Historical realis m and prenasalized stops

En réponse à David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>
> The problem will come when other things get in the way.   So, the coda
>
> consonants that are allowed are /j/, /w/, /n/ and /l/.   The first two
>
> trigger diphthongs, and the second nasalization.   The fourth, though...
>
> That'll be tough.   I haven't decided how to resolve tough medial
> combinations like /VlmbV/ or /VlndV/, or anything.   That's a toughie.
> Any
> ideas?
>
I have various ideas actually ;)) . The first one is to get a syllable more by
having the nasal syllabic. Thus /VlmbV/ would be pronounced [Vlm=bV]. Various
languages do such kind of things to break difficult clusters (it may not be
make a consonant syllabic. It may be simply adding a schwa, like it's often
done in Irish Gaelic and Dutch). A second possibility would be the loss of the
nasal. Thus /VlmbV/ would become [VlbV]. Or you could lose the liquid instead,
and get [VmbV] or [V~mbV]. The nasal would stay, which would allow to
differentiate /VmbV/ from /VlmbV/. Finally, postvocalic [l] often vocalises to
[w] (it happened in French, Polish, etc...). So maybe in this position /l/
could behave like /w/.

Anyway, that's just a few ideas. What do you think of them?

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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