Nurian
Nurian (gaħēs nūrimēs /ˈgɐħæːs ˈn̪ˠʊɚrʲɪmʲæːs/) is a Talmic language descending from Thensarian, aesthetically inspired by Lithuanian, Russian and Italian. Nurian phonology and vocabulary has been signficantly influenced by Meetzarri. It is spoken alongside Meetzarric languages, Clofabic languages and New World Reber Wiebian
Historical phonology
- Cl > Cj > Cʲ (Italian style)
- C1C2 > C2C2 (similarly to Italian)
- mlīd - conclusion, end > mīd /mʲiːdˠ/
Numbers
- 1: cēm /ˈt͡ʃæːmˠ/
- 2: tiħōr /tʲɪˈħɔɚ/
- 3: nargь /ˈnˠɑɚd͡ʒ/
- 4: dhaufь /ˈðˠɐʊfʲ/
- 5: saliħ /ˈsˠɐlʲɪħ/
- 6: stām /ˈsˠtˠɑːm/
- 7: rōdь /ˈrˠoːdʲ/
- 8: loreħ /ˈɫɔɚrʲəħ/
- 9: farvь /ˈfˠɑɚɹɪ/
- 10: ħiler /ˈħɪlʲɛɚ/ (influenced by Meetzarri ulyerre)
- 11: cēmara /ˈt͡ʃæːmˠɑɚrˠə/ (< Themsarian cēmiħioré, influenced by Zutarl emarra)
- 12: pirdь /ˈpʲɪɚdʲ/ (Zutarl pirdi)
- 144: rtarþь /ɚˈtˠɑɚsʲ/
- 1728: ūbyc /ˈuːbˠɪ̞k/
Phonology
that's the jokey element in Nurian (a Russian trying to imitate Tamil and sounding English in the process)
Consonants
As a result of a series of historical palatalizations, Nurian has many consonants in hard (velarized) and soft (palatalized) versions, similar to Lithuanian and Russian. Radicals and /h/ cannot palatalize - however, they color the /a/ vowel as if they were soft.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Radical | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
vel. | pal. | vel. | pal. | vel. | pal. | ||||||
Nasal | mˠ | mʲ | n̪ˠ | nʲ | ɲ~ɲ̄ | ŋ | |||||
Stop | tenuis | pˠ | pʲ | t̪ˠ | tʲ | tʃ | k | ||||
voiced | bˠ | bʲ | d̪ˠ | dʲ | dʒ | g | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | fˠ | fʲ | θˠ | sˠ | sʲ | ʃ | x | ħ | h | |
voiced | ðˠ | zˠ | zʲ | ʒ | ɣ | ʕ | |||||
Trill | rˠ | rʲ | |||||||||
Approximant | central | w | (ɹ) | j | |||||||
lateral | ɫ | lʲ |
[ɹ] occurs in the hiatus after r-colored vowels before another vowel.
Palatalization
Word-final soft consonants use a soft sign ь.
Grapheme | m | p | b | f | v | n | t | d | th | dh | s | z | r | l | ng | c | g | ch | gh | ħ | ȝ | h | j |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hard | /mˠ/ | /pˠ/ | /bˠ/ | /fˠ/ | /w/ | /nˠ/ | /tˠ/ | /dˠ/ | /θˠ/ | /ðˠ/ | /sˠ/ | /zˠ/ | /rˠ/ | /ɫ/ | /ŋ/ | /k/ | /ɡ/ | /x/ | /ɣ/ | /ħ/ | /ʕ/ | /h/ | silent |
Soft | /mʲ/ | /pʲ/ | /bʲ/ | /fʲ/ | /j/ | /nʲ/ | /tʲ/ | /dʲ/ | /sʲ/ | /zʲ/ | /sʲ/ | /zʲ/ | /rʲ/ | /lʲ/ | /ɲ/ | /t͡ʃ/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /ʃ/ | /ʒ/ |
r = r-coloring before a consonant or word-finally
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | rhotic | short | rhotic | short | long | rhotic | |
Close | /ɪ~ɪ̞/ | /iː/ | /ɪɚ/ | /ʊ/ | /uː/ | /ʊɚ/ | ||
Mid | /ɛ/ | /eː/ | /ɛɚ/ | [ə] | /ɚ/ | /o/ | /oː/ | /ɔɚ/ |
Open | [æː] | /ɐ/ | /ɑː/ | /ɑɚ/ |
Diphthongs: ai, iai /ɐɪ/ au, iau /ɐʊ/
- Short /ɪ/ is lowered to [ɪ̞] after hard consonants.
- ia and e both represent [ɛ], the allophone of /ɐ/ after palatalized consonants.
- [ə] occurs as a reduction of /ɐ/ and /ɛ/, and also occurs after word-final geminates.
Stress
Nurian stress can be derived by applying the following stress pattern in Thensarian and then Thensarian > Nurian sound changes:
- A short final vowel cannot be stressed.
- Only one of the last 3 syllables can be stressed.
- the last heavy syllable is stressed if not the final syllable; if not, the penult is stressed.
- If no heavy syllables, the 3rd from last is stressed.
Grammar
Somewhat unusually, Nurian is verb-final with prepositions and modifier-modified order.
Nouns
Sgv-clv-plv system.
Dialects
hard <l> in Nurian in one dialect can be /w/ while soft <l> is /l/ (as in polish)
nurian has /ɫ/ /lʲ/ /ɭ/ but no ordinary /l/!
hard <l> = /l/, soft <l> = /j/ is like kashoebian
also considering ȝ ~ ng merger to /ŋ/ / /ɲ/
thus i will have /q/ > /ɲ/
another idea: v = /w/ / /j/
I should have <r> = /ɻ/ before a consonant in Standard Nurian
thus i'll have r-colored vowels!
it should be ok now that rencadian /r/ is a trill
that's how I could mix some English into Nurian!
but in a different way than how Rencadian does it
maybe one accent can lack retroflexes entirely and have r-colored vowels as phonemes instead!
another idea: soft f > palatal fricative?
for a dialect that does crazy things with slender consonants