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)
umlaut like in OIr
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns fall into 3 genders (human, animate and inanimate) and have number (sg, du, pl), case (abs erg gen lat loc voc). Possessed forms have unpredictable stems 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
sèmpèngàrán > sệpăngă-N 'garment' hísèmpèngàrán-N > ispăngăr-N 'my garment'
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
PCiêng lò.mát, ráh.làmát '3sg loves, 3sg does not love' --> lă:mád, ra:xảmhăd
Syntax
VOS
question particle să-L