Post your conlang's phonology

[Shihali]

Does it have any diphthongs? Are there syllables other than (C)V?

[Drydic]

Does it have any diphthongs? Are there syllables other than (C)V?

For the love of all that is holy can we get a mod to put this in the thread title

[prettydragoon]

Does it have any diphthongs? Are there syllables other than (C)V?

No diphthongs. My phoneme inventory above was exhaustive. I have now added the description of syllable structure.

Anything else I've missed?

[Grimalkin]

Modern Zaltas:

Consonants

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              Labial    Alveolar     Retroflex     Palatal      Velar     Glottal
Nasal          m           n                           ɲ      
Plosive      p (b)       tʼ t d                                 kʼ k g
Affricate                 ts dz         tʂ dʐ        tɕ dʑ
Fricative     f v          s z          ʂ ʐ          ɕ ʑ        x (ɣ)       h
Approximant                r l                       j

/b/ is an extremely rare phoneme, being restricted to recent loanwords.

/ɣ/ tends to be realised as the velar approximant [ɰ] word-initially and intervocalically. Between a vowel and a consonant, it tends to be a high-back vowel [ʊ], forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel. Word-finally, it merely lengthens the preceding vowel.

Vowels and diphthongs:

/a e i o u ɨ/
/a: e: i: o: u:/
/ai ei oi/

Syllable structure & phonotactics:

I haven't yet fully worked out the phonotactics of Zaltas but provisionally the syllable structure is (C)(C)(j)N(C)(C)

N must be one of the 14 vowels or diphthongs, or a syllabic nasal or trill.

/s/ + plosive clusters are disallowed.

Allophony:

Nothing exciting yet. /n/ assimilates to the place of articulation of a following obstruent.

/xj/ fronts to [ɕ]

/e o/ are lowered to [ɛ ɔ] in a closed syllable.

The alveolo-palatals are followed by an offglide [i̯] when they precede a non-front vowel.

Stress:

Zaltas has a rather boring, SAE-style stress system. One syllable in each word has primary stress, while some words of 3 or more syllables may have secondarily stressed syllables too.

Stress is weight-sensitive and entirely predictable.

A syllable is long if the nucleus is a long vowel or diphthong, or if it contains two coda consonants.

The penultimate syllable takes primary stress unless it is short, and the antepenult or final syllable is long. In which case, the long syllable is stressed. Also, if the penultimate vowel is /ɨ/, then stress goes to the antepenult unless it, too, has /ɨ/. The leftmost syllable with a full vowel takes primary stress.

If the penult is short and both the antepenult and the final syllable are long, the antepenult is stressed.

If the final syllable is stressed, the antepenult vowel is reduced to /ɨ/.

Some example words:

/mlax/ - [mlax] - soft (animate nominative)
/mlax.jos/ - ['mla.ɕɔs] - soft (animate oblique plural)
/pe.ɣn̩/ - ['pe.ʊn] - full (animate nom.)
/pe.ɣun/ - ['pe.ɰun] - full (inanimate nom.)
/ɕon.dr̩/ - ['ɕi̯ɔn.dr̩] - killer (nom)
/o.tʼi'ɕi:.dr̩/ - [o.tʼi'ɕi:.dr̩] - kingdom (nom)
/'ɕi:.dar.daiɕ/ - ['ɕi:.dar.daiɕ] - heaven, afterlife

[tezcatlip0ca]

Just the inventory for now, I'll post the rest later.

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 m  n  ɳ
pb td ʈɖ  kɡ
   sz ʂʐ
 ʋ  lr ɽ j

i   u
e  ɤ
ɛ a ɔ

[Drydic]

I'm just looking for feedback on a few specific points here, for the most part this phonology is finalized.

