Utha: My Latest Conlang

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CarsonDaConlanger
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Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

This is the first post on Utha, and will feature the phonology and phonotactics of the language, as well as its current Romanization stratagy.
Consonants

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	Nasal     |m|          |n̪|          |ɳ|              |ŋ|              
	Plosive   |ʰp pʰ b bʱ| |ʰt̪ t̪ʰ d̪ d̪ʱ| |ʰʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɖʱ|     |ʰk kʰ g gʱ|
	Fricative |ɸ|	       |s|          |ʂ|              |x|
	Trill                  |r|
	Approximant 	                         	 |j| |ɰ|
	Lat. Approximant                    |ɭ|
	Affricates                 |t͡s d͡z|    |ʈʂ ɖʐ|
Vowels

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	Close i/i:   ɯ/ɯ:
	Mid   e̞/e̞:   o̞/o̞:
	Open  ɐ/ɐ:
/r/ is usually realized as post alveolar /r̠/, except for when it follows an alveolar/dental consonant.
/ɭ/ becomes /l̪/ before or after an alveolar/dental.
/s/ and /ʂ/ are voiced when they follow a voiced stop.
The non breathy voiced voiced stops are lenited intervocally, and this extends across word boundaries. /b/ becomes /β̞/ /d̪/ becomes /ð̞/ /ɖ/ becomes /ɻ/ and /g/ becomes /ɣ/.
Syllable Structure
(C)(C)(ɭ,r,j,ɰ)V(C)(C)(ɭ,r,j,ɰ)
/ŋ/ may not appear in the onset, and /ɳ/ may not appear after another consonant. Two nasals may not be adjacent.
/j/ and /ɰ/ may not appear in between two consonants and /ɰ/ may not appear word finally.
Pre-aspirated stops must follow a vowel.
Romanization
Vowels are represented as a e i o u, and stress is marked on the vowel: á é í ó ú.
p, b, t, d, k, g, s, j, n, m, l, and y(consonant) are the same as in English(except t/d/n are dental and l/j retroflex.)
r is /r/
ś is /ʂ/
ṭ is /ʈʰ/
ḍ is /ɖ/
ň is /ɳ/
ń is /ŋ/
c is /ʈʂ/
h is /x/
hp/ht/hk are pre-aspirated
bh/dh/gh are breathy voiced
ts/ds are /t͡s/ /d͡z/
So, there it is. I would appreciate any feedback, and will be posting grammar/lexicon soon.
Last edited by CarsonDaConlanger on 12 Jan 2018 17:11, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by Creyeditor »

What do the ||'s mean?
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Creyeditor wrote: 11 Jan 2018 21:00 What do the ||'s mean?
Nothing really. I meant for them just to divide the sections up.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by Creyeditor »

Most of the allophony stuff I really like, but I don't really get what 'dental/alveolar' means. Is it the opposite of retroflex?
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

I should probably edit it to coronial, but the t/d are dental, while the s/z are alveolar. This means the t/d are made with the tongue on the teeth, and the s/z are made with it on the ridge right behind the teeth(in English, both t/d and s/z are alveolar).
Retroflex consonants are made with the tongue curled up so the bottom touches or almost touches the top of the mouth.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by gestaltist »

CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 11 Jan 2018 19:26 The non breathy voiced consonants are lenited intervocally, and this extends across word boundaries. /b/ becomes /β̞/ /d̪/ becomes /ð̞/ /ɖ/ becomes /ɻ/ and /g/ becomes /ɣ/.
Do you mean all aspirated consonants here?
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

gestaltist wrote: 12 Jan 2018 14:09
CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 11 Jan 2018 19:26 The non breathy voiced consonants are lenited intervocally, and this extends across word boundaries. /b/ becomes /β̞/ /d̪/ becomes /ð̞/ /ɖ/ becomes /ɻ/ and /g/ becomes /ɣ/.
Do you mean all aspirated consonants here?
Sorry, I typed that wrong. The voiced stops that are not breathy voiced are lenited. So all the voiceless stops and the breathy voiced stops remain the same intervocally.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by gestaltist »

CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 12 Jan 2018 17:09
gestaltist wrote: 12 Jan 2018 14:09
CarsonDaConlanger wrote: 11 Jan 2018 19:26 The non breathy voiced consonants are lenited intervocally, and this extends across word boundaries. /b/ becomes /β̞/ /d̪/ becomes /ð̞/ /ɖ/ becomes /ɻ/ and /g/ becomes /ɣ/.
Do you mean all aspirated consonants here?
Sorry, I typed that wrong. The voiced stops that are not breathy voiced are lenited. So all the voiceless stops and the breathy voiced stops remain the same intervocally.
Ah, gotcha. "voiced" was doing double duty in that sentence. :)
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by Shemtov »

It strikes me as a bit odd to have pre-aspirated and aspirated voiceless plosives without plain voiceless plosives. Also, as was pointed out to me in my Shàt scratchpad, having retroflexes without a palatal(ized) series is barely attested.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

Shemtov wrote: 12 Jan 2018 22:32 It strikes me as a bit odd to have pre-aspirated and aspirated voiceless plosives without plain voiceless plosives. Also, as was pointed out to me in my Shàt scratchpad, having retroflexes without a palatal(ized) series is barely attested.
Interesting. I have been thinking about overhauling the stop series, maybe having a three way contrast between unaspirated, aspirated, and preaspirated, then have the unaspirated stops be lenited as the voiced ones are now. I think I will keep the lack of palatalized series for now, just to be unique. ;)
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by gestaltist »

Shemtov wrote: 12 Jan 2018 22:32 It strikes me as a bit odd to have pre-aspirated and aspirated voiceless plosives without plain voiceless plosives. Also, as was pointed out to me in my Shàt scratchpad, having retroflexes without a palatal(ized) series is barely attested.
Depends how much "attested" means to you. My current project's proto-language has retroflexes and /j/ as its only palatal. It doesn't particularly bother me if it's attested, TBH.

EDIT: if there were no Khoisan languages, everybody would flip their shit at anyone who did a click language. How can something like this be realistic!? That's why I think we shouldn't overly freak out over things being attested or not, unless there's solid evidence that something is impossible or highly unlikely.
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Re: Utha: My Latest Conlang

Post by CarsonDaConlanger »

I have been thinking about it, and there is a lot I want to change about the language(Stop seires, tones...) and I think it would make more sense to just make a new post for it. Thanks for all the input guys!
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