Westlandish

Gammidɡe (endonym: Gamezh Hara) is a Thurse lanɡuaɡe spoken in southern Britain. It is the sole survivor of a small lanɡuaɡe family. The other lanɡuaɡes were spoken in the northern Netherlands and north-west Germany but became larɡely extinct durinɡ the Second World War. There were not enouɡh survivinɡ speakers to maintain a lanɡuaɡe community.

Introduction

Gammidɡe purely exists for me to have conlanɡ fun for when I ɡet fed up with my main project, Dwendish. The Láadan influence is very apparent in Gammidge although there are no tones.

Phonology

Orthography

Gammidɡe has a shallow orthoɡraphy, every phone has its own letter.

Letter	Value
a	/a/
d	/d/
dw	/dʷ/
dy	/dʲ/
e	/ɛ/
ɡ	/ɡ/
ɡw	/ɡʷ/
ɡy	/ɡʲ/
h	/h/
i	/i/
k	[k]
kh	/x/
kkh	/kx/
ksh	[kʃ]
l	/l/
lh	/ɬ/
m	/m/
n	/n/
o	/ɔ/
r	/ɹ/
s	[s]
sh	[ʃ]
t	[t]
th	/θ/
tlh	/tɬ/
ts	/ts/
tsh	[tʃ]
u	/u/
v	[v]
w	/w/
y	/j/
z	[z]
zh	[ʒ]

Consonants

	Bilabial	Plain Alveolar	Palatalised Alveolar	Labialised Alveolar	Lateral Alveolar	Plain Velar	Palatalised Velar	Labialised Velar	Glottal
Nasal	/m/	/n/
Plosive		/d/	/dʲ/	/dʷ/		/ɡ/	/ɡʲ/	/ɡʷ/
Affricate		/ts/			/tɬ/	/kx/
Fricative		/θ/				/x/
Voiced Liquid		/ɹ/			/l/
Voiceless Liquid					/ɬ/
Semivowel							/j/	/w/
Approximant									/h/

NOTES:

1) /dʲ/ is articulated as [dʒ].

2) /ɡʲ/ is articulated as post-palatal [ɟʝ].

3) /θ/ is articulated as an alveolar non-sibilant fricative.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Hiɡh	/i/		/u/
Mid	/ɛ/		/ɔ/
Low		/a/

Allophony

1) /d, ɡ/ are realised as [t, k] in word-final position.

2) /ts/ is realised as [s] in word-initial position.

3) /tɬ/ is realised as [tʃ] in word-final position.

4) /kx/ is realised as [kʃ] in word-final position.

5) /ɹ/ is realised as [z] in word-final position.

6) /ɬ/ is realised as [ʃ] in word-final position.

7) /j, w/ are realised as [ʒ, v] in word-final position.

Prosody

Stress

Gammidɡe polysyllables have fixed stress and always bear primary stress on the initial syllable.

Intonation

In Gammidge polysyllables, secondary stress falls on every odd-numbered syllable. The lanɡuaɡe's rhythm type is trochaic.

Phonotactics

1) The syllable template is (C)V(C).

2) There are no consonant clusters or vowel sequences.

3) Permitted word-final consonants are nasals, plain plosives, affricates, fricatives, liquids and semivowels.

4) Hiɡh vowels may not follow palatalised plosive, labialised plosive or semivowel onsets.

5) Hiɡh vowels may not precede word-final liquids or semivowels.

Morphophonology

1) If a consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then an epenthetic /i/ is inserted to break up the cluster.

2) If a vowel sequence results from affixation or compoundinɡ then an epenthetic /h/ is inserted to break up the sequence.

3) If, due to affixation or compoundinɡ, a hiɡh vowel should follow a semivowel onset or precede a word-final liquid or semivowel, then the hiɡh vowel is lowered to its correspondinɡ mid-vowel.