What sound changes are these? + recommendations

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holbuzvala
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What sound changes are these? + recommendations

Post by holbuzvala »

So I've a story in a setting that's an island settled by Icelandic and Basque traders. They now speak a mixed language, and I've decided on some names for the characters:

1. Juseva from Basque 'Joseba'
2. Uskar from Icelandic 'Oscar'
3. Marya ['marja] from Basque 'Maria' [ma'ɾiːa]
4. Shimun ['ʃiːmun] from Basque 'Simon' [si'mon]
5. Imanulsson from Imanol + son
6. Kermandusir = Kerman + dottir

From these haphazardly invented sound changes, can you see any underlying rules? I'd like to find out if there are some in case I need to make new names.

P.S. please excuse my bad IPA vowels
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qwed117
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Re: What sound changes are these? + recommendations

Post by qwed117 »

holbuzvala wrote:So I've a story in a setting that's an island settled by Icelandic and Basque traders. They now speak a mixed language, and I've decided on some names for the characters:

1. Juseva from Basque 'Joseba'
2. Uskar from Icelandic 'Oscar'
3. Marya ['marja] from Basque 'Maria' [ma'ɾiːa]
4. Shimun ['ʃiːmun] from Basque 'Simon' [si'mon]
5. Imanulsson from Imanol + son
6. Kermandusir = Kerman + dottir

From these haphazardly invented sound changes, can you see any underlying rules? I'd like to find out if there are some in case I need to make new names.

P.S. please excuse my bad IPA vowels
Why not Imanulssun?
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sangi39
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Re: What sound changes are these? + recommendations

Post by sangi39 »

holbuzvala wrote:So I've a story in a setting that's an island settled by Icelandic and Basque traders. They now speak a mixed language, and I've decided on some names for the characters:

1. Juseva from Basque 'Joseba'
2. Uskar from Icelandic 'Oscar'
3. Marya ['marja] from Basque 'Maria' [ma'ɾiːa]
4. Shimun ['ʃiːmun] from Basque 'Simon' [si'mon]
5. Imanulsson from Imanol + son
6. Kermandusir = Kerman + dottir

From these haphazardly invented sound changes, can you see any underlying rules? I'd like to find out if there are some in case I need to make new names.

P.S. please excuse my bad IPA vowels
1) "Palatalisation" before /i(:)/ (with subsequent loss of /i(:)/ between a consonant and a vowel (may have occurred in stages)
2) Voiced plosives > voiced fricatives between vowels
3) Stress shift to initial syllables
4) Unstressed /o/ > /u/

The only two issues would be Imanulsson and Uskar which looking at it should be Imanulssun and Oskar, assuming /o/ > /u/ wasn't unconditional.
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Just one time.
holbuzvala
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Re: What sound changes are these? + recommendations

Post by holbuzvala »

@
I thought something along those lines.

Though, with the way I'm pronouncing the words (which I failed to indicate clearly), it would seem that stressed /o/ becomes /u/, which is interesting as with regards to Simon -> Shimun, it means the /o/->/u/ change occured before the stress shift.

Also, it seems all lone or geminate stops become fricatives, non?
1. Kermandottir -> Kermandusir; along with 2. Joseba -> Juseva; and NOT Oskar -> Usxar

@qwed117
I suppose, based on my first point above, because Imanulsson has the stress on the 'nul' syllable, then the 'son' suffix remains as unstressed /o/.
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sangi39
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Re: What sound changes are these? + recommendations

Post by sangi39 »

holbuzvala wrote:@
I thought something along those lines.

Though, with the way I'm pronouncing the words (which I failed to indicate clearly), it would seem that stressed /o/ becomes /u/, which is interesting as with regards to Simon -> Shimun, it means the /o/->/u/ change occured before the stress shift.

Also, it seems all lone or geminate stops become fricatives, non?
1. Kermandottir -> Kermandusir; along with 2. Joseba -> Juseva; and NOT Oskar -> Usxar

@qwed117
I suppose, based on my first point above, because Imanulsson has the stress on the 'nul' syllable, then the 'son' suffix remains as unstressed /o/.
The tt > /s/ change could be part of a wider intevocalic fricativisation process, or it could be the result of palatalisation, e.g. [tʲ] > [tʃ] > [ts] > (with [ʃ] from [sʲ] remaining as post-alveolar which doesn't seem too unreasonable ).

[o] > could happen either before or after a stress shift, but since only appear in stressed syllables and [o] in unstressed syllables it might be that original /u/ and /o/ merged into each other differently depending on stress.
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
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