Flei/Old draft
Ciêng (nă rhọb Chiểng from *nàh ròpàh cècéŋàh) is a classical language of Verse:Méich Bhaonnáiqh.
Inspirations: Vietnamese, Old Irish, Tiberian Hebrew, Maltese (and Hmong?)
Phonology
p t c k kħ q = /p t k q ʡ ʔ/; ph th ch kh ħ = /f θ x χ ħ/
m n ng; mh nh ngh = /m n ŋ; ṽ (lenis n) (lenis ŋ)/
x s h = /ɬ ʃ h/
b ƀ đ d y g ǥ għ = /v pˁ tˁ ð j ɣ (Eevo L) ayin/
r l rh /r l (flap)/
hm hn hng hr voiceless resonants
i ê e a o ô u = /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/; ă = shva na; ĕ = ultrashort e; ie uo
Ultrashort vowels cannot carry independent tones
tones: a á à ả ã ạ (mid~falling high low rising~dipping nga nang)
Mutations
- Lenition: m n ng p t c k kħ s v l r -> mh ng ngh b d y g għ h 0 l rh
- L-coloring: m n ng p t c k kħ s v l r -> ƀ l ng ƀ đ ǥ ǥ għ x l l r
- Aspiration: m n ng p t c k kħ s v l r -> hm hn hng ph th ch kh ħ s ph x hr
Proto-language
5 vowels: i e a o u, short and long; each mora had high and low tones
allowed syllables: CV, CVn, CVh, CVl (CVnC becomes CV(sokuon)C as in Hebrew)
Todo: Stress patterns for construct nouns and dependent verbs
Consonants: m n ŋ p t c k q 2 s w l r y /m n ŋ p t k q̟ q̠ ʔ ʃ w l r j/
Tone reflexes (' denotes stress):
- If stressed syllable is short: 'á > á; 'à > à; 'á.á > ã; 'á.à > a; 'à.á > ả; 'à.à > ạ (This occurs before syncope)
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns fall into 3 genders (human, animate and inanimate) and have number (sg, du, pl), case (abs erg gen lat loc voc) and construct state independently. Construct state forms are unpredictable and comes from proto-forms that had a different stress pattern than absolute forms.
The locative is used with prepositions to indicate location and is the default prepositional case; when the lative is used the same prepositions indicate destination, and when the ergative is used they indicate "motion from".
article nă + various mutations (also relativizer)
Possessive prefixes
Adjectives
Adjectives agree with nouns, def adjectives take the def article (bc Hebrew)
Verbs
Old Irish-style independent-dependent verbal allomorphy, which includes tone changes
- lò.mát, *ráh.làmát '3sg loves, 3sg does not love'
--> lă:mád, ra:xảmhăd
Syntax
VOS
question particle să-L