zompist bboard

Languages like this, if drawn far enough out, could be very useful in studying potentials for our own proto-world. Though irregular sound changes, new onomatapia (I dont think thats spelled right), and possible multiple origins of language wouldn't be reflected in such a protolanguage, it could stll...

I want to know about options for spontaneous word initial consonants after vowels. I know about the glo'al stop, but I wonder if an initial velar nasal or dark L has ever been attested. Perhaps other nasals as well?

Yeah... I didn't exactly have the phonology at hand when I wrote the first post and I had forgotten that I had the labiodental fricative because it was such a rare sound in the language. Besides, it's a Labiodental. I'm sure it doesn't have nasals, though. Sorry for the confusion.

I think I will just have a vowel shift for my bizarre vowel phonology and round the back vowels. /i, ɪ, e, ɛ/ > /i, u, ɔ, a/ (Plus a few more conditional changes for additional vowels) The labials will just stem from /u/ and from the /f/. I'm still not sure what to do about nasals, though. In what c...

Oh, yeah. It doesn't have any rounded vowels either...

I am currently working on a (possibly very unrealistic) conlang for an altenate earth that lacks nasals and labials. The only semivowel it has is /j~i/. I want to derive a more realistic daughter language from it that has a few labials and/or nasals. I was wondering if there are any attested sound c...

Wow, this could be history in the making. Unless, of course, Zompist himself has had this happen to him.

This topic has always fascinated me. What if someone can't verify your name because they can't read it. If your drivers liscence said Zxxdfhyn or had a Chinese character on it but you said it was pronounced "Fred," would that still be legal? Does anyone know the rules regarding legal names in the USA?

To measure this you'd need a solid definition of what constitutes "one sound change". If you have five voiceless sounds /p t k f s/ and they all become voiced between vowels, is that one sound change or five? If /e/ gradually raises to /i/ in a very large number of very small steps, is that one cha...

Tropylium's answer was closest to what I was looking for. I just wanted a general average or ballpark range.

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I thought I'd give it a shot: Does anyone have any idea how often, on average, a language in a given, say, city undergoes an individual sound change, whether through outside changes or individual innovation? I realize these things tend to be fluid, esp...

No, I don't have any aspirated stops in the language. I just asked because I was using <tt> as romanization for the voiceless dental fricative. I thought it should have something to do with historical pronunciation.

How about /tt/ /θ/ ?

This gives me some interesting ideas...

I haven't looked at many of the Almean languages in a while, but if I had to pick a favorite from what I remember, I would probably choose Elkaril for its interesting sentence structure, meaning changing vowel shifts, and unique face writing system. Actually, (This is opposite to what justin said) i...

The Ngun "Revolution" (All names use the Romanization for Proto-Nggwoó) Around the year 4100 CCC, Nggwoó (Kwhookhu) was a thriving nation filled with thousands upon thousands of peaceful Batti. In fact, the land became so prosperous that the population increase began to force the Batti to spread ou...

Shadow Monster Plague
Magical long-distance transport
The Great Wobble
Mercury golems

I'll talk about my culture, Ngun, elsewhere but I wanted to submit my dramatic event before the deadline. I present the Fa Plant . When the Ngun Batti left Nggwoo and arrived at their new home (L5) they discovered many new plants and animals. But there was one plant they had never seen anything like...

I would like to claim L5 for a batti culture. If Lyhoko doesn't mind, I would like to make it a self-governing colony of the Nggwoo.

This is my first post on this bboard. I just want to say that this is awesome stuff. Keep up the good work. Hope you feel better soon.