13
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
13 points (93.3% liked)
Constructed Languages
93 readers
16 users here now
Welcome to !conlangs@mander.xyz! This community is geared towards people who seek to discuss artificial languages or create and showcase their own.
Rules
- Be nice to each other. Respect each others opinions and artistic choices.
- Stay on topic, if you wish to discuss general linguistics, check out !linguistics@mander.xyz (Kbin link)
- No low effort posts and comments. This also includes memes.
- When referencing real life linguistics, make sure to cite your sources.
For conlanging resources, check the Megathread.
Related Communities
For linguistic memes check out !linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works (Kbin link)
For worldbuilding discussion check out !worldbuilding@lemmy.world (Kbin link) Feel free to discuss the setting of your conlangs in our community, though.
Happy conlanging!
founded 2 weeks ago
MODERATORS
I guess that those aren't seen often because they require the phonology and grammar to be already close to finished - or at least enough to know which constructions are used so often that get contracted.
That said I full agree with you, they're awesome when done right. They're when the conlang stops being a bunch of sketches in a book to become something living, at least in the mouths (or gestures) of imaginary speakers.
Since the phonology of my main conlang (Tarune) is finished, but the grammar is still heavily WIP, my only progress in this regard was creating a formal register vs. local pronunciations. Not quite what you're asking about, but close enough, so I'll share two examples here:
In the formal register you're supposed to dissolve them with [h]. However, people in Central/Northern cities don't do this bother in quick speech. Example:
And it's hard to represent in IPA, but Central speakers have a tendency to shorten the long vowels. They're still distinct from the short vowels, but in quick speech you're telling who's who by the quality, not by the quantity.
In the formal register, when a voiced consonant or consonant cluster is near a nasal vowel, you're "supposed" to nasalise it midway: a single consonant gets pre-/post-nasalised, and in a cluster only one consonant gets nasalised. In practice... well, only people in the coast do this in a natural way. The others either don't nasalise the consonant at all, or do it fully, like this:
So it's a lot like the Central/Northern speakers shifted the nasalisation to the right, while Southern speakers either spread it further or shift it left.
EDIT: ah, Southern backchannel ['u:˥˩ʔu]; typically spelled ⟨ōho⟩. This... interjection? has a weird story - it was initially used by cattle herders to direct their cattle. Eventually the usage spread towards humans too, to convey "are you following?"; and then as backchannel, to convey "I'm following it, go on".