Sangi/Phonological changes

Phonological changes

The sound changes shown below are used to create base (non-compound) words in Sangi from a Germanic English root.

Consonant Changes

Initial consonant changes

English	Before C	Before l	Before r	Before V	Before a	Before u	Before ŭ	Before ə:	Before i/e/ə
p	h	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø
b	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p
m	-----	-----	-----	m	m	m	m	m	m
f	b	w	b	w	w	w	w	w	w
v	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	b
w	-----	-----	-----	v	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	v
þ	t	t	t	ti	ti	ś	ti	ti	t
ð	d	d	d	di	di	di	di	di	d
t	s	s	---	s	s	s	s	s	ć
d	t	t	---	t	t	t	t	t	ǵ
n	-----	-----	-----	n	n	n	n	n	n
r	-----	-----	-----	r	r	r	r	r	r
s	s	s	ş	s	h	s	f	h	d
z	-----	-----	-----	z	z	z	z	z	ð
l	-----	-----	-----	l	l	l	l	l	l
ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	tj	ś	ś	sc
ź	-----	-----	-----	zi	zi	zi	zi	zi	zj
j	-----	-----	-----	ć	ć	ć	ć	ć	Ø
c	c	h	h	h	s	h	s	h	s
g	c	c	c	c	c	c	c	c	z
ŋ	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----
h	-----	-----	-----	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø
ć	t	t	ț	t	t	t	t	t	c
ǵ	g	g	ḑ	g	g	g	g	g	g

'w' also becomes 'Ø' before o unless the w becomes v in which case the w disappears and the o becomes an a.

Medial Consonant Changes

English	Before C	Before l	Before r	Between V	(After C) Before a	(After C) Before u	(After C) Before ŭ	(After C) Before ə:	(After C) Before i/e/ə
p	h	h	h	v	v	v	v	v	v
b	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p
m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m
f	p/w (after V)	p	p/w (after V)	pi	pi	s	s	pi	p
v	f	b	f	bi	bi	bi	bi	bi	b
w	-----	-----	-----	v	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	v
þ	t	t	t	si	si	si	si	si	t
ð	d	d	d	zi	zi	zi	zi	zi	d
t	t	t	ț	d	t	t	t	t	ć
d	d	d	ḑ	t	d	d	d	d	ǵ
n	n	n	ņ	n	n	n	n	n	n
r	-----	-----	ŗ	r	r	r	r	r	r
s	s	s	ș	z	s	f	f	s	d
z	þ	þ	ẓ	s	z	z	z	z	ð
l	l	l	ļ	l	l(/j/i)*	l(/j/i)*	l(/j/i)*	l(/j/i)*	l(/j/i)*
ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	ś	sc
ź	z	z	z	zi	zi	zi	zi	zi	z
j	-----	-----	-----	j(/Ø)*	j(/Ø)*	j(/Ø)*	j(/Ø)*	j(/Ø)*	Ø
c	c	h	c	c	h	h	h	h	s
g	gC>Cj	c	c	þ	c	c	c	c	z
ŋ	g	ŋ	g	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ	ŋ
h	-----	-----	-----	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø	Ø
ć	t	c	ț	ci	ti	ti	ti	ti	c
ǵ	d	g	ḑ	gi	di	di	di	di	g

'w' also becomes 'Ø' before o unless the w becomes v in which case the w disappears and the o becomes an a.

• See the table of Other Consonant Changes

Final Consonant Changes

English	After C	After V	After VV
p	h (sounded as "x")	h (sounded as "x")	h (sounded as "x")
b	b	b	b
m	m	m	m
f	p	p	p
v	w	w	w
w	-----	-----	-----
þ	t	t	t
ð	d	d	d
t	Ø	Ø	Ø
d	s*	s*	s*
n	n*	n*	n*
r	-----	-----	-----
s	r*	r*	r*
z	g	g	g
l	l*	l*	l*
ś	sc	sc	sc
ź	z*	z*	z*
j	-----	-----	-----
c	Ø	Vc>VV	VVc>Vj, V¹V²(V³)c>VV(V²)j¹
g	c	c	c
ŋ	-----	ŋ	ŋ
h	-----	-----	-----
ć	t*	t*	t*
ǵ	d*	d*	d*

¹ The forms of this new vowel complex can be found in th table for Vowel Changes.

