Re: Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> I haven't even contemplated dialects except for that fact that Avren
> Chevraqis has /l/ as well as /r/, instead of just /r/.  How do you derive
> dialects?
From the ancestral language, Common Kassí, just slightly different
sound-changes.  For instance, in some dialects, /q/ became /k/ in *all*
positions, whereas in the Standard dialect, it only became /k/ before
stressed vowels, lost elsewhere, while in yet other dialects, it was
lost in all positions.  Thus, creating doublets like tiá (learned) and
tiká (old) from the CK _teqá_ (wise).  Also, in some dialects, /gj/
became /dZ/, while in the SD, it became /j/, creating a doublet
_jandá_/_iantá_ (kind/sinless) from _gehantá_ (innocent).  (Both pairs,
incidentally, are words in the SD, the first borrowed from another
dialect, the second native)  Palatized /k/ is a big variant among
dialects, SD changed it to /C/.  Other changes were:
/kj/ -> /tS/
/kj/ -> /tS/ -> /S/
/kj/ -> /C/ -> /S/
/kj/ -> /ts/
/kj/ -> /ts/ -> /s/
/kj/ -> /k/
/kj/ -> /kj/

Also, CK had /r/, but no /l/.  SD changed /r/ to /l/, some dialects
preserved /r/.  In the north, /r/ became /z/ or /s/ (after voiceless
consonants).  Along the border of the /r/ regions and the /l/ regions,
there are some dialects that have acquired a phonemic distinction
between the two via borrowings.

Also, not all dialects had the labialization rule (/tw/, /dw/, /nw/ ->
/p/, /b/, /m/), while some had it with a broader effect, /sw/ -> /f/,
/zw/ -> /v/, or even /kw/ -> /p/, /gw/ -> /b/, /lw/ -> /w/, essentially
making /w/ exist only word-initially and intervocalically.  (All
southern dialects eliminated /w/ after labial consonants)

In cases where /@/ was not lost, the SD changed it to /a/, but some
dialects changed it to /-i/, and then to /i/

Also, some gramatical differences.  In some dialects, /ti/ and /ki/
became the same sound, either /tSi/ or /Si/.  Thus, the gender 1 and
gender 4 prefixes ti- and ki- became homophonous.  In those, gender 4
was lost, and those nouns transferred to gender 5 (4 = animals
associated with people, 5 = other animals), this merger actually spread
beyond regions where it had been phonetically motivated, and was later
borrowed into the koine form.  In the North, things were *really*
different.  CK had a remote past and a near past.  Southern dialects
lost the remote past, making near past into simply a past tense.
Northern dialects lost the near past, making remote past into a regular
past tense.  Southern dialects lost the plural and paucal numbers,
making the old dual into a plural, while northern dialects lost dual and
paucal.  Northern dialects also acquired fewer cases (CK had a large
number of postpositions, but only 3 cases - absolutive/ergative,
genetive, dative).