Post your conlang's phonology

[Chagen]

The finalized Sunago phonology:

/m n/
<m n>

/p b t d k g/
<p b t d k g>

/s z ɕ ʑ h/
<s z sh zh h>

/c~tɕ ɟ~dʑ/
<ch j>

/l j w ʋ ɾ/
<l y w v r>

/a i e o u/
<a i e o u>

/aː iː eː oː uː/
<ā ī ē ō ū>

Syllable/Mora structure is:

(C)(R)V(F)

Where R is /j ʋ/ and F is /m n l ɾ/. Voiceless stops, all approximants except for /w/, nasals, affricates, and fricatives may be geminated word-medially.

Unacceptable initial clusters are /ɕj ʑj tɕj dʑj jj wj/ and /ʋʋ wʋ rʋ lʋ/.

Syllable-final /ɾ/ is [r]. The affricates are in free variation with palatal stops. A final resonant may not be next to the same resonant (thus no *kir'ri and the like).

Final /m n/ do not, under any circumstances, assimilate to the following consonant; e.g kunbo and kumbo are two seperate words, respectively "impurity/uncleanliness" and "wrath (lit. "the state of not being forgiving")".

[ol bofosh]

Gnoamish condialect. English, spoken by Gnoamz of a Cockney p'swayzh'n.

/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/p b t d k g ʔ/ <p b t d k g '>
/f v s z ʃ ʒ h/ <f v s z sh zh h>
/t͡s t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ <ts ch j>
/w j l ʋɹ ɹ/ <w y l wr r>

/æ e ɪ̈ ɑ ʊ̈ ä ɐ/ <a e i o uC uCC '~'r>
/æː äː eː oː œː/ <ae ar air or ur>
/äɨ̯ æʊ̯ ɛɨ̯ ɜɨ̯ ɜʉ̯ ɐʉ ɨɐ̯ ɒɨ̯/ <uy ow ay ee oo oa ear oy>

Note on <'>: represents /ʔ/ when in V_C, C_V C_# and V_#. Represents /ɐ/ when in #_C, C_C and C_r#.

"Orw oom'n beeyinz'r borwn free'neekw'w in digni'ee'nruyts. Day'r indaed wiv reez'n'n konsh'ns an shud ac' t'wordz wunn anuvv'r ina spirri''v bruvv'rud."

[chris_notts]

Copied from "Phonemes you aren't supposed to use":

Aspirates: pʰ tʰ ṭʰ cʰ kʰ
Glottalised stop: pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ ʔ (no retroflex ejective - does any language have that as a phoneme???)
Voiced stop: b d ḍ g (no voiced palatal stop)
Voiced nasal: m n ṇ ñ ŋ
Voiceless nasal: mʰ nʰ ñʰ ŋʰ (no voiceless retroflex nasal)
Affricate: tθ ts ṭṣ (several POAs missing)
Voiceless fricative: θ s ṣ ɕ h (No velar or bilabial voiceless fricatives)
Voiced fricative: β ð z γ (no retroflex, palatal voiced fricatives)
Lateral/approximant: l ɻ

There are also glides j and w, but I treat these as part of the nucleus since they are influenced by neighbouring vowels.

Vowels are: i e ɛ a ɔ o u

The initial stressed syllable of a word can be either a high, mid, or falling tone.

Syllable structure is quite simple - ignoring glides in the nucleus, the only real onset clusters are stop + r, and syllables can be closed by one of p, c, k, m, n, ñ, ŋ or ɻ. Closing ɻ is quite rare since it only arose when there was a word final cluster of two obstruents.

I basically generated this inventory by starting with a proto-language with a small consonant / vowel inventory and multi-syllabic words then applying sound changes to demolish most of those words into monosyllables. This is the same process that produced some of the East Asian languages with larger and more complex phoneme inventories.

Of the "English" sounds, ð and ɻ come from lenition of voiced stops as part of a chain shift, specifically d -> ð and ḍ -> ɻ (the same process gave b -> β, g -> γ and ɟ -> z). θ comes from a historical s->θ.

[CatDoom]

Glottalised stop: pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ ʔ (no retroflex ejective - does any language have that as a phoneme???)

Yokuts does, as do Gwich’in and apparently some other Athabaskan languages. Lake Miwok has "post-alveolar" ejectives, and I'm fairly certain they're apical, if not subapical. It's a fun sound and I highly recommend it!

