The Human Languages of Yantas

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sangi39
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Re: The Human Languages of Yantas

Post by sangi39 »

Birdlang wrote: 21 May 2018 00:50 Did you get the idea for g̃ /ŋ/ from Guarani? It’s used the same way in that language.
IIRC, the primary inspiration for using <> for the nasal allophone of /h₁/ was initially the romanisation for Sumerian /ŋ/, and of course the tilde usually representing phenomena like nasalisation helped solidify the choice, followed by "of course, Guarani!". Strictly speaking, there's no need to use <m n g̃> at all because their occurrence is entirely predictable, always occurring adjacent to <a> and only <a>.
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Re: The Human Languages of Yantas

Post by sangi39 »

Image

Proto-Krai (spoken in the dark brown area above)



Consonants

/pʰ tʰ tsʰ tʃʰ kʰ/
/p t ts tʃ k/
/b d dz dʒ ɣ/
/m n/
/s ʃ x h/
/z ʒ (ɦ)/
/v r l j/

/tʰ t d/ and /tsʰ ts dz/ are distinct in all environments except when before to /j/ or /i/, when then merge into [tsʰ ts dz].
Similarly, /kʰ k ɣ x ɦ/ and /tʃʰ tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ/ merge into [tʃʰ tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ] before to /j/ or /i/
Voiced and (non-aspirated) voiceless are indistinct when word final, appearing as voiceless
Aspirated plosives are pre-aspirated when word final.

/ɦ/ never appears as such, instead appearing as [ʒ] before /j/ or /i/, and merging into /h/ in other environments (/h/, however, never palatalises).

The general syllable structure is (N)C(s)(r,l,v)(j)V(C), so syllables such as /ksrjab/, /mbljat/, and /tsʰval/ are possible while something like /stak/ or /kamp/ are not. However, the final C of a syllable only surfaces fully when word-final or preceding a vowel-initial morpheme, so a word such as /ksrjabtsʰval/ is not permissible (instead, the /b/ in the first syllable will affect the tone and the vowel of the first syllable, which will be discussed below).

When unrealised labials and /l/ become [ u] when unrealised while “palatals” and /r/ become [ i]. All other consonants drop.



Vowels

There are only four phonemic vowels in Proto-Krai: /i e a u/



Tone

There are five tones in Proto-Krai, although strictly speaking, tone is only one aspect of this feature, interacting with length and phonation:

Tone 1: Short, high, modal
Tone 2: Short, low, creaky
Tone 3: Long, falling, modal
Tone 4: Long, rising, creaky
Tone 5: “Broken”, rising falling, modal

The “broken” Tone 5 is a “long vowel” interrupted part way through by a glottal stop.

Tones are generally relative in their position. The initial, or “pure” positions of each tone are, ˦, ˨, ˦˧, ˨˧, and ˧˦˨respectively. In all other environments, each tone starts where the preceding tone ends, with this holds true throughout a phrase, resetting at the end of the phrase. If the contour tones become sufficiently high or low, i.e. higher than pure Tone 1 in the case of Tone 3 (and the rising part of Tone 5) or lower than pure Tone 2 in the case of Tone 4, then they lose their contour entirely. Unless lowered by some other contour tone, the high tone will fall to mid relatively quickly while the low tone will rise to one step below mid relatively slowly.

Tone, as mentioned above, is also affected by final consonant. Voiced consonants will cause a pure Tone 1 and Tone 3 to start one position lower. Similarly, voiceless consonants cause a pure Tone 2 and Tone 4 to start one position higher. Tone 5 is unaffected. Unrealised nasal vowels also cause the preceding vowel to nasalise.

Length is also affected, with plosives causing the long vowels to shorten, and the second half of the broken Tone 5 to be noticeably shorter.

These last two changes only affect the pure tones at the start of a chain of such unrealised syllables.

So, for example, /tam˦la̰:t˨˧/ appears as [tãu˧la̰:t˧˦] while /la̰:t˨˧tam˦/ will appear as [la̰˧˦tam˦].

