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/ > /we/
• back vowels should break as in OC > MC
• final fricatives > breathy tone > low tone
• Prefixes correspond to lexical mutations in RW
• grammatical mutation
• standardize Irish-style orthography?
• slenderization and labialization yielding MC-style medials
• vowel length lost
• assuming vocalized r at the same conditions as bühnendeutsch:
  • fám, dàuigh, neág, đâbh, séil, stúm, rút, leá, speáb, cia

Phonology

Initials

Old Kurmian 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/

Grammar

Mutations

• /p/ <p> > /f/ /b/ /pʰ/ (from AW pf)
• /b/ <b> > /v/ /m/ /bʰ/
• /pʰ/ <p̂> > /f/ /m̊/ /pʰ/
• /f/ <f> > /0/ /v/ /f/ (from AW f and w)
• /m/ <m> > /ṽ/ /m/ /m̊/
• /t/ <t> > /θ/ /d/ /tʰ/
• /d/ <d> > /ð/ /n/ /dʰ/
• /tʰ/ <t̂> > /θ/ /n̊/ /tʰ/
• /s/ <ƨ> > /h/ /z/ /s/
• /z/ <s> > /0/ /z/ /z/
• /n/ <n> > /n/ /n/ /n̊/
• /!/ <ŧ> > /ɧ/ /g!/ /!ʰ/
• /g!/ <đ> > /ɧ̬/ /ŋ!/ /g!ʰ/
• /ɧ/ <sc> > /h/ /ɧ̬/ /ɧ/
• /k/ <c> > /x/ /g/ /kʰ/
• /g/ <g> > /ɣ/ /ŋ/ /gʰ/

Tenses

• Present: is V S O, negation má V is S O
• Past: do-L V S O, negation mádh-L V S O