North-East Antarctican

Overview

NE Antarctican is a cluster of mutually intelligible dialects, spoken in the far future in Antartica, where runaway global warming has melted the ice sheets, while at the same time rendering most of the rest of the world uninhabitable.

The ancestors of the speakers of NE Antarctican lived on the coast of Antarctica, due south of Africa. They spoke a variety of English that was heavily influenced by African languages (some English words became grammaticalised as noun class prefixes), and soon their language was also influenced by Spanish (Patagonia was one of the few nearby places that was still habitable, and many people migrated from there to the Antarctic continent) and by Japanese (Japan established colonies all around the Antarctic coast).

The language has evolved for roughly 2000 years since migration, but still shares a number of features with English. These include prepositions, absence of case marking on nouns, adjectives and numerals preceding nouns, but relative clauses following it, and a two-way voicing contrast on stops.

However, it differs from English in many other ways. Syntactically, it prefers SVO, but is less strict than English, often allowing words to be fronted as topics, or elided if they are obvious from context. This does not create ambiguities, since verbs have have prefixes to mark polypersonal agreement as well as hierarchical person marking. The language also marks alienable and inalienable possession. Phonologically, the language uses secondary articulation to contrast a very large number of consonant phonemes, however the phonotactics are extremely restrictive, and most dialects have a Vertical Vowel System (the ones that do not still preserve an older system with vowel harmony).

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel frontness / backness is not phonemic. There are 3 phonemic oral monophthongs /a ə ɨ/.

Consonants

	Labial	Pal. Labial	Alveolar	Lab. Alveolar	Pal. Alveolar	Retro-flex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Lab. Palatal	Lab. Velar	Lab. Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	mʲ	n				ɲ	ŋ		ɲʷ	ŋʷ		ɴ
Stop	p b	pʲ bʲ	t d	tʷ dʷ	tʲ dʲ	ʈ ɖ	c ɟ	k g	q	cʷ ɟʷ	kʷ gʷ	qʷ	ʔ
Fric.			s		ʃ ~ ɕ	ʂ	ç	x		çʷ ~ ɸʲ	xʷ ~ ɸ		h
Approx.						ɻ	j			ɥ	w
Flap / Trill					ɾʲ				ʀ			ʀʷ ~ ⱱ
Lat.							ʎ		ɫ

• The "glottal nasal" phoneme is similar to the Japanese moraic nasal, or the Burmese placeless nasal. It only occurs in syllable codas. When it is followed by a consonant, it assimilates to the place of articulation of that consonant (e.g. it becomes [m] before a labial consonant, [mʲ] before a palatalised labial consonant). At the end of words, it manifests itself as nasalisation of the preceding vowel.

• Palatal, labialised palatal, palatalised alveolar, labialised alveolar and retroflex stops are in free variation with the corresponding affricates.

• /h/ is pronounced [ɦ] before a vowel with breathy voice.

• /ɫ/ is not actually uvular, but a uvularised alveolar lateral (like English "dark l"). However, in terms of the phonology, it patterns as a uvular consonant.

• /ɾʲ/ is normally pronounced as a flap, except when geminated when it becomes a trill. /ʀ/ and /ʀʷ/ are usually pronounced as approximants, except when geminated when they become trills.

Suprasegmentals

Stress

In each word, one syllable has stress. Stress can occur on any syllable, indeed the location is phonemic. There are many minimal pairs that contrast only in the location of the stress e.g. /ˈqɨ̰ɫɨ/ - "giant" vs. /qɨˈɫɨ̰/ - "evidence", /ˈkə̰tə/ - "short" vs. /kəˈtə̰/ - "concept".

Gemination

If a stressed vowel is followed by a consonant, then sometimes the consonant is doubled. This is phonemic, and there are minimal pairs distinguished by the presence of gemination e.g. /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ - "bake" vs. /bɨˈhə̤kːɨ/ - "duty". Geminate consonants cannot occur after the nasal coda /ɴ/

Timing

NE Antarctican is mora-timed. Each syllable counts as one mora, except stressed syllables and syllables containing the nasal coda /ɴ/ count for two, and therefore take twice as long to pronounce. If a stressed syllable has an oral vowel, but is not followed by /ɴ/ or a geminate consonant, then the vowel is pronounced long.

Phonation

There is a phonemic phonation contrast on stressed syllables, between breathy voice and tense voice. There are many minimal pairs that contrast this e.g. /baˈhɨ̤ɴdɨ/ - "liver" vs. /baˈhɨ̰ɴdɨ/ - "to tie together".

Vowels with tense voice are pronounced with high or rising pitch. Vowels with breathy voice are pronounced with low or falling pitch.

Phonotactics

Syllable Structures

The only possible syllable structures are CV(ɴ).

Glottal Consonants

There are a few restrictions on the glottal consonants /ʔ/ and /h/. They cannot occur between two identical vowel phonemes (so sequences such as */aha/ are forbidden). Nor can they occur after /ɴ/. Also they cannot immediately follow a stressed vowel. As such, they cannot occur geminated.

Strong and Weak Consonants

A number of consonants are classed as "strong". These are all the fricatives except /s/ (i.e. all the non-sibilant fricatives), the labialised alveolar stops /tʷ/ and /dʷ/, the uvular consonants /q/ and /ʀ/, and their labialised equivalents /qʷ/ and /ʀʷ/. The labialised velar stops /kʷ/ and /gʷ/, and the labialised palatal stops /cʷ/ and /ɟʷ/ also usually pattern as strong consonants, but there are some irregularities here (each of these four phonemes are the result of mergers between a historically strong consonant, and a historically weak consonant).

Historically, these were aspirated / velarised stops, which were subject to a rule similar to Grassman's Law. The result of this law is that, in the modern language, words cannot contain more than one "strong" consonant. If a process such as affixation would create a violation of this rule, all strong consonants except the last are mutated, by a regular process:

• /tʷ/ and /dʷ/ -> /t/ and /d/ respectively
• /ʃ/ -> /tʲ/
• /ʂ/ -> /ʈ/
• /ç/ and /x/ -> /c/
• /q/ and /ʀ/ -> /k/ and /g/ respectively
• /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ -> /p/ and /b/ respectively
• /çʷ/ and /xʷ/ -> /cʷ/ (in this case, the resulting /cʷ/ does not pattern as a strong consonant)
• /qʷ/ and /ʀʷ/ -> /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ respectively (likewise, in this case the resulting phonemes do not pattern as strong).
• /h/ -> /ʔ/

For example, the noun class proclitic for plants is normally /ʂɨ-/ (descended from English "tree" via an aspirated retroflex stop). However, when it attaches to the root /ʀɨˈʔə̰ɻɨ/ - "rose" (containing the strong consonant /ʀ/, the /ʂ/ changes to /ʈ/, giving /ʈɨ=ʀɨˈʔə̰ɻɨ/.

Phonetic Processes

Phonation Spreading

Both breathy and tense phonation tend to spread rightwards from the stressed syllable. Breathy voice spreads until it is blocked by a voiceless consonant (other than /h/). So /baˈhɨ̤ɴdɨ/ - "liver" is pronounced [baˈhɨ̤ɴdɨ̤], the breathy phonation spreading from the stressed syllable, through the /d/ onto the final syllable. However, in words such as /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ - "bake" and /bɨˈhə̤kːɨ/ - "duty", the voiceless /k/ blocks the spread of the breathy voice, no matter whether or not it is geminated.

The rules for tense phonation are slightly more complex. Tense phonation spreads through nasals, approximants, flaps / trills, and laterals, and also through voiceless stops. However, it is blocked by fricatives and voiced stops e.g. it spreads in both /ˈqɨ̰ɫɨ/ - "giant" and /ˈkə̰tə/ - "short", but not in /gʷɨˈkɨ̰da/ - "to float" or /ˈkʷə̰sa/ - "throwing spear".

Vowel Allophony

Even though there is no phonemic contrast between front and back vowels, this does not mean that sounds such as [i], [u] and [e] are absent from the language. Front and back vowels occur as allophones of their corresponding central vowels e.g. /ˈhɨ̰mːʲɨ/ - "fjord" is pronounced [ˈhḭmːʲḭ], and /ˈtʷɨ̤pːasɨ/ - "digestion" is pronounced [ˈtʷṳpːasɨ].

