Terghbaz: An overview
Terghbaz (“Orcspeech”) is:
- SVO, and displaying a mix of head-initial and head-final traits
- Low on synthesis, heavy on analysis
- Heavy on consonant clusters, closed syllables, and monosyllables, leading to a “terse” feel
- Very liberal in its use of a relatively small number of grammatical inflections
Within the general constraints of “spoken by standard fantasy orcs”, Terghbaz is designed to be fairly flexible in what kind of culture it can be assigned to. To that end, the vocabulary will be fairly generic and the inclusion of numerous terms will be optional depending on details of the setting.
Phonology: Inventory and phonetics
Segments are followed by their romanization in bold.
/m n/ m n
/(p) b t d ts dz tʃ dʒ k g/ (p) b t d tz dz ch j k g
/f v s z ʃ ʒ χ ʁ h/ f v s z sh zh kh gh h
/r l/ r l
/i e a ɤ o u/ i e a ŭ o u
/aj aw/ ai au
Terghbaz is slightly unusual in lacking /p/ despite having all of /m b f v/. It does have [p], but only in the sequences [sp] and [ʃp]. Since [f] does not occur after /s/ or /ʃ/ (and prefixes ending in these sounds convert it to [p]), it is simplest to treat [p] as an allophone of /f/ after sibilants.
The language is also unusual in that not only does it lack phonemic glides, it nearly lacks them phonetically as well. Glides occur exclusively as part of the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/. /v/ and /dʒ/ derive from older glides, though, as evidenced by their use to break vowel-vowel hiatus.
Both of the liquid consonants are phonetically velarized: /l/ is always dark [ɫ] and /r/ is a velarized alveolar trill [rˠ].
As in English or German, the voicing distinction in stops is based in part on aspiration. Voiceless stops are strongly aspirated word-initially (devoicing the beginning of a following sonorant) and lightly aspirated elsewhere, although they are never aspirated at all after /s/ or /ʃ/. (Note that because of this rule and its distribution, [p] is never aspirated.) Voiced stops have delayed onset of voicing word-initially and are fully voiced elsewhere.
The vowels /i u e ɤ o/ have lax allophones [ɪ ʊ ɛ ʌ ɔ] in closed syllables, as well as in open syllables before /r/ or the uvular fricatives. /a/ is normally an open central vowel, but is retracted to [ɑ] in the vicinity of liquids and uvulars (in either direction), as are the beginnings of the diphthongs. For most speakers some subsets of the vowels merge in fully unstressed syllables, but which subsets vary, so I have left them differentiated in the transcription, with one exception: A merger of /a/ and /ɤ/ into [ɐ], here written a, is present for the vast majority of speakers. Mergers of /i/ and /e/, and of /u/ and /o/, are common. Also common is a two-way opposition of some higher central vowel for /i e u/ and a lower one for /ɤ o a/.
/m/ and /n/ merge into [ŋ] before velars and [ɴ] before uvulars, respectively. In both cases the nasal is written n.
Phonology: Phonotactics
The syllable structure of Terghbaz can be summed up as “English with gaps filled in and more places for dorsals to go”. Most possible syllables are covered by the form (S)(C)(L)V(L)(N)(C)(K), where:
- S is a sibilant fricative
- L is a liquid
- N is a nasal
- K is a velar stop
Terghbaz does not allow vowels to abut word-internally. Where this would happen, the hiatus is broken with a consonant. After /i/ and /aj/, that consonant is /dʒ/. After /u/ and /aw/, it is /v/. After all other vowels, it is /g/.
Phonology: Prosody
Terghbaz is a stress-accented language, like English, German, or Russian. Stress is phonemic, although the majority of words receive a primary stress on the first root syllable and secondary stresses on every second syllable after it, or on the next root syllable if applicable. Stress manifests as a greater length of the syllable in question accompanied by a raises, falling pitch. The general tonal pattern of a sentence is gradually lowering pitch regardless of the type of sentence, although certain clause-final particles such as the interrogative bauga have a rising pitch.
A note
Most European languages have some subset of the coronals (especially /n t d s l r/) as the most common consonants. In Terghbaz the most common consonants are the dorsals and the rhotic.