Post your conlang's phonology

[sirdanilot]

I'm not native, but I do not pronounce a [k] or [g] in this word.

I still have never found out how to pronounce 'width', though...

[Imralu]

Am I the only one who has [stɹ̥eŋ(k)θ]* without a stød? I can't even imagine a stød in that word, or any in English. Can someone make a recording?

*(I had to correct that though. When I was a kid I used /ɪ/ instead of /e/ in "strength" and "length" (and also "bredth"... maybe after "width"?). When other people said /e/, I heard /ɪ/, which is probably something that /ŋ/ has done, whether on the /e/ itself or on my perception (or expectation) of it. There aren't many words in English that have /eŋ/ ... even the word "English" doesn't. I don't have to think so much to say /e/ in those words now though, but years ago, when I worked in a bottle shop, I'd sometimes over-correct or just fuck it up and say "med-strength" or "med-stringth" instead of "mid-strength".

I also pronounced "onion" with /ŋj/, which is unusual around here but makes sense if the /nj/ is sometimes getting realised as [ɲ] ... which phoneme do you assign it to.)

width

Aim for /wɪdθ/ ... although I hear a lot of people say /wɪtθ/

[Earthling]

I'm not native, but I do not pronounce a [k] or [g] in this word.

I still have never found out how to pronounce 'width', though...

I pronounce it [wɪtθ].
And strength is something like [stʃɹɪŋkθ]

(but isn't this supposed to be the Post your conlang's phonology thread?)

[finlay]

What actually is this mysterious stød? Is it a glottal stop? Where does it fall? I tend to have glottal reinforcement of coda plosives anyway, but that makes it something like [stʃɹɛŋʔkθ], not [stʃɹɛʔŋkθ].

[Imralu]

[stʃɹɛŋʔkθ]

I can at least imagine that! That's English.

[communistplot]

Am I the only one who has [stɹ̥eŋ(k)θ]* without a stød? I can't even imagine a stød in that word, or any in English. Can someone make a recording?

*(I had to correct that though. When I was a kid I used /ɪ/ instead of /e/ in "strength" and "length" (and also "bredth"... maybe after "width"?). When other people said /e/, I heard /ɪ/, which is probably something that /ŋ/ has done, whether on the /e/ itself or on my perception (or expectation) of it. There aren't many words in English that have /eŋ/ ... even the word "English" doesn't. I don't have to think so much to say /e/ in those words now though, but years ago, when I worked in a bottle shop, I'd sometimes over-correct or just fuck it up and say "med-strength" or "med-stringth" instead of "mid-strength".

I also pronounced "onion" with /ŋj/, which is unusual around here but makes sense if the /nj/ is sometimes getting realised as [ɲ] ... which phoneme do you assign it to.)

width

Aim for /wɪdθ/ ... although I hear a lot of people say /wɪtθ/

For me as well the /nj/ cluster is usually realised as [ɲ] also /nɪ/ as well which comes out when I'm saying New York which can be realised, in careful speech, as [nɪjɔːək] or, in casual speech, as [ɲɔːək]. As for stød I dunno, there does seem to be some glottal realisation after the [ɛ] in strength however.
As for width I pronounce it [wɪdθ], [wɪtθ], or [wɛ(t/d)θ]

[----]

What actually is this mysterious stød? Is it a glottal stop? Where does it fall? I tend to have glottal reinforcement of coda plosives anyway, but that makes it something like [stʃɹɛŋʔkθ], not [stʃɹɛʔŋkθ].

Stød is a phonological process that occurs in Danish in some very specific situations that I'm not quite sure of. It's usually realized as creaky voice on the vowel, but it can change the quality of the vowel as well. For example, the word <hund> 'dog' is pronounced [huˀn]

[Bristel]

I see a phonological meme in the making for 2012...

Everyone's conlang will have stød in it as the fashion for next year.

(Not that I'm complaining, I think it's a neat phonological tidbit that I don't often see in conlangs, if at all) Has Nortaneous done something with this in his conlangs?

Edit: I read that some souther dialects of Danish have tone like Norwegian or Swedish, and eastern dialects have no stød or tone, and that it is similar to Latvian and Livonian's broken tone... (at least with the creaky vowel definition)

[Nortaneous]

hey

hey

guess who was thinking about adding stød to a conlang just yesterday

B)

[Bristel]

hey

hey

guess who was thinking about adding stød to a conlang just yesterday

B)

You should. :3

I am trying to come up with some interesting phonological stuff for Athanic, but it's not going well. It will probably have consonant gradation, but I should read a lot more about that before I decide to insert that into the conlang.