• Retroflex after VVC#>VrC#

Consonant Cluster Changes

	Initial		Medial		Final
English	Before V	Before i/e/ə	General	Before i/e/ə
sl	sj	ś	sj	ś	---
sp	sp	sp	ff*	ff*	sp
st	st	st	ss*	ss*	ss
sc	sc	ś	sc*	ś*	ś
spr	spr	spr	pr*	pr*	-----
str	şţ	şţ	şş*	şş*	-----
scr	scr	scr	cr*	cr*	-----
spj	sp	sp	sp	sp	-----
stj	st	st	st	st	-----
scj	sc	sc	sc	sc	-----
scw	scv	scv	śv*	śv*	-----
spl	spi/spj	spi/spj	spi/spj	spi/spj	-----
sm	śim	śim	sm*	sm*	-----
sn	śin	śin	sn*¹	sn*¹	-----
cw	p	p	p	p	-----
hw	cw	cw	cw	cw	-----
VVm	-----	-----	Vmm	Vmm	Vmm
mp	-----	-----	m̌	m̌	m̌
mp (before a schwa, which will disappear after this cluster)	-----	-----	mb	mb	mb
mb	-----	-----	mp	mp	mp
nt	-----	-----	nn¹	nn¹	nn¹
nd	-----	-----	nt¹	nt¹	nt¹
ns	-----	-----	nd¹	nd¹	nd¹
nz	-----	-----	ng	ng	ng
nć	-----	-----	ň¹	ň¹	ň¹
nǵ	-----	-----	ns¹	ns¹	ns¹
nc	-----	-----	ŋ̌	ŋ̌	ŋ̌
ng	-----	-----	ŋ	ŋj	nc
ps	-----	-----	ps	ps	pr
ts	-----	-----	tt¹	tt¹	ss¹
cs	-----	-----	cs¹	cs¹	cr
lp	-----	-----	ł	ł	ł
rp	-----	-----	ř	ř	ř

• These also occur in the spoken and written language at the beginning of words when the final sound of the previous word was a vowel, e.g. “an e ssil – and yet still”. It is a kind a sandhi. This process also happens after a prefix which ends in a vowel.

¹ These sounds, or there alveolar parts, become retroflex under the normal conditions, i.e. preceded and/or followed by an "r"

Other Consonant Changes

English
Cj	C, VCCV¹, VCV²
Cw	Cv
Cl	Ci, Cj, Velar-l³
Cr	Cr
Vct	Vit, Vp#

¹ This applies only to plosives, sibilants and nasals in there basic form.

² The j affects the fricative consonants (from English) in the following way: f > p; v > b; th > t; dh > d; ch > c; gh > g; l > jj; r > s.

³ This change means that the only Cl combinations are cl, gl and hl. After all other consonants l becomes i but becomes j before i to avoid the creation of a long vowel and causes palatalisation of the preceding consonant. If l is preceded by an original initial “p”, now absent, it is still either “i” or “j”.

Palatalisation

Palatalisation is a change which occurs after the new word has been made from the original English. It occurs when a word ends in an -i but is then followed by a vowel ending, e.g. “-a” for female nouns in the nominative case. It also occurs when and l becomes a j. It only affects a small number of consonants and should not be confused with I-affection, which is a morpho-phonological process.

t > ć

d > ǵ

s > ś

z > ź

When the stem undergoes any form of consonant mutation, the original combination of “Cj” or “Ci” re-emerges. It is this combination which goes through the mutation, not the palatalised form. The “j” is, however, ignored under these processes if the new form can be palatalised, if it can not then the “j” is taken into account and the stem will not mutate, for example “-tj-” becomes “-ć-” under palatalisation. When subjected to plural mutation “t” becomes “ð”. “ð” cannot be palatalised so the plural form of “-tj-” remains “-tj-” and therefore becomes “-ć-”, even though “-ć-” can undergo plural mutation. The “t” of the same “-tj-” combination, when subjected to consonant gradation, becomes “d”, which can be palatalised. The new sequence will be “-dj-” which becomes “-ǵ-”. This process does not occur for -Ci- sequences. Here the -i- re-emerges and the consonant is changed regardless. The -i- only disappears again when the new consonant can be palatalised otherwise it remains intact. So the sequence -ti- will change to “-ć-” when palatalised and the “-ti-” sequence will become “-ði-” in the plural and remain as such. If the original "-ti-" sequence were weakened, however, it would become “-di-” which would palatalise to “-ǵ-”. If the sequence were “-Cji-” then it is seen as “-Cj-” followed by a “-i-”. This means the "C" will palatalise but will not undergo any further form of mutation as the "-i-" is seen as the stem ending.

