Seggeynni

Seggeynni is another conlang spoken in my far-future Antarctican conworld. It developed from language contact, when Kämpya speakers settled in lands where Thangha' was spoken (as well as other languages such as Habyela and North-East Antarctican, which although unrelated to Thangha', form part of a Sprachbund). Kämpya speakers were more technologically advanced than Thangha' speakers, and Kämpya was definitely the prestige language, forming the superstrate. Most of Seggeynni's vocabulary and grammar come from Kämpya. On the other hand, Kämpya speakers intermarried extensively with the Thangha' speaking community, and Thangha' has exhibited a very heavy substrate effect.

The language documented here is spoken approximately a century after the initial migration. The vast majority of speakers are mixed-race descendents of Kämpya and Thangha' speakers. In addition to Seggeynni, almost all have a passive command of both Thangha' (still a common trade language in the region) and Kämpya (a liturgical language).

Like Thangha', there are many consonants which contrast secondary articulations, which affect the quality of adjacent vowesl. Additionally, Seggeynni is characterised by an underlying simple syllable structure at the phonemic level, however many speakers "drop" vowels, so that consonant clusters are heard in the spoekn language. For example, phonemically the name of the language is /ˈséʕkə̀jə̀nə̀jə̀/, but, except when speaking extremely carefully, most speakers pronounce it as [ˈséɠə̀iɲːì].

Phonology

Vowels

The vowel system is very similar to Thangha'. In stressed syllables, there are 5 vowel phonemes /iː/, /uː/, /e/, /o/ and /aː/~/a/ (speakers vary as to whether they pronounce it long or short). As in Thangha', the length of the vowel is more important than the quality in contrasting /iː/ and /uː/ vs. /e/ and /o/. In unstressed syllables, the language has a Vertical Vowel System, only contrasting /a/ and /ə/ (however other vowels such as [i] and [u] are heard as allophones of /ə/).

Consonants

The consonant inventory is very similar to Thangha'. Kämpya's aspirated consonants became velarised in Seggeynni.

	Labial	Pal. Labial	Dental / Alveolar	Lab. Dental	Alveolo-Palatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Lab. Palatal	Lab. Velar	Lab. Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	mʲ ~ mj	n	nʷ ~ nw			ɲ ~ nj	(ŋ)		(ɲʷ)	(ŋʷ)
Voiced Stop / Affricate	b	bʲ ~ bj	d	dʷ ~ dw	dʑ	(ɖ)	ɟ ~ gj	g		(ɟʷ ~ gɥ)	gʷ ~ gw ~ gb
Voiceless Stop / Affricate	p	pʲ ~ pj	t	tʷ ~ tw	tɕ	ʈ	c ~ kj	k	q	(cʷ ~ kɥ)	kʷ ~ kw ~ kp	qʷ ~ kf ~ qp	ʔ
"Aspirated" Stop / Affricate	pˤ ~ pʰ		tˤ ~ θˤ ~ θ ~ tsˤ~ sˤ ~ tʰ ~ tsʰ ~ ts				cç ~ kɕ ~ ks
Voiced Fricative			z	zʷ ~ zw	ʑ
Voiceless Fricative	f	fʲ ~ fj	s	sʷ ~ sw	ɕ	ʂ	ç ~ ɬ	x ~ χ ~ ħ ~ h		çʷ ~ ɸʲ	xʷ ~ χʷ ~ ʍ ~ ɸ
Aspirated Fricative			sˤ ~ sʰ
Flap / Trill	ⱱ ~ ʀʷ	ⱱʲ			ɾʲ	ɽ			(ʀ)
Lateral							ʎ		ɫ	(ʎʷ)		ɫʷ ~ ɫw
Semivowel							j			ɥ	w

• When the velar nasal /ŋ/ occurs word initially, it has merged into /ɲ/ in most dialects. The only exception is dialects that are influenced by North-East Antarctican.

• Except for /ɥ/, labialised palatal consonants such as /cʷ/ are rare. They only occur in loanwords from Habyela. Before front vowels, most speakers merge them with labialised velar consonants, and before back vowels, most speakers merge them with plain palatal consonants.

• Retroflex /ɖ/ is only found in loanwords. Many speakers merge it into /d/.

• /ʀ/ is only found in loanwords. Many speakers merge it into /ɽ/.

• Labialised labial consonants /mʷ/, /bʷ/, /pʷ/ (and sometimes /fʷ/~/ɸ/) occur as separate phonemese in a few dialects. But most dialects have merged these with the plain labials.

• Some dialects merge /xʷ/ into /f/ (or /ɸ/ in one dialect that treats this as a distinct phoneme to /f/).

Phonotactics

Underylingly, the only syllables permitted are CV and CCV. The latter is rare, and only a few consonant clusters are permitted, namely /pf/, /tf/ and /pç/~/ps/~/pɬ/. Notably, almost all Seggeynni speakers consider these to be single consonants.

