![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoy) wrote2008-11-15 09:25 pm
The Language Diaries ~ One Vowel
So I’ve been poking a bit at the pídebis’ most common language—all the names I’ve done for their people so far follow this sound system, although I’ve regularized them a bit for the sake of ease of reading in normal stories (taken away diacritics, used equivalents for the taps and other oddball letters).
I have yet to name this language. So far I’ve mostly got the sound system down—but what a sound system!
The idea behind this one was a weird one, mostly inspired by the idea that y cn ndrstnd wrds vn f thyr mssng vwls. Some scripts, like Hebrew and Arabic, even omit vowels from their writing, or at least sort of shuffle them off to the side. So I thought, why not make a language that goes to extremes with that?
So! This language has 25 consonant sounds (I may have to add a few more) and a huge list of ways they can be blended. It also has three tones—high, medium, and low. But it’s only got one vowel.
“So,” I hear you cry, “how does that work? Especially since I’ve seen these names, and there are more vowels!”
Well, that’s because this vowel changes depending on the consonants and the tone in the syllable. Which means that, unless you’re a native speaker and have internalized these rules, you need a cheat sheet, as follows:
| b ß l m p w Θ | d h n r s t ! || | ch g j k R ŋ sh y ‘ |
High | /i/ [í] | /e/ [é] | /u/ [ú] |
Mid | /I/ [i] | /ə/ [e] | /u/ [u] |
Low | /a/ [a] | /α/ [á] | /o/ [o] |
The // letters are the sound approximated into IPA; the [] ones are how I write it.
The top line is the consonant that comes immediately before the vowel. Syllables without a consonant onset (where the vowel is the beginning of the syllable) are influenced by previous syllable’s coda: if the syllable has a consonant coda, the coda acts as the onset for the next syllable as above; if the coda is a vowel then the next one is from the same column. If the tone is the same the vowel is blended into a long vowel; if not the vowel changes accordingly.
It’s actually not as complex as it could be—if I were a true masochist I’d make some other rules, like how after it changes at the onset of one syllable the new allomorph changes again depending on what comes next or whether it’s Thursday or something, but let’s be reasonable, shall we?
So with that, here are some names you can make with it—and the equivalents I use in the stories so as not to scare off readers:
Ŋochu -- Ngochu
Pitréé -- Pitrei
Jondeel -- Jondeil (I did these two so people wouldn’t think it was the long-ee sound; I may change this)
Serwíla Shúlíyu -- Serwila Shuliu (also may add that y back for Shuliu)
Kuyon Heŋojyo -- Kuyon Hengojyo
BilΘa Dénd -- Bilva Dend
Next up, I gotta make, you know, actual words and stuff. Wish me luck …
no subject
And yeah, whenever I have to abbreviate, my approach usually defaults to removing vowels rather than cutting words in half.
no subject
no subject
Have you looked at Georgian? More vowels, but something over 30 consonants. And then there's Bella Coola, which has words that some claim are vowel-less!
I need a language geek icon.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject