Post your conlang's phonology

[communistplot]

Hwairinese, a lang that popped into my head late last night and started off as a Japclone then added 3-way vowel contrast and 4-way contrast on plosives and, well, you get the picture. ;D

Code: Select all

Vowels
/a aː ã e eː ẽ i iː ĩ/ <a ā ą e ē ę i ī į>
/o oː õ u uː ũ/ <o ō ǫ u ū ų>

Diphthongs
Hwairinese has only six allowed diphthongs, four oral (distinguished by length) and two nasal:
/ai au/ <ai au>
/aːi aːu/ <āi āu>
/ãi ãu/ <ąi ąu>

Consonants
/m n nʷ/ <m n nw>
/p pʰ pʷ pʷʰ t tʰ tʷ tʷʰ  k kʰ kʷ k kʷʰ/ <b p bw pw d t dw tw g k gw kw >
/θ θʷ s sʰ sʷ sʷʰ ɕ ɕʰ ɕʷ ɕʷʰ h hʷ/ <tt ttw z s zw sw zh sh zhw shw h hw>
/t͡s t͡sʰ t͡sʷ t͡sʷʰ t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ t͡ɕʷ t͡ɕʷʰ/ <tz ts tzw tsw j c jw cw>
/w ʍ ɹ j ʀ/ <w xw r y x>

Prosody
Hwairinese is a syllable-timed language meaning that each syllable carries equal weight this is in comparison to a stress-timed language, like English, which gives syllables different weight based off stress.

Syllable Structure
The maximal syllable structure of Hwairinese is (C)V(C) though most syllables tend towards CV structure. A syllable can consist of any of the following:

Onset
- Nothing (rare)
- Any consonant. 
Nucleus
- Any vowel or diphthongs
Coda
- Nothing (common)
- /m n/
- /w ɹ j/ if proceeding consonant is not any of /ʀ ʍ/

This allows syllables such as *waːin, *pʰẽ or *suw but not *sʷʰõsk, *ʍaptʰ or *ẽpʷ.

Also, I do realise that /m/ & /nʷ/ are basically equivalent. (:

[Nortaneous]

Interesting inventory, but the orthography could do with a bit of improvement. <tt>? Really?

Also, I do realise that /m/ & /nʷ/ are basically equivalent. (:

nope

[communistplot]

Interesting inventory, but the orthography could do with a bit of improvement. <tt>? Really?

Also, I do realise that /m/ & /nʷ/ are basically equivalent. (:

nope

Hey, I like <tt>. Also, they sound the (almost) same when I try to say them. :0

[Maoti]

I have changed and simplified the phonology of my Eskimo-Aleut inspired conlang. It now has the following 15 consonants and three vowels:

Consonants:
Plosive: /p t k g q ɢ/
Fricative: /s ɬ h/
Nasal: /m n ŋ ɴ/
Approximant: /l ʁ̞/

Vowels: /i a u/

Allophony: The high vowels /i/ and /u/ become allophonically lowered to [e] and [o] respectively when occurring before a uvular consonant (/q/, /ɢ/, /ɴ/ or /ʁ̞/), and this change is indicated in the orthography.

Phonotactics:
Syllable structure is (C)VC. All words therefore end in a consonant. About 50% of words begin in a consonant and 50% begin in a vowel. Words never begin in a uvular consonant. The consonants /s/, /ɬ/ and /h/ do not occur in the syllable coda. There are no diphthongs.

[sirdanilot]

^^ Sounds like quite a realistic system, however, it seems pretty marked to not have /b/ or /d/ while having /g/ and /ɢ/. I'd wonder how it would be possible to explain how that would come about. It is more common for languages not to have /g/ (and /ɢ/ is actually a pretty rare sound cross-linguistically) while having /b/ and /d/.

You could easily get away with just leniting /ɢ/ to /ʁ/ and /g/ to /ɣ/, and then somehow get those merged, to get such a system.

