Zompist Bboard Again

According to Bill Foley, some common morphosyntactic features of Papuan languages are: Sharp distinction between nouns and verbs Generally rich in nominalisers and poor in verbalisers Verbs always have more morphology than nouns Nouns generally unmarked for number Gender is common, often masculine/f...

/p pʰ t tʰ ts tsʰ k kʰ ʔ/ ⟨ b p d t x c g k q ⟩ /s z ʃ h/ ⟨ s z y h ⟩ /m n r l j w/ ⟨ m n r l i u ⟩ /i u ie uo e ə o æ a ɑ/ ⟨ i u e f a v o j ea w ⟩ Where aspiration doesn't contrast, ⟨ p t c k ⟩ are used. /pitʰietə ktəʃʔətʰi ninkut suopsotnikun ksɑsjuhi ksænisik | ktəpir pu ut kʰieksuo pinkɑməʃ nuo...

Any naturalistic precedents for the two way contrast between aspirated and ejective? I've heard of aspirated vs tenuis, tenuis vs ejective and aspirated vs voiced but never this. A fair number of languages have at the minimum a distinction between ejective and aspirated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[ˈsɐ̹ʊ̯ɫdɜ]

Initials: /pʰ p ⁿb tʰ t ⁿd ʈʰ ʈ tɕʰ tɕ kʰ k qʰ q ʔ/ < p b mb t d nd rd rt tj dj k g rk rg q > /f θ s ʂ χ h/ < f c s z x h > /ʋ ð̞ l j/ < v đ l y > /m n ŋ/ < m n ng > Vowels: /i ɨ ʉ u/ < i î û u > /e o/ < e o > /ɛ œ ɔ/ < ê â ô > /a/ < a > /ae ao əi əu/ < ae ao ai au > + creaky voice < ị ı̣̂ ụ̂ etc> /...

I have heard that creole morphologies are somehow "simpler" than those of other languages (McWhorter) or a simplified version of the lexifier's grammar. Is there any truth to these assertions? Yeah, it’s one of the defining features of creoles; they tend to be highly isolating and regular...

Nachtswalbe wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:52 pm How do you get poly synthesis out of an isolating language like English e.g poly personal agreement?

Check out this thread from the old board, it's got a whole section on how polysynthesis can arise.

Interesting challenge… I’m still thinking about how best to romanise it. Some questions/comments: Oral /i e o a/ tend to be [i e~ɛ a~ɑ o~ʊ] in free variation. But I thought you said /a/ is always nasal? Also, did you accidentally swap the phonetic transcriptions of /o/ and /a/ here? Right on both c...

Something complicated with tone and nasal harmony, inspired by Gokona (a little bit). Feel free to be as phonemic or phonetic as you like. The underlying phonemes can be analysed as /p t s k/ /b d ɟ ɡ/ /v ð j/ /i e o a/ While suprasegmental [+nasal] can be added to morphemes or words, which causes /...

What is the minimal possible number of consonants that a lanague might have? If one was to create a conlang that is a reverse of Ubykh, how many consonants would it have? If we have 10 vowels with short, long, nasal and long nasal variatns, we end up with 40 vowels. If we have 12, then 48 in total,...

Mais ou au France retient l'om les câs de nom? [mɛːz̪͜ uː oː 'fɾ̪ãː.s̪ə rɛ'tjɛ̃ː lõː lɛ kɑːz̪ d̪ɛ n̪õː] But where in France do they keep noun cases? Au nôtre ligne de tan, ieux fureint perdeûs tou, ne fu-ieux [oː 'noː.t̪ɾ̪ə l̪i.ɲə d̪ɛ t̪ãː | jøːz̪ fy'ɾ̪ɛ̃ːɛ pæɾ̪'dʒyː t̪uː | n̪ɛ fy'ɾ̪ɛ̃ːt̪͜ jøːz̪] I...

Interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing more.

k ɡ → t͡ʃ d͡z /_V[+front] y,ʏ œ → ʉ ɞ → ɯ ʌ iː ɯː uː ɛː ʌː ɑː → ɵi̯ ɘu̯ æo̯ i̯ɒ iɐ̯ ɒe̯ wi̯ → uj → ud͡z ti̯ t͡ʃi̯ si̯ hi̯ ʃi̯ di̯ → t͡ʃ t͡ʃ ʃ ʃ ʃ d͡z ki̯ ɡi̯ → c ɟ i̯V → ɟV ɔ ɑ ʌ → o ɒ a ɯ → v̩~f̩~v~f [t͡ʃa t͡ʃɒ vlv̩wo nɒ ɒsɒn od͡zarv t͡ʃf̩t͡ʃv̩n ʃɪ sɪwɘu̯s bɪt͡ʃɒ fʃv̩wuh ʃɪ mɪkɒŋ pɪɡɒe̯ ʃɪ bɟɒrɟɒ ...

The Australians here might be able to say more than I can, but the main thing I'm aware of is the more complete TRAP-BATH split in Adelaide than elsewhere. (All Australian accents have it to some extent, but many of them only have it when the vowel is followed by a fricative, e.g. bath but not chan...

/p t ʈ c k q/ < p t rt ty g k > /(b d)/ < b d > /m n ɳ ɲ ŋ/ < m n rn ny ng > /r/ < r > /θ s ʂ/ < sh s rs > /w l j/ < w l y > /i ɨ u e o æ a/ < i ə u e o æ a > /rt tj nj nk sVˀ rs/ they are written with an interpunct < r·t t·y n·y n·g s·h r·s > so they aren't confused with < rt ty ny ng sh rs > /ʈ c ...

I can imagine it with a real ocker accent maybe (I'm Aussie too), but I don't do any of this at all. I'm more likely to tap and glottalise my t's than fricate or super aspirate them. How much variation is there between Australian English varieties? I had always heard that the internal differences w...

Syncope of unstressed syllables, with cluster reduction l.l > ɫ.l > .ʎ > .tʃ /ɛ æ a ɑ ɔ o u/ > /a a ɒ ɔ o u ɨ/ [ˈtaɾnzɒ:t͡ɬ’ ˈuw ˈk’u ˈiːχ ˈtokʷt.nɨ ǁ ˈoː ˈzak ˈzit͡ʃ ˈʔɨːlj ˈʔaːt͡s’ ǁ ˈwoɾt ˈiːɾmokʷ’ ˈɔχs ˈɒlmɨs ǀ ˈtɒɾ ˈtɒɾk ˈaːʃ ˈreps ˈet͡s’zɒt͡ʃ’] Tärnzaatlˀ ow kˀo iix̌ tǫkwtnï. Ǫǫ zäk zinl ɂïïl...

/tʰ t d t’/ → /tː tʰ t ʔ/ (etc. for all plosives including affricates) Vʔ → V̰ → ʔV plosive + ʔ → ejective tʂ ʂ → k s zʔ rʔ lʔ wʔ → s’ s̠’ ɬ’ xʷ’ → ts’ tʃ’ tɬ’ kʷ’ Vowel sequences collapse; /ɔɥɨ owaː ɔwɨ ea ɨɥi eja ɨa ji/ → /œː ɔː ɨː ɛː ɨː ɛː œː iː/ An orthography is introduced [tærpænza:t͡ɬ’a owœː...

Long vowels diphthongise /iː yː uː eː oː æː aː/ → /əi əy əu iə uə eə oə/ Diphthongs in closed syllables split over the coda; otherwise /i̯ y̯ u̯ ə̯/ → /ʝ ʝʷ ɣʷ ɦ/ → /d͡ʒ d b k/ /ɪ ʏ ɐ/ → /ə/ /ə́ ə̀/ → /í ò/ Ø → ʔ /#_V t → t͡ʃ /e ɛ o/ → /œ ɛ ɔ/ [hò] cliticised to the preceding word [ʔɔ̀hɔ̀ ɔ̀t͡ʃíd t...

/uə̯ iə̯ ɑʌ̯ jaː jɵ ʌw wɐ/ → /ʊː ɪː ɐː ɛː œː əː ɔː/ /ajə ɐːw owu əjə ɪːw/ → /ae̯ ao̯ ou̯ ei̯ eu̯/ /ʕ/ → /ŋ/ /ç/ → /θ/ → /f/ /ʔ/ assimilated into vowels, creating creaky voice /lV nV/ dropped after a stressed vowel Any other unstressed vowels lost with some subsequent cluster reduction. Creaky voice...