Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

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k1234567890y
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by k1234567890y »

Porphyrogenitos wrote: 22 Feb 2019 20:42 A weird throwaway toy inventory and a weird rule that appeared in a small question on my phonology homework:

/n ŋ/
/p t t͡ʃ k/

/a e i o u/

t → t͡ʃ / _{a e i o u k ŋ}
wow such a small phonology

I once had a conlang with 6 consonants and 4 vowels, with vowel harmony
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DV82LECM »

k1234567890y wrote: 23 Feb 2019 09:10
Porphyrogenitos wrote: 22 Feb 2019 20:42 A weird throwaway toy inventory and a weird rule that appeared in a small question on my phonology homework:

/n ŋ/
/p t t͡ʃ k/

/a e i o u/

t → t͡ʃ / _{a e i o u k ŋ}
wow such a small phonology

I once had a conlang with 6 consonants and 4 vowels, with vowel harmony
I'm working on Eathut, again. It has seven consonants (sort of), and three vowels. Ironically, I created a syllabary that is actually an abjad that works as a syllabary.
𖥑𖧨𖣫𖦺𖣦𖢋𖤼𖥃𖣔𖣋𖢅𖡹𖡨𖡶𖡦𖡧𖡚𖠨
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Birdlang »

Working on a small conlang as well to use a set of two syllabaries with. The phonology is influenced a little by Japanese in the consonants, and German and Sanskrit in the vowels.

/m n ŋ/ m n ñ
/p b t d k g/ p b t d k g
/f s x~ɣ/ f s h
/ʣ/ z
/j w/ j w
/l/ l
/ɽ/ r

/i y u ə ɛ œ ɔ aː/ i y u a e ȧ o ā
All can be long except /ə/ and /aː/ can be long because those 2 are a length pair. Long vowels are written with a macron above.

Allophone

/n t d k g s ɣ~x ʣ l/ after /j/ and before /i y/ become /ɲ ʨ ʥ c ɟ ɕ ʝ~ç ʤ ʎ/ ň ť ď ķ ģ ś ĵ ž ľ

The syllabary would have 2 types in a manner akin to Japanese.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DV82LECM »

Porphyrogenitos wrote: 22 Feb 2019 20:42 A weird throwaway toy inventory and a weird rule that appeared in a small question on my phonology homework:

/n ŋ/
/p t t͡ʃ k/

/a e i o u/

t → t͡ʃ / _{a e i o u k ŋ}
WAIT! /t͡ʃ/ is phonemic AND down-the-board, alternatively phonetic?!
𖥑𖧨𖣫𖦺𖣦𖢋𖤼𖥃𖣔𖣋𖢅𖡹𖡨𖡶𖡦𖡧𖡚𖠨
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

/pʰ tʰ t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ k͡x k͡xʷ/
/p’ t’ t͡s’ t͡ʃ’ k’ kʷ’ q’ qʷ’ ʔ/
/b d g gʷ/
/ɬ s ʃ χ χʷ ʜ h/
/ɮ z ʒ ʁ ʁʷ/
/m n/
/ɾ j w/

/i ɨ u/
/e o/
/ɛ ɑ/

All vowels shows a two-way length and tone contrast.

Syllable structure is C(F)V(C), where CF is a stop + fricative cluster out of the list /pɬ bɮ ps bz pʃ bʒ pχ bʁ tχ dʁ pʜ bʢ tʜ dʢ/ and consonantal onsets are obligatory. Coda consonants are severely restricted to /ɬ s χ n/, the first three of which assimilate to the voicing of a following obstruent, /s/ becomes /ʃ/ before postalveolars and /n/ assimilates to the POA of a following consonant.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DV82LECM »

YET unnamed...

You all might make fun of me when I tell you where this is from. Fine, I am going to make a language out of what I imagine would be a native, ancestral language for the world of Tangled. (Am not a massive Disney fan, but I am a fan of that movie and had this idea when the movie came out.)

