Re: backwards conlanging
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, November 29, 2000, 0:39 |
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Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> I have a stupid boring /i/ /e/ /a/ /o/ /u/ vowel system, with two
> diphthongs. I guess I'll have to figure out something more complicated
> that could've simplified down to the 5-vowel system.
Or something simpler that could have been elaborated into a 5-vowel
system. Perhaps an earlier stage had /i a u/, and /i/ and /u/ split
under certain conditions, open/closed syllables is one way. Quechua has
[e] and [o] as allophones of /i/ and /u/ when adjacent to a uvular
sound. Or, perhaps earlier /aj/ and /aw/ became /e/ and /o/, and the
diphthongs in the modern language came from a later source, perhaps lost
consonants (e.g., /ahi/ -> /aj/)
Just remember that a language is just as likely to gain a complexity as
it is to lose one, in the long run, at least.
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