Code: Select all

     L   D   PAlv P   V   U/Ph
stop p b t d č ǰ  c ǯ k g q
fric f   s ð š        x   ʕ
nas  m   n        ñ   ŋ
lat      l
rho      r
appr w            y

My main question is in the dental fricatives. I use s & ð, which are respectively dental and interdental. There USED to be a z, but I realized I was never using it so chop-chop gone. Does this setup make sense? Would it work better if I forced a z back in?
Second: I haven't decided whether c is [c] or [cç], nor whether ǯ is [ɟ] or [ɟʝ]. Similarly, č & ǰ could be [t̠] & [d̠] or [tʃ] & [dʒ], I haven't decided what I want to have in the to-be-designed daughterlangs, but my current project does have its descendants of these phonemes carved in stone; there they end up as c > č,k, ǯ > ǧ [ɟ], and č ǰ > [tʃ] [dʒ]. Any opinions on which protolang sitch would make more sense?

[Nortaneous]

Here's that English descendant I posted in the other thread. Yes, the orthography is terrible, and no, it will never be consistent between two posts because I keep trying to make it less terrible.

Consonants:

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pʰ b̥     tʰ d̥ tʃʰ  kʰ   ʔ <p b     t d č   k   ˀ>
f  v θ ð s  z ʃ  ʒ    ɣ h <f v θ δ s z š ž   g h>
   m        n         ŋ   <  m       n       ŋ  >
            ɹ   j    w    <          ṛ   y   w  >
            ɾ             <          r          >

Most dialects merge /ɹ/ into /ɣ/; in the ones that preserve it, it never appears in coda position.

Vowels:

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i y ɨ u <i ü ɨ u>
e ø   ʊ <e ö   ù>
æ a ɜ ɔ <á a à o>

ə̆ ɪ̆ ʊ̆ <ă ĕ ŭ>

Diphthongs: /iə eə æə̯ uə/ <ia ea áa oa>

Nasality is contrastive, and is written with an ogonek. Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel, Stress is contrastive, but not written because there's no way to do so without getting even more confusing. Long vowels can take either a rising or falling pitch accent, written as in the IPA.

I'm actually not entirely sure how I'd write this better. Most of the problem is with the vowels: how could I possibly write a system that ridiculous without coming out with something painfully ugly?
̨
<Mầ štą̀kùˀ ăkiaz stęa į̂a kiaˀšę̆. Adą̌wǫtsˀ n-Iągùš tsę̌, băr akiarĕ. Ačįaˀmăˀšmębṛeˀ ná.>
<Mə štə̨kʊˀ ăkiaz stęa ìa kiaˀšę̆. Adą́wǫtsˀ n-Iągʊš tsę́, băr akiarĕ. Ačįaˀmăˀšmębṛeˀ næ.>

[Nortaneous]

My main question is in the dental fricatives. I use s & ð, which are respectively dental and interdental. There USED to be a z, but I realized I was never using it so chop-chop gone. Does this setup make sense? Would it work better if I forced a z back in?

It's fine. There's some obscure Romance language or something that has three voiced and three unvoiced fricatives, but no two at the same POA.

Second: I haven't decided whether c is [c] or [cç], nor whether ǯ is [ɟ] or [ɟʝ].

Palatal stops are almost always affricated.

Similarly, č & ǰ could be [t̠] & [d̠] or [tʃ] & [dʒ], I haven't decided what I want to have in the to-be-designed daughterlangs, but my current project does have its descendants of these phonemes carved in stone; there they end up as c > č,k, ǯ > ǧ [ɟ], and č ǰ > [tʃ] [dʒ]. Any opinions on which protolang sitch would make more sense?

Could use either set there, but I'd probably go with the affricates if I were you.

[----]

Fijian also has /s/ and /ð/ but no /z/.

[Nortaneous]

Fijian also has /s/ and /ð/ but no /z/.

Yeah, but its only fricatives (that aren't from loanwords or restricted to a few dialects) are /s/ and some things that IIRC came from voiced plosives or something like that.

[finlay]

I'm just looking for feedback on a few specific points here, for the most part this phonology is finalized.

