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Syntax testing day 28
Likashi

K’èvúkí nķe ķémekwa q'a nkukwa?
k’èvúkí nķe ķé-me-kwa-∅ q'a nku-kwa-∅
concert Q APPL-Q-go-3.SG EXC APPL-go-3.SG
Are you going with us to the concert?

Notes:
1. ⟨k’èvúkí⟩ "musical performance" < ⟨k’è⟩ "to hear" + ⟨vúkí⟩ "to sing, play (an instrument)"
2. Two applicatives are used: one for the lative "to the concert" ⟨k’èvúkí ķé-⟩, the other for the comitative "with us" ⟨q'a nku-⟩, duplicating the verb ⟨-kwa⟩ "to go (away)".

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Week 14

yūgā [ 'ju:.ga: ] - numbers

Valannic has a duodecimal counting system.

1. nene [ 'ne.ne ]
2. rua [ 'ɾu.a ]
3. thia [ 'θi.a ]
4. nala [ 'na.la ]
5. vinta [ 'ʋin.ta ]
6. cotta [ 'ko.t:a ]
7. tyatta [ 'ca.t:a ]
8. cimma [ 'ki.m:a ]
9. demma [ 'de.m:a ]
10. gana [ 'ga.na ]
11. lugna [ 'luŋ.na ]
12. rūn [ 'ɾu:n ]
144. yũrrūn [ 'jũ.ru:n ]

rūn yorā - twelve eggs (NOM pl1 case)
rūn yoreta - a dozen (of) eggs (PART pl1 case)

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Lingua Franca Update #1: Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics

feddit.org/post/10370085

feddit.orgLingua Franca Update #1: Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics - feddit.orgYesterday, I submitted a post [https://feddit.org/post/10324081] asking for your help in creating a global auxiliary conlang. With not much interest being shown in the first 24 hours of posting, I decided to go ahead and embark on this project alone. # Phonlogy & Orthography My “north star” when designing the phonemic inventory for the language was striking a balance between usability and accessibility. In my humble opinion, minimalist languages such as Toki Pona excel in the latter but utterly fail in the former. More complicated languages such as Esperanto and Ido tend to do the opposite (they can be quite eurocentric). I believe I have found a happy medium between the two. ## Consonants The language’s consonants (and their graphs) are as follows: - Stops: /ph/ (p), /b/, /th/ (t), /d/, /kh/ (k), /g/ - Fricatives: /f/, /s/, h /x~h/ (h) - Nasals: /m/, /n/ - Approximants: /w/, /l/, /j/ - Rhotic: /r~ʀ~ɾ~ɺ~ɹ~ɻ~ʁ~…/ (r) I have chosen to aspirate the unvoiced stops to allow speakers from more languages to distinguish them. Those who’s native tongue distinguises stops on aspiration can use [ph] and [p] for /ph/ and /b/, respectively, and those who’s native tongue does so on voice can use [p] and [b]. Rhotics vary wildly cross-linguistically, making including one in a lingua franca very difficult. However, with how I plan to derive the language’s vocabulary, doing so seemed necessary. As such, I have coined the “whatever the heck rhotic.” So long as the sound produced is a rhotic, it is the “correct” phoneme for <r>. However, speakers who are able to produce multiple rhotics should use some discretion when deciding which one they use as some can be harder to distinguish than others. My decision to include the remaining consonants simply came down to their presence cross-linguistically. I initially planned to create a heat map of the IPA with each phoneme’s “temperature” being a weighted sum of the number of occurrences in the languages on Ethnologue [https://www.ethnologue.com/insights/ethnologue200/]’s list of the most spoken languages, but the work required for that seemed to outweigh the benefit. As such, I did what every self-respecting linguist would do and eyeballed it! ## Vowels The language’s vowels are as follows: - High: /i/, /u/ - Mid: /e/, /o/ - Low: /a/ Ah, the ol’ five-vowel system, tried and true. I mean, there’s not much to say here. Moving on! # Phonotactics The language’s phonotactic rules are largely inspired by those of Toki Pona [https://sona.pona.la/wiki/Phonotactics]. They are as follows: 1. All syllables follow a (C)V(s) structure, where “s” denotes a sonorant that is not /w/ or /j/. 2. Null onsets are word-initial only. 3. No adjacent sonorants; codas always assimilate to the following onsets. 4. Words may be no longer than three syllables. 5. To reduce sliding, /j/ is only permitted before /a, o, u/, and /w/ is only so before /a, e, i/. 6. The penultimate vowel is always stressed. # Final Thoughts This may not be much, but I am trying to refrain from hyperfixating and making everything too quickly as I want your thoughts on every step I take. What do you like so far? What could be improved? Collaborators are always welcome!