Phonology:
/m n/ <m n>
/p~b t~d~ʔ k~g/ <p t c>
/s~z h~v/ <s h/v>
/w ɾ~l j/ <u/w r/l i/y>

/i u/ <i u>
/e o/ <e o>
/a/ <a>

/ai au oi eu/ <ai au oi eu>
/ja jo ju wa we wi/ <ia io iu ua ue ui>

Onset clusters:
/sm sp st sk/
/pɾ kɾ/

Intervocal clusters:
/mb~m: nd~n: nz ŋ(g)/
/lm lp lt lk ls~ɬ lv/
/zm sp st sk/
/p: t: k: s: l:/
/pɾ kɾ/ (only after prefixes)

Syllable coda:
/-n -t [ʔ] -s -l/

Word only coda:
/-nt -ns -lt -ls -st/

<rapunsel>
[ɾa'punzel]
/rapuns-el/
'flower'-1pS GEN
"My flower"
Last edited by DV82LECM on 28 Feb 2019 18:53, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

DV82LECM wrote: 24 Feb 2019 00:12 WAIT! /t͡ʃ/ is phonemic AND down-the-board, alternatively phonetic?!
Yeah, it was really kind of a broken inventory. Really just intended to get us to write a rule with an unusual combination of features.

And on the topic of features, I'm trying to think of a "cubic" consonant inventory based on a 2x2x2 contrast of three [+/-] features. It's kind of tricky. If you use two of the features on manner of articulation, you end up with only one for place, which is weird. Like this:

[+/-nasal] [+/-continuant] [+/-coronal] (or [+/-central])

/t k~kʷ/
/ɹ ɰ~w/
/n ŋ~ŋʷ/
/z̃ ɣ̃~ɣ̃ʷ/

Idk, and if the nasal continuants were glides they'd probably just merge with the regular nasals, but nasalized fricatives would be extremely unusual to have in an inventory this size.

If I had [+/-nasal] and two overlapping place features, it would produce something...remotely naturalistic. Like a tiny Australian inventory. But what two [+/-] features can interact in such a way that every cell can be filled? Maybe I could do something with [+/-central] or [+/-peripheral] like in some Australian consonants, but what could I cross that with? Maybe [+/-dorsal]?

/t c/
/p k/
/n ɲ/
/m ŋ/

I guess that technically works, but it seems kind of weird to cross [+/-central] with [+/-dorsal]. Oh well. Just a weird little puzzle I made for myself.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by cedh »

What about [+/-nasal], [+/-dorsal], [+/-labial], giving something like the following?
/p t/
/kʷ k/
/m n/
/ŋʷ ŋ/

This could even be expanded to vowels:
/y i/
/u ɑ/
/ỹ ĩ/
/ũ ɑ̃/


Or else, [+/-voiced], [+/-continuant], [+/-labial]:
/p t~k/
/b~m d~ɡ~n~ŋ/
/f s~ʃ~x~h/
/w r~l~j/

Depending on whether you count nasals as stops (as most phonological theories do) or as continuants (because they can easily be syllabic), [m n~ŋ] might also be possible allophones of /w r~l~j/ instead.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Creyeditor »

I always thought that [+/-sonorant],[+/-continuant] and [+/-alveolar] is the perfect cube.

/n ŋʷ~m/ [+sonorant,-continuant]
/t kʷ~p/ [-sonorant,-continuant]
/s xʷ~f/ [-sonorant,+continuant]
/j w/ [+sonorant,+continuant]

For vowels, you can substitute height features for stricture featues (and alveolar for [+/-front]) and you will still get something sensible.

/i u/ [+high,+tense]
/ɪ ʊ/ [+high,-tense]
/e o/ [-high,+tense]
/æ ɑ/ [-high,-tense]

If you start from the classic Turkish vowel cube on the other hand you will get something entirely different.

