First Proto-lang

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LinguoFranco
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First Proto-lang

Post by LinguoFranco »

This is a proto-conlang for a conworld. I don't actually have a conworld yet, but I plan to use this for when I create one. The syllable structure is pretty simple, with possible syllables being V, VV, CV, VC, CVV, and CVC. Only /n/ and /l/ may occur in the coda position. Syllables that are VV, CVV, or CVC are considered to be heavy, and receive stress. If a word has two or more heavy syllables, then the penultimate one receives stress.

/m n/
/p b t d k g/
/s f ɬ x/
/j ʋ/
/l/

/i iː u uː/
/e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/
/a aː/

mul.no-
ko̞ː. ɬa- to dance
ʋe.ja.me-
ɬa.ʋu-
to.ʋo- 1st person singular

I haven't decided what many of these words mean, yet. Verbs are divided between active and stative, since the language has a Fluid-S alignment. Verbs can be conjugated for tense-aspect-mood, person, number, gender, volition, evidentiality, and polarity. Verb conjugation is fairly simple, as affixes are attached to the root in an agglutinating manner. The active and stative verbs are distinguished by how the subject and object are marked on the verb.

Allophony

All stops /p b t d k g/ go through lenition whenever they are between vowels, or a sonorant and a vowel.

This is all I have so far.
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All4Ɇn
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by All4Ɇn »

LinguoFranco wrote: 10 Nov 2018 17:57All stops /p b t d k g/ go through lenition whenever they are between vowels, or a sonorant and a vowel.
What are they lenited to?
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gestaltist
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by gestaltist »

/e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
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LinguoFranco
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by LinguoFranco »

gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 12:17 /e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Are you asking why they have a length distinction, or do you mean why do they have the little subscript beneath them?
All4Ɇn wrote:
LinguoFranco wrote: ↑Sat 10 Nov 2018, 12:57
All stops /p b t d k g/ go through lenition whenever they are between vowels, or a sonorant and a vowel.
What are they lenited to?
/p b t d k g/ become /ɸ β θ ð x ɣ/
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Frislander
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by Frislander »

LinguoFranco wrote: 14 Nov 2018 18:59
gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 12:17 /e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Are you asking why they have a length distinction, or do you mean why do they have the little subscript beneath them?
The subscript.
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gestaltist
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by gestaltist »

LinguoFranco wrote: 14 Nov 2018 18:59
gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 12:17 /e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Are you asking why they have a length distinction, or do you mean why do they have the little subscript beneath them?
The latter. If you have no further mid-vowels, it is not needed to specify the exact realization at the phoneme level. It makes the transcription less legible with no real benefit to it.
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LinguoFranco
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by LinguoFranco »

gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 20:01
LinguoFranco wrote: 14 Nov 2018 18:59
gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 12:17 /e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Are you asking why they have a length distinction, or do you mean why do they have the little subscript beneath them?
The latter. If you have no further mid-vowels, it is not needed to specify the exact realization at the phoneme level. It makes the transcription less legible with no real benefit to it.
Oh, okay. I thought I had to add that in order to show that it can be realized as /ɛ/ and not just /e/.
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gestaltist
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Re: First Proto-lang

Post by gestaltist »

LinguoFranco wrote: 15 Nov 2018 06:54
gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 20:01
LinguoFranco wrote: 14 Nov 2018 18:59
gestaltist wrote: 14 Nov 2018 12:17 /e̞ e̞ː o̞ o̞ː/ seems excessive. Why not say they're phonemically /e o/? You don't have any other mid vowels.
I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Are you asking why they have a length distinction, or do you mean why do they have the little subscript beneath them?
The latter. If you have no further mid-vowels, it is not needed to specify the exact realization at the phoneme level. It makes the transcription less legible with no real benefit to it.
Oh, okay. I thought I had to add that in order to show that it can be realized as /ɛ/ and not just /e/.
This is something you might mention once but it's not needed when writing in a phonemic transcription. In a phonetic transcription (square brackets), it would be required.
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