Future English Conlang

[Esneirra973]

How would I go about making a future English conlang? I would like to base it off of my dialect, which is spoken in Southern Florida and has the following phonemic inventory.

/p b t d k g/
/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/
/f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h/
/m n ŋ/
/l ɹ j w/
/ɪ ʊ ə ɛ æ ɑ/
/iː ʉː eɪ oʊ aɪ aʊ oɪ/

I'd like to make a conlang that would be spoken 2000 years in the future, but I am currently stuck on sound changes. Do you guys have any tips? If it helps, some trends I see happening are the fronting of /ɑ/ to /a/ and the raising of /æ/ to /ɛ/. Another trend is the monophthongization of /eɪ oʊ/ in younger speakers.

[Lao Kou]

2000 years?! Did you inadvertently add an extra zero?

2000 years is a rather long timespan, which I imagine would require more than a little raising here, a little fronting there, a little monophthongization yonder, even if you stick just to Southern Florida (if it's not under water by then).

[qwed117]

How would I go about making a future English conlang? I would like to base it off of my dialect, which is spoken in Southern Florida and has the following phonemic inventory.

/p b t d k g/
/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/
/f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h/
/m n ŋ/
/l ɹ j w/
/ɪ ʊ ə ɛ æ ɑ/
/iː ʉː eɪ oʊ aɪ aʊ oɪ/

I'd like to make a conlang that would be spoken 2000 years in the future, but I am currently stuck on sound changes. Do you guys have any tips? If it helps, some trends I see happening are the fronting of /ɑ/ to /a/ and the raising of /æ/ to /ɛ/. Another trend is the monophthongization of /eɪ oʊ/ in younger speakers.

Well, if your /ʊ/ is centralized and unrounded, you might expect it to merge with /ɪ ə/, especially in unstressed syllables. Also, do you not have both /ʉː/ and /u/? One is from "long" o (/ʉ/), while the other is "long u" (/ju/) with yod. If the two dropping/coalescence. If the two fuse in your dialect, then you'd expect it to unround and become closer to /iː/. Maybe this specific change is conditional, only happening in open syllables, or something. Also, maybe e: would merge into the *ɛ.

[Esneirra973]

The /u/ in my dialect has merged with /ʉː/ for the most part.

[Frislander]

2000 years?! Did you inadvertently add an extra zero?

2000 years is a rather long timespan, which I imagine would require more than a little raising here, a little fronting there, a little monophthongization yonder, even if you stick just to Southern Florida (if it's not under water by then).

I'd expect more of everything after 2000 years, but the vowels appear to be barely simplified and the consonants haven't changed a bit!

[qwed117]

2000 years?! Did you inadvertently add an extra zero?

2000 years is a rather long timespan, which I imagine would require more than a little raising here, a little fronting there, a little monophthongization yonder, even if you stick just to Southern Florida (if it's not under water by then).

I'd expect more of everything after 2000 years, but the vowels appear to be barely simplified and the consonants haven't changed a bit!

He hasn't done the sound changes yet. Stop acting so uptight; he has a starting ground and wants to know how to continue on his sound changes and make them past the point of merely being dialectal differences.

[GamerGeek]

I'd like to make a conlang that would be spoken 2000 years in the future, but I am currently stuck on sound changes. Do you guys have any tips? If it helps, some trends I see happening are the fronting of /ɑ/ to /a/ and the raising of /æ/ to /ɛ/. Another trend is the monophthongization of /eɪ oʊ/ in younger speakers.

Hanging out in Quick Diachronics Challenge, Sound Changes Game, and Reverse Sound Changes Game may be instructive.

[Frislander]

2000 years?! Did you inadvertently add an extra zero?

2000 years is a rather long timespan, which I imagine would require more than a little raising here, a little fronting there, a little monophthongization yonder, even if you stick just to Southern Florida (if it's not under water by then).

I'd expect more of everything after 2000 years, but the vowels appear to be barely simplified and the consonants haven't changed a bit!

He hasn't done the sound changes yet. Stop acting so uptight; he has a starting ground and wants to know how to continue on his sound changes and make them past the point of merely being dialectal differences.

Oh sorry, I misread, do continue.