[-round][+round][-round][+round]
[-back,+back]
/i y ɨ u/ [+high]
/e ø a o/ [-high]

Assuming that [+/-high] still corresponds to [+/- sonorant] and that [+/-round] becomes [+/-labial(ized)]. Also [+/-back] could become [+/- dorsal]. This would yield the following:

/p t k kʷ/ [-sonorant]
/m n j w/ [+sonorant]

Still looks okay, I think.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Porphyrogenitos »

cedh wrote: 28 Feb 2019 08:45 What about [+/-nasal], [+/-dorsal], [+/-labial], giving something like the following?
/p t/
/kʷ k/
/m n/
/ŋʷ ŋ/

Or else, [+/-voiced], [+/-continuant], [+/-labial]:
/p t~k/
/b~m d~ɡ~n~ŋ/
/f s~ʃ~x~h/
/w r~l~j/
Creyeditor wrote: 28 Feb 2019 22:21 I always thought that [+/-sonorant],[+/-continuant] and [+/-alveolar] is the perfect cube.

/n ŋʷ~m/ [+sonorant,-continuant]
/t kʷ~p/ [-sonorant,-continuant]
/s xʷ~f/ [-sonorant,+continuant]
/j w/ [+sonorant,+continuant]
These are all great! Better than what I came up with. Now I wonder if a "hypercubic" 2x2x2x2 system is possible. Well, if you add secondary articulations, like [+/-glottalized] or [+/-palatalized] it would be fairly easy, but I wonder if there's another "basic" feature that could be introduced.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

/p t t͡ʃ k kʷ q/ (the "stops")
/v l j ɣ ɣʷ ʁ/ (the "continuants")
/m n ɲ ŋ ŋʷ (ɴ)/ (the nasals)

The continuants are devoiced to /f ɬ ʃ x xʷ χ/ respectively when they occur geminated or before a stop. /ɴ/ is fairly marginal - its distribution is explained below.

/i ə u/
/a/

Syllable structure is CV(C)(C), of which only the stops and nasals bar /ɴ/ may occur in the coda singly, and coda clusters are restricted to continuant or nasal plus stop, where the nasal assimilates to the POA of the stop. Additionally in intervocalic position geminates consonants are permitted, and geminate stops may also have a preceding continuant/nasal as in codas.

There are some distributional restrictions on which consonants can occur word-initially, namely that only the stops and nasals bar /ɴ/ may appear in this position. /ɴ/ itself only ever appears as a geminate or preceding /q/.

There are several radical assimilation processes which help explain these distributions. Firstly place assimilation - the stops and nasals assimilate in place to any following consonant (e.g. /qaŋut + kin/ > /qaŋukːin/, /muliɲ + ŋʷa/ > /muliŋːʷa/). Secondly manner assimilation - after place assimilation takes place, a continuant assimilates to the preceding nasal (e.g. /kʷatən + ʁa/ > /kʷatəɴːa/) and a nasal or continuant to the preceding stop (e.g. /t͡ʃiɬp + nuŋ/ > /t͡ʃiɬtːuŋ/).
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Frislander wrote: 01 Mar 2019 01:49 /p t t͡ʃ k kʷ q/ (the "stops")
/v l j ɣ ɣʷ ʁ/ (the "continuants")
/m n ɲ ŋ ŋʷ (ɴ)/ (the nasals)

The continuants are devoiced to /f ɬ ʃ x xʷ χ/ respectively when they occur geminated or before a stop.
Blesséd be for posting this at this very moment, Fris. I’m revisiting an old conlang of mine, and this gave me exactly the ideas I needed. :mrgreen:
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by LinguoFranco »

/m n ɲ ŋ/
/p t c k ʔ/
/mb nd ŋɟ ŋg/
/f s ɕ x θ/
/l ʀ/
/ʋ ɥ/
/t͡s t͡ɕ/

/i iː u uː/
/a aː/

I don't know if it is odd to have palatals, but no /j/. /mb nd ŋɟ ŋg/ are supposed to be prenasalized, but I don't know how to type that. It's syllable structure is CV(S), where S stands for any sonorant.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Creyeditor »

Porphyrogenitos wrote: 01 Mar 2019 00:48 Now I wonder if a "hypercubic" 2x2x2x2 system is possible. Well, if you add secondary articulations, like [+/-glottalized] or [+/-palatalized] it would be fairly easy, but I wonder if there's another "basic" feature that could be introduced.
So, I think the combination of the two I had above yields something sensible, though it includes labialization.

