Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread [2011–2018]

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Eritzap
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Eritzap »

Prototype for the proto-language of a language family I'm working on.
/pʼ p b tʼ t d kʼ k g ʔ/
/ɸ β s z x ɣ h/
/r ʢ/
/ʘkʼ ǃkʼ ǃ̠kʼ ǂkʼ/
/ʘk ǃk ǃ̠k ǂk/
/ʘkx ǃkx ǃ̠kx ǂkx/
/ʘg ǃg ǃ̠g ǂg/
/ʘŋ ǃŋ ǃ̠ŋ ǂŋ/
/ʘqʼ ǃqʼ ǃ̠qʼ ǂqʼ/
/ʘq ǃq ǃ̠q ǂq/
/ʘqχ ǃqχ ǃ̠qχ ǂqχ/
/i u e o ä/
Image Eritzap [ɛʁid͡zɑp]
:bel: :fra: :deu: :lat: :epo: :con:
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Shemtov
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Shemtov »

Long Island Dutch, a colonial variety of Nederlands spoken in Long Island by descendants of Dutch settlers on Long Island until the 1950s (sort of like PA German or Jersey Dutch):
/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/p b t k g/ <p b t k gg>
/f v s z ʃ x h/ <f v/w s z sch g/ch h>
/l j ɹ/ <l j r>

/i ɪ e o ə ɛ ɔ æ a/ <ie i/u oe ee/eu oo e e o a aa>
/ɛɪ oi au eu/ <ij/ui ooi au eoe>
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Auvon
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Auvon »

/i y ɯ u/ <i û î u>
/e ø ɤ o/ <é ô ê ó>
/ɛ œ ɔ/ <e ö o>
/a ɑ/ <a â>

Mainly for the romanization a e s t h e t i c

Consonants:
/m n̪ n ɲ ŋ/ <m nh n ň ng>
/ɓ/ <b>
/t̪ t c k ʔ/ <th t ť k ɂ>
/ɽ/ <r>
/l ʎ/ <l ľ>
/j w/ <y w>
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

Shemtov wrote:Long Island Dutch, a colonial variety of Nederlands spoken in Long Island by descendants of Dutch settlers on Long Island until the 1950s (sort of like PA German or Jersey Dutch):
/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/p b t k g/ <p b t k gg>
/f v s z ʃ x h/ <f v/w s z sch g/ch h>
/l j ɹ/ <l j r>

/i ɪ e o ə ɛ ɔ æ a/ <ie i/u oe ee/eu oo e e o a aa>
/ɛɪ oi au eu/ <ij/ui ooi au eoe>
Wow, look at those gaps! And this is a Dutch dialect you say!

----

/p t k ʔ/
/t’ k’ q’/
/s ʂ ɕ h/
/m n/
/w ɻ j/

/i e ɨ a u o/

Syllable structure is CV(ː, h, ʔ)(C) where second coda-C is any consonant bar /ʔ h/.
wintiver
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by wintiver »

This is not a phonology but a question about rhotics within a phonology.

Most of the time I see a language has a single rhotic whether it is a trill, tap, lateral flap, or approximant. Where languages have more than one rhotic they are typically of the same mode of articulation. But I just wanted opinions on the naturalism and aesthetic of having both a trill and an approximant /r/ and /ɹ/ respectively.
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

wintiver wrote:This is not a phonology but a question about rhotics within a phonology.

Most of the time I see a language has a single rhotic whether it is a trill, tap, lateral flap, or approximant. Where languages have more than one rhotic they are typically of the same mode of articulation. But I just wanted opinions on the naturalism and aesthetic of having both a trill and an approximant /r/ and /ɹ/ respectively.
My answer to that is pretty much every single Aboriginal Australian language.
jimydog000
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by jimydog000 »

Yeah, some even have [ɻ] as the only retroflex. If you are stubbornly after [ɹ] Such a language would probably distinguish by central and lateral consonants, Japanese, famously does not.
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wintiver
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by wintiver »

Frislander wrote:
wintiver wrote:This is not a phonology but a question about rhotics within a phonology.

Most of the time I see a language has a single rhotic whether it is a trill, tap, lateral flap, or approximant. Where languages have more than one rhotic they are typically of the same mode of articulation. But I just wanted opinions on the naturalism and aesthetic of having both a trill and an approximant /r/ and /ɹ/ respectively.
My answer to that is pretty much every single Aboriginal Australian language.
I guess I had never paid attention to that specific dimension of Aboriginal phonetics. I feel less hacky for wanting to use it in my language.
jimydog000 wrote:Yeah, some even have [ɻ] as the only retroflex. If you are stubbornly after [ɹ] Such a language would probably distinguish by central and lateral consonants, Japanese, famously does not.
And yeah, I did want there to be a distinction between lateral and central consonants.

