Some notes on Laqar

[Travis B.]

Nice! This looks like it's coming along nicely!

I'd be love to see the sound changes for these.

The sound changes are detailed under Old Laqar and Classical Laqar. So far I have not made any sound changes between Classical Laqar and Rekə Laqar, as Rekə Laqar exists more as a medium to rework Laqar morphology, even though at the present it is actually very close to Classical Laqar.

[Ares Land]

Thanks! If you use a SCA, how do you handle unstressed vowel syncope?
(I have rules not unlike that one, and I'm pretty sure people came up with a better way to handle these than I do!)

[Travis B.]

Thanks! If you use a SCA, how do you handle unstressed vowel syncope?
(I have rules not unlike that one, and I'm pretty sure people came up with a better way to handle these than I do!)

I don't use an SCA, and anyways stress is kind of complex (but completely regular) in Proto-Laqar, where the heaviest of the last three syllables of a word attracts stress, and stress moves when affixes are attached to words (with the exception of case clitics). That results in a lot of complications in Old Laqar, Classical Laqar, and Rekə Laqar.

[Vilike]

Two questions, as I'm trying to write those sound changes in Lexurgy:

1. Proto-Laqar stress is dependent on syllable weight, but how so? Is a closed syllable with a long vowel heavier than an open syllable with a long vowel? What about open syllable long vowel and closed syllable short vowel?
2. Regarding short unstressed vowel syncope on the way to Old Laqar, what does the environment VC_CV and "applied rightward and leftward from the stressed syllable" means? That every other vowel is deleted before and after the stressed syllable?

[Travis B.]

Two questions, as I'm trying to write those sound changes in Lexurgy:

1. Proto-Laqar stress is dependent on syllable weight, but how so? Is a closed syllable with a long vowel heavier than an open syllable with a long vowel? What about open syllable long vowel and closed syllable short vowel?

Proto-Laqar stress falls on the first of heaviest of the last three syllables of a word. Note that CV:C is heaviest, then CVC and CV: are equally heavy, then CV is lightest.

[*] Regarding short unstressed vowel syncope on the way to Old Laqar, what does the environment VC_CV and "applied rightward and leftward from the stressed syllable" means? That every other vowel is deleted before and after the stressed syllable?[/list]

If all the vowels before and after the stressed syllable are short, and no invalid consonant clusters would be created (only CC is allowed, and only between vowels), yes.

[Vilike]

On the Old Laqar page you wrote that "stress is always the left-most of the last three syllables of a word". But Classical Laqar forms do still have the stress on the Proto-Laqar stressed syllable, so there evidently never was a regularization of stress in the meantime.

If stress is indeed contrastive in Old Laqar, how should it be romanized? The open back vowel /ɑ/ is already romanized ⟨á⟩. Should it change to ⟨â⟩ unstressed and ⟨à⟩ stressed, to bring it in line with Classical Laqar practices? What about the other diacrited vowels?

[Travis B.]

On the Old Laqar page you wrote that "stress is always the left-most of the last three syllables of a word". But Classical Laqar forms do still have the stress on the Proto-Laqar stressed syllable, so there evidently never was a regularization of stress in the meantime.

If stress is indeed contrastive in Old Laqar, how should it be romanized? The open back vowel /ɑ/ is already romanized ⟨á⟩. Should it change to ⟨â⟩ unstressed and ⟨à⟩ stressed, to bring it in line with Classical Laqar practices? What about the other diacrited vowels?

I meant to say that in Proto-Laqar the stress is in the left-most of the heaviest of the last thee syllables of a word. As for how to romanize Old Laqar, feel free to change it to ⟨â⟩ unstressed and ⟨à⟩. As for /ɔ/ change it to ⟨ò⟩ stressed, ⟨ô⟩ unstressed to bring it in line with Classical Laqar. And as for the rounded front vowels, just use double-acutes for the stressed versions.

[WeepingElf]

This is a good diachronic conlang project, with interesting morphosyntactic alignment features. I don't know why I missed this thread all the time, but there are some ideas quite similar to what I am pursuing in my Hesperic project.

[Travis B.]