[-dorsal][-dorsal][+dorsal][+dorsal]
[+labial][-labial][-labial][+labial]
/p t k kʷ/ [-sonorant,-continuant]
/f s x xʷ/ [-sonorant,+continuant]
/m n ŋ ŋʷ/ [+sonorant,-continuant]
/β̞ l ɰ~j w/ [+sonorant,+continuant]

The resulting vowel system would also be a combination of the ones above.

[-round][+round][-round][+round]
[-back,+back]
/i y ɨ u/ [+high,+tense]
/ɪ ʏ ɨ̈ ʊ/ [+high,-tense]
/e ø ə o/ [-high,+tense]
/ɛ œ ɑ ɒ/ [-high,-tense]

IMHO, these look a bit strange. One way to avoid the labialization is to come up with new binary place features. I thought maybe [+/- dorsal] and [+/-coronal]. The combination of [+dorsal] and [+coronal] could be palatals and postalveolars. [+/-coronal] could be translated for vowels as [+/-front] with [+back,+front] combinations yieldings diphthongs.

[-dorsal][-dorsal][+dorsal][+dorsal]
[-coronal][+coronal][+coronal][-coronal]
/p t c k/ [-sonorant,-continuant]
/f s ʃ x/ [-sonorant,+continuant]
/m n ɲ ŋ/ [+sonorant,-continuant]
/w l j ɰ~h/ [+sonorant,+continuant]

[+front][-front][-front][+front]
[-back,+back]
/i ɨ u uɪ̯/ [+high,+tense]
/ɪ ɨ̈ ʊ ʊɪ̯/ [+high,-tense]
/e ə o oɪ̯/ [-high,+tense]
/ɛ ɑ ɒ aɪ̯/ [-high,-tense]

The diphthongs are a bit weird though. Maybe one could add more manner/height features instead.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Birdlang »

An unnamed Slavic language.
/m n ɲ/ m n ń/ň
/p b t d c ɟ k g/ p b t d ť ď k g
/f v s z ʃ ʒ ɕ ʑ x ɣ/ f w s z š ž ś ź ch h
/ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ ʨ ʥ/ c dz č dž ć dź
/j w/ j ł/ŭ/v
/l ʎ/ l ĺ/ľ
/r r̝/ r ŕ/ř

/i y ɨ u e o œ a/ i ü y u e o ö a
The long vowels are written with an acute.
/aː/ á
The umlauted long vowels are marked with a double acute.
/œː yː/ ő ű
/ɔ̃ æ̃/ ą ę
/ɔ̃ː æ̃ː/ ǎ ě
I mixed Czech, Polish and Hungarian orthography together. It is spoken in Slovakia and Czech Republic and would be similar to Czech and Slovak.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

/p t ɬ ʂ t͡ʃ k kʷ/
/β ð l ʐ j ɣ ɣʷ/
/m n/
/ɾ/

Out of these only /t ɬ ʂ t͡ʃ k kʷ m n/ occur word-initially in native words, while /p/ occurs word-initially in loanwords.

/i ɨ u/
/a ɔ/

/a/ merges with /ɔ/ and /ɨ/ merges with /u/ before labivelars.

Syllable structure is (C)V(N), where the only permissible clusters are NT, where T is a voiceless obstruent and N assimilates to the POA of the following stop.

There is a process of lenition which takes place when certain prefixes are added to a root. The alternations consist of the following.

Code: Select all

t  ð
ɬ  l
ʂ  ʐ
t͡ʃ  j
k  ɣ
kʷ ɣʷ
m  β
n  ɾ
With vowel-initial roots in the same contexts assimilations occur. These consist of the following:

Code: Select all

  i  ɨ  u  a  ɔ
i i  iu iu ia iɔ
ɨ ui ɨ  u  ua uɔ
u ui u  u  ua uɔ
a ai a  au a  ɔ
ɔ ɔi ɔ  ɔu ɔ  ɔ
With prefixes that don't trigger lenition, -p- is inserted before a vowel-initial root.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

Can’t sleep so decided to post this.