The interactions between tone occur across word boundaries, but are typically limited to the phrase. Unrealised coda consonants, however, only occur within inflected or compound words. For example, /la̰:t˨˧tam˦ sa̰:p˨˧na̰k˨/ would [la̰˧˦tam˦ sa̰˦˥na̰k˥], with the entire phrase being affecting by tonal drift, but unrealised consonants only occurring within the individual words.
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Re: The Human Languages of Yantas

Post by sangi39 »

I'll assign this later:

Consonants

/t ʈʂ c k ʔ/
/p~p˟ t˟ ʈʂ˟ c˟ k˟/
/tʼ ʈʂʼ cʼ kʼ~qʼ/
/mb nd ɳɖʐ ɲɟ ŋg/
/n/
/θ ʂ ç x/
/θʼ ʂʼ çʼ xʼ/
/w ɾ l ɽ j ɦ/



Vowels

/i i: u u:/
/e ẽ: ə ә̃ o õ:/
/a a:/



Syllable Structure

Syllables can, on an underlying level, be CV(C), where the optional coda can be any of /p t ʈʂ c k ʔ n θ ʂ ç x l/.



Allophony

/p~p˟/ appears primarily as [p], except before /u u: o õ: a a:/ where is appears as [p˟] instead.

/ç x/, and likewise /çʼ xʼ/ merge into [ç çʼ] before /i i:/, and similarly /j/ and /ɦ/ merge into [j] before /i i:/.

/x/ appears as [h] word-initially.

Sequences of /n.NB/ are treated differently from the phonemes /NB/, which are both treated differently from sequences of a nasal vowel followed by /n.NB/ or /NB/, despite having similar phonetic realisations, i.e. /n.NB/, the /n/ drops out, and nasal vowels remain phonetically distinct. So, for example, (1) /-en.mba-/ and (2) /-e.mba-/ are both realised as [-e.mba-], and (3) /-ẽ:n.mba-/ and (4) /-ẽ:.mba-/ are both realised as [-ẽ:.mba-], but stress-related processes apply first, i.e. the first syllable in 1 and 4 are heavy, light in 2 and super-heavy in 3.

Before the prenasalised stops, /p t ʈʂ c k ʔ θ ʂ ç x l/ become [w ɾ ɽ j ɦ ʔ ɾ ɽ j ɦ l] and the prenasalisation is lost, e.g. /-ap.nda-/ > [-aw.da-] or /-iʂ.mbe-/ > [-iɽ.be-].



Length distinction in oral vowels and quality distinctions in nasal vowels are only contrastive in stressed syllables (with length being allophonic in syllables carrying primary stress). The loss of length but the difference in quality for underlyingly non-mid vowels suggest that originally primary and secondary stress were become distinct later than stress-related vowel reduction in unstressed syllables.

Code: Select all

Primary stress:    i i: u u: e ə o a a: ẽ: õ: ә̃
Secondary stress:  i i  u u  e ə o a a  ẽ  õ  ә̃
Unstressed:        e i  o u  ə ə ə ə a  ә̃  ә̃  ә̃


Stress

Stress falls on one of the final three syllables of a word, falling universally on the third mora. CV syllables are light, consisting of a single mora, CV: and CVC syllables are heavy, consisting of two morae, and CV:C syllables are super-heavy. Consisting of three morae.

Similarly, secondary stress falls every third mora back from this point.

After the mora is stressed, the syllable as a whole is considered to that that level of stress, and vowels reduce accordingly, with all syllables not yet assigned stress being unstressed.

For example, a word ending in -CVCV:CV, would be stressed on the “first half” of the CV: syllable, which would then take, as an entire syllable, take primary stress, with the surrounding syllables being unstressed, e.g. /-panda:ka/ > [-pə.nˈda:.kə]. -CV:CVCV:C endings, however, as another example, would be stressed on the “first third” of the final syllable as would the “first half” of the CV: syllable, which would then take primary and secondary stress respectively (with the long vowel in the CV: syllable shortening as a result) while the medial syllable would be unstressed, e.g. /-kʼi:laʂa:n/ > [-ˌkʼi.ləˈʂa:n].

