The Great CBB Speedlanging Weekend VI Thread (June 9th-11th)

[qwed117]

CBB Speedlang Contest VI
Hear ye, hear ye. I declare that CBB Speedlanging Weekend III formally starts now!

Constraints

I have decided on the following constraints

• Greater than 17 phonemes
• Not Past-Present-Future 3 tense system
• More than 1 voicing distinction
• No postvelar consonants (Previously: No gutturals (excepting velars))
• Nonconcatenative morphology suggested for at least one form
• Grammatical gender of some sort
• Palatization and Labialization as allophonemic processes/grammatical elements is disallowed
• A posteriori languages developed as diachronic practice are allowed as long as the previous is followed

The theme of the challenge is... "Cloud"
Optimally, you should put a post explaining how your language connects to the theme. It is not mandated however.

So there we have it.

The constraints are meant to make the challenge more fun and to provide some impetus to explore new combinations of features.

Please disclaimer how much time you spent on your speedlang (I think 1-4 hours would be appropriate) and post what you come up with in the thread.

Anyone can join, even if they didn't state their intent to participate before the constraints were posted.

Happy speedlanging!!

[opipik]

CBB Speedlanging Weekend III

Looks like we're subtracting speedlanging weekend numbers by 2 now

[GamerGeek]

CBB Speedlanging Weekend III

Looks like we're subtracting speedlanging weekend numbers by 2 now

[qwed117]

CBB Speedlanging Weekend III

Looks like we're subtracting speedlanging weekend numbers by 2 now

That's the joke or maybe I just copied this off of DesEsseintes's CBB Speedlanging Weekend III pos

[Nachtuil]

Looks awesome! I won't be able to do anything till after Monday though sadly.
By gutteral except for velars you mean anything deeper in the mouth than a velar right? So a velar approximant or something would be kosher?

[qwed117]

Looks awesome! I won't be able to do anything till after Monday though sadly.
By gutteral except for velars you mean anything deeper in the mouth than a velar right? So a velar approximant or something would be kosher?

[GamerGeek]

or maybe I just copied this off of DesEsseintes's CBB Speedlanging Weekend III pos

Yea, DesEsseintes' CBB Speedlanging Weekend III position was pretty great...

[DesEsseintes]

Just for clarification:

More than 1 voicing distinction

By which you mean MoAs, out of which at least one must be 'voiced'?

No postvelar consonants (Previously: No gutturals (excepting velars))

Does this restriction include barring glottals, or do I get away with including them by saying they are undefined for PoA?

Great restrictions, by the way! I look forward to seeing if I can come up with something.

[qwed117]

Just for clarification:

More than 1 voicing distinction

By which you mean MoAs, out of which at least one must be 'voiced'?

Not necessarily. Just more than two degrees of phonation are required (so a system like PIE would be acceptable)

No postvelar consonants (Previously: No gutturals (excepting velars))

Does this restriction include barring glottals, or do I get away with including them by saying they are undefined for PoA?

You best have a good reason why they should be undefined. Maybe they have gaps that other PoAs don't have. All you need to have is a good reason

Great restrictions, by the way! I look forward to seeing if I can come up with something.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy participating

[GamerGeek]

Does it have to be a priori?

[DesEsseintes]

Does it have to be a priori?

A posteriori languages developed as diachronic practice are allowed as long as the previous is followed

[zyma]

Rixogunə

Phonology:

• More than 17 phonemes.
• More than two degrees of contrasting phonation.
• No postvelar consonants.
• No allophonic or grammatical palatalization or labialization.

/b t tʰ d dʱ k g/ <b t th d dh k g>
/ɸ θ s ʃ x~h/ <f ð s x h>
/m n ɲ/ <m n ń>
/ɽ/ <r>

/i e æ/ <i e a>
/ə/ <ə>
/u o/ <u o>

Basic syllable structure is (C)V. After other vowels, /i e æ ə u o/ are realized as [ji je jæ ɰə wu wo]. When vowels appear word-initially, a glottal stop is inserted before them. Vowels are lengthened word-finally and when stressed. Stress usually falls word-initially. Fricatives are voiced intervocalically, and /m/ tends to geminate. /b/ is voiceless word-initially. /x~h/ is typically realized as /x/, except for word-initially. /tʰ dʱ/ are [tː dː] word-medially for some speakers.

Morphosyntax:

• The tense system cannot be a three-way distinction between past, present, and future.
• Some nonconcatenative morphology.
• Some sort of grammatical gender.
• "Cloud".

The language is nominative-accusative and largely head-final. Unmarked word order is usually VOS. Oblique arguments tend to either come directly before or after the verb.

Plural forms of nouns are formed via ablaut. If the nucleus of the root's first syllable is /i e æ ə u o/ in the singular, it becomes /u o ə æ i e/ in the plural.

