Māngsià: Tonal Conlang

[brnath]

Whats up everyone. So recently I decided to try and create a tonal conlang because I thought it would be interesting. I wanted to think of a way to use the tones to my advantage, so I came up with this:
1) There are three tones: high (¯), rising (´), and falling (`) [the same as tones 1, 2, and 4 respectively in Mandarin)
2) Tone decides the function of a syllable: high tone is a noun, rising tone is an adjective or descriptive meaning, falling tone is a verbal meaning.
3) When a tone follows an identical tone it is pronounced neutrally. If a high tone followed another high tone, the second of the two would be neutral.

With these things in mind, I set up a basic phonology, similar to Mandarin in some respects; it uses initials and finals.
INITIALS: p t th k b d dh g s sh f z zh v ts dz ch j h l m n w y
FINALS: a e ê i o u ia ie iê io iu, ua ue uo
ai ao ei oi iai, iao, iei, ioi, uai uao uei uoi
an en ên in on un ian ien iên ion iun, uan uen uên uon
am em êm im om um iam em iêm imo ium, uam uem uêm uim uom
al el êl il ol ul ial iel iêl iol iul
ang eng êng ing ong ung iang ieng iêng iong iung, uang ueng uêng uong

So, then I just started to build the language. (To write, I'm gonna use chinese-like characters with radicals that show meaning and pronunciation)
Hello (lit. good day) = Siámhāi
How are you? = Diéfuā kam lì ?
Good, thanks. = Siám, miènduōm.
What's your name? = Dié kām ja fàisīn lì ?

In the characters, the left part usually tells the meaning, while the right hints at the final sound of the word.
For example, the words yòn (want), lōn (deer), and tón (new), all have the same right component and different left ones.

What does everyone think so far?

[Thrice Xandvii]

Do you have a phonology worked out (preferably in IPA) for what that romanization stands for? Also, are you familiar with the Leipzig glossing rules? I think it would assist us in better grasping what is going on in your example sentences.

But, from what I see so far, it looks interesting. I haven't seen too many conlangs this heavily inspired by Chinese! 好工作!

1) There are three tones: high (¯), rising (´), and falling (`) [the same as tones 1, 2, and 4 respectively in Mandarin)

Also, I'm a tiny bit saddened that you left out my favorite tone contour in Chinese!

[Porphyrogenitos]

Yes, I very much agree on the IPA and Leipzig glossing rules. They're really not that hard to learn, and they'll vastly improve your conlanging experience. But it looks like you've got a good start.

Personal speculation on the historical phonology of your language: The "high" tone is actually a merged high-neutral tone, since it seems vaguely implausible for a tonal language to have a high tone but no neutral tone (though I'm not an expert on tonal languages). Historically, there were separate high and neutral tones. Due to tone sandhi, when a sequence of identical tones occurred, the second one was neutralized (as you describe). However, when a sequence of neutral tones occurred, the first dissimilated to the high tone - resulting in a complementary distribution of the high and neutral tones, causing them to lose their phonemic status. Maybe this will be helpful for adding some history to the language, feel free to take it or leave it. (Bonus: Since each tone in your language plays a grammatical role, this could mean that there were formerly two separate word classes assigned to the historical high and neutral tones. Perhaps they were both nouns or noun-like, but now that their tones have merged there are actually two separate noun/noun-like word classes that take the high tone, each with different [perhaps just slightly different] rules.)

EDIT: I'm going to pick at a couple more things here.

You have the initials w and y, which I assume are /w/ and /j/. You also have a series of codas that begin with u and i, which I assume are rising dipthongs. Can all initials be combined with all codas? What are the rules for that? Because it would be pretty implausible to have the sequence /ji̯a/ or /wu̯e/.

What does your grapheme ê signify? Does it combine with the tonal diacritics as Vietnamese diacritics do, stacked on top of each other? Because I think you'd have a hard time displaying those.

[DesEsseintes]

since it seems vaguely implausible for a tonal language to have a high tone but no neutral tone

Ok, first let's clarify what you mean here by "neutral" tone. You may be confusing it with a mid level tone.