[Maoti]

Inuktitut has the plosives /p t k g q ɢ/ and lacks /b/ and /d/, so although unusual it is not unheard of in natlangs. My conlang actually has a very similar phonology to Inuktitut, with the same three-vowel system and thirteen consonants in common.

[Nate]

/a i ɛ u/ are allophones (I'm so glad that I'm posting this to people who actually know what these words mean) of /æ ɪ ə ʊ/ respectively, when followed by two consecutive consonants not seperated by an apostrophe <'>, or <h>, which is silent when used in this way.

A pretty (or very) simple phonology.

EDIT: Dur. Forgot the language name. Samehhathisehg /samEhaTIsEg/.

[communistplot]

/a i ɛ u/ are allophones

[a i ɛ u] is what I think you mean. Phonemic sounds, that is that stuff in your phonology chart, go in these > // whereas phonetic sounds, the actually produced sounds in a certain environment, go in these > [].

[Nate]

/a i ɛ u/ are allophones

[a i ɛ u] is what I think you mean. Phonemic sounds, that is that stuff in your phonology chart, go in these > // whereas phonetic sounds, the actually produced sounds in a certain environment, go in these > [].

Ah, thanks. Still bit of a newb, I guess. ^^;

[communistplot]

/a i ɛ u/ are allophones

[a i ɛ u] is what I think you mean. Phonemic sounds, that is that stuff in your phonology chart, go in these > // whereas phonetic sounds, the actually produced sounds in a certain environment, go in these > [].

Ah, thanks. Still bit of a newb, I guess. ^^;

Don't mention it brahsky, we all make mistakes.

[Nortaneous]

Inuktitut has the plosives /p t k g q ɢ/ and lacks /b/ and /d/, so although unusual it is not unheard of in natlangs. My conlang actually has a very similar phonology to Inuktitut, with the same three-vowel system and thirteen consonants in common.

Yeah, but it's got /v l/, which I'd guess were */b d/ at some point.

[Maoti]

Inuktitut has the plosives /p t k g q ɢ/ and lacks /b/ and /d/, so although unusual it is not unheard of in natlangs. My conlang actually has a very similar phonology to Inuktitut, with the same three-vowel system and thirteen consonants in common.

Yeah, but it's got /v l/, which I'd guess were */b d/ at some point.

I have decided to add the consonant /d/ to my language to make it more naturalistic, and get rid of /ɬ/. So my language now has the following consonant inventory:

Plosive: /p t d k g q ɢ/
Fricative: /s h/
Nasal: /m n ŋ ɴ/
Approximant: /l ʁ̞/

[----]

It's also important to note that the phonemes /g/ and /ɢ/ in Inuktitut are rarely realized as such, I usually hear them as fricatives and I've even heard /g/ as [ɦ] before. It's not so odd to have those as underlying phonemes, but it's not like they won't be subject to a lot of allophony.

[Nortaneous]

If you're going for realism, you'll want to have the gap be /p/, not /b/.

...Are there any natlangs that have that /b/ gap?

[WeepingElf]

If you're going for realism, you'll want to have the gap be /p/, not /b/.

...Are there any natlangs that have that /b/ gap?

Proto-Indo-European seems to have been at least close.

[sucaeyl]

m mʱ mˤ mʱˤ n nʱ ŋ ŋʱ
p pʰ pˤ pʰˤ t tʰ k kʰ ʔ
b bʱ bˤ bʱˤ d dʱ ɢ ɢʱ
ɓ ɓʱ ɓˤ ɓʱˤ ɗ ɗʱ ʄ ʄʱ ɠ ɠʱ
s sʰ ç çʰ χ χʰ ħ ħː
v vʱ vˤ vʱˤ z zʱ ɣ ɣʱ ʕ ʕʱ ɦ
ɬ ɬʰ ʎ̥ ʎ̥ʰ
ɾ ɾʱ
w ʍ wˤ ʍˤ j jʱ ɰ ɰʱ
l lʱ ʎ ʎʱ

i ɨ u ə æ ɔ ɑ
i̤ ɨ̤ ṳ ə̤ æ̤ ɔ̤ ɑ̤

Edit: 666th reply!