There are three grammatical genders: solids (I), liquids (II), and gasses (III). The language's cases are formed with the following suffixes:

I / II / III
NOM: -Ø / -Ø / -Ø
ACC: -tə / -ńi / -ru
GEN: -bo / -sa / -mə
PREP: -gi / -fu / -he

Pronouns, which can act as subject agreement markers on verbs and possessive suffixes on nouns, do not have suppletive forms. Some speakers use genitive pronouns, acting as possessive adjectives, and possessive suffixes at the same time.

he 1 / xə 2 / thu 3

There are five tenses, all of which are formed with prefixes:

dho- = remote past
ki- = past
Ø- = present
ńa- = future
re- = remote future

There are also two verbal classifier prefixes:

mi- = the object is thin
su- = the object is round

These are mostly used for when the object is a solid noun, but can also be used to describe containers of liquids or gasses.

The full verb template is thus TENSE-CLASSIFIER-ROOT-SUBJECT.

Dhomibethathu xəbo xińaxətə hebo neməhe.
dho-mi-betha-thu xə-bo xińa-xə-tə he-bo nemə-he
RPST-THIN-eat-3 2-I.GEN grass-2-I.ACC 1-I.GEN rabbit-1
My rabbit ate your grass a long time ago.

---

This one took about an hour and a half at most. I'm glad there were less restraints than last time. As always, I'll likely revisit this in the future, but for now, I'm happy with what's here.

This is probably the "earliest" I've ever been to one of these, and perhaps the "earliest" I'll ever be.

See y'all in the fall, probably, for number seven.

[Creyeditor]

Roknik

Phonology

Phoneme inventory
/p t k/
/m n/

/i i̤ ḭ u ṳ ṵ/<i ih ik u uh uk>
/e e̤ ḛ o o̤ o̰/<e eh ek o oh ok>
/a a̤ a̰/<a ah ak>

High <ú> and low tones

Allophony
p [p pʰ p͡ɸ ɸ p͡f f]<p f>
t [t̪ t̪ʰ t̪͡θ θ t̪s̪ s̪]<t s>
k [k kʰ k͡x x]<k>
m [b m β w ɱ v ʋ]<b m w v>
n [d n ð r ɾ z l]<d n r z l>

Syllable structure
CV(V)CV(V)

Morphology:
Morphological categories can be indicated by vowel raising (R), vowel opening (O), breathy voice (B), creaky voice (C), high tone (H) and low tone (L). In addition consonants can become voiced (V).

Nouns:
Noun classes can also be used as derivational morphology:
Anim vs. Inanim
Anim splits up into:
-people (-L)
-animals (-CH)

Inanim splits up into:
-Instruments (unmarked)
-Locations (-B)
-Food (-RC)
-augmentatives (-O)
-diminutives (-R)
-verbal nouns (-VB)

Noun class is indicated on:
- the noun itself
- all modifiers
- the verb(s)

Verb
The verbs also indicates aspect/mood
-near perfective (unmarked)
-remote perfective (BL-)
-imperfective (CV(V)CV-reduplication)

Syntax:
Topic-Comment structure
Serial verbs and verbs with dummy objects
zero copula
zero possessive marker

Examples:
/no̰nḭ/ <roknik> man
/po̤mó/ <fohmó> piece of wood
/kṳna̤/ <kuhrah> break

Roknik kuhrah fohmu.
/no̰nḭ kṳna̤ po̤mú/
Roknik-L BL-kuhrah-L fohmo-R
man-HUM PFV-break-HUM wood-DIM
The man has broken a small piece of wood a long time ago. / As for the man, it was breaking a small piece of wood that he has done a long time ago.

Kuhrahkuhrah fohma rokník.
/kṳna̤kṳná̰ po̤má no̰nḭ́/
kuhrah~kuhrah-CH fohmo-O Roknik-CH
IPFV-break-HUM wood-DIM man-ANIM
As for breaking the big piece of wood, it was an ape who did it.

Edit: The allophone are supposed to be little cute clouds in the phoneme chart, basically in free variation (so clouds if you do a graph). The morphemes are floating features, but since some of them involve more than one feature, they are floating feature clouds.

[chridd]

Just noticed this, figured I might as well try it...
Language name: Chiifə /ˈʈiː.fə̤/

Phonology:
/b d̪ ɖ~ɖʐ ɡ/ 〈b d j g〉
/p t̪ ʈ~ʈʂ k/ 〈p t c k〉
/pʰ t̪ʰ ʈʰ~ʈʂʰ kʰ/ 〈ph th ch kh〉
/f s̪ ʂ x/ 〈f s sh h〉

/a e i o u/ 〈a e i o u〉
/aː eː iː oː uː/ 〈aa ee ii oo uu〉

Syllable structure is CV (C is not optional)

Stress is on the penultimate syllable

Unstressed syllables have only /a i u/ as short vowels (distinction between i-e and u-o is neutralized). In unstressed syllables starting with an aspirated consonant or fricative, all short vowels are neutralized to /ə̤~ə̥/ 〈ə〉. Long vowels remain unneutralized.