Code: Select all

     L   D   PAlv P   V   U/Ph
stop p b t d č ǰ  c ǯ k g q
fric f   s ð š        x   ʕ
nas  m   n        ñ   ŋ
lat  l
rho  r
appr w            y

My main question is in the dental fricatives. I use s & ð, which are respectively dental and interdental. There USED to be a z, but I realized I was never using it so chop-chop gone. Does this setup make sense? Would it work better if I forced a z back in?
Second: I haven't decided whether c is [c] or [cç], nor whether ǯ is [ɟ] or [ɟʝ]. Similarly, č & ǰ could be [t̠] & [d̠] or [tʃ] & [dʒ], I haven't decided what I want to have in the to-be-designed daughterlangs, but my current project does have its descendants of these phonemes carved in stone; there they end up as c > č,k, ǯ > ǧ [ɟ], and č ǰ > [tʃ] [dʒ]. Any opinions on which protolang sitch would make more sense?

I think it'd work better with s z – ð looks a bit odd out on its own there.

As for ǯ, why do you use such an uncommon character for it, rather than just using ʒ? Or using ǧ like you have done for the daughter? Better yet, you could just use <j> for it, seeing as you haven't already.

And I'd be impressed if that actually is a lateral bilabial.... somehow I doubt it, though. I would put the last four on one line, maybe sonorants or approximants or liquids, with the lateral as the dental and the rhotic as the post-alveolar representative. Just because it's neater.

[Drydic]

I'm just looking for feedback on a few specific points here, for the most part this phonology is finalized.

Code: Select all

     L   D   PAlv P   V   U/Ph
stop p b t d č ǰ  c ǯ k g q
fric f   s ð š        x   ʕ
nas  m   n        ñ   ŋ
lat  l
rho  r
appr w            y

My main question is in the dental fricatives. I use s & ð, which are respectively dental and interdental. There USED to be a z, but I realized I was never using it so chop-chop gone. Does this setup make sense? Would it work better if I forced a z back in?
Second: I haven't decided whether c is [c] or [cç], nor whether ǯ is [ɟ] or [ɟʝ]. Similarly, č & ǰ could be [t̠] & [d̠] or [tʃ] & [dʒ], I haven't decided what I want to have in the to-be-designed daughterlangs, but my current project does have its descendants of these phonemes carved in stone; there they end up as c > č,k, ǯ > ǧ [ɟ], and č ǰ > [tʃ] [dʒ]. Any opinions on which protolang sitch would make more sense?

I think it'd work better with s z – ð looks a bit odd out on its own there.

As for ǯ, why do you use such an uncommon character for it, rather than just using ʒ? Or using ǧ like you have done for the daughter? Better yet, you could just use <j> for it, seeing as you haven't already.

And I'd be impressed if that actually is a lateral bilabial.... somehow I doubt it, though. I would put the last four on one line, maybe sonorants or approximants or liquids, with the lateral as the dental and the rhotic as the post-alveolar representative. Just because it's neater.

Eh, that's 1 vote for z, 1 against (on IRC)...I dunno.

Well in the system that I ended up with ǯ from, ʒ is [dz]; then again, ǯ is [dʒ] in that...ok yeah that's a decent idea, I'll shift c over to ǩ just for consistency as well. As for j, I just can't stand using it unaccented for a plosive or affricate, and I also can't stand using it unaccented for anything but [j], even though I'm using y for that. Might give that some thought for my more general transcription system though, pair it with c [ts] as [dz], maybe.

And the lateral and rhotic...yeah, I just forgot to move them over a few spaces, they're boring bland dentals. The PAlv rhotic is an interesting idea, thanks.

[finlay]

Even if it's not articulatorially a p-alv rhotic, you could have it act as one phonologically.

Also, if you're using ǩ ǧ for your palatal stops, I'd recommend ň for the nasal, for even more consistency.

Plus, if you already have p-alv affricates, I reckon the palatal stops would likely be plosives, or only slightly affricated by comparison, notwithstanding what Nort says. Or the other way around, but I reckon one being a plosive and one being an affricate is more likely. That said, I'm pretty much talking out of my arse here.