I've been meaning to do a write-up in the Yokutsan family for the Correspondence library; it's got some interesting phonologies. Proto-Yokuts is probably related to Proto-Utian, which has retroflex consonants but only one series of stops, and seems to have picked up a three-way tenuis-aspirated-ejective contrast, probably from long contact with something resembling Salinan or the Chumash languages.

[Shemtov]

p t tʰ d k kʰ g kʷ gʷ <p t th d k kh g kw gw>
n <n>
s sʰ h <s sh h>
ɬ <l>
t͡ʃ~ d͡ʒ <ch>
ɺ <r>
j w <j w>

Vowels:
i: i u: u <ii i uu u>
ə̃ <y>
ɛ ɔ <e o>
a <a>



Phonotactics:
(C)(C)V(C)(C)

Permitted initial clusters:
<pj tj dj kj gj pw tw dw nj nw sw sj hj hw ps ks sp st sk sn>

Permitted Final clusters:
<hp ht hk jp jt jt jd jk jg wp wt wd wk wg hn jn wn hs ws hl>


Example noun-roots:

hisha- Tree
najy- Water
dukhir- morning
uhyhk-Road

[Ambrisio]

Hwiwjaosdia:/X_wiw.ja.os.ti.a/

Stops: /p t tw ts k q qw~kw t' tw' ts' k' q' qw`~kw' ph th twh tsh kh qh qwh~kwh/
fricatives:/f T s x X sw Xw h/
in loanwords:/b d dZ g v D z S Z N l_G/ though the last sound is a common allophone of /l/
nasals; /m n/
laterals /l K tK tKh tK'/
approximants/j r (an alveolar approximant,not a trill) w/
vowels:/a a: i i: u u: e e: o o: @ @:/
orthography:
b d dw z g (barred g)( barred g)w t'tw' c' k' q' qw' p t tw c k q qw
frics:f th s kh qh sw hw h
nasals:m n
laterals:l (barred l) (barred lambda) ...
approx:y r w
vowels: a (a with macron) ... (schwa) (schwa with macron)
numbers in Hwiwjaosdia:
lua - one
c'uł-two
nīhwa-three
qaz-four
gəlam-five
yam-six
lua yamał-seven
c'uł yamał-eight

to speak:sdia
i speak:usdia
you speak:ēsdia
he speaks:nisdia
we speak:ususdia
you folks speak:esēsdia
they speak:ninisdia
to see: qw'aba
there's a grassmann-like sound shift: we see = ǥwaqw'aba
speech,language:osdia
sight:oqw'aba
languages:ososdia

[2+3 clusivity]

A recent version of something I've been bouncing back and forth in my mind.

Code: Select all

m(b)ʙ n(d)r ɳ(ɖ)ɽ
(p)ʙ̊ (t)r̊ (ʈ)ɽ̊
ʙ r
m n ɲ
ʋ l~ð̝ j
ɓ ɗ	
ʋ’↓ ð̝’↓ (imploded fricatives~approximants)
mb nd ɳɖ ɲdʒ ŋg
p t ʈ tʃ k
b d

Code: Select all

i: ĩ:	ʉ: ʉ̃: u: ũ:
ɪ ə ʊ
e: ẽ: o: õ:	
ɛ: ɔ:		
a: ã:

[Nortaneous]

I don't think there's such a thing as an implosive fricative. Wikipedia claims, uncited, that Mangbetu has one, but I'm guessing what they were trying to get at with the description is the labiodental flap, which Mangbetu has.

[cromulant]

I don't think there's such a thing as an implosive fricative.

Unattested perhaps, but certainly physically possible.

[leanancailin]

This is what I have for my current project so far; it's light on phonology, so feel free to toss me any ideas that strike you.

Consonant inventory:
m n
pʰ tʰ kʰ
p t k q ʔ
b d g
s ʃ h
v r j
l

Vowel inventory:
Two high vowels <i u>, one mid <e>, one open <a>; <i u e> have +/-ATR variants, with <a> neutral.

There are four tones, which are applied to whole words: neutral (slightly falling), high (rising throughout), up (rising then falling) and down (falling then rising).

+/-ATR vowels follow word level harmony
Clitics and other unstressed words join the tone pattern of the preceding word (no clitics or unstressed words can stand at the beginning of a phrase)
Vowel initial words are not pronounced with a glottal stop; they contrast with words which do begin with ʔ
Any consonant can occur in any position
Any cluster of two consonants is allowed, as well as rare clusters of three consonants; an epenthetic schwa breaks up clusters in a range of circumstances, including initial clusters of obstruents and clusters beginning with j, h, or ʔ

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

How's my phonology:


To Note:

• [ɕ ʑ] are allophones /ʃ ʒ/ before /j/ and front vowels, as are their respective affricates.
• [ɣ ʁ] are allophones of /x χ/ before voiced stops.
• I plan on making the phonemes /q/ and /ɬ/ exist as areal features in my conworld.
• An unlisted allophone is that palatal fricative is an allophone of the glottal fricative before a palatal approximant.
• Also /ɸ β/ befome [f v] before /j/ and front vowels.

