Irulu

[Quark8]

After thinking about the first three conlangs I have presented on this forum for my conworld, I have decided to scrap them, at least for this conworld, and replacing them with a modified version of an older project, called Irulu (Irulu - Iruru [i'ɾuɾu]). This will probably be used as a naming language and maybe, if I decide to write some stories with it, the language of may a viewpoint character.

Influences

Irulu is intended to be non-European, but not unapproachable for people who first language is English or another Western Language. It takes inspiration from numerous sources, chief among them Austroasiatic and Afro-Asiatic, but not in the phonology.

Typologically, Irulu:
Is a fusional language
Is head-initial, with prepositions and adjectives following their nouns, with VSO word order
Will have other features I will list later

Phonology

The consonant and vowel inventories are given below, with representations in the Latin alphabet:

Nasals: /m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ny ng>
Plosives: /p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
Affricates: /t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/ <ts dz ch j>
Tap: /ɾ/ <r>
Approximant: /w/ <w>

Vowels: /i u e o ɛ ɔ a/ <i u e o e a a/

/a/ is central.

Irulu has a simple vowel structure of (C)V, with C being any consonant. Therefore, clusters are non-existent.

Stress is on the penultimate syllable.

/ɛ ɔ/ only occur next to nasals, and the tap and approximant, so nera is [nɛɾɔ], not [neɾa].

/p b/ are labiodental word initially.

Velar stops are labialized word initially. All stops are aspirated word-initially.

Front vowels become back before velar obstruents.

/t d/ are interdental.

/t d/ become palatal [c ɟ] next to /i/.

I am considering adding tones, which would be represented by vowel diacritics, but I have not made a conlang with tones yet, so I am cautious about doing this.

Next up: Nouns. These take influence from Egyptian and Semetic.

[Chengjiang]

Is this patterned off my thread on Chavakani in some way? If so, why? I don't understand. The needs of my language are not the same as the needs of yours.

/p b/ are labiodental word initially.

That seems unlikely. Most of the phonological processes that happen to word-initial consonants fall under the heading of "fortition" in one way or another, while there's no obvious motivator for a shift of bilabial to labiodental. Also, labiodental stops are awkward enough to articulate that in practice I think most people would end up shifting them to bilabial stops, labiodental affricates, or labiodental fricatives.

Nasals assimilate in place of articulation to a following obstruent or nasal.

You say only (C)V syllables are allowed, so how can there be a following obstruent or nasal?

Velar stops are labialized word initially.

That also seems kind of unlikely. It's not an unstable articulation like labiodental stops, but there's just no motivating factor for the shift.

Front vowels become back before velar obstruents.

That's odd but I can sort of figure out a way it might work, if (say) in an ancestor there were back unround vowels, then velars palatalized to something else after front vowels, then back unround vowels fronted everywhere except before the surviving velars. It's kind of a stretch, though.

/t/ is [k] next to /i/, and /d/ is [g] in the same environment.

I can't wrap my head around this one. I could see shifting to pre-palatals, but not to velars.

I think you may want to read up on allophonic processes. Phonemes tend to have allophones according to patterns, and most of those patterns boil down to "segment acquires one or more features (e.g. [+sonorant], [+front], [-nasal]) from neighboring segment". Much of what you have in this post seems unmotivated.

[Quark8]

It was not based off Chavakani's thread, and I appreciate the feedback you have given.

I believe I should have elaborated the situation of Irulu. It is more of a literary language than a a spoken one, and therefore many of these phonological facts are intermediate forms and are rarely spoken by the modern speakers. The labiodentals evolved from pure bilabials, and in most dialects and daughter languages they are always labiodental or nonexistent. I take full responsibility for the problem of nasal assimilation, for I should of double-checked my notes on Irulu before typing them down. I am afraid I favored aesthetic preference over practicality. This is a problem I have often faced these problems in almost all of my attempted conlangs, and I will have to decide. Generally I do better with grammar and syntax than phonology, and my knowledge in the latter is poor compared to my knowledge of the former. I might have to refresh my knowledge of allophonic processes, and will definitely take your feedback into account.

[Quark8]

Nouns and Pronouns

Nouns
At the heart of an Irulu noun is a root of one to five consonants, with the most common being biconsonantal. The root is combined with other consonants of vowels and affixes to convey grammatical meaning. Nouns are no exception. Adjectives agree with the noun in gender and number, and there are no articles.

Irulu has no cases and thus case endings, but it does have five genders: masculine, feminine, masculine animate, feminine animate, and inanimate. The masculine is unmarked, but the other genders are marked by additions to the root. Below is a list of examples of nouns from each gender. The affix is italicized.

Masculine: deda "man" (root D-D)
Feminine: dedake "woman" (root D-D)
Masculine Animate: mikidata "tiger" (root K-D-T)
Feminine Animate: kidate "tigress" (root K-D-T)
Inanimate: jarino "nose" (root J-R-N)

There are three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. There are the same markings for all genders. The singular is unmarked. The dual number is only for parts of the body, marked by the suffix -wa. The plural is marked by adding the suffix -wa/iwe along with a change in the vowel pattern of the word. However, feminine and feminine animate nouns have their own plural, marked by the suffix -wiko.

Pronouns

There is no gender distinction between personal pronouns. Therefore, ketu is either "he" or "she" or "it". There is a politeness distinction in the second person pronouns. Pronominal subjects are added to the verb as prefixes. There is no inclusive/exclusive distinction. Below is a list of pronominal prefixes.

1st person singular: ru-
1st person dual (rare): ka-
1st person plural: ute-
2nd person singular: du-
2nd person dual (rare): da-
2nd person plural: meru-
3rd person singular: ri-
3rd person dual (rare): tika-
3rd person plural: uti-

When a verb has a 1st person subject and a 2nd person object, the regular 1st person prefix is added, while there are three different suffixes for the object. They are listed below.

2nd person singular object: -be
2nd person dual object: -ni
2nd person plural object: -i

Therefore, "We see you (plural)" is utenyedimei, composed of ute-, nyedime, and -i. The pronouns themselves are listed below:

1st person singular: ruge
1st person dual: te
1st person plural: ope
2nd person singular: sika
2nd person dual: daka
2nd person plural: mepari
3rd person singular: ketu
3rd person dual: dataru
3rd person plural: utine

There are also the special 2nd person object pronouns.

2nd person singular object: tibe
2nd person dual object: runini
2nd person plural object: kei

Therefore, "I see you (plural)" may also be nyedime ruge kei, but most pronouns are dropped.

This area of the grammar is not complete at all. It may be revised later.