[Isfendil]

I have done this. Here is a sample from a conlang 3000 years removed from a mix of Eastern Seaboard and AAV english.

wey žómnar punvüraw uhwé ń épä nernrun ń wesarun
[wej 'ʒómˌnäɹ ˈpunvʉɹa͡ŭ uˈhwɛ́ n̩ ɛ́pə neɹnɹun n̩ wesäɹun]
Wey žómn-ar pun-v-ür-aw u-hwé ń épä nernr-un ń wes-ar^un
All human-PL born-3.PL.LOG-PRZ-3.PL ACC-free and equal respect-LOC and right-LOC.PL

pʰ b w m f v|f p g m h~b b

θ~ð tʰ d s z ɹ ɾ l~ɫ|v~w s z ɹ ɹ w l j~w

ʧ ʤ ʃ ʒ j|ʃ ʒ x~ɣ x~ɣ d

k g h|ʧ ʤ -

a~æ | ɪ
ɛ e͡j ɪ i | ä i ʉ ɛ́
ɚ|ä~u
ə|-
ɒ ʌ o͡w ʊ u | u͡ɛ o u ə ó
(ʌ can also be interpreted as a schwa with syllable stress, lotta those in the dialect)
a͡j a͡w|eː oː
o͡ə ɛ͡ə| o͡w e͡w

It's pretty easy so I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out yourself, but if you have specific questions about mine that you think might help the development of yours, please ask.

[spanick]

Cool idea. I'm doing something similar but with Californian English. I don't have it all worked out yet but I'll tell you how I've been doing it. I'm not saying that I do it the right way, but it may help.

For something 2,000 years out you're looking st several stages of sound changes. For the first one, I took the established dialectical differences and exaggerated/generalized them. California English already has a chain shift for me to take advantage of. I felt like that was ideal and it left me with an uneven vowel inventory which I can then try to balance out in a second set of sound changes.

I'm also taking allophones and again generalizing then phonemicizing them by further sound changes to other consonants to create minimal pairs. That's all I got so far.

[GamerGeek]

I'm doing something similar but with Californian English.

Damn it, I was going to start something like that...

[qwed117]

I have Fyucha Įniś, which is only 200 years removed from the current speech.

A śmą bįz ė bon ri'n igəl n'dįti'n raas.

[Isfendil]

I'm doing something similar but with Californian English.

Damn it, I was going to start something like that...

It is very feasible that two different languages could arise from Californian english spoken in different parts of the very sizable state of california.

[GamerGeek]

I'm doing something similar but with Californian English.

Damn it, I was going to start something like that...

It is very feasible that two different languages could arise from Californian english spoken in different parts of the very sizable state of california.

Not to mention it is also spoken in nearby states.

[masako]

I can honestly say that each time I consider what "Future English" will sound like, my mind immediately goes to Idiocracy.

[Osia]

I've done a lot of research on sound changes in English dialects, so I may be of some help here. This post may be a bit long, but I'll give a summary of some changes that are likely to happen, that may help you in this endeavor.

Northern Cities Vowel Shift

This Change may want to be avoided since you are basing this of a dialect spoken in Florida, but I think it still may be helpful, especially since some of the changes you talked about occur in this shift.

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift is a shift that is taking in various northern cities in the US (obviously), that is a chain shift which comprises a number of changes. The tensing of /æ/ is something that you talked about that is happening in this shift, and the ash is raising and tensing to something like [ɛ~eə~ɛə], and in extreme cases maybe even [ɪə]. It also may split, and only raise before /f/, /s/, /θ/, /m/, /n/, and possibly voiced stops and fricatives as well. The shift also comprises a number of other changes such as the fronting of fronting of /ɑ/ to /a~æ/, the lowering of /ɔ/ to [ɑ~ä] (see also the cot-caught merger and the father-bother merger), the backing and lowering of /ɛ/ to [ɐ~ʌ], the backing and rounding of /ʌ/ to [ɔ], and the lowering of /ɪ/ to [e~ɛ], (for this change, see also the pin-pen merger).

In extreme cases, this may comprise a pure chain shift somewhat like /ɪ/ > /ɛ/ > /ʌ/ > /ɔ/ > /ɑ/ > /æ/ > /ɪə/.

/oʊ/ and /u/ fronting

Fronting of these vowels is another change that happens in some dialects of English. The fronting of /u/ to something like [ʉ~ʏ~y] is common, and is something you included in your description of your dialect of English. It occurs to an extent in Australian English and to an extreme extent in Californian English. Fronting of /oʊ/ is common in Southern English, to something like [ɵ~ø], and is pronounced like that in AAVE. The vowel /aʊ/ may also front to something like [æʊ~æə~æ].