Native non-compound words have the constaint that they only have either voiced and plain stops ("heavy" consonants), or only aspirated stops and fricatives ("light" consonants), with the exception that words with heavy consonants can include s.


Two genders: masculine and feminine. For humans, this corresponds to their gender (male/man/boy or female/woman/girl), with masculine used for mixed groups of people or unknown people. For inanimate objects, feminine is used for anything that typically flies, swim, or floats, including clouds, rain, birds, flying bugs, and fish, and also for abstract concepts; masculine is used for things that tend to stay on the ground.
Feminine nouns use light consonants, and masculine nouns use heavy consonants. Adjectives change their consonants to agree with nouns, with voiced stops changing to aspirated and plain stops changing to fricatives.


Nouns mark plurality by reduplicating the first syllable, with vowels changing to account for stress. Noun phrases are head-initial (noun adj prep-phrase). Genitives are marked with the preposition sə.
Pronouns are (masculine/feminine):
ko/ho: first person singular
pa/fa: second person singular
ke/su: third person singular animate
gu/khu: third person singular inanimate
kopa/hofə: first person plural inclusive
kogu/hokhə: first person plural exclusive
paba/faphə: second person plural
bosə/phosə: third person plural


Verbs mark, as suffixes, in this order:
gender of subject and object (for ditransitive verbs, receiver is considered the object):
su: feminine subject, intransitive, or f sub, f obj
ke: masculine subject, intransitive, or m sub, m obj
see: feminine subject, masculine object
kuu: masculine subject, feminine object
tense:
pa: non-past
∅: past


Word order is VSO, except in sentences of being, which put the noun first, then the copula "fe" (which doesn't change), and then the predicate.


Some words:
fe: to be
boo: shine
phuusaa: sun
kigu: happy
chiisə: bird
cogee: see
pho: cloud
seedu: shade

Example sentences:
boosupa phuusaa
shine-F-NPST sun
the sun is shining; it is sunny

seedusupa pho
shade-F-NPST cloud
it is cloudy

ko fe kigu
1s.M be happy.M
I am happy (spoken by someone male)

ho fe hikhə
1s.F be happy.F
I am happy (spoken by someone female)

cugeekuu ko chiisə
I see a bird (spoken by someone male)

cugeesə ho chiisə
I see a bird (spoken by someone female)


Use of theme:
I sort of intended the use of voiceless consonants to sound cloud-like somehow, and one of the genders is used (aside from humans) mainly for things in the sky, like clouds.

Spent ~1 hour, and probably less than an hour before that thinking.

[DesEsseintes]

All I came up with is this phoneme inventory. Spent about 20 minutes on it.

/m ŋ/
/p t ʈ c k/
/b d ɖ ɟ/
/ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ/
/l ɻ j w/

/a e i o aː eː iː oː/
/ã ẽ ĩ õ ãː ẽː ĩː õː/
/a˞ e˞ i˞ o˞ a˞ː e˞ː i˞ː o˞ː/
/ã˞ ẽ˞ ĩ˞ õ˞ ã˞ː ẽ˞ː ĩ˞ː õ˞ː/

[GamerGeek]

Just noticed this, figured I might as well try it...

JUST?!?
*looks at post count*
Oh.

[chridd]

Just noticed this, figured I might as well try it...

JUST?!?
*looks at post count*
Oh.

Well, a couple hours before. I didn't notice on Friday, or whatever time before that one could express their intent. Also, I'm not really that active here; I only check occasionally.

[Nachtuil]

Name: Werin /werin/
Time: 3 to 4 hours

As I do these I am learning to just focus on the grammar I need to get the mission done, so to speak. Sometimes I feel like I need to include things that I won't use, though there is some merit in having it I guess. I may flesh this out some more. I have to say using such a simple phonology made the phonemic transcription pretty simple.

Unfortunately I couldn't think of a way to tie in clouds I am ashamed to say.

Edit: I now seriously wish I had thought of making clouds and sky things a noun class! If I were not so adamant to keep the consonants unchanged I would have done voiceless nasals/approximants and aspiration.

Phonology:

Spoiler:

The phonology is lifted directly from phyrgian but with a custom vowel set. You can praise my impressive creativity later, that said, I do like the phonology:
/m n/ <m n>
/p b t d t k/ <p b t d k g>
/ts dz/ <ts dz>
/s/ <s>
/w l ɹ j/ <w l r j>
/r/ <rr>
Fricative /s/ assimilates to the voicing of adjacent stops.
Codas geminate with following onsets.

