User:Ceige/SEA Inspired

Ancient stage

Phonology (Younger, 19XX)

Consonants

Bolded consonants can also be finals.

Manner	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Notes
Plosive	p	t	ʈ	c	k	Some reconstruct additional voiced plosives.
Pre-nasalised Plosives	ⁿp	ⁿt	ⁿʈ	ⁿc	ⁿk	ɴC or (m,n..)C is another valid style of transcription, as is C̃
Nasals	m	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Voiceless Nasals	m̊	n̊	ɳ̊	ɲ̊	ŋ̊	qC or hC is another valid style of transcription
Sonorants	w	l	r	y	ʀ	These are also sometimes analysed as appearing between initials and vowels.*
Voiceless Sonorants	ẘ	l̥	r̊	ẙ	ʀ̊
Fricatives	h*	s*	ʂ	ç	x

Notes

• *In analyses where the sonorants are seen as possible glides between initials and the nucleus, the distribution of initials changes quite heavily.
• There is also a glottal stop, sometimes written as <q>.
• <h> represents would-be /ɸ/, but this sound, when constructed, is meant to suggest a sound change before the voiceless labial sonorant arose. Some do not reconstruct it at all.
• <s> is argued by some to be /θ/.

Vowels

There are considerably less vowels than consonants, but these have a large number of environmental allophones.

Height	+y	+l	+Ø	+r	+ʀ	+w
Closed	i	ɪ	ɨ	ə	ɯ	u
Mid	e	ɜ	ǝ	ə	ʌ	o
Open	æ	æ	a	a	ɑ	ɑ

Phonology (Elder, 20XX)

Consonants

Initials

Manner	Labial	Dental	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t	k	ʔ
Pre-nasalised Plosives	ⁿp	ⁿt	ⁿk
Nasals	m	n	ŋ
Voiceless Nasals	hm	hn	hŋ
Fricatives	f	s	x	h

Glides

Labial Semivowel	Dental Lateral	Retroflex Rhotic	Palatal Semivowel	Guttural Rhotic
w	l	r	y	ʀ

Prominent Initial-Glide combinations and common outcomes

	ʔ-	p-	t-	k-	m-	n-	ŋ-	mp-	nt-	ŋk-	f-	s-	x-	h-	Notes
+w	w	p	t	k	m, w	n, m	ŋ, m	b	d	g	f	s	x, f	hw, f	Only the Velar series and guttural fricatives are (minimally) affected
+l	l	p	ty	k	m, n	n, l	ŋ, n	b	dy	g	hl	sy, hl	hl	hl	The Dental series is the only one considerably affected
+r	r	p	tʂ	k	m, ɳ	ɳ, r	ŋ, ɳ	b	dʐ	g	hr	ʂ, hr	hr	hr	The Dental series is the only one considerably affected
+y	y	p	tɕ	c	m, ɲ	ɲ, n	ɲ, ŋ	b	dʑ	ɟ	hy	ɕ, hy	ç, hy	hy	The Dental and Velar series are equally affected
+ʀ	ʀ	p	t	k, q	m, ŋ	n, ŋ	ŋ, ʀ	b	d	g, ɢ	hʀ, f	hʀ, s	hʀ, x	hʀ	Only the Velar series is affected; overall this is the least impactful glide.

Finals

Manner	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t	ʈ	c	k	ʔ
Nasals	m	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Voiceless Nasals (1)	m̊	n̊	ɳ̊	ɲ̊	ŋ̊
Sonorants	w	l	r	y	ʀ
Voiceless Sonorants (2)	ẘ	l̥	r̊	ẙ	ʀ̊
Fricatives (2)	h

Notes

• (1): These are commonly reconstructed as simple plosives, as there is scant evidence for a full final voiceless nasal series
• (2): These are controversial -- there is no direct evidence for them, and the only theories reconstructing them involve regressive voiceless harmony and proposed external relationships with other languages.

Common vowel outcomes

Note that /æ/ is sometimes written /ɛ/, /ʌ/ as /ɑ/, and /ǝa, aǝ/ as either /aa/ or /ɯa, aɯ/

Height	y-	+y	l-	+l	Ø-	+Ø	r-	+r	ʀ-	+ʀ	w-	+w
Closed /ɨ/	i	i	ɨ	ɨ	ɨ	ɨ	ɨ	ɨ	ɯ	ɯ	u	u
Mid /ǝ/	ie	ei	æ	æ	ǝ	ǝ	ǝa	aǝ	ʌ	ʌ	uo	ou
Open /a/	iæ	æi	æ	æ	a	a	ǝa	aǝ	ʌ	ʌ	uɔ	ɔu

Phonology (Shared)

Phonotactics

Syllable structure

Each syllable has a structure of CVC, better described as Initial-Nucleus-Final.

Disallowed roots

Generally, the retroflex coronals cannot appear together in the Initial and Finals lots of the syllable, unless it is the exact same consonant (which is essentially analysed as vestigial reduplication). Thus, a retroflex initial or final should generally be paired with a dental initial or final.

Vocabulary

Derived from Hmong-Mien

• *ntshu -> ntsɨw "elephant"
• *ʔlen -> lǝɲ "monkey"
• *ŋgeu -> nkǝw "river deer"
• *tʂo -> trǝw "tiger"
• *Glɐn -> lǝm, lǝn "Chinese onion"
• *Nqaːn -> nkʀan "Cogon grass"
• *qǝi -> kǝi "chicken" (cf. SInic kē, 雞)
• *m-nɔk -> nǝk, (m/n)wǝk "bird"

Derived from Sinic

• lhaŋʔ -> hlaŋ, hlak "elephant"
• w(h)an -> hwan, wan "monkey"
• krun -> krɨn, krɨm "river deer"
• nhāʔ -> hnaʔ "crossbow"
• m-lak-s -> mak, nak "shoot"
• łhuk -> hlukw, hlɨk "track, follow"