Yilcho Conlang

[LinguoFranco]

Yilcho is my most recent conlanging project. It's also my first real attempt at trying to make a tonal conlang, so I figured I should share what I have for any feedback.

Let's begin with the phonology:

/m n/
/p t t͡ʃ k/
/b d g/
/s ʃ h/
/l j w~ʋ/

/a aː e eː i iː o oː/

Allophony:

- All non-palatal consonants are palatalized before the front vowels /e eː i iː/. In particular, /l n h/ become [ʎ ɲ ç].
- The /s/ is actually retracted, realized more as [s̠].
- The voiced stops /b d g/ are actually slack voice in their phonation, similar to Javanese. Thus, they should be realized as [b̥ d̥ g̥]. They also have a slightly breathy quality to them, though not as much as actual breathy voiced consonants.

The phonotactics of Yilcho is pretty simple. Most syllables are either CV or CVV, though CVC is also permitted. The only consonants that are allowed in the coda are /n l/. CVV and CVC syllables are considered heavy, while CV is light. Syllable weight doesn't play much of a role in the language other than the fact that heavy syllables are permitted to have tonal contours.

Speaking of tone, let's go over that. Yilcho has the two level tones of high and low. Each morpheme has its own tone, and thus can have one of four possible tone melodies: high, low, falling or atonal. There is no rising tone in Yilcho. For atonal morphemes, they can take either a high or low tone depending on what morphemes they are attached to.

The falling tone is the only contour in the language, and only occurs in two instances: in heavy syllables or if a combination of two or more morphemes create a falling tone. For example, a word like /ko.maː/ can have a falling tone in the second syllable since it has a long vowel. The other instance is if a suffix with a low tone attaches to a stem that has a high tone. If the word /masa/ has a high tone across the whole word, while /ka/ has a low tone, when the suffix /ka/ attaches to /masa/, you get /masaka/ or [ma˥.sa˥.ka˩]. Since there cannot be a rising tone, if a suffix with a high tone attaches to a stem that has either a low or a falling tone, then the suffix also gets a low tone.

Grammar and Morphology:

I don't have much yet for the grammar of Yilcho, but I do plan for it to be heavily head-marking, with lots of verb conjugation. So far, the only thing I have settled on is that questions are marked by verb conjugation.

So far, this is all I have for Yilcho. Feel free to tell me what you thinK!

[Creyeditor]

Interesting tone system. I like it. Simple yet quirky.
Here are some comments, perspectives and questions.
1. Instead of atonal, many descriptions use the term toneless. I think it might also make sense for you to distinguish contour tones (falling on a single syllable) from complex melodies or melody combinations (falling throughout the word).
2. The idea of tonelessness in Autosegmental Phonology is often tied to the idea of spreading. In Yilcho, the high tones and low tones spread onto toneless morphemes. If we continue this idea of spreading, we could also say that low tones spread onto suffixes even if they bear a high tone.
3. I have some questions on possible tone combinations: so what happens if a toneless or high toned-suffix attaches after a root with a falling tone? Do they get a low tone? And what about falling tone affixes? Can they occur next to a falling root? What about toneless roots with toneless affixes? And could high toned prefixes simply attach before a low toned root? Feel free ton only answer some of these, but I though this might inspire you when you get to morphology.

P.S.: I would be really happy if you could provide some concrete examples for tonal alternations as soon as you have enough morpholigy to pull it off.

[LinguoFranco]

Interesting tone system. I like it. Simple yet quirky.
Here are some comments, perspectives and questions.
1. Instead of atonal, many descriptions use the term toneless. I think it might also make sense for you to distinguish contour tones (falling on a single syllable) from complex melodies or melody combinations (falling throughout the word).
2. The idea of tonelessness in Autosegmental Phonology is often tied to the idea of spreading. In Yilcho, the high tones and low tones spread onto toneless morphemes. If we continue this idea of spreading, we could also say that low tones spread onto suffixes even if they bear a high tone.
3. I have some questions on possible tone combinations: so what happens if a toneless or high toned-suffix attaches after a root with a falling tone? Do they get a low tone? And what about falling tone affixes? Can they occur next to a falling root? What about toneless roots with toneless affixes? And could high toned prefixes simply attach before a low toned root? Feel free ton only answer some of these, but I though this might inspire you when you get to morphology.

P.S.: I would be really happy if you could provide some concrete examples for tonal alternations as soon as you have enough morpholigy to pull it off.

The tone system was lightly inspired by Hausa, which, iirc, has no rising tone.

You are correct that if a high tone suffix attaches to a stem with a falling tone, then the low tone spreads to the suffix. I actually haven't figured out what would happen if a falling tone suffix attached to a falling tone stem. I figured one falling tone would just be realized over the entire word.

I could see one of two things happening:

1. The stem keeps its falling tone, while the falling tone suffix becomes a low tone.

2. The stem becomes a high tone, since a falling tone plus a falling tone means that there is a low tone between two high tones, and thus the fall doesn't occur until the suffix.

High tone prefixes usually keep their tone, regardless of whether the stem has a high, low, falling or toneless melody.

[Creyeditor]

The tone system was lightly inspired by Hausa, which, iirc, has no rising tone.

Right, that makes sense. The difference being that Hausa allows Low-High-sequences inside word tone melodies, IIRC.

I could see one of two things happening:

1. The stem keeps its falling tone, while the falling tone suffix becomes a low tone.

2. The stem becomes a high tone, since a falling tone plus a falling tone means that there is a low tone between two high tones, and thus the fall doesn't occur until the suffix.

IMHO, the first option fits better with the general pattern of low tone spreading.

High tone prefixes usually keep their tone, regardless of whether the stem has a high, low, falling or toneless melody.

Again, this looks very naturalistic.

[LinguoFranco]

The tone system was lightly inspired by Hausa, which, iirc, has no rising tone.

Right, that makes sense. The difference being that Hausa allows Low-High-sequences inside word tone melodies, IIRC.

I could see one of two things happening:

1. The stem keeps its falling tone, while the falling tone suffix becomes a low tone.

2. The stem becomes a high tone, since a falling tone plus a falling tone means that there is a low tone between two high tones, and thus the fall doesn't occur until the suffix.

IMHO, the first option fits better with the general pattern of low tone spreading.

High tone prefixes usually keep their tone, regardless of whether the stem has a high, low, falling or toneless melody.

Again, this looks very naturalistic.

I actually had it where Yilcho actually permits a high tone suffix after a stem with a low or falling tone, but I changed it. No reason in particular. I could go back and change it again.

[Creyeditor]

I like it the way it is