[Risla]

Just a phoneme inventory and some other tidbits of the very Akkadian-inspired thingummy I've been idly working on:

Code: Select all

            labial alveolar palatal velar uvular glottal
nasal:      m      n                ŋ                      
stop:       p b    t d              k g   q      ʔ
ejective:          t'               k'
fricative:  v      s z      ʃ       x
l. fric:           ɬ~θ                            
trill:             r
approx:            l        j       w

vowel:      a e i u a: e: i: u: ai au

It's going to have pervasive patterns of mora deletion inspired by the Aymaran languages (particularly Jaqaru) as well as Yine---this might make it actually look sort of like it has Semitic-style nonconcatenative morphology, but the influences are very much elsewhere.

The maximal syllable shape is CVC (thus also allowing V, CV and VC syllables), with word-final syllables occasionally being CVC₁C₂, where C₁ is more sonorous than C₂. All consonants except /j w/ can occur as geminates intervocalically. Geminates may not occur in clusters, but within the morphophonology they are demonstrably distinct from being CC clusters themselves. Ejectives may only occur syllable-initially. The glottal stop may only occur intervocalically and syllable-finally not before a stop.

Prosodically, it has right-aligned weight-sensitive iambic feet. Feet where the first syllable is heavier than the second are disallowed.

[mountainman]

This was today's output. Got some help in romanization s well.

Going for a burmese style lang, so phnotactics are simply put (CV)CV(x)

Any advice for some realistic allphony? That area's always a struggle for me.

[----]

Any advice for some realistic allphony? That area's always a struggle for me.

If you wanna go even more Burmese you could neutralize voiced and unvoiced obstruents intervocally.

[mountainman]

If you wanna go even more Burmese you could neutralize voiced and unvoiced obstruents intervocally.

Would you recommend /p/ merging with /^mb/ word internally, or both neutralizing to /b/?

[----]

I guess both options are fine, although it seems weird to me that prenasalization would just completely disappear intervocally. I would prefer the first choice; i.e. p->mb

[----]

Experimental minimalist thing I came up with just today:

/p t k d m n s/
/i e a o u ə/ + length + nasalization
d and n merge before nasal vowels, except for high nasal vowels
high vowels after /d/ are fricated; i.e. /di/ [dz̩] /du/ [dβ̩~dv̩]
/dĩ/ and /dũ/ are [nz̩] and [mβ̩~mv̩]
Allowed onset clusters are /dp pd mp nt nk/. All consonants except /d/ are allowed in the coda.

[Nortaneous]

Look up Gadsup -- consonant inventory of /p t d k ʔ m n j β/.

/s/ as the only fricative is pretty rare -- in my chart, it only appears in Iau (where it came from assibilation of /t/ I think), I'saka, Keuw, Tigak, Awa, Nagovisi, and South Kiwai. Closest inventory to yours is Puinave, which has /h/ instead of /d/.

[Ambrisio]

Here's my Quququqquq:

/q/ (one consonant phoneme)
/a u/ (two vowel phonemes)

/q/ has at least five allophones: [t d k g ?]:
[?] word-finally,
[t, d] before /a/,
[k, g] before /u/,
[t, k] at the beginning of a word or when geminated,
[d, g] otherwise

There are six tones in Quququqquq:

1) neutral (e.g. a [ɔ])
2) high and long (e.g. ä [æ˥:])
3) falling (e.g. äa [a˥˧:])
4) rising (e.g. aä [a˧˥:])
5) rising-falling (e.g. aäa [æ˧˥˧:])
6) high rising (e.g. ää [æ˦˥:])

[----]

Look up Gadsup -- consonant inventory of /p t d k ʔ m n j β/.

/s/ as the only fricative is pretty rare -- in my chart, it only appears in Iau (where it came from assibilation of /t/ I think), I'saka, Keuw, Tigak, Awa, Nagovisi, and South Kiwai. Closest inventory to yours is Puinave, which has /h/ instead of /d/.