Stress

The situation here is identical to Kämpya. One syllable in each word bears stress. Vowel phonation is phonemic on stressed syllables but not elsewhere. The phonations are tense /a̰/, breathy /a̤/ or /ä/, and glottalised /aʔ/. Breathy and tense vowels are both pronounced long (speakers can diphthongise the latter), while glottalised vowels are pronounced short, and with glottalisation of the following consonant (or with a glottal stop [ʔ] in the case of word final syllables). For example, the first syllable of "Seggeynni" has stress with glottalised phonation, meaning that the subsequent /k/ is pronounced as an implosive /ɠ/.

Short vowels with tense phonation are pronounced with an epiglottal approximant [ʢ] after them e.g. /ɲḛ̂/ - "snare" is pronounced [ɲḛ̂ʢ].

The pronunciation of short vowels with breathy phonation varies depending on a variety of factors. At the end of words, they are normally pronounced with a final /ɦ/, or occasionally [z] or [ɹ]. If the vowel precedes an obstruent (stop, affricate or fricative), then a voiceless fricative is inserted, that is homorganic with the obstruent e.g. /fáˈʑè̤tè/ - "forest" is most often pronounced [fɛ́ˈʑìstə̀]. However this is in free variation with preaspiration, so the word for forest can also be pronounced as [fɛ́ˈʑìʰtə̀]. If the vowel precedes a sonorant, then it is pronounced geminated and with breathy voice e.g. /ˈjè̤mə̀/ - "salt" is usually pronounced [ˈji̤m̤ːə̀].

Tone Patterns

These are also identical to Kämpya. A description of the tone patterns can be found here.

Assimilations / Epenthesis

There are many phonetic processes that result in the deletion of schwa, often leading to consonant clusters. They apply to unstressed syllables, with two major exceptions. The first of these is word-initial syllables. The second of these is the syllable immediately after a stressed syllable.

Nasal Consonants

A schwa has a strong tendency to be lost if it occurs immediately after a nasal consonant, and immediately before a stop or affricate. In this case, the nasal changes it's place or articulation to be homorganic with the stop / affricate e.g. /çə̀wàŋə̀ˈpô̰/ - "udder" is usually heard as [ḉʉwɔ́mˈpɔ̰̂ː] (here and below, the parts of the word that undergo assimilation have been marked in bold).

If a schwa occurs between two nasal consonants, it is elided, along with the preceding consonant. In its place, the following nasal is geminated e.g.

If a schwa comes immediately before a nasal consonant, and immediately after a voiceless stop, then speakers usually delete it, and pronounce the resulting consonant as a glottalised nasal (at the place of articulation of the nasal) e.g.

If a schwa occurs word finally and is preceded by a nasal, then the whole syllable is often deleted, with nasalisation of the preceding vowel e.g. /zə́ˈwòʔtɕə̀nə̀/ - "rotten" is usually prononuced [zúˈwʉ̀ʔtɕìⁿ].

The sequence /məjə/ is usually pronounced [mːʲi]. Unlike most other assimilation processes, this can occur in the syllable immediately following the stressed one e.g. /ʔáˈɫʷṳ̀ːmə̀=jə̀/ - "everyone's" (alienable) is usually pronounced [ʔɒ́ɫʷṳ̀ːmːʲì].

A similar process transforms the sequence /nəjə/ to [ɲːi], as in the name of the language, Seggeynni [ˈséɠə̀iɲːì], underlyingly /ˈséʕkə̀jə̀nə̀jə̀/.

Debuccalisation of Stops

If a word final schwa is preceded by a stop, then it is very common to delete the schwa and debuccalise the stop to a glottal stop e.g. /ˈqóʔɲàtə̀/ - "Hkonat" (the name of a city), is usually pronounced as [ˈqɔ́ʔɲɛ̀ʔ].

If schwa occurs between two stops of identical voicing (sequences of tenuis + schwa + aspirated stop are also permissible), then both schwa and the preceding stop are deleted, and the following consonant becomes geminated e.g. /ˈqòʔɲátə́=ká/ - "from Hkonat" is normally pronounced [ˈqɔ̀ʔɲɛ́kːá].

Semivowels

An extremely common phonetic process involves sequences of /a/ or /ə/ followed by /jə/, /wə/ or /ɥə/. The second schwa is deleted, and the semivowel assimilates with the preceding vowel to form a diphthong. /ajə/ becomes [ai], /awə/ becomes [au], and /aɥə/ becomes [aʉ]. Likewise /əjə/ becomes [əi], /əwə/ becomes [əu], and /əɥə/ becomes [əʉ]. An example of this is in the name of the language, /ˈséʕkə̀jə̀nə̀jə̀/, which is pronounced as [ˈséɠə̀iɲːì].