The CBB

Some Qiangic languages have uvularized or velarized vowels. I'm not sure that's much more than a question of nomenclature, since the name seems to relate to the allophonic process by which vowels are lowered, backed (and slightly derounded in the case of rounded vowels, it seems) when adjacent to o...

GoshDiggityDangit wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2019 09:05

So /õˠ/ would probably look more like [ɤ̃ˠ], /ɛ̃ˠ/ more like [ɜ̃ˠ], and /ãˠ/ like [ɐ̃ˠ]?

/õˠ/ would be more like [õ͜ɤ̃ ] and so on if it is the coda consonant that causes velarization.

So, the only time I had heard of velarized vowels is the offglide of vowels after velarized consonants in Russian. In these cases the onglide is less rounded and less front than the vowel target, basically approaching [ɨ].

How naturalistic is it for a language to have an auxiliary (derived from a verb meaning do) that takes person/maybe tense (its an agglutinative language so the two are completely separate) that comes after a serial verb construction? It would replace person/tense on the meaning verbs in the constru...

Hi and a very warm welcome from me, I will sort your sound inventory, so that it is easier to see what might be naturalistic or unnaturalistic. Slashes /.../ indicate broad phonemic transcription. Angles <...> indicate orthography. The place of articulation goes from left to right, from labial to gl...

I once again made the phoneme inventory first and started thinking about morphological processes later. So I have the consonant inventory below, and would like to have a Welsh-style system of word-initial consonant mutations. Ideas on how they could form a complete system? pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ b d ɟ g m̥ʰ n...

Just a random phonology I came up with and thought I'd post since I doubt I'll do anything with it: /m n ŋ/ /p t k/ /pˀ tˀ kˀ/ /t͡s/ /s z/ /ʪ ʫ/ /ɸ β j x ɣ/ /h̪͆ ɦ̪͆/ /r/ /ə ɨ/ /á é í ó ú/ /à è ì ò ù/ /áː éː íː óː úː/ /àː èː ìː òː ùː/ With short vowels, tone is only contrastive on the penultimate s...

I agree. Just out of interest, are there cases where implosives lenited but other voiced stops did not?

yangfiretiger121 wrote: ↑

20 Oct 2019 14:48

My setting's Proto-Common language reconstructs with [m, ɱ, n, ŋ]. While [m, n, ŋ → b, d, g] are straight forward, I have but am unsure of [ɱ → v] right now. Is [ɱ → v] or [ɱ → p̪] more likely?

[ɱ → v] is more likely, since [p̪] is rarer.

I forgot to mention that the high-mid /e, o/ weren't merged into a central vowel and that /u/ is separate from /ɩ/. Knowing these, particularly the tidbit about /u/, does your recommendation for /ɩ/ change? Please note, that I use the acoustic terminology (high/low) rather than the oral terminology...

I guess there were intermediate steps for these changes. Also /ʛ/ would become /ʁ/ analogically, right?

My roleplay setting's Proto-Common language reconstructs with three ambiguously-rounded vowel phonemes; high front /ɩ/ (no actual IPA), near-high central /ɿ/ (again, no IPA), and low-mid central /ə̞/. Is it more natural for them to dissimilate into their respective /i, y/, /ɪ, ʊ/, and /ɛ, ɔ/ with c...

Having a little problem with how best to romanize/transcribe the vowels and accent for a conlang. I've got the following vowels: short: /ä ɛ ɪ ʊ/ long: /ɑː æː eː oː iː uː/ closing diphthongs /äɪ̯ ɛɪ̯ ʊɪ̯ äʊ̯ ɛʊ̯/ opening diphthongs /iɛ̯ uɔ̯/ I also have a pitch accent, where a single syllable withi...

Great work. I am okay with the romanization. I like the presentation, too. I haven't been able to read through the morphosyntax. I would like to comment on the phonology part though. Sorry, I am realy into phonology and I would love a bit more text explaining the sounds. Which sounds are phonemic an...

If both Dative and Ablative cases develop a genitive function (either beside a possessive suffix, his-genitive or not), in what kinds of genitive functions could each be used? Rather an innovative than typological question, I think Maybe you could use the dative for animate possessors (alternativel...

Right, that's what I meant, two languages randomly having it means there is some precedent, but that's it. I don't really see how the uvular implosive could become a pharyngeal approximat in one step. How about this? Uvular stops can alternate with pharyngealized velars and maybe this only happens t...

It's hard to say anything about the plausibility of anything involving uvular implosives and the velar click because they are so rare. If you just want to go from *qk to /ʕ/ I would suggest lenition. 1. Assimilation in stop clusters creates geminates qk > qː 2. Geminates plosives become fricatives i...

Okay, I don't have much too add, but maybe some additional perspectives. Structural case marking can develop from differential case marking, These are situation where only some kind of arguments are marked with case. In differential object marking for example, it is often the case that only animate ...

Are there any plausible contexts for a conditional sound change of unrounding u o > ɯ ɤ? And while I've seen iw > ju, how plausible is the reverse change ju > iw (and wi > uj)? And weː joː > wej jow > oːj eːw? I bet there are. I think you were looking for something like: "ju jo > wɯ wɤ", right? Thi...

There are languages where most if not all non-finite clauses look like nominalizations, so yes.