To go back to the “nasal” example mentioned in consonant allophony, we might find:

/-en.mbal/ > [-ˈe.mbə]
/-e.mbal/ > [-ə.mbə] (stress will occur on the preceding syllable, unless /e/ is long)
/-ẽ:n.mbal/ > [-ˈẽ:.mbə]
/-ẽ:.mbal/ > /-ˈẽ.mbə] (the difference between this one and the previous one will be where secondary stress is allowed to fall)
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
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Re: The Human Languages of Yantas

Post by sangi39 »

Another one I don't know where to put yet:

Consonants:

/p t k/
/b d g/
/m n/
/s h/
/w r j/
/l/


Vowels:

/i iː u uː/
/e eː ə o oː/
/æː a ɑː/

/je jə ju jo ja/
/wi we wə wo wa/
/əj əw aj aw/
/jəj jəw jaj jaw/
/wəj wəw waj waw/



Allophony and Syllable Structure:

The syllable is (C)(r/l)V(N) where C can be any consonant (although /r l/ can only follow /p t k b d g s/), and N is any of /m n r l s/. The vowel can be any vowel, either long, short, a diphthong or a triphthong.

/p t k m n s r l/ can appear as geminates between vowels. Similarly, /p t k s/ can appear as geminates after coda /m n r l s/ before a vowel

/w j/ are [v ʝ] between vowels.
/s/ between a vowel appears as [z].
Before /j i e/, /t d/ are laminal denti-alveolars. /s/ is [ʃ] or [ɕ] (or [ʒ]~[ʑ] when intervocalic), and /k g/ are palatalised. /k g/ are also palatalised before /æː/
/s/ also appears as [ʃ] when in coda position or as [ʒ] when preceding /b d g/

For example, /tjas.gæː/ appears as [t̪jaʒ.gʲæː]



Stress:

Stress typically falls on the ultimate, penultimate, or antepenultimate syllable of a word, depending on syllable weight. Open short syllables are considered “light” (L), closed short syllables, open long syllables, open syllables with a falling diphthong, and open syllables with a triphthong are all considered “heavy” (H), while closed non-short syllables are considered “super-heavy” (S).

1) If the final syllable is super-heavy, it takes stress
2a) If the final syllable is heavy, the penultimate takes stress.
2b) If the final syllable is light, the penultimate is stressed if it is heavy or super-heavy
3) If the final syllable and the penultimate are both light, then the antepenultimate is stressed.

The above example /tjas.gæː/, for example, would be stressed on the penultimate syllable [ˈt̪jaʒ.gʲæː], while something like /tjas.gæːr/ would be stressed on the ultimate instead [t̪jaʒˈgʲæːr], while /si.pra.ku/ would yield [ˈɕi.pra.ku]
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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Re: The Human Languages of Yantas

Post by sangi39 »

/m n ɲ/ <m n ň>
/p t c k/ <p t c k>
/p: t: c: k:/ <bb dd jj gg>
/ʰp: ʰt: ʰc: ʰk:/ <pp tt cc kk>
/s ç x h/ <s š ḥ h>
/s: ç: x:/ <s šš ḥḥ>
/l ʎ/ <l ľ>
/v r j/ <v r y>

/i i: ɨ ɨ: u u:/ <i ii ï ïï u uu>
/e e: o o:/ <e ee o oo>
/æ æ: ɑ ɑ:/ <ä ää a aa>

/əi əu iə uə/ <ai au ia ua>

(S)V(:/V/N)...CV(:/V/N)...CV(:/V/F)

S is any singlet consonant
V is any vowel
The "nucleus" can be any of a short vowel, a long vowel, a diphthong, or a short vowel followed by any of:
N, being either /r/, /l/, or/n/
This can be followed by C which can be anything but /l/ /ʎ/, or /r/, although geminate /l:/ /ʎ:/, and /r:/ are permitted between vowels.
Whole words can end in either short vowel, a long vowel, a diphthong, or a short vowel followed by any of:
F, being a subset of the singlet consonants, excluding /h/, /v/, and /j/.

/n/, appearing the position of N, assimilates the to POA of the following consonant. Similarly, /l/ becomes [ʎ] when preceding a palatal consonant.

The consonants in N, when appearing before the preaspirated long plosives, devoice.

Long vowels and diphthongs only appear in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, long vowels merge into their short counterparts, and /əi əu iə uə/ become /æ ɑ i u/ respectively.
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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