Írsc take two

[Travis B.]

My last attempt at an a posteriori language, Írsc, did not get as far as I would have liked it, but I now feel like taking another stab at it. For the record, Írsc is meant to be a descendent of Old West Norse spoken in parts of Ireland, Scotland, and Man with significant influence from Middle Irish.

One difference from my last attempt at Írsc is that this time around I plan on avoiding "let's reduce all unstressed vowels to schwa with the only distinctions being with regard to palatalization".

For a consonant inventory I propose:

Nasals: m mʲ n ɲ ŋ ⟨m m^F n n^F n⟩
Nasals after stressed short vowels: m mʲ n ɲ ⟨mm mm^F nn nn^F⟩
Voiced stops: b bʲ d dʲ ɟ ɡ ⟨b b^F d d^F g^F⟩
Voiced stops after stressed short vowels and intervocalically: b bʲ d dʲ ɟ ɡ ⟨bb bb^F dd dd^F gg^F gg⟩
Postaspirated voiceless stops: pʰ pʲʰ tʰ tʲʰ cʰ kʰ kʷʰ ⟨p p^F t t^F c^F c cu⟩
Preaspirated voiceless stops: ʰp ʰpʲ ʰt ʰtʲ ʰc ʰk ʰkʷ ⟨pp pp^F tt tt^F cc^F cc ccu⟩
Voiceless fricatives after stressed short vowels: f fʲ s ʃ ⟨ff ff^F ss ss^F⟩
Voiceless fricatives: f fʲ s ʃ ç xʷ h ⟨f f^F þ þ^F s s^F h^F hu h⟩
Voiced fricatives: v vʲ ʝ ɣ ⟨f f^F g^F g⟩
Liquids: ɻ ɹ̠ l ʎ ⟨r r^F l l^F⟩
Liquids after stressed short vowels: ɻ ɹ̠ l ʎ ⟨rr rr^F ll ll^F⟩
Semivowels: w j ⟨u i⟩

For a stressed vowel inventory I propose: i iː u uː ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː e eː o oː ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː ɑ ɑː ɛi ɑu ɔi

In this case the ON rounded front vowels unrounded, and vowel quality became uncoupled from vowel quantity, while ON diphthongs were preserved as distinct phonemes.

For an unstressed vowel inventory I propose: ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɑ

In this case there is no vowel quantity distinction and fewer vowel quality distinctions.

More to come!

[Travis B.]

From Old Norse to Middle Írsc

The transition from Old West Norse to Middle Írsc is characterized by the following changes (this list is probably incomplete):

• Denasalizing of nasal vowels
• [ɛy~øy] > [ɔi]
• [ɔu] > [ɑu]
• [ɑː] > [ɔː]
• [ɔ] > [ø] > [e]
• Unrounding of rounded front vowels
• Loss of /j/ after consonants, which is cheshirized as palatalization of preceding consonants
• Palatalization of consonants (including clusters) before front vowels
• Palatalization of consonants (including clusters) after front vowels and front offglides not followed by back vowels
• Palatalization of alveolar geminates
• Laxing of short high vowels
• Insertion of [ʊ] between masculine nominative /r/ and the preceding consonant; this blocks progressive palatalization
• Elision of unstressed intervocalic fricatives
• Creation of new nasal vowels from elision of unstressed intervocalic nasals (where the preceding vowels become nasalized)

[Travis B.]

From Middle Írsc to Early New Írsc

Changes from Middle Írsc to Early New Írsc include:

• Voicing of voiceless nasals
• Prior to vowel length adjustment, laxing of short close-mid vowels
• Lengthening of stressed short vowels in light syllables
• Shortening of stressed long vowels in superheavy syllables
• After vowel lengthening and shortening, shortening of all geminates; note that alveolar geminate palatalization and voiceless stop geminate preaspiration are preserved in the process.
• Loss of masculine nominative final /-ʊr/; note, however, that nominative and accusative case distinctions may be preserved through alternations in vowel length in monosyllables and in palatalization.
• Reduction of vowel sequences resulting from previous intervocalic elisions; normally these result in long vowels (after vowel lengthening and shortening applied) with the quality of the first vowel, with the frontness versus backness of the second vowel being preserved in palatalization or lack thereof of the following consonant
• After vowel sequence reduction, shortening of unstressed long vowels resulting from it
• Denasalization of nasal vowels, with ejection of a following nasal consonant agreeing in POA and palatalization with the following consonant, unless the vowel is word-final, where then [ɲ] is ejected if the vowel is a front vowel and [n] is ejected if the vowel is a back vowel; note, however, that this does not occur in all dialects, and some dialects preserve nasal vowels to this day, while other dialects have simply lost vowel nasality without ejecting nasal consonants
• Loss of much of morphological umlaut alternations through analogy; however there are exceptions, such as ma 'man' (note, this was then spelled maþ), menn 'men', and the first weak conjugation permanently i-umlauts the stem vowel
• Reduction of the middle voice marker to /-s/

[Travis B.]

Spelling!

The general spelling of consonants is shown above, but the spelling of vowels and of palatalization still needs to be laid out.

The basic way vowels are spelled is as follows:

Stressed vowels are:

i iː u uː ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː e eː o oː ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː ɑ ɑː ɛi ɑu ɔi ⟨í í ú ú i i u u é é ó ó e e o o a a ei au oi⟩

Unstressed vowels are:

ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɑ ⟨i u e o a⟩

Stressed short vowels are followed by doubled consonants unless a consonant cluster is in the coda, where then no doubling applies.

Palatalization of a consonant before a back vowel is marked by ⟨e⟩ before the back vowel.

Non-palatalization of a consonant before a front vowel is marked by ⟨o⟩ before the front vowel.