Vowel Changes

English	General	Before a single stop, r, l, s	Before l (only l)	Before m (only m)	Before final t - Weak I - Weak II	Before final c - Weak I - Weak II	Weak I when final	Weak II when final
a	a	a	a	a	a – at – ad	â – ac – ag	a	a
e	e	e	e	e	e – et – ed	ê – ec – eg	e	e
i	i	i	i	i	i – it – id	î – ic – ig	i	i
o	o	o	o	o	o – ot – od	ô – oc – og	o	o
u	u	u	u	u	u – ut – ud	û – uc – ug	u	u
a:	a	aC	al	a	a – att – add	aj – ai – ae	a	a
e:	ö	öC	öl	ö	ö – ött – ödd	öj – öi – ö	ö	ö
i:	i	iC	il	i	i – itt – idd	ij – î – ie	i	i
o:	o	oC	ol	o	o – ott – odd	oj – oi – oe	o	o
u:	u	uC	ul	u	u – utt – udd	uj – ui – ue	u	u
ŭ	a	a (forms following retroflex, not word finally)	a	a	a – at. – ad.	aj – ai – ae	a	a
ə	e	e (forms following retroflex, not word finally)	e	e	e – et. – ed.	ej – ei – ê	ê	ê
ö	e	eC	el	e	e – ett – etd	ej – ei – e	er	erd
ai	â	â	â	ar	â – ât – âd	âj – âi – âe	â	ai
ei	ê	ê	ê	er	ê – êt – êd	êj – êi – ê	ê	ei
oi	î	î	î	ir	î – ît – îd	îj – jî – îe	î	oi
au	û, labial-â	û, labial-â	or	or	û/â – ut./ât – ud./âd	ûj/âj – ûi/âi – ûe/âe	û/â	uh/ah
əu	labial-û, ŷ	labial-û, ŷ	yr	yr	û/ŷ – ut./yt. – ud./yd.	ûj/ŷj – ûi/ŷi – ûe/ŷe	û/ŷ	uh/yh
iə	y	y	y	yr	y – yt – yd	ŷj – ŷ – ŷe	yr	yrd
uə	ä	ä	ä	ä	ä – ät – äd	öj – öi – öe	är	ärd
aiə	ai	ai	â	ai	ai – ait – aid	âij – âî - âie	ar	ae
eiə	ei	ei	ê	ei	ei – eit – eid	êij – êî - êie	er	ê
oiə	oi	oi	ô	oi	oi – oit – oid	ôij – ôî – ôie	or	ô
auə	au	au	û	au	au – aut – aud	âuj – âui – âue	au	ahi
əuə	ou	ou	û	ou	ou – out – oud	ôuj – ôui – ôue	ou	ohi
(ə)m	ü	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	em	emm
(ə)n*1	en	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	end	enn
(ə)l*	ô	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	ô	ôr
ə(r)* (final form of the schwa)	î	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----	î	îr

• Syllabic “m”, “n”, “l”, and “r”. The inserted “e” is lost when the consonant is followed by a vowel though. It acts more as an epenthetic vowel that still causes change in consonants when forming new words from English roots. When a compound is formed and the first word ends in “î” (original “r”) and the next begins with a vowel, the original “r” will be restored and the “î” lost. A special circumstance for this change is when forming surnames in which the second begins when “l”. The “r” returns causing the “l” to become retroflex and the “r” to disappear again.

1. Word finally after a dental consonant, the syllabic "n" disappears creating a retroflex version of the preceding consonant.

The changes of /ə/ are quite complex. It always becomes /e/ before a dental, which when non-final become a retroflex. However, when two /ə/s occur in two syllables, one after the other, then the first one will be lost unless it is before a dental in which case the second one is lost, but if both appear before a dental then both are retained, e.g. /eləfənt/>/elpen/, etc.