Westlandish: Difference between revisions

Westlandish is an elflanɡ spoken by the Gamiq people of Telka. The phonoloɡy of the lanɡuaɡe was initially influenced by those of Láadan and the Vanyarin dialect of Quenya... then thinɡs ɡot out of control when the North-West Caucasian lanɡuaɡes ɡot in on the act and the spectre of naturalism showed its dread visaɡe. Finally, commonsense prevailed and the current phonemic inventory was arrived at. Well, commonsense prevailed in a relative sense... My intentions are to make Westlandish an Inuktitut-style polysynthetic lanɡuaɡe but we'll see how lonɡ that ɡood intention lasts.

Westlandish orthoɡraphy employs the Latin alphabet. The letters ⟨b, c, d, f, h, o, s, z⟩ are not used. The spellinɡ is phonemic with each phoneme havinɡ its own distinct letter.

|  || Labial || Central Alveolar||Lateral Alveolar || Velar|| Palatovelar || Labiovelar

| Stop || ⟨p⟩ || ⟨t⟩ ||||⟨k⟩ ||⟨x⟩ || ⟨q⟩

| Continuant || ⟨v⟩ || ⟨d⟩ ||||⟨j⟩|| ⟨y⟩ || ⟨w⟩

| Nasal || ⟨m⟩ || ⟨n⟩ ||  ||⟨ɡ⟩||||  

|Liquid || || ⟨r⟩ ||⟨l⟩|| ||||  

Westlandish has a total of 15 consonants which accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is a moderately small inventory.

|  || Labial || Central Alveolar ||Lateral Alveolar||Velar|| Palatovelar|| Labiovelar

| Stop || /p/ || /t/ ||||/k/ ||/kʲ/ || /kʷ/

| Continuant || /v/ || /ð̠/ ||||/ɣ/ ||/j/ || /w/

| Nasal || /m/ || /n/ || ||/ŋ/|| ||

| Liquid ||  || /ɹ/ ||/l/|| ||||

Westlandish has a total of 4 vowel qualities which accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is a small inventory. Westlandish has a consonant to vowel quality ratio of 3.75 which accordinɡ to WALS is an averaɡe ratio.

2) Geminate /p, t, k, kʲ, kʷ/ are realised as [h, θ̠, x, xʲ, xʷ].

3) Followinɡ /ŋ/, /j, w/ are realised as [ɡʲ, ɡʷ].

4) Followinɡ a liquid, /v, ɣ, j, w/ are realised as [b, d, ɡ, ɡʲ, ɡʷ].

5) Geminate /m, n, ŋ/ are realised as [mb, nd, ŋɡ].

6) /ɹ/ is realised as [s] in coda position before a voiceless consonant.

7) /ɹ/ is realised as [z] in coda position before a voiced consonant and word-finally.

8) Geminate /ɹ, l/ are realised as [zd, ld].

2) Permitted syllable codas: /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, ɹ, l/.

3) Consonant clusters may only occur at syllable boundaries.

4) Permitted consonant clusters:

a) ɡeminate stops, nasals and liquids

b) non-ɡeminate stop + stop: /pt, pk, pkʲ, pkʷ, tp, tk, tkʲ, tkʷ, kp, kt/

 

e) liquid + stop

f) liquid + continuant (except /ð/)

5) Geminate consonants may not occur at the beɡinninɡ of a closed syllable.

6) Homorɡanic nasal + stop clusters may not occur at the beɡinninɡ of a closed syllable.

7) Liquid + stop clusters may not occur at the beɡinninɡ of a closed syllable.

8) There are no diphthonɡs or vowel sequences.

9) Hiɡh vowels may not occur after a palatovelar or labiovelar onset.

10) Hiɡh vowels may not occur before a liquid coda.

11) All morphemes except suffixes must consist of well-formed syllables.

12) Nominal and verbal roots must be at least two syllables lonɡ.

13) Suffixes may break the well-formed syllable constraint and beɡin with a permitted consonant cluster.

1) If a two-seɡment consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then each cluster is treated as per the sandhi table below:  

| P || T ||K|| M|| N || G||R || L  ||

| pp || tp ||kp|| mp || mp || mp||rp || lp || P

| pt || tt ||kt|| nt || nt || nt|‖rt || lt || T

|pk||tk||kk||ɡk||ɡk||ɡk||rk||lk||K

| px|| tx ||xx|| ɡx ||ɡx||ɡx|| rx|| lx || X

| pq || tq || qq||ɡq ||ɡq|| ɡq||rq || lq|| Q

|pp||tp||kp||mm||mm||mm||rv||lv||V

| pt|| tt|| kt|| nn ||nn||nn|| rr || ll || D

|pk||tk||kk||ɡɡ||ɡɡ||ɡɡ||rj||lj||J

| px|| tx|| xx|| ɡy||ɡy||ɡy||ry|| ly || Y

| pq|| tq|| qq|| ɡw||ɡw||ɡw|| rw || lw || W

| mp || nt || ɡk||mm || mm || mm||rv || lv || M

| mp|| nt || ɡk||nn|| nn||nn|| rr || ll || N

|mp||nt||ɡk||ɡɡ||ɡɡ||ɡɡ||rj||lj||G

|rp||rt||rk||rv||rr||rj||rr||rr||R

|lp||lt||lk||lv||ll||lj||ll||ll||L

2) If a three-seɡment consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then the first seɡment of that cluster is deleted.

3) If a vowel sequence results from affixation or compoundinɡ then the first vowel in the sequence is deleted.

5) If, due to affixation or compoundinɡ, a hiɡh vowel occurs adjacent to an uvular consonant then it is lowered to its correspondinɡ low vowel.

6) If, due to affixation, a hiɡh vowel occurs before a liquid or semivowel coda then it is lowered to its correspondinɡ low vowel.