Palatalization of a consonant after a back monophthong or back offglide is marked by ⟨e⟩ after the back vowel or offglide.

Non-palatalization of a consonant after a front monophthong or front offglide is marked by ⟨o⟩ after the front vowel or offglide.

[Travis B.]

Some basic words and phrases

'Welcome': Ueollkoen [ˈwɛlkʰɔːɲ]
'Farewell': Far uell [ˈfɑːɻ ˌwɛʎ]
'What is your name?': Hua heits tú? [ˈxʷɑː ˌçɛitʲʰʃ ˌtʰuː]
'How is it going?': Huarr geongur? [ˈxʷɑɻ ˌɟɛŋɡʊɻ]
'How old are you?': Huarr ganl ert tú? [ˌxʷɑɻ ˈɡɑːnl ˌɛɹ̠tʲ ˈtʰuː]
'red': rau [ɻɑu] (m/f) / rautt [ɻɑuʰt] (n)
'blue': blo [blɔː] (m/f) / blott [blɔːʰt] (n)
'white': huíot [xʷiːtʰ] (m) / huít [xʷiːtʲʰ] (f) / huítt [xʷiːʰtʲ] (n)

[Ælfwine]

My last attempt at an a posteriori language, Írsc, did not get as far as I would have liked it, but I now feel like taking another stab at it. For the record, Írsc is meant to be a descendent of Old West Norse spoken in parts of Ireland, Scotland, and Man with significant influence from Middle Irish.

One difference from my last attempt at Írsc is that this time around I plan on avoiding "let's reduce all unstressed vowels to schwa with the only distinctions being with regard to palatalization".

For a consonant inventory I propose:

Nasals: m mʲ n ɲ ŋ ⟨m m^F n n^F n⟩
Nasals after stressed short vowels: m mʲ n ɲ ⟨mm mm^F nn nn^F⟩
Voiced stops: b bʲ d dʲ ɟ ɡ ⟨b b^F d d^F g^F⟩
Voiced stops after stressed short vowels and intervocalically: b bʲ d dʲ ɟ ɡ ⟨bb bb^F dd dd^F gg^F gg⟩
Postaspirated voiceless stops: pʰ pʲʰ tʰ tʲʰ cʰ kʰ kʷʰ ⟨p p^F t t^F c^F c cu⟩
Preaspirated voiceless stops: ʰp ʰpʲ ʰt ʰtʲ ʰc ʰk ʰkʷ ⟨pp pp^F tt tt^F cc^F cc ccu⟩
Voiceless fricatives after stressed short vowels: f fʲ s ʃ ⟨ff ff^F ss ss^F⟩
Voiceless fricatives: f fʲ s ʃ ç xʷ h ⟨f f^F þ þ^F s s^F h^F hu h⟩
Voiced fricatives: v vʲ ʝ ɣ ⟨f f^F g^F g⟩
Liquids: ɻ ɹ̠ l ʎ ⟨r r^F l l^F⟩
Liquids after stressed short vowels: ɻ ɹ̠ l ʎ ⟨rr rr^F ll ll^F⟩
Semivowels: w j ⟨u i⟩

For a stressed vowel inventory I propose: i iː u uː ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː e eː o oː ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː ɑ ɑː ɛi ɑu ɔi

In this case the ON rounded front vowels unrounded, and vowel quality became uncoupled from vowel quantity, while ON diphthongs were preserved as distinct phonemes.

For an unstressed vowel inventory I propose: ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɑ

In this case there is no vowel quantity distinction and fewer vowel quality distinctions.

More to come!

Looks good. As a self described Germanicist im intrigued. I've toyed around with Norselangs many times.

Nothing wrong with reducing everything to schwa, its very common in Germanic (English, Dutch, OHG, Danish). In my modern crimean gothic conlang I had the same idea of reducing all vowels to schwa but only after palatalization had occured, hence лахян ['laçən] "to laugh" from earlier hlahjan which preserves some contrasts. Expanding the # of unstressed vowels from Old Norse strikes me as more unlikely here.

Whats also common in languages from Old Norse is diphthongs. The huge list of long vowels you give are just begging to be diphthongized.

[Travis B.]

Looks good. As a self described Germanicist im intrigued. I've toyed around with Norselangs many times.

Nothing wrong with reducing everything to schwa, its very common in Germanic (English, Dutch, OHG, Danish). In my modern crimean gothic conlang I had the same idea of reducing all vowels to schwa but only after palatalization had occured, hence лахян ['laçən] "to laugh" from earlier hlahjan which preserves some contrasts. Expanding the # of unstressed vowels from Old Norse strikes me as more unlikely here.

Whats also common in languages from Old Norse is diphthongs. The huge list of long vowels you give are just begging to be diphthongized.

I decided against let's-reduce-everything-to-schwa because Írsc is supposed to be under Irish influence, and such massive reduction never quite happened in Irish.

The reason for the huge list of stressed vowels is that vowel length becomes uncoupled from vowel quality. After short mid vowel laxing and prior to geminate shortening, all stressed short vowels in light syllables are lengthened, and all stressed long vowels in superheavy syllables are shortened. This is partly inspired by what has happened in NGmc varieties like many Swedish varieties, but taken to the nth degree, and partly inspired by what has happened in my native English (except there the conditioning factor is fortis/lenis rather than syllable weight per se).

As for diphthongs, OWN diphthongs are preserved as such, while onset /j/ from many broken PN vowels is often absorbed into preceding consonants as palatalization.

[Glass Half Baked]

I once made a Modern Yorwicks conlang, where OEN carried on in Scarborough until the present. It's interesting to see how different things can be under different local influence. I like it.