In all fairness, (Central) Rotokas has a total of just 35 possible syllables, or 70 if you consider vowel length to be phonemically distinct, which is fewer on both counts that the Rotokas-inspired language Porphyrogenitos was going for.wintiver wrote: ↑03 Dec 2018 00:08Are there enough syllables to allow for complex language? It seems like the ragged lower edge of minimalism. (I also don't mean this as a harsh critique, I am sincerely curious if this paucity of phonemes could work especially with vowel harmony which further restricts combinations).Porphyrogenitos wrote: ↑01 Dec 2018 06:53 Rotokas-esque
As one may note, underlying /ti/ is [si]Code: Select all
pa pi pu pã pĩ pũ ba bi bu mã mĩ mũ ta si tu tã sĩ tũ da di du nã nĩ nũ ka ki ku kã kĩ kũ ga gi gu ŋã ŋĩ ŋũ paː piː puː pãː pĩː pũː baː biː buː mãː mĩː mũː taː siː tuː tãː sĩː tũː daː diː duː nãː nĩː nũː kaː kiː kuː kãː kĩː kũː gaː giː guː ŋãː ŋĩː ŋũː a i u ã ĩ ũ aː iː uː ãː ĩː ũː
The voiced non-nasal plosives are realized as [β ɾ ɣ] in non-initial position (this is always the same as intervocalic position)
Vowel harmony exists; a word may contain /i a/ or /u a/; harmony is almost always progressive (grammar is mainly suffixing)
Hiatus is forbidden; it is avoided (whether in morphophonemics, sandhi, or loaning) by either deletion or total assimilation
i.e.
/p t~s k/
/b~β~m d~ɾ~n g~ɣ~ŋ/
/a i u/ with contrastive length/nasalization
(C)V syllables
Maybe if you threw in like a 3-tone system? Hell, even a two-tone system would be helpful in delineating the sounds.
Vowel harmony was my main issue, but then I'm not actually sure that's all that much of a problem considering there are some native Australian languages that have similar types of vowel harmony (Warlpiri, IIRC, sort of "forbids" words containing /i/ and /u/ from appearing in adjacent syllables, and that similarly only has /i u a/ with contrastive length.