[Earthling]

Edit: 666th reply!

Actually, 665th reply; 666th post in the thread counting the original post.

[Taernsietr]

This is a lang I've started recently. I might be making it too much kitchen-sinky, though...

Telyrhełkøs
/m n/ <m n>
/p t k ʔ/ <p t k (')>
/s̪ s̻ ɕ x ʀ/ <z s š h r>
/ʋ j l l̥~ɬ/ <v i l ł>

/i ʉ u ɛ ø ə ɔ ɑ/ <i y u e ø ë o a>
[eɪ̯ eʊ̯ øʏ̯ øʊ̯ əʉ̯] /ei eu øy øu ëy/

constraints:
the maximal valid syllable constructions are CVVF, CjVF and CjVV, where: C = all the consonants except /j/, F = n, ʋ, s̪, s̻, ɕ, l, l̥, x and ʀ, V = any vowel, VV = any valid diphthong

not sure on stress yet, I was thinking of something weight-related.

notes:
the glottal stop appears only between non-diphthongized near vowels.
/ʋ s̪ x/ pattern with /p t k/ in some inflections.
all consonants (except the stops and /j/) may geminate.
if the preceding syllable has one of /ø o u/, /ʉ/ is fronted to [y~ʏ].
word-finally and after /ʀ/, /x/ debuccalizes to [h].
the cross-syllable clusters /s̪s̻ s̻s̪ ɕs̪ ɕs̻ s̪ɕ s̻ɕ ll̥ l̥l/ affricate to [s̪.ts̻ s̻.ts̪ ɕ.ts̪ ɕ.ts̻ s̪.tɕ s̻.tɕ l.tl̥ l̥.tl]

[Maoti]

If you're going for realism, you'll want to have the gap be /p/, not /b/.

...Are there any natlangs that have that /b/ gap?

The Drehu language of New Caledonia has the plosives /p t d ʈ ɖ k g/, with /b/ only occurring in loanwords. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drehu_language

[Shrdlu]

Taking a break from my main project and experimenting around abit.

so... The Alai language:

consonants
b,t,k,m,j,h,l,s,x,f,'
b,t,l,s may be geminated inside words.
allowed clusters:
xk

/l/ may be an /r/-tap before long non-nasal wovels
/b/ /t/ /k/ is at end of unconjugated verbs de/voiced to /p/ /d/ /g/

vowels
a,ą,i,o,y,e,é(low tone),u,ú(low tone),aa,ii,oo,ąi,ai,aai

Kąikoki jai bexkąimij hitomaxkimi. Okotaaimi heją ąi.

[sirdanilot]

If you're going for realism, you'll want to have the gap be /p/, not /b/.

...Are there any natlangs that have that /b/ gap?

Proto-Indo-European seems to have been at least close.

Or a /pʼ/ gap, which is that much more plausible.

[WeepingElf]

If you're going for realism, you'll want to have the gap be /p/, not /b/.

...Are there any natlangs that have that /b/ gap?

Proto-Indo-European seems to have been at least close.

Or a /pʼ/ gap, which is that much more plausible.

Yes, according to the glottalists, whose position, however, is not the majority opinion among Indo-Europeanists. But it is IMHO likely that the glottalic theory does apply to an earlier stage of the language, though not to the stage just prior to breakup.

But that is another matter which does not really belong here. This is a thread about conlang phonologies.

[----]

Speaking of Proto-Indo-European, I've been working on a monosyllabic tonal descendant of it (Kind of like Chinese or something). I'll post the phonology here sometime soon.

[SHiNKiROU]

Rng'-Tera phonology, I'm satisfied by the current tweaking.

and palatalization rules

Syllable structure: SCCGVGCCC, there are many constraints, so the following English words do not conform Rng'-Tera phonotactics:
- bag (but ba-gə works)
- class (kə-las)
- lift (lif, lif-tə, liftf)

Please, less Romanization complaints since I'm creating a featural alphabet for it.

[Jipí]

Your consonants look like ripped off straight from Mandarin.