Schwa Reduction and the Creation of syllabic consonants

Unstressed vowels like the schwa and [ɨ] and [ʊ] are likely to be lost, and when preceding a sonorant, are likely to produce syllabic consonants such as /m̩/, /n̩/, /ŋ̩/, and /l̩/, and do in some dialects, though these are likely to dissapear quickly and become /am/, /an/, and /ɪl~ʊl/.

Loss of Rhotacized Vowels

American English is a rhotic dialect of English, but British and Australian are not, so American English is likely to lose its rhoticization. This happens in some dialects of New England English, and is becoming more common. American English also has had many mergers of vowels before /r/, such as the Mary-merry-marry merger, the hurry-furry merger, the poor-pour merger, and the Sirius-serious merger. These changes are sometimes still in progress, but I'd recommend looking them up and performing them if they are not in your dialect. Losing rhotacization in English is likely to produce new diphthongs ending in schwa, like it has in British English. The vowels /ir/ and /ɛ(ə)r/ may become /ɪə/ and /ɛə/, or merge to /ɪə/, possibly merging with fronted /æ/, and likewise for the back rhotacized vowels.

Coda Simplification

English consonant codas are already extremely complex, and so are likely to simplify massively in future dialects. This happens in AAVE, as well as some other dialects. Coda clusters such as /sk/ and /sp/ are likely to metathesize to /ks/ and /ps/, and codas such as /nd/, /ld/, /mb/, are likely to simplify to /n/, /l/, and /m/, and possibly likewise with /nt/, /mp/, and /ŋk/. Clusters with and obstruent and /s/ may simplify to just the /s/ as well. This change may have grammatical ramifications as well, and lead to the loss of the past tense and plural forms, possibly with the past tense being replaced with auxiliary constructions or being lost. Final obstruents may also become devoiced, leading to various mergers.

Monothongization of /aɪ/

The dipthong /aɪ/ is likely to shift to something like [ɑe~ɑə~ɑ], which is a change that happens in Southern English.

Vowel Nasalization

Coda nasals may also merge with vowels, and produce a separate set of nasalized vowels. These vowels may lower, due to the tendency for low nasal vowels to be pronounced easier than higher ones, though that change is not necessary.

L-Vocalization

Coda /l/ in English is likely to vocalize to a /w/, and already is pronounced rather velar in this position. Vowels may also tense before /l/.

Grammatical Changes

Changes in English grammatically that are likely to happen are somewhat simple. The past tense and the plural forms of nouns are likely to be lost, and English is likely to become more and more isolating and less fusional, somewhat like Chinese. Eventually it may become agglutinative, and various modal verbs may create various fancy moods.

Other Resources

Various future English conlangs have been done in the past, and i will link you to a few of them that I think may help.

http://jbr.me.uk/futurese.html
http://www.cbbforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4793
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1163

Looking at English phonology articles on Wikipedia will also be rather helpful. Sorry if this post is too long or technical, I can explain things to you if you need help.

[alynnidalar]

Couple of notes on the Northern Cities Vowel Shift: most speakers with NCVS, as far as I know, don't have the cot-caught merger; the vowel shift is actually how we avoid it! The LOT vowel in cot ends up fronting to /a/ before the CLOTH vowel in caught lowers to /ɒ/. We also don't have the pin-pen merger. While /ɪ/ moves toward /ɛ/, the two actually remain distinct. (AFAIK the pen-pin merger is a Southern thing, isn't it?)

I'm also curious about /ɛ/ moving to /ʌ/... do you know where this is happening? It's not something I think I've heard in Michigan.

[Dormouse559]

(AFAIK the pen-pin merger is a Southern thing, isn't it?)

That's apparently where it's most widespread, but it also pops up in some Western states. I have a nearly complete merger out here in California for instance.

[spanick]

(AFAIK the pen-pin merger is a Southern thing, isn't it?)

That's apparently where it's most widespread, but it also pops up in some Western states. I have a nearly complete merger out here in California for instance.

Yup. It's particularly common in Bakersfield area in California. I have it and most all the other natives do too. That being said, I did some experiments during school and I'm beginning to think that most people here don't perceive a difference even if they occasionally pronounce them differently. But those were poorly done projects for class, so take that for what it's worth haha