*I still fully plan on returning to it.
How wrong I was thinking I could revisit a lang without a Phonology overhaul!
So here it is: TLFKAT 4.1 - Epiglottal Epiphany
Code: Select all
p p͡m p͡ʂ p͡ʟ̝̊ m w
p’ p͡m’ p͡ʂ’ p͡ʟ̝̊’
t t͡n t͡s t͡ɬ n s l ɬ
t’ t͡n’ t͡s’ t͡ɬ’
tʷ t͡nʷ t͡sʷ t͡ɬʷ nʷ sʷ lʷ ɬʷ
tʷ’ t͡nʷ’ t͡sʷ’ t͡ɬʷ’
t͡ʃ ʃ j
t͡ʃ’
k k͡ŋ k͡ʂ k͡ʟ̝̊ ŋ x ʂ ʟ ʟ̝̊
k’ k͡ŋ’ k͡ʂ’ k͡ʟ̝̊’ ɰ
kʷ k͡ŋʷ k͡ʂʷ k͡ʟ̝̊ʷ ŋʷ xʷ ʂʷ ʟʷ ʟ̝̊ʷ
kʷ’ k͡ŋʷ’ k͡ʂʷ’ k͡ʟ̝̊ʷ’
q q͡ɴ q͡ʟ̝̠̊ ɴ X ʟ̝̠̊
q’ q͡ɴ’ q͡ʟ̝̠̊’
qʷ q͡ɴʷ q͡ʟ̝̠̊ʷ ɴʷ Xʷ ʟ̝̠̊ʷ
qʷ’ q͡ɴʷ’ q͡ʟ̝̠̊ʷ’
ʔ ħ ʕ
ʔʷ ħʷ ʕʷ
The vowels are a height-based /a ə ɨ/ trio and realisations are determined by surrounding consonants. I won’t go into the details for now.
So what has changed?
- Aspiration has been eliminated as a phonemic contrast. The main reason for this was the romanisation. I was using h which resulted in rather unwieldy oddities like qnhw. Using b d g for unaspirated stops didn’t feel satisfying either, and made the language look like Navajo, thus ruining the TLFKAT aesthetic.
- Labialised coronals are now in again.
- I’ve reintroduced voiced velar lateral approximants. Oddly, this means that TLFKAT distinguishes between lateral and plain approximants at the velar PoA only, which I think is interesting. I intend to make heavy use of the velar laterals. Note that I didn’t add lateral approximants at the uvular PoA (see below)
- Epiglottals! (Or are they pharyngeals? I can’t say I know the difference.) I speak rudimentary Arabic so for now I’ve just added the epiglottals from Arabic along with labialised variants. Now the interesting thing here is that I can have the voiced epiglottal fricatives function as the voiced counterparts to the uvular lateral fricatives since there are no uvular lateral approximants. I think this is neat.
- I haven’t included /h/ and I don’t think I will.
- I like the fact that the retroflex affricates have velar stop components, but I wonder of /q͡ʂ/ might not be nicer? Or even distinguish all of /t͡s k͡s̠ q͡ʂ/?
- I am tempted to expand the epiglottals a bit, by adding epiglottal stops perhaps? I’m not sure though as I’m not very confident producing such sounds.