I was actually thinking about some diachronics myself when I came up with it: /d/ comes from fortition of *j, except in the consonant cluster /dp/ [db], which derives from *tw. I guess I could just say that *h -> 0 to justify /s/ being the only fricative. Maybe I could make this into a small language family or something :0

[Kawdek]

This started out as a relatively simple idea I had a few weeks ago that really grew on me, and I'm currently fleshing out the vocabulary and reassessing how irregular I want the grammar. However, I'm still a bit uncertain that the inventory is very interesting mechanically.

Kircezeh

/m n~ɳ ɲ~ŋ ŋ/ <m n ñ ŋ>
/b t~ʈ d~ɖ tɕ k g/ <b t d c k g>
/ɸ ɕ ʑ χ ʁ/ <f s z h r>
/ʋ ɮ~ɽ j/ <w r j>

/ʲæ e i~ɪ y~ʉ u~ʊ ɨ~ɘ ʷɤ ɑ/ <ä e i ü u y o a>

[Chagen]

Welcome to Lelak Rotik!

/m n ɲ ŋ/
<m n ñ ng>

/p pʰ b bʰ t tʰ d dʰ k kʰ g gʰ/
<p ph b bh t th d dh k kh g gh/

/f s x/
<f s h>

/tʃ dʒ/
<c j>

/r l j ʋ/
<r l j v>

/a i e o u ə/
<a i e o u ə>

No distinction of vowel length or consonant length. Vowels in open syllables usually are pronounced long, however.

Phonotactics: (C)V(F), where F is any consonant besides a voiced aspirate or an affricate. Stops may only end a word, not a sylllable; lelak and lestak are possible, but *lekta is not.

First syllable of a word is lightly stressed, any heavy syllable afterwards is also stressed, a heavy syllable being CVF. Some words:

lelak: language, speech
phalan: new, unique (with definite inanimate article attached)
man: definite article for inanimates
kesu: rule, law
ghaya: human
məti: man
ñaku: woman
ngaba: to see

Some grammar stuff: Mostly isolating but verbs inflect for various things, basic order is SVO but there's some Germanic V2-stuff in there. Possession is indicated simply by putting possession-possessor next to each other (man kesu məti = "the man's law"), no case. Verbs all end in either -a or -na, the vowel changing and then stuff getting added on (think Japanese). The past tense inflection is -ek, for instance (ngaba "see", ngabek "saw")

[Ambrisio]

Is it a Dorishar language?

man kesu məti = "the man's law"

I initially thought "man" meant "man"!

[äreo]

/pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ/
ph th ch kh
/p t c k ʔ/
p t c k q
/ɓ ɗ/
b d
/m n ɲ ɴ/
m n ñ ń
/s χ/
s h
/ʋ ɽ j ʁ/
v r j g

/a e i ɑ o u ə ɨ/
ä e i a o u (ë/e) y
/aː ɛː eː iː ɑː ɔː oː uː əː ɨː/
a̋ ea é í á oa ó ú e̋ ý
/ae̯ aeə̯̆ ao̯ aoə̯̆ aə̯ aːə̯̆ eə̯ ɛːə̯̆ iə̯ iːə̯̆ ou̯ oə̯ ɔːə̯̆ uə̯ uːə̯̆ əɨ̯ əːɨ̯̆ ɨə̯ ɨːə̯̆/
aé aée ao aoe ae áe ée eae ie íe ou oe oae ue úe ëy e̋y ye ýe

