Naisek – A
Constructed Language
Orthography and Phonology
Basic Orthography
The phonetic values used here are according to
CXS (CONLANG X-SAMPA), with IPA also
used in the tables.
Since the orthography is almost phonemic, specific symbols for the phonemes
won't be used.
Consonants
| p | [p] | [p] |
| | |
t | [t] | [t] |
| | |
| | |
k | [k] | [k] |
|---|
| b | [b] | [b] |
| | |
d | [d] | [d] |
| | |
| | |
g | [g] | [ɡ] |
|---|
| | |
| | |
ts | [ts)] | [ts͡] |
c | [tS)] | [tʃ͡] |
|---|
| | |
| | |
| | |
j | [dZ)] | [dʒ͡] |
|---|
| | |
f | [f] | [f] |
s | [s] | [s] |
x | [S] | [ʃ] |
| | |
| | |
h | [h] | [h] |
|---|
| | |
[v] | [v] |
[z] | [z] |
[Z] | [ʒ] |
| | |
| | |
|---|
| m | [m] | [m] |
| | |
n | [n] | [n] |
| | |
| | |
n | [N] | [ŋ] |
|---|
| | |
| | |
l | [l] | [l] |
| | |
y | [j] | [j] |
w | [w] | [w] |
|---|
| | |
| | |
r | [r] | [r] |
| | |
|---|
- The voiced fricative allophones occur before or after the voiced stops
and affricate.
- The velar allophone [N] occurs before k,
g, and w.
- Between vowels, w and y may be pronounced with
some friction.
- If not followed by a vowel, h is not pronounced.
- The voiceless stops and affricates may be aspirated in some
circumstances.
- The coronals [t], [d], [n], and
[l] tend to be dental rather than alveolar.
- The trill [r] may be reduced to [4] in onsets
after another consonant.
- The affricate ts is long when following a vowel.
- The sequences pp, tt, kk,
tc, ff, ss, xx,
mm, nn, ll, and rr
represent long consonants.
- Long consonants occur as geminates.
Vowels
| i | [i] | [i] |
| | |
| | |
| | |
u | [u] | [u] |
|---|
| | |
e | [e] | [e] |
| | |
o | [o] | [o] |
|---|
| | |
[E] | [ɛ] |
| | |
[O] | [ɔ] |
|---|
| | |
| | |
a | [a] | [a] |
|---|
- The sequences ai, au, ei,
eu, oi, and ou represent
diphthongs; all other vowel sequences are disyllabic.
- Vowels not followed by coda consonants may be long or short.
- The low-mid allophones [E] and [O] occur in
the diphthongs and when long;
the high-mid allophones [e] and [o] occur when
short in open syllables.
The qualities used when followed by coda consonants vary.
- The low vowel [a] is more central than front.
Prosody
Quantity and Syllabic Weight
- Onsets are non-moric (except for word-initial s before a
consonant).
- Each coda consonant has one mora (unit of duration).
- A diphthong has two moras.
- A simple vowel followed by a coda consonant has one mora.
- A simple vowel not followed by a coda consonant has either one mora or
two.
The weight or length of a syllable depends on its rhyme, that is, the
combination of its vowel nucleus and consonant coda.
The rhyme types distinguished by the stress rules of
Naisek are (where -V: stands for a long
vowel):
| -V | 1 mora | light or short |
| -VC, -VV, and -V: | 2 moras |
heavy or long |
| -VCC and -VVC | 3 moras |
extraheavy or extralong |
Stress Rules
Words of one or two syllables can be stressed or unstressed, depending on the
word. Words of three or more syllables are always stressed.
The stress rules for words of two syllables are:
- if the ultima is extraheavy, stress it; otherwise
- stress the penult.
The stress rules for words of three or more syllables are:
- if the ultima is extraheavy, stress it; otherwise
- if the penult is extraheavy, stress it; otherwise
- if the penult is heavy, stress it; otherwise
- stress the antepenult.
The catch is that long vowels are not marked as such! Because of this,
morphology must be taken into account.
- If the past tense suffix, -a, appears in the penult, it's
long (and accented) and if it appears in the ultima, it's short (and
unaccented).
The following suffixes may be considered as having long vowels in the singular
absolutive forms:
- the future tense suffix -en
- the cotemporal mood suffix -ok
- the subjunctive mood suffix -ax
- the contrafactual mood suffix -ur
Certain derivational suffixes may be considered as having long vowels.