This is a good diachronic conlang project, with interesting morphosyntactic alignment features. I don't know why I missed this thread all the time, but there are some ideas quite similar to what I am pursuing in my Hesperic project.

You probably missed it because I am very on-and-off w.r.t. working on my conlangs. Much of the time lately I have been working on zeptoforth, so I have not been doing much conlang work.

[Vilike]

I think I got all sound changes from Proto-Laqar to Old Laqar to Classical Laqar right. I tested them on the vocabulary and some cells of the verbal conjugation. Behold, the .lsc file:

Code: Select all

# The * feature value is the default value
Feature type (*cons, vowel)

# Vowel Features
Feature height (open, nearOpen, openMid, mid, closeMid, close)
Feature frontness (front, central, back)
Feature rounded
Feature +stress
Feature +long
Feature +nasalized

# Consonant Features
Feature voiced
Feature place (bilabial, alveolar, alveolopalatal, palatal, retroflex, velar, labiovelar, uvular, glottal)
Feature manner (plosive, nasal, tap, affricate, fricative, approximant, liquid)
Feature +lateral
Feature +labialized, +ejective, +aspirate

#Features for stress and syncope assignment
Feature +coda
Feature +delete

# Diacritics
# "Floating" diacritics are ignored in rules by default
Diacritic ́ (floating) [+stress]
Diacritic ː [+long]
Diacritic ̃ [+nasalized]
Diacritic ʷ [+labialized]
Diacritic ʼ [+ejective]
Diacritic ʰ [+aspirate]


# Vowel Symbols
Symbol i [vowel front -rounded close]
Symbol y [vowel front +rounded close]
Symbol u [vowel back +rounded close]
Symbol e [vowel front -rounded closeMid]
Symbol ø [vowel front +rounded closeMid]
Symbol o [vowel back +rounded closeMid]
Symbol ə [vowel central mid]
Symbol ɛ [vowel front -rounded openMid]
Symbol œ [vowel front +rounded openMid]
Symbol ɞ̞ [vowel central +rounded mid]
Symbol ɔ [vowel back +rounded openMid]
Symbol æ [vowel front -rounded open]
Symbol ɐ [vowel central nearOpen]
Symbol a [vowel central -rounded open]
Symbol ɑ [vowel back -rounded open]
Symbol ɒ [vowel back +rounded open]

# Consonant Symbols
Symbol m [bilabial nasal]
Symbol n [alveolar nasal]
Symbol ɳ [retroflex nasal]
Symbol ɲ [palatal nasal]
Symbol ŋ [velar nasal]
Symbol ɴ [uvular nasal]
Symbol p [-voiced bilabial plosive]
Symbol b [+voiced bilabial plosive]
Symbol t [-voiced alveolar plosive]
Symbol d [+voiced alveolar plosive]
Symbol k [-voiced velar plosive]
Symbol ɡ [+voiced velar plosive]
Symbol q [-voiced uvular plosive]
Symbol ʔ [-voiced glottal plosive]
Symbol t͡s [-voiced alveolar affricate]
Symbol d͡z [+voiced alveolar affricate]
Symbol t͡ɕ [-voiced alveolopalatal affricate]
Symbol d͡ʑ [+voiced alveolopalatal affricate]
Symbol ʈ͡ʂ [-voiced retroflex affricate]
Symbol ɖ͡ʐ [+voiced retroflex affricate]
Symbol s [-voiced alveolar fricative]
Symbol z [+voiced alveolar fricative]
Symbol ʂ [-voiced retroflex fricative]
Symbol ʐ [+voiced retroflex fricative]
Symbol ɕ [-voiced alveolopalatal fricative]
Symbol ʑ [+voiced alveolopalatal fricative]
Symbol ç [-voiced palatal fricative]
Symbol ʝ [+voiced palatal fricative]
Symbol x [-voiced velar fricative]
Symbol ɣ [+voiced velar fricative]
Symbol χ [-voiced uvular fricative]
Symbol ʁ [+voiced uvular fricative]
Symbol h [glottal fricative]
Symbol j [palatal approximant]
Symbol ɾ [alveolar tap]
Symbol t͡ɬ [-voiced alveolar affricate +lateral]
Symbol ɬ [-voiced alveolar +lateral fricative]
Symbol l [alveolar +lateral approximant]
Symbol w [labiovelar approximant]

