, /tr/, and /pB\_0R\_0)/
(that last phone thingamajig is a voiceless labiouvular trill), flap
versions of all trill clusters and allophonically voiced versions of all
stop+appr. clusters.
Coda clusters: /ss`/, /s`s/. (These are treated as separate phonemes,
actually.)

The labiouvular trill is a very recent addition, and I also lately
regularized the allophonic voicing of stops and stop clusters (the /d/ vs
/t/ and /q/ vs /G\/ distinctions remain- and I have and explanation now for
the lack of a separate /b/ phoneme too: /d g G\/ arised from labialized
stops, after which /g G\/ merged.)
So eg. element 97 is now /pB\_0R_0)=.k='lI/

Intersyllabic clusters are currently limited to:
/mb nt nd Nk N\q N\G\/
/fp ft st sk s`t s`k s`q xt xk Xq/
/fl sl s`R\ XR\/
/l: R\: m: n: N:/
Any other attempted clusters result in the first consonant becoming
syllabic.

Any single consonant may occur word-initially. I've not yet worked out
complete rules for consonants which may occur word-finally, but I'm going to
keep it rather restricted... I've considered eg. collapsing all word-final
stops into /?/.


> > The phonemic inventory consists of five clicks (blb, dnt, alv, rfx,
> > pal),
>
>Are they modified in any way?  Clicks can be modified so nicely!
>(But without pulmonic air...)
Nope, besides the labialization, they're all "plain". I'm trying to keep the
language pronouncable without Xhoisan heritage, mind you :)


> > a labiodental ejective fricative /f`/, and a weird rhotic
> > sound which I cannot quite classify ("interdental unvoiced ejective
> > asymmetric lateral fricative trill" could be a guess).
>
>I think I know what you mean. :-)  But I cannot pronounce it quickly
>enough to think of speaking words like that.
I think it's pretty quick to pronounce... if we're speaking of the same
sound. One further thing I've realized about this sound is that it requires
saliva - maybe "gargle" would be a better category than "fricative trill".


> > Vowels:
> > aeiou = /aEIOu\/. Long variants exist, too. These are not plain long
>vowels
> > - I currently analyze them as diphthongs: /aV eE iI oO u\U/,
>
>Quite strange, but does not even look too impossible...
To be more exact, the a's are /a_"/ and /a_"V_x/. This is based on a strange
Finnish idiolect (whose origin I do not recall, might have heard it IRL or
just invented it) with /a_" E I O U u\ a_" @/ for /A e i o u y & 9/.


> > Grammatically, I'm going for a fairly noun-based system; there will only
>be
> > a couple of auxiliary verbs, and all verbal constructs will need a
>further
> > noun to describe the action itself (so each "verb" would seem like an
> > idiom).  Simple relations, like identity or existence, will be
>expressable
> > without verbs at all; most likely with conjunctions.
>
>Please show us more as soon as you have more.  Looks like fun.  I like
>noun based langs, too.  Two of my languages have no noun/verb
>construction and my newest idea consists only of nouns, prepositions,
>and serial 'verb' construction.
Sure. I'll set up a website as soon as I've got enough material.


>Limits:
[tech help]
>**Henrik
kthx.

John Vertical

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