My main goal for is for it to be naturalistic. If it is not naturalistic in any area, please tell me. It's meant to be part of an
isolate language family from Central Asia.
Phonemic inventory:
Nasals:
/m/ <m>
/n/ <n>
Plosives:
/p/ <p>
/b/ <b>
/t/ <t>
/d/ <d>
/k/ <k>
/g/ <g>
/ʔ/ <q>
/p/, /t/, /k/, and /ʔ/ are tenuis and /t/ is alveolar. The voiced plosives can only occur after following a vowel or coda.
Fricatives:
/s/ <s>
/h/ <h>
/s/ is alveolar.
Approximants:
/l/ <l>
/j/ <j>
Vowels:
/i/ <i>
/ɨ/ <į>
/ɯ/ <u>
/ɛ/ <e>
/ə/ <ę>
/ɤ̞/ <o>
/ä/ <a>
Diphthongs:
/ɨi/ <įi>
/əi/ <ęi>
/ɛi/ <ei>
/ɨɯ/ <įu>
/əɯ/ <ęu>
/ɛɯ/ <eu>
I'm not entirely sure on using ogoneks or acute accents for the accented letters, or just coming up with a conscript.
Syllables are CV(C), where the last C can only be /n/, /s/, or /l/.
Allophony:
After a vowel, /n/, and /l/, voiced plosives are often weakened:
/b/ to /β/
/d/ to /ɾ/ or /n/
/g/ to /ɰ/
After /s/, voiced plosives are strengthened:
/b/ to /p˭/
/d/ to /t˭/
/g/ to /k˭/
<h> becomes /ɕ/ after /i/ and /ɛ/, and the same happens to <s> after /ɯ/ and /ɤ̞/.
I would love to have more allophonic ideas, but I can't think of any more. Suggestions are certainly welcome.
Also, stress is a hard part for me. Is it possible for a language to have equal to near-equal stress on all syllables except
for emphasis? It's not a tonal language.
The morphology is split-ergative and agglutinating to near-polysynthetic. While SOV, the language is otherwise head-
initial:
mę-so
tree-DEM
That tree
ęuto ke
car red
The red car
kunį les na-do
book big/large I-GEN
My large (in space) book
While SOV, the language can move the three arguments around for pragmatic purposes. However, phrase components
must stay in their places.
There are 9 cases:
Nominative (-∅)
Accusative (-n, add <e> following a coda)
Ergative (-l, add <e> following a coda)
Dative (-nį)
Genitive (-do)
Locative (-ne)
Ablative (-tę)
Allative (-qi)
Oblique (-kį)
There are prepositions, but the noun has to agree for the case that the preposition governs. Unfortuantely, I haven't
made them yet.
The split-ergativity works based on the animacy of the noun in question. If the agent noun is high in animacy, it gets
no case; if it is inanimate, it gets marked with the ergative. If the patient is high in animacy, the case is accusative,
while no case is marked on inanimate patients:
Code: Select all
S A P
0 0 n Animate
0 l 0 Inanimate
agent and a patient of a verb), if such a thing is possible; like switching the markers around for "hit" (like hitting an
inanimate object) versus "punch" or "kick" if the verb patient is animate.
Other Ideas:
Using the number "one" for the indefinite article
Using different conjunctions depending on the two phrases being conjoined (like one for noun phrases while using
another for verb phrases)
No person agreement
Discourse affixes that connect to verbs of the clause (translating things like "therefore" or "however")
Lexicon with Russian and Altaic loanwords
Also, I was wondering if some head-initial languages form new words with their heads first as well. Or do they put the modifier first as in English?