Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

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jimydog000
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by jimydog000 »

Code: Select all

+-------------+-------------------+-----------------+
|             | Coronal           | Dorsal          |
|             +---------+---------+---------+-------+
|             | Central | Lateral | Unround | Round |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+
| Nasal       | n       |         |         |       |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+
| Stop        | t       | t͡ɬ     | k       | kʷ    |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+
| Fricative   | s       | ɬ       | x       | xʷ    |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+
| Approximate | r       | l       | j       | w     |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+
Or something stranger:
/m n nʲ ɳ/
/t tʲ ʈ k kʲ kʷ/
/s ʃ χ χʲ χʷ/
/ɾ rʲ ɻ j w/
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Creyeditor »

I really wanted to stop coming up with new ideas.

/m n ɲ ŋ/
/p b t d k g/
/w j/

/i ɪ u/
/e o/
/ɛ a/

The voicing contrast might be one of aspiration word-initially.
/t/ and /k/ are rare
/g/ is uvular before back vowels with a trilled release [ɢʀu], [gʀo]
/b/ has a trilled release before back vowels [bʙu] and [bʙo]
/d/ and /g/ are laterally released before non-back vowels [gʟi], [gʟe],[gʟa] and [dli], [dle], [dla]
Intervocallically, plosives with a lateral or trilled release become lateral approximants and trills [aʙu], [aʙo], [aʀo], [aʀu], [aʟi], [aʟe], [aʟa], [ali], [ale], [ala].

Roots are of the form CV, CVCV or CVCVC. There are no CVCCV, CVCCVC roots.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Hālian »

Lierean, a clong without plosives, because I thought Āirumāli didn't sound elfy enough. :P (Also inspired by the unrelated conscript of the same name; in-universe, it's spoken in the Lier river valley on Daia.) To wit:

/m n ɲ ŋ/
/ɸ θ s ʃ ç h/
/ʋ ɹ j ɰ/
/l ʎ ʟ/

/i ɨ u/
/e ə o/
/a/

There are also four tones, /a˧˥ a˥ a˧ a˩/, which can be carried by any non-fricative phoneme.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Clio »

Been bored at work recently and doodled a few phoneme inventories (for a language family?):

Code: Select all

p t c k
b d ɟ g
f s ç x
m n ɲ ŋ
w r j ʟ

i o e a
gdirroɲ ŋnirroɲ ktirroɲ
ɟekko ɟekond

Code: Select all

   tʼ kʼ kʷʼ Kʼ Kʷʼ ʔ (K etc. are postvelar or otherwise marked dorsals)
   t  k  kʷ  K  Kʷ
m  n  ŋ  ŋʷ
f  s  x  xʷ  X  Xʷ
   z  ɣ  ɣʷ
   r  ʟ  w

i e a o u
fsKʼʷeʟ:ó
mrisXʷtn
xtʼʟau

Code: Select all

p t c k K ʔ
f s ç x X
m n ɲ ŋ
w r j ʟ

a e i o u ə
a: e: i: o: u:

Code: Select all

p  t  tɬ  ts  TS  k    (TS etc. are either retroflex or one half of an apical-laminal distinction)
pʰ tʰ tɬʰ tsʰ TSʰ kʰ
pʼ tʼ tɬʼ tsʼ TSʼ kʼ ʔ
f  θ  ɬ   s   S   x  h
m
w     l   r   R

a e i o u ə
fitɬʼosu
ptɬʼos
θerasa
tkas

Code: Select all

p t   c k
b d
f θ s   x ħ
v    zʲ
  r   j
m n

i   ɯ u   i: ɯ: u:
e ə ɤ o   e: ɤ: o:
ɛ   a ɔ   ɛ: a: ɔ:
ħɛ́ɛ́v kɛ́ɛ́v càm zʲáàm təmɤ́ɤ́ jìtmə
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Flavia »

/n nʷ-m n̥ n̥ʷ-m̥/ н (м) ӈ (ӎ)
/d dʷ-b t tʷ-p tʰ tʰʷ-pʰ/ д (б) т (п) ꚋ (ҧ)
/dz dzʷ-v ts tsʷ-f tsʰ tsʰʷ-fʰ/ ѕ (в) ц (ф) ꙡ (ф̣)
/l lʷ-ʋ ɬ ɬʷ-ʋ̥/ л (в̇) ԡ (в̣)

/g gʷ k kʷ kʰ kʰʷ/ г к ӄ
/ɣ ɣʷ/ ҕ
/h hʷ/ х
/ħ ħʷ/ ӽ
/j ɥ ç çʷ w/ й ҩ х̣ ў

/i ɯ/ и у
/e̞/ е
/ɐ̃/ я
/ɑ/ а

/iː ɯː/ ии уу
/e̞ː/ ее
/ɐ̃/ яя
/ɑ̃/ аа

/˥ ˧/ acute, zero

The second allophone is sentence-initial (=word-initial, this will be polysynthetic), other labialized consonants are spelt with a small ω above.
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jimydog000
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by jimydog000 »