[Earthling]

Getting back on topic...

A currently unnamed language:

Plain stops /p t tʃ k q ʔ/
Voiced stops /b d g/
Ejectives /pʼ tʼ tʃʼ kʼ qʼ/
Fricatives /f s χ h/
Nasals /m n/
Trill /r/
Approximants /l j w/

Vowels /i e a o u/
Nasal vowels /ĩ ẽ ã õ ũ/

Tones: mid, high, and low

[Nortaneous]

You should. :3

I am trying to come up with some interesting phonological stuff for Athanic, but it's not going well. It will probably have consonant gradation, but I should read a lot more about that before I decide to insert that into the conlang.

Eh, fuck it, why not. What's a good diacritic to use to represent it? I already have macrons, so.

[MisterBernie]

Eh, fuck it, why not. What's a good diacritic to use to represent it? I already have macrons, so.

Well, do it the Danish way. No diacritic, it's diachronic!

[Nortaneous]

I am not doing diachronics for a protolang.

Might just make it an ogonek or cedilla or something; it's supposed to look Micronesian, so.

[Nortaneous]

sęjā jemōsü klącu yā tąsttam̧ü kākpǭm
[sɪ̆ˀɟæː cɪ̆mʲoːwʊ̆ɾuə̯ c͡ʎ̝̊æˀjɯ jæː tæsˀtːæmˠuə̯ kæːhɪ̆poːmʲˀ]

[Mbwa]

I was gonna say ogonek. I like that, especially considering you got the macrons too.

[Bristel]

Circumflexes? I don't really like the ogonek idea for glottalization, although it is reminiscent of the glottal stop character.

[Nortaneous]

wouldn't work with macrons. maybe cedillas also?

sęjā jemōsü klącu yā tąsttam̧ü kākpǭm
sȩjā jemōsü kla̧cu yā ta̧sttam̧ü kākpō̧m

ehhhh that just looks wrong

could always get creative: se̮jā jemōsü kla̮cu yā ta̮sttam̧ü kākpō̮m (i'd like this if the typesetting didn't suck)

[Bristel]

wouldn't work with macrons. maybe cedillas also?

sęjā jemōsü klącu yā tąsttam̧ü kākpǭm
sȩjā jemōsü kla̧cu yā ta̧sttam̧ü kākpō̧m

ehhhh that just looks wrong

could always get creative: se̮jā jemōsü kla̮cu yā ta̮sttam̧ü kākpō̮m (i'd like this if the typesetting didn't suck)

sĕjā jemōsü klăsu yā tăsttamü kākpôm

The last circumflex is supposed to represent a combined breve with a macron.

Not sure if you like breves, I only use it for specific vowels like schwa, or lengths most of the time... for glottalization, it's a bit weird to me.

[----]

Old conlang that I've revamped:

/p t t͡s t͡ʂ k q/ - p t c z k g
/ɸ s x/ - v s h
/m n l r j/ - m n l r i
/n̥ l̥ r̥ / - ņ ļ ŗ

/a e i o u/ - a e i o u


Syllable structure is (C)(C)(G)V(C)(C), where G includes phonemes /r/ and /j/, but only /j/ may appear after continuants (fricatives and approximants, including the voiceless series). After voiced sonorants, stops are voiced, but they are unaffected by unvoiced sonorants. Sonorants cannot be adjacent to each other, even between syllable boundaries. If this situation occurs through affixation, only the first will be kept, the others will be dropped.

All vowels can be long (marked with an acute) and if they are, the syllable they are in is stressed. If there are two long vowels in the same word, the first one gets primary stress. High vowels cannot appear in unstressed syllables, but when /a e o/ appear in unstressed position they are pronounced [ə ɪ ʊ] respectively. This rule does not apply to syllables that begin with the stop /q/. Vowels /i u e o a/ are pronounced [ɘ o ɐ ɑ] after /q/ (o and a are merged in this position).

[ol bofosh]

This is on my to do list!

[Shrdlu]

Rewamped the Alai consonants

Code: Select all

Alai consonants
t,k,l,n,j,s,x,f,r,h,z,ð,θ,',(b)

This might also be the order of frequency
/b/ is now marginal
There is one true bilabial consonant, /f/
Final /k/ /t/ voices to /g/ /d/ in unconjugated words, however /b/ changes to /v/.
/ð/ /θ/ only occurs inside words.
/x/ is /ʃ/ in certain cases
The only allowed cluster is /sk/ inside words. Otherwise it is CV(C).

