A Russian-inspired triconsonantal conlang. An idea I had for some time but always put aside because I didn't like the sound changes.
/ʲi ʲe ʲa ʲu/ <i ye ya yu>
/e~ɨ¹ a~ʌ~ə² u/ <e a~o u>
/m n/
/b p d t g k/
/t͡s t͡ʃ³/
/f v θ ð s z ʃ³ ʒ³ x ɣ⁴/
/l r/
¹ /ɨ/ in unstressed syllables
² /ʌ/ in unstressed syllables followed by an unpalatalised syllable and in front of /l/ [ɫ] and /v/ (written as <o> if /ʌ/ except if part of an infix of a root in the latter two cases), /ə/ if followed by a palatalised syllable
³ palatal if palatalised, retroflex if unpalatalised
⁴ /j/ if palatalised
Consonants devoice at the end of words.
Sample conjugation of √g-l-z
"to see":
Definitely not inspired by Russian glaz
I thought I'll try ergative-absolutive alignment with this language as well to push my boundaries. The proto-language distinguished past/present and had a habitual tense formed by reduplication of the first syllable. The habitual became the regular present and the old present became the future. Remnants of the reduplication can be seen in the fourth person absolutive. Some of the proto-words:
/uː gaˈlaz/ > /uːˈglaz/ > /ˈu.gɫʌs/
1PS see > 1PS-see.FUT > 1PS.see.FUT
/uː i gaˈlaz/ > /ˈuːi̯.glaz/ ~ /ˈwu̯i.glaz/ > /ˈvʲe.gɫɨs/
1PS here see > 1PS.ERG-see.FUT > 1PS.ERG.see.FUT
/si i galaˈzi ˈaiw/ > /ˈsiː.glæːz æːv/ > /sʲiˈglʲe.zʲev/
2PS here see-PST NEG > 2PS.ERG-see.PST NEG > 2PS.ERG.see.PST.NEG
I made the ergative come from the word for "here" which ultimately was a optional distinction between subject and object. In sentences without an object, the distinction wasn't needed so
a galaz was the preferred form for "They see". In sentences with an object, the distinction was kept and became necessary. This enabled a more free word order and caused the language's ergative-absolutive alignment. So
a galaz si ("They see you") became replaced by
a i galaz si which could now also be said as
si galaz a i. However, the SVO was the most common and the subjects became prefixed to the verb. I also have a daughter language in mind which has nominative-accusative alignment and suffixed the subject to the verb together with
i all the time.
Edit: Idea: Having the origin of ergative-absolutive alignment from a word like "here" or "this" be an areal feature if I'll ever make a conworld out of this?