The allophones of each vowel are given in the table below. Note that a "lowering" consonant is defined as a retroflex or uvular consonant (labialised or non-labialised, including /ɫ/):

Environment	/ɨ/	/ə/	/a/
Default	[ɨ]	[ə]	[a]
Adjacent to a Palatal or Palatalised Consonant	[i]	[e]	[æ]
Adjacent to a Non-Labialised Lowering Consonant	[ɤ]	[ʌ]	[ɑ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant	[u]	[o]	[a]
Adjacent to a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ʊ]	[ɔ]	[ɒ]
Adjacent to a Labialised Palatal Consonant	[y]	[ø]	[œ]
Between a Lowering Consonant and a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant	[ʊ]	[ɔ]	[ɒ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Non-Lowering Consonant	[y]	[ø]	[œ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Labialised Uvular Consonant	[ʏ]	[ɵ]	[ɐ]
Between a Palatal / Palatalised Consonant, and a Non-Labialised Lowering Consonant	[ɪ]	[ɛ]	[ɐ]

Examples:

Phonemic Transcription	Phonetic Transcription	Meaning
/ˈhɨ̰mːʲɨ/	[ˈhḭmːʲḭ]	"fjord"
/ˈca̰kːɨsama/	[ˈcæ̰kːɨ̰sama] - "client"
/ʔakʷɨʔəˈta̰/	[ʔakʷuʔəˈta̰ː]	"to squeeze"
/ˈqɨ̰dːɨ/	[ˈqɤ̰dːɨ]	"good"
/gʷɨˈkɨ̰da/	[gʷuˈkɨ̰ːda]	"to float"
/ˈtʷɨ̤pːasɨ/	[ˈtʷṳpːasɨ]	"digestion"
/nɨˈʔə̤qːʷɨʔa/	[nɨˈʔɔ̤qːʷʊʔa]	"root of a floating plant"
/ʎɨˈkʷɨ̰ɾʲɨ/	[ʎyˈkʷy̰ːɾʲḭ]	"dark yellow"
/ˈkʷə̰sa/	[ˈkʷo̰ːsa]	"throwing spear"
/ˈqɨ̰ɫɨ/	[ˈqɤ̰ːɫɤ̰]	"giant"
/ʀɨˈʔə̰ɻɨ/	[ʁɤˈʔʌ̰ːɻɤ̰]	"rose"
/qɨˈɫɨ̰/	[qɤˈɫɤ̰ː]	"evidence"

Sound Symbolism

Tense voiced vowels and palatalised consonants have a strong association with darkness, night, the moon, the stars, the aurora, winter, the direction south, dryness, land, peace, femininity, being reactive (as opposed to proactive), staticness, permanence, and perennial plants.

Conversely, breathy voiced vowels and retroflex / labialised consonants have a strong association with brightness, day, the sun, clouds, the direction north, rain, the sea, war, masculinity, being proactive (as opposed to reactive), dynamism, impermanence, and annual plants.

Compounding

Compounds are head final. Stress, phonation and gemination are lost on all but the last member of the compound e.g. /ˈkə̰tə/ - "short", and /ˈkʷə̰sa/ - "throwing spear" combine to make /kətəˈkʷə̰sa/ - "dart" (literally "short spear").

The restriction against more than one strong consonant in a word applies to compound words e.g. when /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ - "bake" is combined with /ˈkʷɨ̤sːɨ/ - "ocean fish", the result is /bɨʔəkɨˈkʷɨ̤sːɨ/ - "baked (ocean) fish". Because the /kʷ/ in the word for "fish" is strong, it causes the /h/ in the word for "bake" to shift to a glottal stop.

There is a strong preference to compound words that have identical voicing on the stressed syllable. For example, the word /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ - "freshwater fish", could, in theory, be compounded with /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ - "bake", to form /bɨʔəkɨˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ - "baked freshwater fish". However, since /bɨˈhə̤kɨ/ has breathy voice, and /ˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/ has tense voice, the resulting compound would strike native speakers as inelegant and clumsy.

In cases like the above, native speakers would search for a synonym with tense voice e.g. /qəˈŋɨ̰ɫa/, which also means "to bake". A much more commonly used word meaning "baked (freshwater) fish" would therefore be /kəŋɨɫaˈxa̰ɾʲɨ/.