> FFlores wrote:>
> > > This is my first message to the list, so I'd like to
> > > share with you the Romanized orthography of my conlang,
> > > Katabala, as an attached MSWord document. Those of you
> > > who want to see it that don't have MSWord should contact me.
> >
> > Welcome to the list. It's glad to see new members!
>
> Ditto for me. Welcome!
>
> > Anyway, I have Word and I saw the
> > orthography. Quite readable... but why is there no "p"? :)
>
> More importantly, why is there no /p/, but there *is* an /f/?
> Austin, right now, your consonant inventory looks like this:
> lab den alv pal vel
> vcl stops t k
> vcd stops g
> vcl fric f th s x
> vcd fric zh
> vcl aff ch
> vcd aff j
>
> There are a few problems with this, if you're attempting to
> achieve a naturalistic effect in a language (of course, if you're
> not, you can just ignore the rest of this).
>
> First, language sounds tend to be organized in groups. That is,
> when a language has one sound in one type of category (say,
> voiceless stops, consonants that completely stop the airflow and
> where the vocal chords aren't vibrating at the same time), it will
> tend to have all or most of the other sounds in that category. So,
> if your language has /t/ and /k/, it's more likely to have a /p/ too.
> But that in itself is not the clincher: you could just say that your
> language doesn't have labial sounds (like /p/); though rare, two
> languages I'm studying in class now, Atkan Aleut and Onandaga,
> both lack labial consonants (more or less). The thing is, though,
> your phonology here also has an /f/, a labial fricative (a sound which
> allows "frication" or rustling of the air), and so if you're going to
> say your language lacks labial consonants, you'll need to be
> consistent about it.
>
> The same general principle applies to the voiced consonants you
> have (<g>, <zh>, and <j>). In each case, you have a single consonant
> in a category, which is statistically unlikely as natural language
> change
> goes.
>
> I don't want to go into any more detail about this... it could get
> *really* long, so if you're interested in any of this, I'd suggest
> visiting
> Mark Rosenfelder's Language Construction kit at:
>
> <
http://www.zompist.com/kit.html>
>
> Remember: all of these comments are just suggestions. If you
> like your language the way it is, that's fine; more power to you.
>
> =======================================================
> Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
> ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
> Website: <
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
>
> Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
> Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
> -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
> ========================================================
>
>