Diacritic . (floating) [+coda]
Diacritic ^ (floating) [+delete]

#Use of classes for romanization
Class stressed {í, é, è, ú, ó, ò, á, à, ű, ő, ẽ, õ, ã}
Class unstressed {i, e, ê, u, o, ô, a, â, ü, ö, ę, ǫ, ą}

deromanizer:
#Adding the tie bar to the affricates
 [plosive alveolar] [fricative alveolar] => * [affricate]
 [plosive alveolar] [fricative alveolopalatal] => * [affricate]
#Removing hyphens
 \- => *

syllabification:
 [cons] => [+coda] / _ {[cons], $}
 [vowel] => [+coda] / _ {[cons] [vowel], $}

stress-assignment [vowel]:
 [+long -coda] => [+stress] / _ []? []? $
 {[-coda], [+long +coda]} => [+stress] / _ []? []? $ // _ []? [+long -coda]
 [] => [+stress] / _  [-long +coda] [-long +coda] $
 [] => [+stress] / $ _ [-long +coda] $
 [] => [+stress] / $ _ $
 Then: [+stress] => [-stress] / [+stress] []? _

glottal-stop-deletion:
 ʔ => * / [vowel] _ [vowel]

hiatus-resolution:
 * => j / [vowel] _ [front]
 * => w / [vowel] _ [back]

diphtongs-changing:
 {{æː j, ɒː j}, {æː w, ɒː w}, iː w, uː j} => {eː j, oː w, yː w, yː j} / _ {[cons -coda], $}
 {{æ j., ɒ j.}, {æ w., ɒ w.}, {i w., u j.}} => {eː. *, oː. *, yː. *}

unstressed-vowel-quality:
 {i, u, æ, ɒ}&[-stress] => {e, o, ɐ, ɞ̞}

vowel-lowering:
 {[close], æ, æː, ɐ, ɞ̞} => {[closeMid], ɑ, ɑː, ɑ, ɒ} / {[uvular] _, _ [uvular]}
 Then: ɞ̞ => ɐ

deletable [vowel] propagate:
 [-long -stress +coda] => [+delete] / {[+stress +coda] _ [], [] _ [+stress +coda]}
 [-long -stress +coda] => [+delete] / {[+delete] [] _, _ [] [+delete]}

vowel-syncope [vowel]:
 [+delete] => * // {{$, [-coda]} _, _ $}
 Then: [+delete] => [-delete]

resyllabification:
 [+coda] => [-coda]
 Then: [cons] => [+coda] / _ {[cons], $}
 [vowel] => [+coda] / _ {[cons] [vowel], $}
   
monophtongization: 
 {i j., iː j., u w., uː w.} => {iː. *, iː. *, uː. *, uː. *}

vowel-shortening:
 [+long] => [-long]

vowel-contraction:
 {i j i} => i * *
 {u w u} => u * *

simple-change:
 ɒ => ɔ

palatalisation:
 [velar plosive] => [alveolopalatal affricate] / {{i, y, j} _, _ {i, y, j}}
 {[fricative], [affricate]}&[+lateral] => [alveolopalatal -lateral] / {{i, y, j} _, _ {i, y, j}}

to-velars:
 [uvular] => [velar]
 [+labialized] => [-labialized]

sibilanticization:
 {[affricate], [fricative]}&[+lateral] => [-lateral]

romanizer-Old-Laqar:
 [+aspirate] => [-aspirate]
 [+ejective] * => [-ejective] '
 Then: {d͡z, d͡ʑ, t͡s, t͡ɕ, ɕ, ʑ, ɣ} => {j, ǰ, c, č, š, ž, ġ}
 {j, ɾ, ʔ} => {y, r, *}
 {y, ø, æ, ɐ, ɔ, ɑ}&[-stress] => {ü, ö, a, ə, ô, â}
 {i, e, u, o, ɔ, æ, y, ø, ɑ}&[+stress] => {í, é, ú, ó, ò, á, ű, ő, à}
 Then: [+stress] => [-stress]
 Then: @stressed => @unstressed / $ [cons]? _ {[cons], y}? $
 Then: [+coda] => [-coda]

