Newtlang incubator (NP: glot-taolic theory)
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? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈaɪwə]
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Read "incubator" as "scratchpad", really... I just use the title because, really, my conlangs just sort of incubate until I decide to continue developing them.

So here's a bit of a phonology sketch for an updated Elmin:

Consonants:
m n  ŋ
  tʰ kʰ
  t  k
b d  g

r l

There is probably a form of either contrastive palatalization, or iotated vowels — I'm leaning toward the latter — but it's not going to be especially common. /tʰ kʰ/ are written th ch (and /k/ is written c), and /ŋ/ is written ng, or nh intervocalically.

Vowels (and romanization):
i ɨ u  i y u
e   o  e   o
ɛ   ʌ  ea eo
  a      a

There is also a marginal vowel oe [y], because FOUR HIGH VOWELS WHAT HEY! also diphthongs in -i and -u.1

The interesting part is the syllable structure, which is probably best analyzed as (C)V(V)C, where the coda consonant is one of /m n ŋ l r/, which before another consonant assimilates essentially just like the n in Latin cōn, except before nasals where they still contrast. Words can end with vowels, however, and also may begin (and probably also end) with nasal + consonant, so basically the only important restriction I have is that vowels can't come directly before stops. Oh, and there's also a unique pair of diphthongs /ɰm ɰn/ gm gn which can appear intervocalically or word-finally (but not before another consonant, and not word-initially either.)

_________________________
1. Edit: I had no idea how blatantly Korean this was... <eo> as /ʌ/ was the only Korean nod intended, I swear.
? Morrígan Witch Queen of New York
posts: 303
, Marquise message
This is weird. Plausibly weird. I like it.
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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Well, it's an entlang, so plausibility'll be defenestrated in any case. :-)

Allophony
Allophony is fairly prevalent across morpheme and word boundaries, given the divergent syllable structures there. As vowels cannot precede stops, a nasal is inserted before initial stops: bearanna "to be", but túinde mbearanna "I am". Words ending in a liquid assimilate to the following consonant, as canheon "canyon"+Oh, shut up, I'm too lazy to think of real words. but canheom bearanna "there is a canyon". Final -gm or -gn assimilate as any other nasal... except before a nasal where they instead smooth to /ŋ/.
Of course, there's also assimilations that just don't make much sense anyway.

Morphology is mostly unremarkable (basically, most things are prepositive), and wasn't very rigid anyway, so we'll just skip over it.

Stress, which I neglected to mention previously, is antepenultimate. Two-syllable words act like Greek enclitics, putting a secondary stress on the previous word's ultimate syllable. What few monosyllables there are just get ignored completely.

EDIT 1: removed lame grammatical notes, changed stress system
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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Synopsis: Let's start off with a few more notes on grammar and then move on to the druidic descendant.

Adjectives and adverbs are usually prepositive, it seems. Verbs (participles, in effect, although that probably means I'm thinking about this wrong) taking an object follow said object, so mairellëonda ntumbendantur banneanhemmuean "X Y-ing Z"+can't for the life of me think of a good example. Oh, and the verb can be passivized, like any verb, with near. Et cetera. Meh, grammar is less interesting anyway... it all comes down to there being not that much grammatical structure, because it wasn't especially necessary; heck, nouns got left off often as not and if you're shaking your head right now remember that this is an entlang and the descendant will be better.

Moving on to said descendant...

The codename for the descendant is [REDACTED], and if you're rolling your eyes right now remember that I have an entire language family named after the asterisk and also fuck you.

The beginning of Redacted's development was essentially a metric crapton of shortening, which made the phonology a godawful mess. Vowels shorten before two consonants (Elmin is an entlang, so every vowel is long.) Most of the nasals are lost, except initially where they prenasalize and probably end up causing mutation. Syncope applies here, there, and everywhere, shattering paradigms. Nasal clusters smooth into coarticulations. Vowels get mutated every which way at once. Cats and dogs, living together! ...causing mergers to occur everywhere just to sanify the phonology and in the end leaving Redacted with an awful lot of irregularity, which of course didn't level at all because Redacted, being an interpretation of Druidic, is a ceremonial language and MUST BE SPOKEN CORRECTLY

Of course, this is all a general idea of what I want to do with the language, and the actualization will depend on me putting some vocabulary together for Elmin, which may take a while. But hey, it's an incubator, so I'll let it incubate.
? Hâlian the Protogen
posts: 141
, Alípteza, Florida
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What's an entlang?
? Rhetorica Your Writing System Sucks
posts: 1292
, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1
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A lang spoken by Ents.

? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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quoting Rhetorica, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1:
A lang spoken by Ents.


I've long ago learned that the secret to conlanging is refuge in audacity.
? dhok posts: 235
, Alkali Metal, Norman, United States
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PblwaV0.jpg
? Rhetorica Your Writing System Sucks
posts: 1292
, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1
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And sadly, it always will be.

Some day, in the distant future, starting a conlanging thread with a post that contains nothing but phonology will be a bannable offence. In fact, thinking about phoneme inventories at all will be a bannable offence.

But alas, today is not that day.

Don't worry about awful language names during the development stage. My first real conlang (with a grammar) was called Kn, and it never got a different name.
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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quoting Rhetorica, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1:
Don't worry about awful language names during the development stage. My first real conlang (with a grammar) was called Kn, and it never got a different name.

Exhibit B.

I'm torn between keeping the codenames for the sake of absurdism, and dumping them for the sake of something that sounds better.
? Rhetorica Your Writing System Sucks
posts: 1292
, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1
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You'll regret not changing it, I promise.
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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I REGRET NOTHING
? Izambri Left of the middle
posts: 969
, Duke, the Findible League
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quoting ObsequiousNewt, Function, /ˈajwʌ/:
quoting Rhetorica, Kelatetía: Dis, Major Belt 1:
Don't worry about awful language names during the development stage. My first real conlang (with a grammar) was called Kn, and it never got a different name.

Exhibit B.

I'm torn between keeping the codenames for the sake of absurdism, and dumping them for the sake of something that sounds better.

Considering the 'Proto-*' and the '*fish' in that list (at the beginning and the end of the list, respectively) I'll call the protolanguage protoichthys.

btw, I thought the 'proto-star' thing was a play on words for "proto-start".
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/
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Better to call that branch "proto-ichthys"... assuming I'll keep it at all, which I'm sort of iffy on right now. The other branch Proto-*fruit I like better. Turns out obscure fruits make great language names. (Proto-*, by the way, is from the Unix for "all-encompassing".)

Synopsis: Phonology and samples for a new laryngeal language.

I remember once my history teacher explained Hannibal's force as comprising "70,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and, just for fun, 37 elephants." It is in a similar vein that I introduce this phonology, which has 13 consonants, 10 vowels, and, just for fun, 37 laryngeals. Well, okay, not that many, but it's got enough underspecified <h> characters to put PIE to shame. The consonants are p t k q /k_w/ /t`/ f s ṣ m n ṇ l ḷ, the vowels are a ā i ī u ū ai āi au āu, and the laryngeals are h ḥ h̭ r ȟ ḫ x ẖ ħ and h37. Kidding, kidding, the last one is .

Here are some of the other slogans I thought of for this language: "Indic meets Iranian", "Birdlang discovers the letter H", "...and a thousand laryngeals"

And here's a vague sample I pulled out of my hat: H̭tanahħī qusmaxxaiḫ aṣ ḥaṇāthiyaȟ paṭṭikah aṣ fauḫa, kīẖ ẖpawāh̭xas tayȟā laiṣḩ ḩrawiyāuk, ḩi taiḫ aḷaḥāim-h̭i.
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈajwʌ]
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I need to look at Elmin again, because Elmin is pretty (!) and Celtic is also pretty (lol) and if I pulled a Celtic, then I would be happy. Regardless of whether anyone else is.

Elmin, originally the language of the ents of Agrómé Toléith, was adopted and drastically changed by the various other Woodland Creatures. But it also changed somewhat for the ents as well (slowly, but.) So here is a few sound changes between Old and Modern Elmin:

Initial th, ph become /T f/ > /h/
Loss of a nasal when the first preceding consonant is also a nasal. This operates over word boundaries. So tanneombar > tanneobar.
Devoicing of a consonant after a stressed syllable.
Nasals disappear before voiceless consonants, voicing them.
All intervocalic stops fricativize.
Yod palatalizes preceding consonants and disappears.
Loss of intervocalic short /l r w j/.
Vowels in hiatus contract to long vowels.
/y/ > /iu/
Short /e E/ merge to a single vowel roughly between the two. /a:/ merges with /V:/ into /3:/, and /a/ > /V/. /E:/ > /a:/. A chain shift of long /3:/ > /1:/ > /u:/ > /o:/ occurs. Short /V/ is lost universally. Length contrast drops, leaving us with /a e i o u 1/.
i/u/a mutate preceding vowels, creating diphthongs as per Irish.
Syncope happens; the rules as always are unclear.
Any unwieldy consonant clusters are lost and the preceding vowel is compensatorily lengthened. Also, RVNC > RC
-NC- > -N-

mairellëonda ntumbendantur banneanhemmuean > myldh dúnaudh bhannau?
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈajwʌ]
message
I'm not sure I like the above. What I wanted was what noobish me made with these tables:
		COL		PL	COL-PL		NLR
NOM	dôna	dômhia		dôua	dômhiua		dôrua
ACC	dô	dômhi		dôu	dômhiu		dôru
POS*	do	dômh		dô	dômhi		dôr
DAT	dômbeᴴ	dômhibeᴴ	dôubheᴴ	dômhiubheᴴ	dôrubeᴴ
PREP	dôn	dômhi		dôu	dômhiu		dôru
TEM	dôm	dômhi		dôu	dômhiu		dôru
LOC	dôm	dômhif		dôuḟ	dômhiuḟ		dôruf
VOC	dôy	dômhiy		dôuẏ	dômhiuẏ		dôruy


*genitive (combining form) triggers in plural

			COL		PL		COL-PL
NOM	ribhlóna	ribhlómhia	ribhlóua	ribhlómhiua
ACC	ribhló		ribhlómhi	ribhlóu		ribhlómhiu
POS*	ribh		ribhlómh	ribhló		ribhlómhi
DAT	ribhlómbeḟ	ribhlómhibeḟ	ribhlóubheḟ	ribhlómhiubheḟ
PREP	ribhlón		ribhlómhi	ribhlóu		ribhlómhiu
TEM	ribhlóm		ribhlómhi	ribhlóu		ribhlómhiu
LOC	ribhlómh	ribhlómhif	ribhlóuḟ	ribhlómhiuḟ
VOC	ribhlóy		ribhlómhiy	ribhlóuẏ	ribhlómhiuẏ

nomew > dobhé
wôrmôw > loró
nāmvon > ámbo
		aorist		progressive	immediate
_________________________________________________________
	1	dómbhelhé	lórolé		ámbonhé
	2	dómbhelhín	lóroli		ámbonhín
Prs	3A	dómbhella	lórolla		ámbodhla
	3I	dómbhelhrímh	lórolli		ámbodhri
_______	4	dobhé		lóro		ámbo
	1	dobhélhé	lorólé		abóndhé
	2	dobhélhín	loróli		abóndhín
Fut	3A	dobhélla	lorólla		abóndhla
	3I	dómbhelli	lorólli		ámbodhri
_______	4	dómbhe		loró		ámbo
	1	dobhélbhê	lorólbê		abónnê
	2	dobhélbheín	lorólbei	abónneín
Past	3A	dobhélbhela	lorólbela	abónnela
	3I	dómbhelbhéri	lorólberi	ámbonhéri
_______	4	dómbhelbhe	lorólbe		ámbonhe


Because they are pretty.

On the other hand, I would like to consider Proto-Sylgwn.

Suppose Elmin's vowel system was actually a result of ATR: so /e V u/ with ATR, /E a o/ without, and /i 1/ are neutral. This probably isn't how ATR works, but I'm rolling with it anyway.

NC > C. NN > N' (the ' marks fortis, idk what it is.)

ATR correlates with breathy voice, so following stops become breathy-voiced > devoiced. This probably isn't how things work either, but I am beyond caring right now.

I think the vowel system right now does a Tocharian. Perhaps even identically, except that I also want to pull a labialization contrast out of there.

Syncope affects every other syllable; the stressed syllable is the one that is not syncoped.