/i e a ã o õ/ <i e a an o on>
Important note: When a or o precedes a n it is nasalised and the n is not pronounced. The orthography does not always cleanly distinguish between a nasalised nucleus and a preceding onset n.

Phonotactics:
C(R) V (N)
C: Any consonant
R: Only the alveolar approximate may be in this position with stops only.
V: Any vowel
N: Nasal, /s/ or /l/
Syllables always have an onset.

Stress is on the second last syllable or only if monosyllabic. Vowel is lengthened.

The morphosyntactic alignment is nominative accusative.
Word Order:
Imperative mood: V S O
All other moods: S O V

Verb Phrase:
Adjunct - Verb
Adverbs are free to go anywhere.

Noun phrase structure:
Adjectives - Noun -Suffix- Post-positions

Questions:
Binary Questions:
Article/Particle dzam is comes as the first element of a phrase.
Content questions:
Nothing changes but the the content noun phrase or adverb is placed directly before the verb.

Genders:
G1: Food or drink
G2: Other things.
Gender shows up in noun suffixes, adjective endings and pronouns.

Suffix conveys definiteness and gender:
Used only if a noun is definite.
G1: "Gin"
G2: "Bi"

Adjectives:
Adjectives decline for gender with a suffix on the end.
G1: jan G2: ja

Pronouns:

Spoiler:

1st singular: gon
1st plural: gos
2nd singular: ba
2nd plural: bre
3rd gen1 sing: jes
3rd gen1 pauc: tson
3rd gen1 plur: jesem
3rd gen2 sing: ti
3rd gen2 pauc: rretis
3rd gen2 plur: tis

Verb conjugation:

Spoiler:

Four verb forms:
1. Infinitive.
Verb stem + Sos

2. Present/future imperfective.
1st person so
2nd person son
3rd food: sem
3rd other: se

3. Past imperfective.
Initial syllable is reduplicated entirely.
1st person sa
2nd person san
3rd food: sam
3rd other: sa

4. Past perfective
Initial syllable is reduplicated entirely.
1st person: li
2nd person: lis
3rd food: lin
3rd other: li

Adverbs and verbal adjuncts:

Spoiler:

Adverbs can go anywhere in a phrase. Adjuncts differ from adverbs in their strict placement and limited number.

Rem: Perfect aspect
Kel: Used to indicate that something is of an alleged nature or uncertain truth.
Wagol: When used with the indicative this indicates hope or wish (optative mood). When used with the imperative phrase structure this indicates politeness.

"Rem" can precede either "kel" or "wagol" but no other combination is possible.

Temporal terms are used with the non-past conjugation to indicate if something is in the future or the present.

A bare noun is made into an adverb with the addition of "gan"
Adverbs that are negated by turning "gan" into "tagan"

Adpositions:

Spoiler:

Da: Towards
Ki: Away from
Krilpe: At or beside.
Pel: In or inbetween
Sen: Over or on
Rowel: Under

Verbs:

Spoiler:

brosos: To sell something
drisos: To eat something
kresos: To count something
lopisos: Predication copula
salsos: To come/go
tsasos: To possess something alienably.
tromsos: To possess something inalienably.
wesos: Location copula

Nouns:

Spoiler:

brotsom: Market G1
dran: Food G1
dra: Farm G1
gam: Morning (when made definite, indicates tomorrow.) G2
lesi: Day (when made definite, indicates today. G2
dzas: Bread G1
kan: House or dwelling. G2
Nis: A thing/something/anything G1
rrokin: Week (when made definite, indicates this week) G2
tin: Night (when made definite, indicates tonight.)
tsom: A thing/something/anything G2

G2

Adjectives:

Spoiler:

jedza: Large
kil: Small

Adverbs:

Spoiler:

lesigan: Daily
Tingan: Weekly

Other words:

Spoiler:

kaje: Yes
wim: No

Sample Sentences:

Spoiler:

"Bre kiljin brotsombi da salson lesibi?"
/bɹe kiljin bɹotsombi da salsõ lesibi/
2ndplur large.g2 market.defG2 towards going.2nd (morning.defg2)
"Are you going to the large market tomorrow?"

"Wim, gos rem salsalli lesibi"
/wim gos rem salsalli lesibi/
No, 2nd.plur perfect gone/went morning.def
"No, we've been this morning."
(notice use of duplication to put verb into the past tense)

"Lesigan, dran drise dragin krilpe"
/lesigã, dɹã dɹise dɹagin kɹilpe/
Daily food eat.3rd.G2 farm.def at/beside
"They eat food at the farm daily"
(notice the subject pronoun is missing so the verb is not specified for number but just person.

"Rrokinbi gon brotsomgin pel weweli"
/rokinbi gõ bɹotsomgin pel weweli/
Tonight.def 1st.sing market/def at/in was.pastperfective"
Tonight I was in the market.