West Saxon is a West Germanic language descended from the West Saxon dialect of Old English (called Old West Saxon in the alt-history), and is a sister language of English.
These posts will represent my attempt to compile literally years worth of evolving, sometimes contradictory, notes into the bare bones start to a reference grammar. Any feedback, both on the ideas contained within, and on the presentation would be appreciated. Especially useful would be letting me know when things seem confusing, or where you wished I went into more detail. Hope you enjoy!
PHONETIC INVENTORY
Consonants
Standard West Saxon has a total of 33 consonant phonemes. Voicing is contrastive in stops, affricates, and fricatives (except for the lateral fricative / ɬ / and the palatal, velar, and glottal fricatives). The consonant system is summarized in the table below:
Code: Select all
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| | LABIAL | DENTAL | ALVEOLAR | POST-ALV | PALATAL | VELAR | UVULAR | GLOTTAL |
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| STOPS | / p b / | / t d / | | / k g / | | |
+------------+---------+---------------------------------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| NASALS | / m / | / n / | / ɲ / | / ŋ / | | |
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| AFFRICATES | | | / ts dz / | / tʃ dʒ / | | | | |
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| FRICATIVES | / f v / | / θ ð / | / s ɬ z / | / ʃ ʒ / | / ç / | / x / | | / h / |
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+
| LIQUIDS | / w / | | / ɫ / | / ɹ / | / j ʎ / | | / ʁ̞ / | |
+------------+---------+---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+Standard West Saxon is quite rich in monophthongs, with a total of 15 in stressed syllables (in the most commonly accepted analysis), as well as three inflectional "schwa" vowels, They distinguish 5 heights, roundedness, and a front-back distinction for tonic vowels. Schwa vowels only distinguish two heights and are all pronounced in the center of the mouth. West Saxon's vowel inventory is as follows:
Code: Select all
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| | F-URND | F-RND | CENTRAL | B-URND | B-RND |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| HIGH | / i / | / y / | | | / u / |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| MID HIGH | / ɪ / | / ʏ / | / ɨ ʉ / | | / ʊ / |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| MID | / e / | / ø / | | | / o / |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| MID LOW | / ɛ / | / œ / | / ə | ɐ / | | / ɔ / |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
| LOW | / æ / | | | / ɑ / | / ɒ / |
+----------+--------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+
Diphthongs
Contemporary West Saxon has a large number of diphthongs (15 in total) combining 8 possible onsets and 7 possible codas. Like monophthongs, diphthongs can come in long varieties when followed by a /ɹ/, /ʁ̞/, of /ð/ realized as /ː/. West Saxon’s diphthongs are summarized in the following table.
Code: Select all
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | -j | -w | -a | -ɥ | -ɔ | -ɛ | -u |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ɪ- | / ɪj / | / ɪw / | | | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ɛ- | / ɛj / | / ɛw / | / ɛɑ / | | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ɔ- | / ɔj / | / ɔw / | / ɔɑ / | | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| œ- | | | | / œɥ / | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| æ- | / æj / | | | | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ɑ- | | / ɑw / | | | | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| j- | | | | | / jɔ / | / jɛ / | / ju / |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| w- | | | | | / wɔ / | | |
+----+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
In quite a few of the coming paradigms there will be either an "n" or an "r" written in parentheses. These letters will sometimes drop off depending on the sounds that follow them, much like the "n" at the end of English’s indefinite article, the final "n" in those German dialects subject to the Eiffler Regel, or the mobile nu of ancient Greek.
In West Saxon, Weak N is dropped when followed by a nasal consonant, /ɫ/, /ɹ/, /ʁ̞ /, or a voiced fricative. Weak R is dropped much more frequently, being dropped whenever the following word begins with a consonant sound of any kind. At the end of an utterance Weak N and Weak R are retained.
Next Time: West Saxon's Orthography