#Classical Laqar

schwa-raising:
 ɐ => ə

uvularization:
 [velar]&{!g} => [uvular] / {{ɑ, ɔ} _, _ {ɑ, ɔ}}

gemination-palatal:
#Couldnt use the simpler copy rule because of the coda feature
 [cons]$1 j => [] $1
 #[cons $place $manner $voiced $ejective $aspirate] j => [] [$place $manner $voiced $ejective $aspirate]!

palatalization-2:
 [velar fricative] => [palatal]

retroflexization:
 [alveolopalatal] => [retroflex]

nasalization:
 [vowel] => [+nasalized] / _ [nasal +coda]

labio-fronting:
 {u j., i w.} => {y j, y w}

big-monophthongaison:
 {æ, ɑ, ɔ} j. => ɛ. *
 {ə, e, o} j. => e. *
 {æ, ɑ} w. => ɔ. *
 {ɔ, ə, e, o} w. => o. *

rounded-diphtongs-go:
 [front +rounded] {w., j.} => [+coda] *

front-unround:
 [front +rounded] => [-rounded]

vowel-palatalization-or-centralization:
 {æ, ɑ, ɔ} => ɛ / _ j
 {æ̃, ɑ̃, ɔ̃} => ɛ̃ / _ j
 [open] => [central open]

debuccalization:
 {[palatal], [uvular]}&[fricative] => h / [cons] _
 [palatal fricative] => [alveolopalatal]

aspiration:
 [+voiced !fricative] => [-voiced +aspirate] / _ [+aspirate]
 [+voiced !fricative] => [-voiced +aspirate] / {h _, _ h}

consonants-disappear:
 [vowel] [cons] {w, h} => [+coda] [-coda] *
 Then: [vowel] [nasal +coda] => [+coda] *

nasal-lowering [+nasalized]:
 [close] => [closeMid]
 Then: [closeMid] => [openMid]
 [mid] => [open]

Romanizer:
 [+aspirate] => [-aspirate]
 [+ejective] * => [-ejective] '
 Then: {d͡z, ɖ͡ʐ, t͡s, ʈ͡ʂ, ɕ, ʑ, ʂ, ʐ, ʁ, χ} => {j, ǰ, c, č, ś, ź, š, ž, ġ, x}
 {j, ɾ, ʔ} => {y, r, *}
 {i, e, ɛ, u, o, ɔ, a}&[+stress] => {í, é, è, ú, ó, ò, á}
 {ɛ, ɔ}&[-stress] => {ê, ô}
 {ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ã}&[+stress] => {ẽ, õ, ã}
 {ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ã}&[-stress] => {ę, ǫ, ą}
 Then: [+stress] => [-stress]
 Then: @stressed => @unstressed / $ [cons]? _ {[cons], y}? $
 Then: [+coda] => [-coda]

It is a bit hairier than I hoped for, mainly because of the +coda feature I implemented to assign stress automatically based on weight. Still, it's improvable!

If you would like to apply analogy at the Old Laqar stage, I could make two files for each stage.

All lines under the same rule heading are applied simultaneously to the word, unless preceded by Then:. The name of the rules should be transparent.

Now there is one word that does not line up with your manually-derived ones: *kʰɒːntɬʰæːɾ gives kõcar on this page, whereas it's qõcar in Lexurgy per your kʰ kʼ x ɣ > qʰ qʼ χ ʁ / _{ɑ ɔ} rule. What did I miss?

All in all, that was a fun experiment.

[Travis B.]

Now there is one word that does not line up with your manually-derived ones: *kʰɒːntɬʰæːɾ gives kõcar on this page, whereas it's qõcar in Lexurgy per your kʰ kʼ x ɣ > qʰ qʼ χ ʁ / _{ɑ ɔ} rule. What did I miss?

All in all, that was a fun experiment.

I'll take a look at this shortly (I'm at work right now), but actually I think Lexurgy got that one right.