2024/10/03 - Phonology Soup II

Continuing from yesterday's work, I will continue discussing sound changes. Firstly, the phonology of the stage we reached should be noted.

Mid-Sound Change Phonology

Initial Onsets: /ᵐb~m ⁿd~n ᶮɟ~ɲ ᵑg~ŋ p t c k l j w/
Medial Onsets: /ᵐb~m ⁿd~n ᶮɟ~ɲ ᵑg~ŋ p t c k b d ɟ g l j w/
Vowels: /a e o i u ã ẽ õ aː eː oː iː uː ãː ẽː õː/
Syllable Structure: (C)V
Stress: final if the vowel is long/syllable is heavy, otherwise on the penultimate syllable
Tone: default low tone, any syllable may be high tone, except those with nasal vowels, or those that precede oral voiced stops; high tones must co-occur with a glottal stop when the vowel is not long

Unlike the ancestral phonology and modern phonology, this language lacks any coda consonants (except /ʔ/, which really can be considered as an excrescent consonant co-occuring with high tone), and now has phonemic tone, though there are some contexts where high tone is forbidden due to its origins. These restrictions will become completely obscured with further sound changes.

Now we will go over the following sound changes that will lead to the modern stage of the language.

  1. Vowel denasalisation: [+nasal +vowel] → [-nasal +vowel]
  2. Mid vowel split: ĕ, ŏ → ɛ, ɔ
  3. Vowel shortening: [+long +vowel] → [-long +vowel]
  4. Glottal segment loss: [+glottal] → ∅
  5. Stop Denasalisation: [+prenasalised +stop] → [+voiced +stop]
  6. Palatal Consonant Shift: ɲ, c, ɟ → n, t͡s, d͡z
  7. Deaffrication: t͡s, d͡z → s, z
  8. Metaphony (1): [+mid +vowel] → [+high +vowel] / _ $ ([+consonant]) [+high +vowel]
  9. Metaphony (2): [-mid -high +vowel] → [+mid +vowel] / _ $ ([+consonant]) [+high +vowel]
  10. Metaphony Phonemicisation: ɛ, ɔ, e, o → e, o, i, u / _ #
  11. Palatalisation: n, t, d, s, z, l → ɲ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, ɕ, ʑ, ʎ / _ [+high +front]
  12. Affrication: t, d → t͡s, d͡z / _ [+high +back]
  13. Non-High Vowel Chain Shift: a, ɛ, ə, ɔ → æ, e, o, ɑ

Some randomly generated words following these changes will now be presented.

*puju → puju
*wikaɲuwo → wigozuwo
*luku → lugu
*jiwi → jiwi
*ɲumjiwma → nejobæ
*kutetpu → kudépu
*kunjecwipuŋ → kijéwibuŋu
*polmi → pubi
*jokjanŋici → jɑ́jogici
*wuhluku → wúlugu
*ticapka → t͡sizáka

[Previous page]
[Next page]
[Back to project main page]
[Back to main page]