^edit: and here are the vowels:

Code: Select all

Alai vowels:
Unchanged short
a,i,o,y,e,u
Unchanged long
aa,ii,oo
Short dipthong:
ai
Long dipthong
aai
Nasal:
ą
Nasal dipthong:
ąi
stressed vowels
â,ê,î,ô
Low tone:
é,ú

[Solarius]

Introduction
Juvelan is a fictional language spoken in an island archipelago. It is neither Indo-European nor Uralic. Instead it belongs to the Azovic language family, which originates in Belarus, but whose speakers have moved in all directions since. Juvelan has heavily been influenced by the other languages of Scandinavia, in all aspects. Some have hypothesized that the evolution of tone in Juvelan influenced the Pitch Accent of Swedish.*
Note: I do not show the orthography, as it is wretchedly archaic.
Phonology

Phoneme Inventory
/ɪ ʏ ø ɛ œ ɑ~ɒ ʌ ɤ o ʊ ɯ u ə/
/p b t d k g q ts dz f θ ð s z ɕ x ɣ ɦ m n l ʋ ð̞ ɻ j ɥ ɰ w ʁ̞~ʕ/

Allophony
Allophony is not a huge feature in Juvelan phonology, but it exists.
ɪ ʏ ɛ ɐ ʊ become i y e a u in closed syllables
Voiceless obstruents are voiced intervocallically.
[ð̞] is unvoiced word finally.

Phonontactics
The essential syllable structure is:
(C)(C)(C)V(V)(V)(j)(C)

Stress and Tone
Stress
Stress in Juvelan is generally unpredictable. Native Juvelan stress is further complicated by loanwords from Swedish, Finnish, and Polish. Thus stress must be memorized for each word.
Tone
Juvelan is a tonal language. There are but two tones:High and low. The low tone comes from historical ʔ*.

Sandhi
Liaison
Juvelan has an interesting sandhi process, which mildly resembles Liaison in French. Thus this process is called Liason by linguists.
In Juvelan it is common to drop final plosives and fricatives if the next word begins in a consonant:
[xɛqʏt tamo] to xeqʏ tamo
[bɪs tamo] to /bɪ tamo/
Ësvälja
Another important process is Ësvälja# [swɛjl]. Voiced dorsal and glottal consonants always vanish intervocallically. The vowel is pharyngealized in its wake.
[lɯgop] to lɯˤop
[tuøɦ] to tuøˤ
It should be noted that Ësvälja is based on phonetic voicing rather than phonemic voicing. Thus:
[tətua] to təˤua
Tone Sandhi
Tones change a whole lot when they neighbor another tone. Perhaps the most notable of these processes is downstepping, where the high tone lowers to a middle tone after a low tone. Another important process is the transformation of the low tone into a rising tone word initially, if it precedes a high tone. There are no other significant processes of note, although some of the dialects have quite a few more.

*This is simply an in-world hypothesis.

[Chaoibhuin]

Something I came up with for a currently unnamed conlang:

Consonants:
Plosive: /p t tˤ k/
Fricative: /s sˤ x h/
Nasal: /m n nˤ ŋ/
Approximant: /l lˤ/
Tap: /ɾ/

Vowels: /i a u/

Allophony: /i a u/ > [e ɑ o] when occurring before or after a pharyngealized consonant. [e] and [o] are indicated in the spelling.

Phonotactics: Syllable structure is CV(C). Words never begin in a pharyngealized consonant. The consonants /p t tˤ k h ɾ/ do not occur in root-medial codas, and /p x h ɾ/ do not occur in root-final codas.

Stress: Stress is predictable, falling on the penultimate syllable of a word.

[Herr Dunkel]

Something I came up with for a currently unnamed conlang:

Consonants:
Plosive: /p t tˤ k/
Fricative: /s sˤ x h/
Nasal: /m n nˤ ŋ/
Approximant: /l lˤ/
Tap: /ɾ/

Vowels: /i a u/

Allophony: /i a u/ > [e ɑ o] when occurring before or after a pharyngealized consonant. [e] and [o] are indicated in the spelling.

Phonotactics: Syllable structure is CV(C). Words never begin in a pharyngealized consonant. The consonants /p t tˤ k h ɾ/ do not occur in root-medial codas, and /p x h ɾ/ do not occur in root-final codas.

Stress: Stress is predictable, falling on the penultimate syllable of a word.

Here pharyngealisation = new POA
Not very awesome, that new POA
I like a systematic system of pharyngealisation, truth be told