-syllables may begin with any of:
/pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ p t c k ɓ ɗ m n ɲ ɴ s χ ʋ ɽ j ʁ/
/spʰ stʰ scʰ skʰ stɽ skɽ ɽpʰ ɽkʰ/
/tʰp cʰp kʰp sp ɽp pʰt cʰt kʰt st mt pʰc tʰc kʰc sc mc pʰk tʰk cʰk sk mk ɽk/
/pʔ tʔ cʔ kʔ sʔ mʔ nʔ ɽʔ/
/tɓ cɓ kɓ sɓ ɽɓ pɗ kɗ sɗ mɗ/
/tʰm cʰm kʰm sm ɽm pʰn tʰn cʰn kʰn sn mn pʰɲ tʰɲ kʰɲ sɲ mɲ pʰɴ tʰɴ cʰɴ kʰɴ sɴ mɴ ɽɴ/
/ps cs ks ms ɽs mχ ɽχ/
/tʰʋ cʰʋ kʰʋ sʋ ʔʋ ɽʋ pʰɽ tʰɽ cʰɽ kʰɽ sɽ mɽ ɴɽ ʔɽ pʰj tʰj kʰj mj ʔj/
-syllables may end in any consonant; coda /j/ is mostly found after /a o u ə ɨ iə̯ iːə̯̆ uə̯ uːə̯̆/
-unstressed syllables may only have /i u ə/ for a nucleus, with a few exceptions, like /cʰɽɛːˈmiːɽ/ creamír workshop, field, industry and /ɗɨə̯ˈmuət/ dyemuet silver, money, payment
-/ɓ ɗ m n ɲ ɴ s χ ʋ ɽ j ʁ/ may be geminated between a stressed vowel and an unstressed one, as in /ˈcʰosːət/ chosset sleeve, package, skill and /tʰɽəˈmːɨːə̯̆/ tremmýe cord, yarn, stringed instrument
-/pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ/ may be analysed as geminates, given where they show up in consonant gradation patterns as well as the fact that infixes separate them into two unaspirated plosives, as in /ˈpaːpci/ pa̋pci flock of birds from /pʰci/ pci bird.
-/pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ/ are realised as fricatives [f θ ç x] in some varieties, especially in consonant clusters; in a smaller subset, /cʰ/ is not only fricativized but fronted to [ʃ] or [ɕ] while /kʰ/ and /χ/ merge as [x].
-intervocalic /ʋ/ is [ⱱ] in some dialects.
-coda /ʋ/ tends to be [v], and coda /j/ may be [ʒ] dialectally.
-coda /ɽ/ may be, depending on dialect, [ɻ] or even [ɭ].
-/sɽ ɽs ɽχ/, and sometimes /ʔɽ ɽʔ/, may merge as /ʂ/.
-/tɓ cɓ kɓ sɓ pɗ kɗ sɗ/ are generally [dɓ ɟɓ~ʄ gɓ zɓ bɗ gɗ~ɠ~ʄ zɗ].
-/pʰj tʰj kʰj/ are often [pʃ~pɕ tʃ~tɕ kʃ~kɕ].
-/ɴɽ ɽɴ/ are [ɴʀ~ɴʁ ʀɴ~ʁɴ] in most varieties.

[Chagen]

This is old but I feel the need to say this.

Since it's a tri-literal root lang, almost any combination of consonants are possible

does not follow

zagon: I love
zgonīs: you love
zgonēx: he/she/it loves

zazagno: we love
zazgnīs: you all love
zazgnēx: they love

zugūn: love (pl. ūzgūn)

zāgon: lover (pl. āzāgno)

zīgnaž: loved one (pl.zīgganž)

zuggen: bed (pl.ūzuggne)

nōzgin: whore (pl. nōzginý)

Hope you have diachronics justifying this. As it is it doesn't look so incredibly horrible that I'll dismiss the person paradigm offhand or anything, buuuut. Do you have a thread where I can probe this further

This lang is supposed to be the bizarre lovechild of Arabic and Russian though...it basically looks nothing like Russian but OH WELL

it also looks very little like Arabic except that e.g. the verbal noun pattern and active participle look like they were ripped off fuʿūl and Hebrew pāʿōl (or whatever, who knows how guttural roots work, I just know CāCōC is an active participle)

Also, unlike the Semitic langs vowels are important enough to be fully written out, as there is no apophony in nouns, only shifting of the vowels to form plurals (every plural in Vzodyet is a broken plural).

do you actually know anything about the Semitic language s? Also I don't even see how what you wrote follows: there is no internal inflectional morphology in nouns, only shifting of the vowels to form plurals (i.e. there is internal inflectional morphology - and on a similar level to e.g. Arabic, since we've also established there is non-concatenative derivational morphology too, and actually loads of it). I guess if you exclude the 'no apophony in nouns' bit it sort of makes sense that vowels are important enough to be fully written out, although I don't really see how this is an issue anyway since you're writing it in Latin script.

Yes, I do know about Semitic languages. Yes, I do have diachronics for all of this. You'd know this if you weren't a complete dick, I mentioned them before on the CBB and probably here. And I'm talking about the language's native script. I'll admit I was unclear on some stuff but you don't have to be a dick about it.

For the record, all of these come from unstressed vowels in the protolang being deleted. To name an example:

*zagón-íís -> zgonīs "you love"
*zá-zagon-īīs -> zazgnīs "you all love"

All long vowels are stressed first, then the first vowel unless...some other shit, I forgot. But then the unstressed vowels delete.

I'm thinking of rebooting Vzodyet now that I re-checked-out my school's Georgetown Arabic Handbook (which, by the way, I had been using while originally making this language). I'm probably gonna rework the diachronics first.