zompist bboard

I'm creating this thread to avoid spamming up the conlang tag on Tumblr, where I've been posting this material up until now. This is all just grammatical stuff right now, as I haven't figured out much of anything in the way of phonology or vocabulary. But it will come eventually. I guess I'm kind of...

I'm not sure how weird this is, so I'll post it here for confirmation.

In Menominee, /i̯a/ and /u̯a/ are constrative with /ja/ and /wa/.

I'm out of ideas... what's something interesting that a word-final glottal stop can do, aside from simply being dropped? It can cause the preceding vowel to become glottalized, or to become creaky voiced. It could also cause the vowel to gain either a high or low tone. (Glottalization and creaky vo...

And we can't forget the voiceless bidental fricative /h̪͆/ in Shapsug Adyghe, which apparently developed from /x/.

Or, alternately, /χʷ/ → /kʷ/ → /gʷ/ → /w/ → /v/.

Or just /χʷ/ → /ʍ/ → /w/ → /v/.

If this is the right thread for this - am I correct in thinking that early French would have entirely lost /k/ to palatalization if not for the introduction of Frankish loanwords? (And for the shift from /kʷ/ to /k/, but I don't know when that took place.)

Thanks for the responses, everyone! And yeah, I guess I forgot about Estonian.

Does anyone know if there there any examples of Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, or other languages that have lost a system of vowel harmony? What sort of vowel changes might result from/lead to such a loss?

Oh my goodness, I was a participant in Zebia. That was back in...wow, eighth grade for me. I used the username "Xocotl" back then. I seriously knew barely anything about linguistics back then. But since that time I've become better at conlanging and could probably do a better job at creating a conwo...

So...I know that /k/ → /p/ is possible before rounded vowels via /kʷ/, and that /t/ → /k/ is possible when /k/ undergoes glottal replacement. So would /p/ → /t/ be possible as part of the following chain shift? First, /k/ → /kʷ/ before a rounded vowel. Then, with /k/ "pulling" the shift: /p/ → /t/ →...

I'm trying to figure out what to do with a palatal and a labiovelar series /pʲ tʲ kʲ pʷ tʷ kʷ/. I've decided on /tʲ/ > /t͡s/ and /kʲ/ > /t͡ʃ/, but I'm unsure of what to do with /pʲ/ and the labiovelars. Any ideas? Are there any plausible options for /kʷ/ aside from /p/ or /w/ or perhaps /g/?

as "She did n't steal my purse", there was no purse-stealing whatsoever; I disagree strongly that this sentence implies there was no stealing. Really? What would you consider it to imply, then? It could easily be used in a context in which there had been stealing. "Just face the truth - she's the r...

Linguist Wannabe wrote:Isn't it highly typologically unusual for a language to have phonemic voicing in fricatives but not in stops?

Yes, but stranger things have happened. Natchez has a voicing distinction in its sonorants but not its obstruents.

Goatface wrote:The Haedus Collection

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to continue working on a secret project, the details of which I hope to reveal in the coming months.

Many thanks for sharing this!

Thanks for all the additional responses, everyone! And I do have access to a university library system. I'll be sure to see what's available. Wasn't there someone who already did Vampiric Sumerian? Or was that only a script? That was me - I haven't really had time to work on it lately, but it's been...

who cares Srsly, just do whatever you enjoy more Well, clearly, I'll do what I enjoy most. In this case, part of what I enjoy is creating a plausible, realistic descendant of PIE or another language, so I was seeking advice on how to go about doing that. Nothing matters. All that's significant in c...

Hi! I've been thinking of developing a naturalistic conlang derived from a historical proto-language, and I'd like some advice. I first wanted to use Proto-Italic (I thought about a Romlang, but that seemed overdone), but I could hardly find any sources on its vocabulary or grammar. (If anyone can h...

Well, if you're interested in including an obscure international auxiliary conlang, here's "I love you" in Neo: "Mi te amar."