Old Kurmian

Introduction

Old Kurmian is inspired by Old Irish.

Sound changes

• short e > short i, short i > ə
• short a o u > short ä ö ü
• /au ai/ > /aː/, /oy/ > /we/
• back vowels should break as in OC > MC
• final fricatives > breathy tone > low tone
• Prefixes correspond to lexical mutations in RW
• grammatical mutation
• standardize Irish-style orthography?
• slenderization and labialization yielding MC-style medials
• AW final /ŋ/ > /-w/
• AW aː to æː > ʲaː
  • feám, dòigh, neag, đâbh, séil, stúm, rút, leá, peab, cia

Phonology

Initials

Old Kurmian initials

		Labial	Coronal	Coarticulated	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	voiceless	/m̊/	/n̊/	/ŋ̊!/	(/ŋ̊/)
	voiced	/m/	/n/	/ŋ!/	/ŋ/
Stop	tenuis	/p/	/t/	/!/	/k/	/ʔ/
	aspirated	/pʰ/	/tʰ/	/!ʰ/	/kʰ/
	voiced	/b/	/d/	/g!/	/g/
	breathy voiced	/bʱ/	/dʱ/	/g!ʱ/	/gʱ/
Fricative	voiceless	/f/	/s/	/ɧ/	/x/	/h/
	voiced		/z/	/ɧ̬/	/ɣ/
Trill			/r/
Approximant		/w/, /ɥ/	/l/		/j/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/ʲi/ /ʲiː/ /ʲʷi/ /ʲʷiː/		/(ʷ)u/ /(ʷ)uː/
Close-mid	/ʲe/ /ʲeː/ /ʷeː/ /ʲʷe/ /ʲʷeː/	/ə/ /əː/	/(ʷ)o/ /(ʷ)oː/
Open		/ʲa/ /aː/ /ʲaː/ /ʷa/ /ʲʷa/

Diphthongs: /ʲia ʲʷia ua/

Finals

Permissible finals: /-p -t -k -m -n -l -w -j/

Suprasegmentals

Each syllable could have two registers: plain (a á) and breathy (à â).

Grammar

Mutations

• /pʰ/ <p> > /f/ /b/ /p/ (from AW pf)
• /b/ <b> > /w/ /m/ /b/
• /p/ <sp> > /p/ /m̊/ /p/
• /f/ <f> > /0/ /w/ /f/ (from AW f and w)
• /m/ <m> > /ṽ/ /m/ /m̊/
• /m̊/ <sm> > /m̊/ /m̊/ /m̊/
• /tʰ/ <t> > /θ/ /d/ /t/
• /d/ <d> > /ð/ /n/ /d/
• /t/ <st> > /t/ /n̊/ /t/
• /s/ <ƨ> > /h/ /z/ /s/
• /z/ <s> > /0/ /z/ /z/
• /n/ <n> > /n/ /n/ /n̊/
• /n̊/ <sn> > /n̊/ /n̊/ /n̊/
• /!ʰ/ <ŧ> > /ɧ/ /g!/ /!/
• /g!/ <đ> > /ɧ̬/ /ŋ!/ /g!/
• /!/ <sŧ> > /!/ /ŋ̊!/ /!/
• /ɧ/ <sc> > /h/ /ɧ̬/ /ɧ/
• /kʰ/ <c> > /x/ /g/ /k/
• /g/ <g> > /ɣ/ /ŋ/ <n-g> /gʰ/
• /ŋ/ <ng> > /ŋ/ /ŋ/ /ŋ̊/ (in loanwords)

Tenses

• Present: is V S O, negation má V is S O
• Past: do-L V S O, negation mádh-L V S O