The CBB

There was allophonic lengthening. However, the vowel phoneme that did lengthen was [ɪ̯a], not [e], just saying.

I'll post a family tree for the languages tomorrow. After that, it's up to qwed to make a new challenge.

Qwed got it right!

@qwed117:

So close yet so far away.


@sangi39:

There was no phonemic long vowels in the proto-language.

@sangi39: You're overdoing the first syllable. It is often more plausible to posit conditional changes instead of making words longer than they really were. @Creyeditor: If I were you, I'd re-evaluate the way the languages have been grouped. HINT The original long vowel *e: becomes a diphthong basi...

Guys, the Slavic thing is confined to Languages 4 and 5. In those languages, palatalization is also regressive (consonants palatalize in front of a front vowel, not after one).

HINT

There is no *s in the proto-word. has it origins in an allophonic voiceless vowel that became a fricative.

@qwed117:

You're right about yers, but the matter is that in this language the yer caused palatalization and that's unlikely to come from /u/.


@sangi39:

Your observation concerning the middle vowel is correct, but your new guess is less accurate than the one before.

@sangi39: You're thinking in the wrong direction when it comes to development of /ʃ/. What I was trying to hint was a certain phoneme that palatalized the consonant to its left and was later lost in unstressed position. The higher-level groupings are dead on though. @qwed117: The proto-language has...

Thank you for your interest in the challenge! [:D] @sangi39: Congrats on recognizing that accent development in Languages 4 and 5 is the same as in what you call Serbo-Croatian! As you've found out, in Language 4 accent evolved approximately as it did in Serbo-Croatian whereas Language 5 preserves t...

I think I like this Híí better than the last version, /b t k g/ is especially nice! [:)] - /g b/ may be descended from Proto-Híí *q *qw as voicing and fronting of uvulars is well attested. This does mean I now have to find another source for glottal stops in Híí. Would it be possible that word-initi...

That's not too bad for a first guess, but I feel you've made some wrong assumptions while reconstructing.
In general, it is a good idea to group related languages together and reconstruct their ancestor first because many languages derive same phonemes from different sources.

Here's the challenge, enjoy! [:D] L1 ɔˈtʃajər L2 ˈkéɪ̯ɦeɪ̯ L3 ˈxɛːʃɪ L4 ˈʃtʃíːtê L5 ʃkɪ̯eːˈtɑ̏ː L6 ˈscɪ̯ɐd L6½ ʃəˈtsɛd L7 ˈsɪ̯ɔd L8 ʔaçóɪ̯ɾ L9 ǂʰɒ́ɪ̯ɾ Language 1 is the westernmost language and is spoken along the west coast of the continent. On the east coast there's a large bay. Languages 6, 6½ an...

DesEsseintes wrote:So is Click going to make the next challenge?

I'm working on it right now!

Well, there we go! Your reconstructions do look pretty tight after looking over them again. Thanks! [:D] I think this couple of paragraphs should describe the changes I've made to my reconstruction. Write-up under the spoiler. I've completely restructured the x-branch based on the similarity betwee...

Yes, that's me! I go by Aero on chat. I've tweaked my reconstruction a bit in light of qwed's two new words. The changes are mainly concerned with development of *ṭr (and mutual relationships between languages that maintain one of [t θ]) and words whose first consonant is [ŋ]. A full write-up will b...

Rainbow?

My reconstruction of the proto-word is *ñhaṭràgin /ŋ̊at̪ɾɤgin/, where the first syllable of the reconstructed word is a minor syllable. The write-up on the reconstruction is quite long so I've placed it under a spoiler. The points of interest in my reconstruction are the reflex of *ñh /ŋ̊/, the evol...

Friedebarth wrote:Totally off-topic to the actual thread, but I can't resist pointing out that

idov wrote:Ling Veda

in Hindi/Sanskrit (लिंग वेद) would mean "penis veda".

Oh my.

Pot meet kettle.

Basically, Birdlang used to cheat in guessing the language by googling the text and now he's proposing that anyone who cheats loses their turn.

I love this. [+1] :con: Ardelian Nkéxtvak rek tronaxkəkıs Nıra: – Ena vakrə šeta – Pera móser – Koy aríntoxkə xato – Xet marıxár setáxa – Kıtı – Ena ntıxayənır xkópošana Mexítke: – Tovínok vakrə stéve prıtrə·ye. – Tartólvaxk nekor sıtravon 2×2 cm. – Tarsatsok rákok·əlı móser aríntoxkə·ye nekor sıtos...

Torch passed to cedh.