Old Kurmian
Introduction
Old Kurmian is inspired by Middle Chinese and Irish.
Sound changes
- short e > short i, short i > ə
- short a o u > short ä ö ü
- /au ai/ > /aː/, /oy/ > /waː/
- back vowels should break as in OC > MC
- final fricatives > breathy tone > low tone
- lexical mutation
- grammatical mutation
- standardize Irish-style orthography?
- slenderization and labialization yielding MC-style medials
- vowel length lost
Phonology
Initials
| Labial | Coronal | Lateral | Coarticulated | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | voiceless | /m̊/ | /n̊/ | /n̊ˡ/ | /ŋ̊!/ | /ŋ̊/ | |
| voiced | /m/ | /n/ | /nˡ/ | /ŋ!/ | /ŋ/ | ||
| Stop | tenuis | /p/ | /t/ | /tɬ/ | /!/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /tɬʰ/ | /!ʰ/ | /kʰ/ | ||
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /dɮ/ | /g!/ | /g/ | ||
| breathy voiced | /bʱ/ | /dʱ/ | /dɮʱ/ | /g!ʱ/ | /gʱ/ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | /f/ | /s/ | /ɬ/ | /ɧ/ | /x/ | /h/ |
| voiced | /z/ | /ɮ/ | /ɧ̬/ | /ɣ/ | |||
| Trill | /r/ | ||||||
| Approximant | /w/, /ɥ/ | /l/ | /j/ | ||||
Vowels
There are many permissible rimes. There are four possible "medials": zero, /-j-/, /-w-/, and /-jw-/.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ | /ɨ/ | /u/ |
| Close-mid | /e/ | /ə/ | /o/ |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | ||
| Open | /a/ |
Finals
Permissible finals: /-p -t -k -m -n -l/