NC > CC, so now we have /p p: p:' b b: b:'/. The outcome of this varies per position, however:
/p p: p:' b b: b:'/ > /p b b f pʼ pʼ/
/t t: t:' d d: d:'/ > /t t t d tʼ tʼ/
/k k: k:' g g: g:'/ > /ĉ k q ĵ kʼ qʼ/
This is about what Proto-Sylgwn should look like - a bastardized NWC. It's not perfect yet, though. (Where does *g come from? It does need to exist.)
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈajwʌ]
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*túinde > tʷit
*bearanna > bʲana
*mairellëonda > midɮʲawad
*tumbendandur > tʷpʲatadʷ
*banneanhemmuean > baqʼʲamʷyän
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈaɪwə]
message
Note to self: post Weyötiss somewhere (not here, it's more than a scratchpad)

New language: Standard Maat'l

Phonology: /e ẽ u d t b c s W Z_0 H g ɣ/. The language also has ATR harmony, although this is neutralized in the case of /ɣ Z_0 g/. /H/ is not realized, but colors neighboring consonants and vowels—however, it does not affect /ɣ/ or /g/.

zero - dud+
one - udu+
? twabs fair maiden
posts: 228
, Conversational Speaker, [ˈaɪwə]
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I didn't really deal with l/r or gm/gn. So:

gN [ɰN] > ɢN > ɢ (or q)
/k k: k:' g g: g:'/ > /ĉ č k ĵ ǰ kʼ/ (idk the exact identities, but ĉ was probably a sibilant and č an affricate)
/q q: q:' ɢ ɢ: ɢ:'/ > /q q qˤ g kʼ kʼ/

the middle stage of r r' l l' is r ṛ l ɬ, kind of

Cl' > tɬ etc. Cl > tš, Cr' > ṭṣ, Cr > ts
r'C > ṭ. rC > ṭ near high vowels, otherwise > t. l(')C > šC
r(')l > l/ḷ as above, rl' > ɬ, r'l' > ɬ̣
lr(') > r, otherwise as reverse

Also, fixing up the vowel system a bit:

A better system of pairs is (i : ɨ) :: (y : u) :: (e : o) :: (ɛ : ɔ), with /a/ neutral. Thus I can just say that consonants were devoiced before the latter pair (the inverse happened in Oghuz). /a/ was back [ɑ], so also devoicing there. i/ɨ > ʲä, y/u > ʷä, e/o > ä, ɛ/ɔ > e, a > a (but probably e > a later except in some dialect or sth.) Thus:

túinde > *tʷä́idä > tʷid
bearanna > *bésaNa > ban (with irregular syncope of *a)
mairellëonda > *mairäɬä́äda > maiɬad (maiɬd?)
tumbendandur > *tʷäbä́dätʷär > tʷäbatsʷ (tt > t)
banneanhemmuean > *paNeŊä́Mʷäen > paŋamʷ

regmannulluillear > *räqaNʷä́LʷäiLer > qanʷaɬʷiɬ
giellammeramean > *gʲäLaMä́ramen > dɮʲamam

I need to fix the frequencies in my generator, but this is looking better I think
? Nortaneous ? ?????
posts: 467
, Marquis, Maryland
message
quoting twabs, Conversational Speaker, /ˈajwʌ/:
Better to call that branch "proto-ichthys"... assuming I'll keep it at all, which I'm sort of iffy on right now. The other branch Proto-*fruit I like better. Turns out obscure fruits make great language names. (Proto-*, by the way, is from the Unix for "all-encompassing".)

Synopsis: Phonology and samples for a new laryngeal language.

I remember once my history teacher explained Hannibal's force as comprising "70,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and, just for fun, 37 elephants." It is in a similar vein that I introduce this phonology, which has 13 consonants, 10 vowels, and, just for fun, 37 laryngeals. Well, okay, not that many, but it's got enough underspecified <h> characters to put PIE to shame. The consonants are p t k q /k_w/ /t`/ f s ṣ m n ṇ l ḷ, the vowels are a ā i ī u ū ai āi au āu, and the laryngeals are h ḥ h̭ r ȟ ḫ x ẖ ħ and h37. Kidding, kidding, the last one is .

Here are some of the other slogans I thought of for this language: "Indic meets Iranian", "Birdlang discovers the letter H", "...and a thousand laryngeals"

And here's a vague sample I pulled out of my hat: H̭tanahħī qusmaxxaiḫ aṣ ḥaṇāthiyaȟ paṭṭikah aṣ fauḫa, kīẖ ẖpawāh̭xas tayȟā laiṣḩ ḩrawiyāuk, ḩi taiḫ aḷaḥāim-h̭i.

Or you could juh5t write Englih7 in h5uth7 a manner ah6 to underh5peh5ih1y all h3e h1ricatih2h6 ah6 laryndh8ealh6.
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