Thanks to both of you.
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Shemtov
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Shemtov »

A Khoisan-Athabaskan fusion:
/b ɓ t d tʼ k kʼ/
/m n ŋ/
/θ s ɬ ʃ x h/
/tθ dð tθ' ts dz tsʼ tɬ dɮ tɬʼ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃʼ/
/l j w/

/ǀ ǃ ǁ/
/ǀʰ ǃʰ ǁʰ/
/ᶢǀ ᶢǃ ᶢǁ/
/ˀǀ ˀǃ ˀǁ/

/i e u o a/
/i: e: u: o: a:
/˥ ˧ ˩/
On long vowels only:
/˧˥ ˥˧ ˩˧ ˧˩/
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

Shemtov wrote:A Khoisan-Athabaskan fusion:
/b ɓ t d tʼ k kʼ/
/m n ŋ/
/θ s ɬ ʃ x h/
/tθ dð tθ' ts dz tsʼ tɬ dɮ tɬʼ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃʼ/
/l j w/

/ǀ ǃ ǁ/
/ǀʰ ǃʰ ǁʰ/
/ᶢǀ ᶢǃ ᶢǁ/
/ˀǀ ˀǃ ˀǁ/

/i e u o a/
/i: e: u: o: a:
/˥ ˧ ˩/
On long vowels only:
/˧˥ ˥˧ ˩˧ ˧˩/
Neat!
Porphyrogenitos
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

A teeny tiny bit of diachronics I thought up today, inspired by Welsh and Germanic and maybe French:

Paradigm:

Nominative: ral [ral̥] ← *ral
Inflected form A: rait [rai̯t] ← *ralt
Inflected form B: raugs [rau̯ks] ← *ralgs

Developments: preconsonantal coda [l] vocalizes to [i̯] before alveolars, to [u̯] elsewhere, final devoicing, devoicing of all clusters

I kind of feel the suffix -gs might get respelled -ks, though, since the g in it is always part of a cluster and never able to surface as [g] (or whatever the reflex of historical /g/ is) - unless the underlying voicing of a consonant has some kind of effect on the preceding vowel.
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

Proto-lang and descendants.

*p~b *t~d *ʈ~ɖ *c~ɟ *k~g
*pʰ *tʰ *ʈʰ *cʰ *kʰ
*h
*m *n *j *w
*m̥ *n̥ *j̊ *ʍ

*i *e *ə *a *u *o

Syllable stucture is (C)V(p, t, k, m, n)

Daughter 1:

/p t ʈ t͡ʃ k/
/tʰ kʰ~x/
/f s ʂ h/
/m n j w/

/i e y ø ə a u o ɒ/ plus or minus nasal.

Syllable structure is (C)V

Sound changes:

*pʰ *m̥ *ʍ merged as /f/
*cʰ *j̊ merged as /ç/, later /s/
*ʈʰ lenited to /ʂ/
*n̥ merged with *n as /n/
*i becomes /y/ before coda *p *m
*e *ə merge as /ø/ before coda *p *m
*a becomes /ɒ/ before coda *p *m
*u becomes /y/ before coda *t *n
*o becomes /ø/ before coda *t *n
Coda stops are lost
Coda nasals become nasalisation on the preceding vowel.

Daughter 2 (note my use of coronal vs. peripheral consonants in the analysis: this has relevance to the syllable structure):

/p k t ʈ c/
/m w n j/

/i e a u o/

/˩ ˥ ˥˩/

In word-initial vowels, the falling tone is only found with special morphophonemic environments.

Syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C)(C), where any consonant may begin or end a syllable; acceptable onset clusters consist of peripheral stop + coronal, coronal stop + peripheral, and /m n/ + /w j/; acceptable coda clusters consist of coronal + peripheral stop, peripheral + coronal stop, and /j w/ + /m n/. All other clusters are simplifed to the second member.

Sound changes:

Original plain stops become voiced (or were voiced to begin with) with unvoiced/aspirated consonants (including *h) generating a high tone on the following vowel, while unvoiced consonants generate a low tone.
Voiced and unvoiced consonants merge and *h is lost, phonemicising the tone contrast.
*ə is lost in non-initial open syllables. If the lost vowel had a high tone, the resulting tone becomes floating and shifts to the following vowel. If the following vowel originally had a low tone this produces a falling tone.
When the resulting consonant cluster is unacceptable according to the rules described above, the first consonant is deleted.
In other environments, *ə merges with *o before labials, *e before alveolars and palatals and *a elsewhere.
Porphyrogenitos
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

Phoneme inventory

Nasals: /m n/
Stops: /p t k/
Fricatives: /v s/
Vowels: /i u ɛ ɑ/

Syllable structure

-Maximum syllable structure is CCVC
-Clusters longer than two consonants are forbidden
-A syllable-initial cluster may not begin with a nasal
-Note, however, that nasal-initial clusters are permitted across syllable boundaries, e.g. /am.pa/, /an.sa/, or /an.na/
-A syllable-initial cluster may not consist of a geminate
-Note, however, that geminate clusters are permitted across syllable boundaries, e.g. /at.ta/, /av.va/, or /am.ma/
-The clusters /pm/ and /tn/ are forbidden

