Illi Poko is an English-based creole. I position it on a far-away island of Poko. Illi Poko just means ‘English of the Poko people’.
Its lexicon comes mainly from English but, during language shift, it has adopted many grammatical features from the original Poko language. It approaches a mixed language in that. The most striking of them is a complex class system that affects its hierarchical alignment.
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Phoneme inventories
Vowels
i, u <i, u>
ɛ, ɔ <e, o>
ä <a>
No diphthongs
Consonants
p t ts k <p t ts k>
b d dz* g <b d dz g>
f s <f s>
v z <v z>
m n <m n>
l r <l r>
j w <y w>
*In some lects, /dz/ is merged with /z/.
Phonotactics
Allowed syllables are simple: (C)V(L), where L stands for /l/ or /n/. In coda, /n/ assimilates in POA.
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Substituting English sounds
Most Illi Poko words come from English.
i:, ɪ => i
u:, ʊ => u
ɛ, æ => ɛ
ʌ, ɒ, ɔ => ɔ
ɑ, a (in aʊ, aɪ) => ä
Morphologically simple Illi Poko words are disyllabic, excluding some grammaticalized words.
If the English word has a monophthong, it is repeated in the secons syllable.
Engl. man => mene
Engl. book => buku
Engl. young => yongo
Illi Poko does not have diphthongs. English diphthongs are shared between two syllables so that the coda moves between them in a kind of metathesis.
Engl. night => nati
Engl. boat => botu
Engl. news => nizu
If the English word does not have a coda, a hiatus (a weak glottal stop) appears.
Engl. fire => faia [fä.i.ä]
A similar mirror vowel is added to break onset clusters:
Engl. strong => sotorongo
Edit: The vowels have some autosegmental phonology. Adding actor nominalizer or habitual aspect marker -a, which was borrowed with words like teacher, deletes the last mirror vowel but not other vowels. titsi ‘teaches’ titsa ‘teacher’, but fati ‘fights’ fatia ‘fighter’
-a, by the way, initiates back-ward derivations like fai ‘burns’ from faia ‘fire’.
The following English consonants are preserved relatively similar: p, t, k, b, d, g, f, s, v, z, l, m, n, w, j -a, by the way, initiates back-ward derivations like fai ‘burns’ from faia ‘fire’.
Illi Poko does not contrast POA of sibilants, so:
t͡ʃ => t͡s
ʃ => s
d͡ʒ => d͡z
ʒ => z
Dental spirants are just stops
θ => t
ð => d
English /h/ just disappears.
Many changes also happen to simplify codas.
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Declaration of human rights is a good text in a-posteriori conlangs.
(a very preliminary text, especially in respect with grammar)
Olo yumen bona bin firi en semi in risipete en rati.
all human be.born as free and similar in respect and right
gen giva ede en ondasetende-kozo en masa bievi wi itsata in boroumena.
VOICE.PERFECT give reason and conscience and must behave with each.other in brotherhood