There's one additional rule:
- proclitics and/or prefixes aren't stressed
Additional Considerations
- Stressed vowels have higher pitches than unstressed vowels. The pitch
difference is typically increased for emphasized words while becoming
negligible for sufficiently de-emphasized words.
- Emphasis may even cause lengthening of stressed short vowels.
- Also, final vowels may be lengthened due to hesitation.
Aside from the lengthening mentioned above, rhymes consisting of a single
vowel are short whenever possible. The cases where the vowel must be long
are:
- when the vowel is a stressed penult and the word has more than two
syllables,
- when the vowel is a stressed penult and the ultima is long, and
- in many one-syllable words.
There are a couple of modifications to the standard orthography used as aids
in reading text out loud.
The first simply adds an h after a vowel or diphthong to indicate
a heavy or extraheavy syllable. This may be considered an extension of the use
of silent h occurring in some words and/or a retention of
historical h.
The second uses diacritical marks, as follows:
- A grave accent is used on long unstressed vowels, as in
tì [ti:].
- A circumflex accent is used on long stressed vowels, as in
gratâki [gra"ta:.ki].
- An acute accent is used on stressed short vowels, as in
címa ["tS)i.ma]; it's also placed over
the first letter of a stressed diphthong, as in
bahái [ba"hai].
- For other vowels, no diacritic is used, as in kono
[ko.no].
Phonotactics
C = T | D | S | h | N | L | Y
P = p, t, k, b, d, g
T = p, t, k, c, ts
D = b, d, g, j
S = f, s, x
N = m, n
L = l, r
Y = y, w
V = i, a, e, o, u
- An onset can be CC, C, or null.
- CC onsets are limited to subsets of PL and PY.
- C onsets can be any C except that ts can't
occur word-initially.
- In addition, s (or, less often, S) can occur
word-initially before p, t, k, or
(less often) c; these may be considered extrasyllabic.
- A nucleus can be a short vowel V, along vowel V:, or a
diphthong VV (listed earlier).
- A coda can be CC, C, or null.
- CC codas are limited to LT, NT, and ST (but
Lf and mf might be possible).
- C codas can be any C except h,
ts, or Y.
- CC codas are never preceded by diphthongs or long vowels and
C codas are never preceded by long vowels. As a result, the
possible rhymes are V, V:, VV, VC, VVC,
and VCC.
- Onsets and rhymes are independent except that y doesn't
occur before i and w doesn't occur before
u.
- Consonant sequences which aren't valid onsets or codas may be valid
combinations of coda + onset.
- D can't precede T, N, or h.
- T can't precede D or N.
Additional Material
When morphemes are combined, certain modifications may have to be made in
order for the combination to conform to the phonotactics. As the changes
pertaining to inflection are handled in the morphology chapters, this section
is concerned mainly with compounding. The following subsections are named
according to the ending of the first morpheme and the beginning of the second.
Vowel + Consonant
No changes are needed.
Consonant + Vowel
No changes are needed.
Vowel + Vowel
- Sequences of two vowels may coalesce, form diphthongs or combinations
of glide + vowel, or have an h is inserted between them. The
table below shows what happens when h isn't inserted; the
blank entries are for combinations that always insert h.
- An h may be inserted when it was the original ending.
- An h must be inserted when the resulting sequence isn't
permitted by the phonotactics.
- The resulting sequences ly and lw are reduced
to y and w, respectively.
- In some cases, final o and a following
consonants represent original l and r,
respectively. These are preserved or restored in some compounds.
Vowel Combinations
| +i | +e | +a | +o | +u |
|---|
| i+ | i | ye | ya | yo | yu |
|---|
| e+ | ei | e | | eu | eu |
|---|
| a+ | ai | ai | a | au | au |
|---|
| o+ | oi | oi | | o | ou |
|---|
| u+ | wi | we | wa | wo | u |
|---|
Consonant + Consonant
- An h assimilates to a preceding f,
s, or x; the resulting geminate may then be
simplified.
- The geminates bb, dd, gg, and
dj are always simplified.
- Other geminates are simplified where not permitted by phonotactics.
- The sequences ly and lw are reduced to
y and w, respectively.
- In all other cases, a vowel must be inserted between the two consonants
when the resulting sequence isn't permitted by the phonotactics;
the vowel is u if the second consonant is voiced and
the vowel is i if the second consonant is voiceless.
I may expand on the consonant and vowel insertion rules at some future time.
There may also be some internal changes to unstressed morphemes that needs to
be documented.
page started: 2007.Jan.04 Thu
was modified: 2008.Jun.18 Wed
current page: 2008.Jun.18 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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