External History
This is a reworking of a project I started a while back. It was also called Yinše (sometimes spelled Yinxe). Yinše is an agglutinating language and has tripartite alignment. This is something new for me.
Internal History
Yinše is spoken by a semi-nomadic pastoralists living in a very large valley. They have domesticated a species of sheep which they use for meat and wool. They also have domesticated chickens and dogs. Otherwise, there are no other domesticated animals. They still heavily supplement their diet with game such as rabbit and deer and with fish. The only crops that they grow grapes (which they ferment into wine), onions, and wild rice. They have knowledge of metallurgy, primarily working with gold, silver, and copper. Since tin is rare, bronze is a highly prized trade item.
Phonology
Consonant Inventory
/p p’ t t’ k k’ ʔ/ <p p’ t t’ k k’ ‘>
/t͡s t͡s’ t͡ʃ t͡ʃ’/ <c c’ č č’>
/s ʃ/ <s š>
/m n/ <m n>
/w j/ <w y>
/r/ <r>
Vowel Inventory
/i u/ <i u>
/e o/ <e o>
/æ ɑ/ <æ a>
All vowels may be long and are written double.
Syllable Structure
The maximum syllable structure is CV(V/C). Underlyingly, syllables may be CVVC but they cannot surface as such.
If the underlying syllable is CVVC and is followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel, the coda consonant become the onset of the next syllable.
Ex. *CVVC.V > CVV.CV
If the underlying syllable is CVVC and is followed by a suffix beginning with a consonant, the root vowel shortens.
Ex. *CVVC.CV > CVC.CV
CVV and CVC are counted as heavy (H) syllables.
Ejectives may not surface as codas.
If two adjacent syllables have ejectives for their onsets, the second ejectives changes to a plain obstruent.
If an ejective and a plain consonant are adjacent and have different places or manners of articulation, then the ejectives becomes plain.
If an ejective and plain consonant are adjacent and have the same place of articulation, the plain consonant is dropped in favor of the ejective.
If a glottal stop is adjacent to a plain stop, the plain stop becomes ejective.
If a glottal stop is adjacent to any other consonant, it is dropped.
An affricate preceded by a sibilant becomes a plain stop.
A sibilant preceded by an affricate is dropped.
An illegal coda (e.g. *CVCC) is repaired by an under specified mid-vowel (M) which front/back harmonizes to the preceding vowel.
Allophony
Plain obstruents may be voiced between vowels or between a sonorant and a vowel.
Short, high and mid vowels preceding ejectives and the glottal stop may be pronounced [-ATR].
Vowels preceding a nasal followed by any other consonant may be nasalized.
High nasalized vowels surface as mid nasalized vowels.
Stress is assigned left to right (starting at the end of the word and moving toward the front). Primary stress is always assigned to the first heavy syllable. If there are no heavy syllables, stress is iambic.