Titus Flavius wrote: 30 May 2021 23:14 ...
/˥ ˧/ acute, zero
It is strange to have high and mid tone, instead of high and low tone. Though it would be fun to have them representing a pitch accent system where you have low tone surfacing through tone sandhi.
In the context of naturalism of course.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Creyeditor »

Some people use mid tones in phonology to represent toneless syllables.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Nortaneous »

/b d k/
/m n ŋ/
/v~w s ɣ~g/
/ɾ j/

/ɛ a ɔ/
/ɯ̆ ʌ̆/
[e o i u] < /ʌ̆j ʌ̆v ɯ̆j ɯ̆v/, [pp tt] < /bb dd/
stress on final nonshort vowel, except final /ɯ̆/ can sometimes bear stress (and be realized as nonshort)
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Protozoan, a protolanguage:

m n ŋ
p t k kʷ ʔ
s h
r~d ʐ~d͡ʐ j~ɟ w~gʷ

i ɨ u
e ɘ o
a

There might also be /ð/; haven’t decided
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Creyeditor »

Is it spoken by Protozoans?
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Omzinesý »

Something that began from Hawaiian style minimalism

p t k ʔ
m n ŋ
s h
ɾ ɟ (intervocally only)
l j w
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Creyeditor wrote: 02 Jun 2021 19:10 Is it spoken by Protozoans?
Yes, the Amoebafolk.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

DesEsseintes wrote: 03 Jun 2021 13:29
Creyeditor wrote: 02 Jun 2021 19:10 Is it spoken by Protozoans?
Yes, the Amoebafolk.
I’d think there’d be some Alveolate dialect.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Vlürch »

It's another one of these "this could be spoken somewhere in the former Soviet Union and therefore uses Cyrillic, by the way it uses letters that are not used together in the alphabet of any actual language and the phonemic-orthographic correspondences match suspiciously well in spite of the weirdness of both the phonology and orthography but who cares??? it's just a conlang bro XD"-type of phonologies that everyone makes at least one of, usually in the early stages of their conlanging journey... [:P] I unironically like this kind of phonologies and orthographies tbh.

/m n ŋ/ <м н ӈ>
/p b t d k q/ <п б т д к ӄ>
/t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʂ/ <ц ч ҷ>
/s ʃ ʂ/ <с ш щ>
/β j x ɣ χ ʁ/ <в й х г ӽ ҕ>
/r l/ <р л>

/ɑ ə ɨ o u/ <а э ы о у>
/ʲɑ ʲe ʲə ʲi ʲɨ ʲo ʲu/ <я е є і и ё ю>
/m̩ n̩ j̩ ɰ̩/ <ӎ ң ь ъ>

/ʲɑ ʲe ʲə ʲi ʲɨ ʲo ʲu/ are [jɑ je jə ji jɨ jo ju] word-initially and after vowels, [i̯ɑ i̯e i̯ə i i̯ɨ i̯o i̯u] after consonants with palatalisation on the consonant.
/ɨ o u/ are [ɯ ɔ ʊ] after /q t͡ʂ ʂ χ ʁ/.
/m̩/ causes preceding vowels to be nasalised, as well as a nasalised glottal stop [ʔ̃] being inserted.
/n̩/ assimilates homogranically to the following consonant and causes preceding vowels to be nasalised, as well as a nasalised glottal stop [ʔ̃] being inserted. Word-finally, it's [ŋ̩].
/j̩/ is usually [ɘ̆] and causes preceding consonants to be palatalised. It's devoiced [ɘ̥̆] between voiceless consonants. Word-finally, it can be realised as simply palatalisation on the preceding consonant if the next word begins with a vowel.
/ɰ̩/ is usually [ʌ̆] and causes preceding consonants to be velarised. It's devoiced [ʌ̥̆] between voiceless consonants. Word-finally, it can be realised as simply velarised on the preceding consonant if the next word begins with a vowel.

/p t k t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʂ/ are often aspirated word-initially.
/n t d t͡s s l/ are usually dental [n̪ t̪ d̪ t̻͡s̪ s̪ l̪].
/q t͡ʂ ʂ χ ʁ/ occur only before /ɑ ə ɨ o u/.
/m n p t t͡s s β r l/ are [mʲ n̪ʲ pʲ t̪ʲ t̻͡s̪ʲ s̪ʲ βʲ rʲ l̪ʲ] when palatalised.
/ŋ k t͡ʃ ʃ x ɣ/ are [ɲ c t͡ɕ ɕ ç ʝ] when palatalised.
/r/ is [ɾ] intervocalically.

Stress falls on the first open syllable of a word. If all syllables are closed, then it's on the first syllable unless the first syllable contains a syllabic consonant; in that case it falls on the first syllable that contains a full vowel (no idea what happens if all the vowels in a word are syllabic consonants, I guess then nothing is stressed). Stressed syllables are pronounced with long vowels.