[maıráí]

For a small project:

p b t d k g
f v s ʃ ɬ h~ʀ l ɹ m n ŋ (These can be long.)

i/ɪ e/ɛ y/e o/ɔ a~ɑ
(Stressed/unstressed; a is always stressed..)
(Vowels can be long, and nasal.)

(s,f)(C)(l,r,i)V(V)(C)

[Chaoibhuin]

i/ɪ e/ɛ y/e o/ɔ a~ɑ
(Stressed/unstressed; a is always stressed..)

It seems odd that the unstressed allophone of /y/ is [e]. A much more plausible unstressed allophone would be [ʏ]. Perhaps you could also consider adding a high back vowel to your vowel system to make it more balanced.

[clawgrip]

Does it have any diphthongs? Are there syllables other than (C)V?

For the love of all that is holy can we get a mod to put this in the thread title

One of my languages, Himmaswa, seems to fit this description well enough, so here it is:

Vowels (38)
short (8): a, ɛ, ɪ, ɔ, ɔ̰, œ, ʌ, ʊ
long (7): a̰ː, iː, uː, ɚː, ɚ̰ː, ɔ̰˞ː, ɑ̰˞ː
diphthongs (15): a̰ʊ̯, a̰ɪ̯, æj ej, ɛə̯, əɪ, iɔ̯, iə̯, ɔ̰ɪ, ɔ̯o̯, œ̰ɔ̯, øœ̯, ʌu̯, ʊɪ̯, uə̯
triphthongs (2): uːə̯j iːɑ̰ʊ̯
aspirated (6): ah, ɛç, ɪç, iə̯h, ɔ̰h, uh

Several vowels are realized with creaky voice, though this is only phonemic in two pairs and partially phonemic in two more: ɔ - ɔ̰ / ɚː - ɚ̰ː / a - a̰ː / æj - a̰ɪ̯. However, minimal pairs do exist, such as /ɚ̰ːŋ/ 'sleep' and /ɚːŋ/ 'peat moss' or /tɾɔ̰k/ 'father' and /tɾɔk/ 'to be important'.

Consonants (18): b, ʧ, d, f, ɡ, h, ʤ, k, l (ɾ), m, n, ŋ, ɲ, p, s, t, w, j

Syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C).

Only nasals and voiceless stops may come root-finally, though in compounds they sometimes become voiced or undergo other changes, e.g. /lɔk/ + /sɑ̰˞ː/ > /lɔɡsɑ̰˞ː/ 'where'

The initial consonant cluster may contain a wide variety of consonant combinations. The primary restrictions on initial consonant clusters are:
1. two nasals never appear together
2. two fricatives never appear together
3. geminates never appear
4. stops never appear with stops of the same articulation point
5. nasals never appear after initial stops of the same articulation point
6. /j/ and /w/ never appear as the initial consonant
7. /f/ never appears as the second consonant

There are additional minor restrictions on specific consonant clusters that for brevity I will not mention here.

Some unusual features:
Voiced and unvoiced pairs freely appear together, e.g. /pdal/ - 'courtyard'.
Nasals freely appear with consonants of other articulation points, e.g. /tŋɔŋ/ 'to protect', /mɡɛŋ/ 'to live; to reside'

[Bachgen_Cymraeg]

My second conlang revised:

Plosive: /b t d k g/ <b t d k g>
Fricative: /s ɬ x h/ <s hl x h>
Nasal: /m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
Approximant: /l/ <l>
Flap: /ɾ/ <r>

Vowels: /i e ə̃ a o ũ/ <i e y a o u>

Notes:
Vowel length, stress and tone are not contrastive. There is very little allophony. The plosives may be weakly aspirated word-initially, elsewhere always unaspirated. The vowel /a/ is a central rather than a front vowel. /e ə̃ o/ are true mid vowels.