Allophony

-Nasals assimilate to the place of the following consonant.
-The voiceless obstruents /p t k s/ are voiced intervocalically and after nasal consonants
-The voiced obstruent /v/ is devoiced adjacent to voiceless consonants
-Adjacent vowels are separated by an epenthetic glottal stop
-Word-initial vowels are preceded by a glottal stop utterance-initially and after a word ending with a vowel
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DesEsseintes
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Ałýýla rethink

/m̥ n̥/
/m n/
/p t t͡ɬ k/
/d d͡ɮ g/
/θ ɬ h/
/β ð l j/

/a ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ ɜ ʏ/
/aɪ̯ ɛɪ̯ ɜɪ̯ ʏɪ̯/
/aɔ̯/
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by jimydog000 »

DesEsseintes wrote:Ałýýla rethink

/m̥ n̥/
/m n/
/p t t͡ɬ k/
/d d͡ɮ g/
/θ ɬ h/
/β ð l j/

/a ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ ɜ ʏ/
/aɪ̯ ɛɪ̯ ɜɪ̯ ʏɪ̯/
/aɔ̯/
Looks nice, the diphthongs look unique.
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Shemtov
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Shemtov »

/p b pˤ t d tˤ ts dz tsˤ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃˤ k g q ʔ/
/m n/
/f s ʃ x ħ ʕ h/
/r/
/l j w/

/i i: u u: a a:/
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

/p t k kʷ/
/t’ k’ kʷ’ ʔ/
/s ɬ x xʷ/
/(t)s’ (t)ɬ’ x’ xʷ’/
/m n l j w/

The affrication of the ejective coronal fricatives varies from dialect to dialect and in some varies from speaker to speaker.

/i iː e eː ə a aː/

The long vowels are not found in unstressed syllables, which the schwa is not found in stressed syllables.

Syllable structure is CV(F) where F is one of /p t k s ɬ x m n l/

Some suffixes glottalise preceding obstruents: glottalised /p/ becomes /ʔ/
Shemtov wrote:/p b pˤ t d tˤ ts dz tsˤ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ʃˤ k g q ʔ/
/m n/
/f s ʃ x ħ ʕ h/
/r/
/l j w/

/i i: u u: a a:/
Highly Semitic!
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gestaltist
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by gestaltist »

A random phonemic inventory based on the rule "there should be one phoneme for each character in the alphabet":

<a e i o u y> /a e i o u ɯ/
<p t k> /pˤ tˤ kˤ/
<b d g q> /p t k ʔ/
<j> /d͜ʒ/
<f s c x r> /ɸ s θ ʃ χ/
<h v w> /ʕ ʋ ʕʷ/
<l m n z> /l m n ɬ/
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Frislander
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

gestaltist wrote:A random phonemic inventory based on the rule "there should be one phoneme for each character in the alphabet":

<a e i o u y> /a e i o u ɯ/
<p t k> /pˤ tˤ kˤ/
<b d g q> /p t k ʔ/
<j> /d͜ʒ/
<f s c x r> /ɸ s θ ʃ χ/
<h v w> /ʕ ʋ ʕʷ/
<l m n z> /l m n ɬ/
My alternative take.

/p t k q/ <p t k q>
/b d g/ <b d g>
/f s ʃ χ h/ <f s c x h>
/v z ʁ/ <v z r>
/m n/ <m n>
/l j w/ <l j w>

/i e ɨ a u o/ <i e y a u o>
Lavinia
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Lavinia »

I'm currently working on tikap, which is a 5 phoneme language. It avoids complexity and everything is very unnaturalistic. This gave me the idea for a different phonology, which is slightly more complex and as a little bit more depth to it (still very unnaturalistic).

/p t~k ʔ/ < p t q >
/i a u/ < i a u >
˦ ˧ < ´ > (mid tone unmarked)

CV(C)

It has nasal harmony triggered by the glottal stop (through rhinoglottophilia) but broken by consonant clusters and word endings. So after /ʔ/ all vowels and consonants are nasal until a CC cluster where only the first one is nasal.
púqatipti > [pu˦ʔãnĩmti]

Intervocalic consonants become voiced and vary between stops and fricative. Glottal stop can be unvoiced h. [b~β d~g~z~ɣ h~ɦ]
Second consonant in a consonant cluster becomes a fricative. [ɸ s~x h]
púqatipti > [pu˦ɦãnĩmsi]

The last vowel in a word is reduced to a shwa, except when it caries a high tone.
púqatipti > [pu˦ɦãnĩmsə]

Maybe when tikap is finished I will derive this language with some sound changes.
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