Gibberish example:
Адєрмяшь вікӎстыҷ ӄоблыҕа сътӄаӈка имшкюрэ щың пуӈеца.
[ɑːd̪ʲi̯ərmʲi̯ɑɕɘ̆ β̞ʲːikm̩s̪t̪ɨt͡ʂ qɔbɫ̪ɨːʁɑ s̪ˠʌ̥̆t̪qɑŋkɑː jɨɕci̯uːɾə ʂɯ̃ːʔ̃ŋ̩ pʰuːɲi̯et̻͡s̪ɑ]
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Omzinesý »

Vlürch wrote: 08 Jun 2021 11:24 /t͡ʃ t͡ʂ/ <ч ҷ>
/ ʃ ʂ/ <ш щ>
I started thinking if it be more Russian-like to flip the letters of the sibilants. But then the affricate letters would not be that logical. Idk.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Omzinesý »

Inspired by Mongilian, I made this.

+ATR/-ATR
i/ɪ ʉ/ɞ u/ʊ
e/ɪ ɵ/ɞ o/ʊ
ɐ/ɑ
There are thus 7 +ATR vowels but only 4 -ATR vowels.

There is also back/non-back harmony of mid- and closed-vowels, correlating with "male words" and "female words".

p t t͡s k ɢ
m n
v ɮ z h
j w
(considering some phonemic palatalization)

- Plosives are voiced after -ATR vowels [b d d͡z g ɢ]. That is basically the only position where /ɢ/ appears, so I analysed it voiced phonemically.

- Fricatives are devoiced before stops [f ɬ s h].
fp ft ft͡s fk fq
ɬp ɬt ɬts ɬk ɬq
sp st sts sk sq
hp ht hts hk (hq) (rarely after -ATR vowels)
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

Some theoretical consonant inventories which, according to Hyman (2007), cannot be ruled out in a principled manner according to our current understanding of phonological universals (hinging heavily on our awareness of Rotokas!)

Stop vs. approximant: (very similar to Rotokas)
/p t k/
/ʋ ɾ ɣ/

Oral vs. nasal: (also fairly similar to Rotokas)
/m n ŋ/
/p t k/

Aspirated vs. unaspirated:
/pʰ tʰ kʰ/
/p t k/

Stop vs. fricative:
/p t k/
/f s x/

No labials:
/n ŋ/
/t k/
/s/
/l/

No velars #1:
/m n/
/p t/
/b d/

No velars #2:
/m n/
/p t/
/s/
/l/

No coronal stops or coronal nasals:
/m ŋ/
/p k/
/s/
/l/
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DesEsseintes
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Porphyrogenitos wrote: 11 Jun 2021 05:08 Some theoretical consonant inventories which, according to Hyman (2007),
It’s one of my favourite papers.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Thrice Xandvii »

Porphyrogenitos wrote: 11 Jun 2021 05:08
No labials:
/n ŋ/
/t k/
/s/
/l/

No velars #2:
/m n/
/p t/
/s/
/l/
Hmmmm. I really like these two. However, I'd be soooo tempted to throw in a random /g/ to the second as some kind of relic leftover of the vanquished velar nasal... or something. Or, for the other one, I feel strongly compelled to toss in a /b/ or /v~w/ just to, again, kinda rock the boat with a random exception. But, I do so like minimal inventories.

Any way, could ya'll let me know just how crazy (or not) this mess of an inventory is? And perhaps some pointers to maybe make it a bit more naturalistic. (I mean, I don't even know if /ɹɣ/ is a sound that exists anywhere!)

/m n nɣ ɲ ŋ/
/p t t͡ʃ g/
/v~w s sɣ ʃ x h/
/ɹ ɹɣ l lɣ ʎ j/

/ɪ i ɛ e ə a ɔ o ʊ u/
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

Thrice Xandvii wrote: 11 Jun 2021 12:46 Any way, could ya'll let me know just how crazy (or not) this mess of an inventory is? And perhaps some pointers to maybe make it a bit more naturalistic. (I mean, I don't even know if /ɹɣ/ is a sound that exists anywhere!)

/m n nɣ ɲ ŋ/
/p t t͡ʃ g/
/v~w s sɣ ʃ x h/
/ɹ ɹɣ l lɣ ʎ j/

/ɪ i ɛ e ə a ɔ o ʊ u/
I would say that in almost all respects it's completely normal and unremarkable. Velarization is not unusual, and a number of languages with velarized consonants have a velarized r-type sound, including Irish.

The only unusual part is the presence of /g/ rather than /k/ - it isn't entirely uncommon to have gaps in voiced-voiceless series of stops, but the tendency is actually the opposite - for acoustic reasons, consonants further front in the mouth "like" to be voiced, and consonants further back "like" to be voiceless. So we might expect something like /b t k/ (as in Arapaho) or /p t k b d/, but having the only voiced stop be velar is odd. Though, I can't say for sure that it's unheard of.
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