The anglicised name of the conlang comes from my nation on NationStates, however, I'm not sure I intend for it to be assocciated with that country. I just liked how the name sounded. If I am happy with the end result, I am probably going to use it as a protolang for a group of nomadic peoples originating from an island chain with a mediterranean like climate. Some will settle on the islands, while others will retain their nomadicism, and with their knowledge of boats and sailing will move to a larger, cooler, more temperate continent, where the language will spread along coasts and rivers as they settle down there.
Phonolgy
CONSONANTS
Aspirated Plosives /pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ/ <ph th kh qh>
Plosives /p b t d k q/ <p b t d k q>
Affricates /tɕ dʑ/ <tj dj>
Fricatives /f v s z ɕ ʑ x ʁ h/ <f v s z sj zj c g h>
Nasals /m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n nj nk>
Approximants /ɹ j/ <r j>
Laterals /l ʎ/ <l lj>
VOWELS
Closed /i ɨ u/ <i y u>
Mid /e ə/ <e o>
Open /a/ <a>
DIPHTHONGS
'Strong' /ai au ei/ <ai au ei>
'Weak' /aə uə eə/ <ao uo eo>
'Strong' diphthongs are roughly twice the length of a pure vowel, and have falling stress. 'Weak' diphtongs are shorter in length and both elements are equally stressed.
ALLOPHONY
- /q/ and /ʁ/ become [g] and [ɣ] intervocalically
- /v/ becomes [w] intervocalically
- /p/ and /f/ become [ɸ] and [h] word initially
- /k/ and /x/ become [c] and [ç] before /e/, /ei/ or /i/
- 'Weak' diphthongs become [ə] in an unstressed syllable
- In any cluster with a voiced plosive, /s/ assimilates to [z]
Syllables have a (C)CV(C) structure, where V can be either a vowel or a diphthong. However, they tend towards open CV or CCV structures, preferring to form a cluster where legal, as opposed to a final consonant. An aspirated plosive loses it's aspiration if it forms a syllable coda, and a plosive isn't released word finally.
Legal initial clusters are as follows:
- Plosive or Nasal + Approximant
- Plosive + /s/
- /fs/, /fɕ/, /sf/, /ɕf/ and voiced equivalents
- Nasal (excluding /ɲ/) + Plosive (assimilates to match point of articulation of nasal)
- /s/ + Plosive (/q/ becomes [g])
- geminates of non-plosives
STRESS
Stress falls on the penultimate syllable of a root word, moving to the final syllable if any suffixes are added to the root. Stress is marked by a lengthening of the vowel, and by a notably higher tone.
I hope to get a sketch verbal morphology up tomorrow, and also the nominal morphology if I can get it worked out in time. For now I can give some ideas I am hoping to incorporate in the Aijean's morphology and syntax:
- mostly agglutinative typology, though with a few fusional and analytical structures
- VSO strongly head final word order
- topic prominent language, with the topic being the first part of the sentence
- very limited distinction tense and aspect (considering three distinctions combining tense and aspect, called past, non-past and perfect)
- voice, evidentiality and the subject marked on the verb, as well as a large number of moods
- animacy system (spirit/abstract, human, animal, edible, inedible) and split ergativity based on the animacy of the subject
- two negative structures, with subtle differences in meaning and/or usage