Critique my phonology

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
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Škjakto
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Critique my phonology

Post by Škjakto »

All letters are pronounced as they are in the IPA except for long vowels. Long vowels are just doubled short ones. Stress always falls on the first syllable.

C: m n ŋ v s h
V: á a à í i ì ú u ù áá aa àà íí ii ìì úú uu ùù
A: w l j
N: m n ŋ

Syllabic structure is (C)(A)V(N). Diphthongs are allowed, but not triphthongs.

In my conworld, this is the language of the Gods and is used to cast spells and for religious affairs. Obviously, it is a tonal language and is often sung. Tones are flexible and usually only matter relative to other tones. For example, in the word 'sjávùi', vowel tones could be 513, 523, 524, or something else. More specifically, high tone encompasses 5 and 4, neutral tone is 4, 3, and 2, and low tone is 2 and 1.
toki! mi nimi li Sajiman Petu. mi olin toki en sitelen en Toki Pona.

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Smeric
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Re: Critique my phonology

Post by ---- »

Well, it's typologically unheard of, but you say it's only used ritualistically so who knows. But you seem to have the wrong impression about how tones work. '1'-'5' don't refer to specific pitches, nor is it a general standard that '5' is high and '1' is low, or vice versa. You say that "Tones are flexible and usually only matter relative to other tones" but this is true of every tonal language that has ever existed in real life as well.

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mèþru
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Re: Critique my phonology

Post by mèþru »

You posted this thread twice.
ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!
kårroť

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Tropylium
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Re: Critique my phonology

Post by Tropylium »

Set in a natural environment, I'd expect that /v/ to turn into /b/ and from there into /p/ faster than you can say "presence of stop consonants is a linguistic universal" in Rotokas (possibly with ŋ > g > k hot on the heels).

Ritual languages aren't strictly speaking natural though, and surely they can do funny shit like this. But I'd ask — what is the non-ritual language of the community using this lang like? If we are going to suppose that the people have some taboo against using stop consonants when casting spells, what actually happens to words containing stop consonants? Are they going to be deleted or fricativized or nasalized? Or does the ritual language have its own lexicon entirely?

Alternately, if you mean that this is the language of the literal gods, that surely raises further questions about e.g. the speech physiology of your deities. E.g. do the gods have actual physical mouth cavities, or do they communicate using some other kind of noises that humans just map into the phonology presented here?
[ˌʔaɪsəˈpʰɻ̊ʷoʊpɪɫ ˈʔæɫkəɦɔɫ]

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