The vowel breaking is inspired by Justin Rye's Futurese (http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/futurese.html), though how I have the vowel breaking proceed is a bit different from him. The rest are my own ideas. I am assuming that the Cot-Caught merger stops the westward spread of the Northern Cities Shift, and that sound changes occurring on the West Coast and the South spread into the Northern Plains and Inter-Mountain West
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To 2500
Tense Vowel Shortening:
[ɑː eː iː oː uː] > [ɑ e i o u]
Ing-Raising
/ɪŋ/ > /iŋ/
Poor-Pour Merger:
/uɹ/ >/oɹ/
Pin-Pen Merger:
/ɛn/ > /ɪn/
U-fronting:
/u/ > [y] except before /ɫ/.
Unstressed Vowel Reduction:
/ə/ and /ɪ/ (Schwa and Schwi) elide, unless they are in the final syllable, where they merge into /ə/
/aɪ/ > /ɛ/
/aʊ/ > [ɔ]
/jə wə/ > /i u/
Unstressed Coda Cluster Reduction:
/nd/ > /n/
Rhotic Initial Cluster Shift:
/tɹ dɹ stɹ/ > /t͡ʃɹ d͡ʒɹ ʃɹ/
/θɹ/ > /dɹ/
Stressed vowel breaking before coda lenis obstruents:
/æ/ > [ea] > /ja/
/ɛ/ > [ɛə] > /e/
/e/ > [eɘ] > /je/
/ɪ/ > [ɪɘ] > /jʌ/
/i/ > [iɪ̈] > /ji/
/ɑ/ > [aɒ] > /ɔ/ (/ɑɫ/ > /ɔɫ/)
/o/ > [oɔ] > /wo/
/ʊ/ > [uɵ] > /u/ (old /uɫ/ merges with new /uɫ/).
/y/ > [yʉ] > /jy/
/ʌ/ > [aɐ] > /a/
/aɪ/ > [ɑɛ] > /ˈɑ.e/
/aʊ/ > [ao] > /ˈa.o/
/ɔɪ/ > /ʊɛ/ > /ø/
Coda fortis and lenis obstruents merge, making the vowel breaking phonemic.
Coda /ʔ/ realization of former /t/ becomes phoneme in its own right.
Post-breaking vowel shakeout:
/æ a ɑ/ > /a/
/ɪ e/ > /e/
/ʌ/ > /ɔ/
/ʊ/ > /o/
/aɪ/ > /ɔj/
/aʊ/ > /ɛw/
/ɔɪ/ > /ʉ/
Yod Coalescence:
/tj t͡ʃj/ > /t͡ʃ/
/dj d͡ʒj/ > /d͡ʒ/
/sj ʃj/ > /ʃ/
/zj ʒj/ > /ʒ/
Liquid Shift:
/w/ > /v/
/ɫ/ > /w/
Syllabic /ɫ/ > /u/
/ɝ ɚ/ > /a/
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2500-3000
Nasalization:
Coda nasals elide, nasalizing the preceding consonants.
Intervocalic Plosive Lentition:
/b g/ > [β ɣ]
[β] > /v/.
Intervocalic /d͡ʒ/ > /ʒ/
Lost of Interdental Fricatives:
/θ ð/ > /d/
Intervocalic Flap Elision:
[ɾ] elides, leaving a hiatus.
Epenthic /ʔ/ breaks up hiatuses
Shift shifts to strict initial stress.
Intervocalic /w/ Metathesis:
/wC/ > /Cw/
Coda /w/ Coalescence:
(Includes nasal vowels)
/ɛw/ > /œ/
/ew øw/ > /ø/
/iw yw/ > /y/
/ɔw/ > /ɔ/
/ow/ > /o/
/uw/ > /u/
Fortis plosives increasingly aspirated:
/p t t͡ʃ k/ > /pʰ tʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ/
/b d d͡ʒ g/ > /p t t͡ʃ k/
Nasal Vowel Mergers:
/ɛ̃ ẽ ø̃/ > /ɛ̃/
/ɔ̃ õ/ > /ɔ̃/
/ã œ̃/ > /ã/
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3000-3500
Allophonic [ɣ] becomes phonemic, devoices to /x/
Syllabic Nasal Loss:
/m̩ n̩/ > /um un/
Unstressed vowels are lost in the second syllable.
Ejective Plosives Formed:
/ʔp ʔpʰ/ > /pʼ/
/ʔt ʔtʰ/ > /tʼ/
/ʔt͡ʃ ʔt͡ʃʰ/ > /t͡ʃʼ/
/ʔk ʔkʰ/ > /kʼ/
Initial Nasal Cluster aspiration:
/sn sm/ > /n̥ m̥/
Rhotic Loss:
/ɹ/ > /l/
Yod Fortition:
/j/ > /ʒ/
Mid Vowel Diphthongization:
/ɛ ɔ œ/ > /ai au ø/
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3500-4000
Schwa-Tensing:
/ə/ > /a/
Nasal Vowel Reduction:
/ĩ ɛ̃ ỹ/ > /ẽ/
/ũ ɔ̃/ > /õ/
Cluster Assimilation:
/kt kʰt kʼt/ > /t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃʼ
Intervocalic /sp st sk/ > /fː sː ʃː/
Coda: /sp st sk/ > /f s ʃ/
Coda: /ts/ > /s/
Front-Rounded Vowel loss:
/y ø/ > /i e/
Compensatory Lengthening:
Coda /ʔ/ elides, lengthening the previous vowel. Vowel length becomes phonemic.
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Final Phoneme Inventory:
Plain Plosives: /p t t͡ʃ k ʔ/
Aspirated Plosives: /pʰ tʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ/
Ejective Plosives: /pʼ tʼ t͡ʃʼ kʼ/
Nasals: /m m̥ n n̥/
Fricatives: /f v s z ʃ ʒ h/
Liquids: /l/
Short Vowels: /a e i o u ã ẽ õ ai au/
Long Vowels: /aː eː iː oː uː ãː ẽː õː aːi aːu/
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Phew! I certainly need to add more detail, but It took me 5 hours to do this and my brain is fried.
Sound Changes from North Central AmE to Plains American
Re: Sound Changes from North Central AmE to Plains American
Very interesting... what geographical area do you imagine this being spoken in? Like, the great basin through the great plains west of the Mississippi or so? It seems a bit topologically bizarre to have voiced fricatives but no central approximants, but I guess it works for Greek. I would have liked to see something more interesting happen with the rhotics, too; have you considered having /t͡ʃɹ d͡ʒɹ ʃɹ/ and possibly /dɹ/ go to /ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ ʂ (ɖ)/? I know that /ɹ/ is [ɻ] for some speakers at least part of the time.
Re: Sound Changes from North Central AmE to Plains American
Ack, I just noticed that the yod fortition produces some very awkward consonant clusters. I need to do something to fix that.
Yep.CatDoom wrote:Very interesting... what geographical area do you imagine this being spoken in? Like, the great basin through the great plains west of the Mississippi or so?
That is actually a really good idea.CatDoom wrote:It seems a bit topologically bizarre to have voiced fricatives but no central approximants, but I guess it works for Greek. I would have liked to see something more interesting happen with the rhotics, too; have you considered having /t͡ʃɹ d͡ʒɹ ʃɹ/ and possibly /dɹ/ go to /ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ ʂ (ɖ)/? I know that /ɹ/ is [ɻ] for some speakers at least part of the time.