Phonotactics:
CV(C) syllable structure. Only a sonorant consonant (/m n ŋ l ɾ/) can occur in the syllable coda. Only /m n ŋ l/ can occur in root-final codas.

[chrishy]

Bjašk

Plosive: / p b t̪ d̪ k g / <p b t d k g>
Fricative: / f v s z ʃ ʒ / <f v s z š ž>
Approximate: / ʍ w l j / <x w l j>
Affricate: / p͡f t͡s / <pf ts>

Vowels: / i (ɪ)*, e (ɛ)*, ɑ (ə)*, o, u / <i o r í or ī (i or ì)*, e or é or ē (e or è)*, a or á or ā (a or à)*, o or ó or ò, u or ú or ù>
*This is the vowel sound for unstressed syllables (rounded vowels don't have this distinction)

There are no diphthongs.


General syllable structure: (C(X))V(C,A)
where X is the set <w l j> and A is the set <pf ts>, though there are some exceptions (e.g., "pledbwag" is acceptable but "tle" isn't)

Specific consonant clusters:
Onset-only: pw pj pl bw bj bl tw tj dw dj kw kj kl gw gj gl fw fj fl vw vj vl sw sj sl zw zj šw šj šl žw žj
Coda-only: pf ts
Either: sp st sk šp št šk

Stress: first syllable if disyllabic, antepenultimate if polysyllabic (unless otherwise marked)

Diacritics:
( ´ ) - acute accent - stress this syllable instead, use the stressed vowel sound
( ¯ ) - macron - use the stressed vowel sound but do NOT change the word's stress pattern
( ` ) - grave accent - don't stress this syllable, use the unstressed vowel sound (poetic, never required in formal writing, and never differentiates words, just changes sound)

Doubled letters lengthens that sound, like the /n/ in English "pen knife".

[maıráí]

i/ɪ e/ɛ y/e o/ɔ a~ɑ
(Stressed/unstressed; a is always stressed..)

It seems odd that the unstressed allophone of /y/ is [e]. A much more plausible unstressed allophone would be [ʏ]. Perhaps you could also consider adding a high back vowel to your vowel system to make it more balanced.

My bad, that's a typo. The unstressed y is in fact a high back vowel.

[vampireshark]

How about a phone inventory that I'm trying for a language project that seems to not last very long in each incarnation:

p pʰ t tʰ [c] [cʰ] k kʰ
f s [ç] x h ɕ
ʋ ð̞ j ɰ
m n [ɲ] ŋ
l
ʀ

i y u
ɪ ʏ ʊ
e ø o
ə
ɛ ɔ
æ ɐ
a ɑ

stress: unpredictable, but unstressed vowels tend to reduce (i→ɪ, y→ʏ, etc.)
allophony:
·k, kʰ, ŋ, and x tend to palatalize before or immediately after most front vowels except a
·hj is always ç
·word-final e/ɛ, or when it occurs immediately before final ʀ, n, or ŋ, becomes ə
·ʀ after a vowel becomes ɐ̯, but merges with ə to yield ɐ
·l after a vowel usually becomes ɰ
·ʋ after a vowel usually becomes ʊ̯, but it merges with ə to yield ʊ
·before a normally aspirated stop, s becomes ɕ and de-aspirates the stop

syllable structure: (C)(C*)(j/l**/ʀ**)V(A)(C)(C***)
*can only appear after s or ɕ
**cannot appear after a nasal, h or ʋ
***can only appear after a stop, s or ɕ

[Chaoibhuin]

i/ɪ e/ɛ y/e o/ɔ a~ɑ
(Stressed/unstressed; a is always stressed..)

It seems odd that the unstressed allophone of /y/ is [e]. A much more plausible unstressed allophone would be [ʏ]. Perhaps you could also consider adding a high back vowel to your vowel system to make it more balanced.

My bad, that's a typo. The unstressed y is in fact a high back vowel.

Unstressed /y/ being backed to is also a bit odd though. I can't think of a reason why this should happen.

