David qua David

    I came up with what I think is a really neat-o, nifty sound system that
lead to some other nifty, neat-o things today for a language I'm calling
zidaen (ae=a in "cat".  I alway forget how you guys do that one).  Anyway,
here she is:

Vowels: [u], [u:], [ae], [ae:], [i], [i:], [y], [y:], [I], [I:], [E], [E:],
[R], [R:] (this last one is that err vowel in "bird", "herd", "curd", et
cetera)

Consonants: [B] (voiced, bilabial fricative), [b], [m], [p], [F] (unvoiced
bil. fric.), [z], [d], [n], [t], [s], [G] (voiced, velar fric.), [g], [N],
[k], [x], [h], [w], [j], [r] (like English [r], the upside-down one), [?]
(glot. stop) and [q'] (uvular ejective, used only in some verb
conjugations--remnant of an olders system).

Plurals:
1.) If the stressed vowel in a word is [u] or [R], it changes to [y] and
[ae], respectively (keeping its length, if there is any)
2.) If the stressed vowel is a front vowel, it moves up a step: [ae]>[E],
[E]>[I], [I]>[i]
3.) If the vowel is a high front vowel, it switches with the other high front
vowel: [i]>[y], [y]>[i]

Cases:  There are only nominative, accusative, dative and genetive (boring, I
know), and, after they've either been pluralized or left singular
(important), they decline in the following way (using my test words as
[zE'Gi:B] (rock) and [daen'tsE:z] (music), the ' is stress):
Nominative: No change: [zE'Gi:B], [daen'tsE:z]
Accusative: The first and last vowels switch.  So, a word can look the same
in the nominative and accusative, given the first and last vowels are the
same, or that the word is one syllable long: ['zi:GEB], ['dE:ntsaez] (note
the stress change)
Dative: The first vowel goes to [ae], and if it's [ae], it goes to [u]:
[zae'Gi:B], [dun'tsE:z]
Genetive: Add [j] to the front of the first vowel: [zjE'Gi:B]*, [djaen'tsE:z]*

    I star the last two because they'll only look that way orthographically.
The following sound changes occur when a consonant is followed by [j] (Note:
[H] is a voiceless pharyngeal fricative, [C] is a voiceless palatal
fricative, [J] is a voiced palatal fricative, and [n~] is a palatal nasal):
[d]+[j]>[dZ]        [t]+[j]>[tS]        [j]+[j]>[?ij]       [s]+[j]>[S]
[z]+[j]>[Z]     [r]+[j]>[H]
[h]+[j]>[C]     [N]+[j]>[n~]        [x]+[j]>[C]     [G]+[j]>[J]
[?]+[j]>[j]      [w]+[j]>[?uj]
    All the rest of the consonants are fine with a short [j] after them and
undergo no transformation.

    The last part of this sound system (not yet a language) is the formation
of the indefinite article (all words are definite as they originally appear).
 What happens is that each beginning consonant is "diminished", or taken down
a step, according to the people who speak this language.  So, the following
list will show if a word begins with X consonant, it will be diminished to Y
consonant to render its indefiniteness:
[B]>[b]     [z]>[d]     [G]>[g]     [m]>[b]     [j]>[n]
[b]>[p]     [d]>[t]     [g]>[k]     [n]>[d]     [w]>[m]
[p]>[F]     [t]>[s]     [k]>[x]     [N]>[g]     [r]>[N]
[F]>[?]     [s]>[?]     [x]>[?]     [h]>[?]     [?]>[h]
    So, as you'll see, there's a sort of prestige system going here, like
suits in cards (with trumps, of course).  Voiced fricatives are considered to
be the grandest, voiced stops slightly less grand, voiceless stops somewhat
grand, voiceless fricatives not so grand, and the glottal stop the least
grand of all.  Also, you'll see that nasals are a step above voiced stops,
and then glides/approximants are a step above those, but they're both beneath
voiced fricatives.  Another thing you'll probably see is that, in many cases,
if words are spelled the same after the initial consonant, there's going to
be some confusion.  This I did on purpose.  I like it when you could have one
word being spelled and sounding the same but its meaning could be totally
different based on context, different meanings.  And this can happen with the
case and plural system, too.  It'll be chaos, and I welcome it!
    So, what do you all think?

-David

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