This is inspired by - but hopefully differs substantially from - the wildly popular Akiatu over on the ZBB:

/m n ŋ/ m n ng
/p t k q ʔ/ p t k q ’
/f s x/ f s h
/v r ɣ/ v r g
/j w/ j w

/a e i ɔ u ʌ ɯ/ a e i o u ė į

e only occurs in the combinations je we, or after a coronal (n t s r).

There are probably some diphthongs, including ai au.

Syllabic structure favours open syllables with very few clusters beyond CG. The only permissible word-internal coda (for now at least) is the glottal stop.

Permissible consonant+glide sequences are as follows*:

Code: Select all

mj  mw          ngj ngw
pj  pw          kj  kw  qj  qw  ’j  ’w
fj  fw          hj  hw
vj  vw  rj  rw  gj  gw
*This distribution is probably the greatest Akiatu influence on - and inspiration for - the phonology.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Birdlang »

/p b t d k g/ p b t d k g
/f v s z ç ʝ x ɣ ʜ ʢ h/ f v s z š ž x ǥ ḥ ḩ h
/m n ɳʲ ɳᵍ/ m n ñ ŋ
/ð j ɰ~w/ ð j w
/r/ ř
/ɾ/ r
/l/ l
/ɮˁ~ðˁ/ ẕ

/i y u ʊ/ i y u û
/ʉ ɜ ɒ̞̈/ ů ĕ ä
/e o ɛ ɔ a/ e o ê ô a
/ˈaː ˌaː aː ˈa ˌa/ ā́ ā̀ ā á à
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Frislander »

/p t t͡s t͡ʃ k/
/s ʃ/
/m n/
/ʋ l j/

/i iː u uː/
/eː oː/
/ɛ æː ɐ ɑː/

Syllable structure is (C)(R)V(R)C, where initial clusters are restricted to /p t t͡s t͡ʃ k s ʃ m n l/ + /j/, /t t͡s t͡ʃ k s ʃ/ + /ʋ/ and /p t k/ + /l/, and final consonants are restricted to /s ʃ m n l/, or the clusters /p k m n l/ + /s ʃ/.
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Re: Random phonology/phonemic inventory thread

Post by Auvon »

dgriddlang, australia-style obv

feet are bisyllabic with onset to σ mandatory, so [CV((C)V)] is a foot.

/p t̪ t̺ ʈ c k/ full grade
/β ð ɹ̺ ɻ j ɣ/ soft grade - can't appear root-initially except via gradation (eg: |ügl-kú| has the prefix become an infix for phonotactic consraints, so /güglú/(not ipa to the left, ipa to the right) [ɣɨ̀ʎó], with soft gradation triggered by /gl/ on |k|)
/m n̪ n̺ ɳ ɲ ŋ/ nasal grade
/l̪ l̺ ɭ ʎ ʟ/ laterals - do not participate in gradation
/i ɨ u ə a ɔ̃ i: ɨ: u: ə: a: ɔ̃:/ word level height harmony between a and ä. some lects merge o into this pair of harmonizing vowels
/á a/ tone (well, marked tone; everything has a surface tone ofc, which is low if unmarked) can only appear zeronce or once per foot. ocp prefers that two marked tones are not adjacent, but this is not a highly ranked constraint

paths of gradation are full<>soft(>zero, which is just soft C between two short V becomes VV if this does not violate mandatory foot onset), and full<>nasal. laterals can interact with but not participate in gradation, as seen above

ortho:
<p th t rt tg k>
<b zh z rz j/y g>
<m nh n rn gn ng>
<lh l rl gl lg>
<i ü u ä a o i: ü: u: ä: a: o:> alternatively <e> instead of <ä>
<á a>
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