In the tonal languages I speak and/or am acquainted with, only one (Cantonese) has a mid level tone contrasting with a high level tone and a low level tone. "Level" here refers to a contour that neither rises nor falls during articulation.

Mandarin has no mid level tone, only a high level tone, rising tone, falling-rising tone (or low falling), and falling tone.

Xiamen Minnan has a high level tone and a low level tone.

A "neutral" tone is a tone that has lost its phonemic tone and/or has its tone determined by its environment or intonation. Mandarin and Minnan* both have a neutral tone, Shanghainese has tons of them, but Cantonese doesn't really. Instead, many tones become rising tone under the same conditions that would lead to a neutral tone in the other dialects I've mentioned.

*Actually, I'm not sure about Minnan. There is a mechanism that to me feels like neutral tone, but I speak Minnan badly, and can't really say for sure.

So, if by neutral you mean mid level, then no, it is not unnatural to have phonemic high tone without a phonemic mid level tone. Neutral tones are not phonemic, at least in the sense the word is used in Sinitic languages.

brnath's system seems perfectly natural to me, and I believe it is quite similar to the tone systems of some NW Mandarin dialects.

As for using tone to assign grammatical function, it seems quite fun, but not very naturalistic. Mind you, I've never found that to be an obstacle to trying out an idea.

[Porphyrogenitos]

since it seems vaguely implausible for a tonal language to have a high tone but no neutral tone

Ok, first let's clarify what you mean here by "neutral" tone. You may be confusing it with a mid level tone.

In the tonal languages I speak and/or am acquainted with, only one (Cantonese) has a mid level tone contrasting with a high level tone and a low level tone. "Level" here refers to a contour that neither rises nor falls during articulation.

Mandarin has no mid level tone, only a high level tone, rising tone, falling-rising tone (or low falling), and falling tone.

Xiamen Minnan has a high level tone and a low level tone.

A "neutral" tone is a tone that has lost its phonemic tone and/or has its tone determined by its environment or intonation. Mandarin and Minnan* both have a neutral tone, Shanghainese has tons of them, but Cantonese doesn't really. Instead, many tones become rising tone under the same conditions that would lead to a neutral tone in the other dialects I've mentioned.

*Actually, I'm not sure about Minnan. There is a mechanism that to me feels like neutral tone, but I speak Minnan badly, and can't really say for sure.

So, if by neutral you mean mid level, then no, it is not unnatural to have phonemic high tone without a phonemic mid level tone. Neutral tones are not phonemic, at least in the sense the word is used in Sinitic languages.

brnath's system seems perfectly natural to me, and I believe it is quite similar to the tone systems of some NW Mandarin dialects.

As for using tone to assign grammatical function, it seems quite fun, but not very naturalistic. Mind you, I've never found that to be an obstacle to trying out an idea.

Thanks for correcting me! Like I said, I'm no expert on tonal languages. I did mean mid-level tone, yes, and I guess I had thought that they were more common than they apparently are (in languages with more than just a high-low distinction, anyways).

Sorry for the questionable advice, brnath.

And the infamous Iau uses tone both lexically and grammatically...and many African languages make heavy use of grammatical tone. So, in the form brnath lays out, it's perhaps not the most naturalistic, but it's not implausible.

[svld]

*Actually, I'm not sure about Minnan. There is a mechanism that to me feels like neutral tone, but I speak Minnan badly, and can't really say for sure.

Theoretically there's no neutral tone in Taiwanese Minnan, but neutral tone of Mandarin here is pronunced like it's an entering tone (with mid pitch and glottal stop).

[zyma]

Do you have a phonology worked out (preferably in IPA) for what that romanization stands for? Also, are you familiar with the Leipzig glossing rules? I think it would assist us in better grasping what is going on in your example sentences.

But, from what I see so far, it looks interesting.

Yes, I very much agree on the IPA and Leipzig glossing rules. They're really not that hard to learn, and they'll vastly improve your conlanging experience. But it looks like you've got a good start.

I definitely agree with all of this.

What does everyone think so far?

I think what you've shown so far looks interesting and promising, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.