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 /ˈseʕkəjənəjə/, but, except when speaking extremely carefully, most speakers pronounce it as [ˈseɠəiɲːi].

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. 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
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

• The velar nasal /ŋ/ 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. Most speakers merge it into /d/.

• /ʀ/ is only found in loanwords. Most 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.