- Secondary stress types - A) Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong
- 21B: Tense-aspect-mood (TAM) exponence - E) TAM+polarity
So...now is the long-awaited moment in which we will get to decide on (some of) the details of the language's phonology.
Let's have a review of what we know about the phonology so far:
Segmental phonology
Consonant inventory:
/p t k kʼ/
/m n/
/s/
/w r j/
Vowel inventory:
/i iː ɨ ɨː u uː/
/e eː/
/a aː/
/ai au ei eu iu ui ɨu ɨi/
Syllable structure is more complex than CV, but no more complex than CRVC
Suprasegmentals
- Simple tone system (two-way contrast)
- Predictable, weight-sensitive stress, where weight is determined by presence of long vowels and closed syllables
- Stress is unbounded, occurring on the rightmost heavy syllable in the word, and if there are no heavy syllables, it occurs on the last syllable
- Rhythmic trochaic secondary stress occurs, with the left-hand syllable in the foot being strong
Overall typology
- Consistently head-marking
- Lacking a dominant word order
- Productive full and partial reduplication
- Past tense (or other basic TAM marking) is exclusively concatenative
- TAM marking also expones polarity
- Hybrid vigesimal-decimal numeral system
So how will be do it? Suprasegmental phonology, allophony, and phonotactics are deeply intertwined, so it is hard to address one without addressing the other. However, I want to make sure that the project remains collaborative in nature - I don't want just one person's vision to dominate the phonology. So, I am going to open up two different submission categories:
Phonotactics and allophony and Tone-stress systems
We will take submissions for each separately, and vote on each separately. Users may submit as many proposals as they wish. A proposal should consist of a brief, general sketch. Tone-stress systems should aim to be applicable to whatever kind of phonotactics and allophony we select, and phonotactics and allophony should aim to be compatible with whatever kind of tone-stress system we select. However, if we do end up selecting phonotactics and allophony and tone-stress systems that are incompatible in some way, or require some kind of issue to be resolved, that is okay. We will resolve any incompatibilities through discussion and voting.
General guidelines and ideas for each submission category:
Phonotactics and allophony
- Phonotactics and allophony must conform to previously-established facts about the language's segmental phonology (see above)
- We know that the syllable structure is more complicated than CV but no more complicated than CRVC. What is the exact syllable structure? Which consonants may appear in the coda, if any? Which consonant clusters may appear in the onset, if any?
- Are there restrictions on which vowels may appear in different kinds of syllables?
- What kinds of consonant clusters are permitted across syllable boundaries?
- Are there any major allophonic processes? Including any major phonologically-predictable sandhi processes?
- Tone-stress systems must conform to previously-established facts about the language's suprasegmental phonology (see above)
- There is a simple tone system with a two-way contrast. What does this system look like?
- Stress occurs on the rightmost heavy syllable in the word, and if there are no heavy syllables, it occurs on the last syllable. Weight depends on long vowels and closed syllables. How exactly do long vowels and closed syllables define syllable weight? Are there multiple levels of syllable weight?
- Secondary stress is trochaic. How are trochees "built" and how is secondary stress assigned?
Submissions for Round 16 will close at 5:00 PM GMT (12 noon US Eastern time) on Wednesday, March 17.