[Wattmann]

i/ɪ e/ɛ y/e o/ɔ a~ɑ
(Stressed/unstressed; a is always stressed..)

It seems odd that the unstressed allophone of /y/ is [e]. A much more plausible unstressed allophone would be [ʏ]. Perhaps you could also consider adding a high back vowel to your vowel system to make it more balanced.

My bad, that's a typo. The unstressed y is in fact a high back vowel.

Unstressed /y/ being backed to is also a bit odd though. I can't think of a reason why this should happen.

Might relate to a previous length-by-stress feature: if the stressed is long, a reverse of Icelandic's u : ú /ʏ : u/ could happen.

[Bachgen_Cymraeg]

And here's my other conlang Noxahi:

Plosive: /t k/ <t c>
Fricative: /s ɬ x h/ <s hl x h>
Nasal: /m n ŋ/ <m n g>
Liquid: /l ɾ/ <l r>

Vowels: /i e ə̃ a o/ <i e y a o>

Notes:
Plosives are generally unaspirated but may be weakly aspirated word-initially. /h/ may be voiced intervocalically. Other than this there is very little allophony. /a/ is a central not a front vowel. /e/ and /ə̃/ are true mid vowels whereas /o/ is pronounced noticeably higher, being somewhat halfway between a close and a mid vowel. There is no vowel length, tone or diphthongs.

Phonotactics:
Syllable structure is CV(C). The consonants /t k h ɾ/ are not permitted in the syllable coda.

And as I'm sure to get Jankoed unless I say this, I don't have numbers yet but I'll get numbers soon.

[clawgrip]

An old language I am thinking of reviving is the language spoken by some kind of insect-like people called the Tźrs. Their language, Qlfhpfsq, has only voiceless consonants and no vowels. When creating the language originally, I did not go into great detail about what sounds the letters actually represented, thinking I could really just assign any sound to them. I have since attempted to classify them in more detail, and though this has proven a bit of a challenge, I do not really want to eliminate any of the consonants, since I have already created some of the language. Although I did put thought into the real world-limitations of insect mouths as I created this sound system, the physiological descriptions here are iffy at best, and do require some significant departures from the real world (not the least of which is square-cube). However, since insect mouths in the real world are extraordinarily variable in configuration, I can probably make it work.

Sorry, no IPA, obviously.

Mandibular
single click: k
multiple clicks: q

Maxillar
single click: t
multiple clicks: ŧ
scrape: x
lax fricative: s
hypopharyngealized fricative: ş

Maxillo-mandibular
scrape: y

Labial (Palpic)
single click: c
multiple clicks: r
lax fricative: l
hypopharyngealized fricative: ļ

Labio-labral
plosive: p
lax fricative: f
hypopharyngeal fricative: v

Labio-labro-hypopharyngeal
high-frequency approximant: w

Hypopharyngeal
fricative: ħ

Tracheal
fricative: h

Not quite decided
low-frequency fricative: z
high-frequency fricative: ź

Naturally the fricatives presuppose some sort of circulatory system connected to the mouth, which one wouldn't expect in an insectoid species. I guess it was an adaptation of some sort that I will have to consider as I expand the details of this species. Whatever articulation point I make for the final two fricatives will also require a physiological explanation I have yet to come up with.

Edit: Perhaps some sort of pulmonic system developed as an aid for projectile spraying of a liquid substance out of their mouths.

[roninbodhisattva]

A small inventory/idea that I'm working on based on Arapaho/some other stuff. This representation is more or less orthographic: 3 = /θ/ and ’ = /ʔ/. A raised ^(y) indicates that a given phoneme shows contrastive palatalization before a vowel. This is not contrastive elsewhere. The four simple vowels and two diphthongs may be short or long, indicated with doubling (for the diphthongs = eii ouu

b t^(y) k^(y) ’ 3 s^(y) x^(y) h m n^(y) ŋ^(y) w y
i e a o ei ou

There's also a pitch accent system of some kind, but I need to figure that part out.