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Thrichian: Difference between revisions
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! single !! geminal !! with nasal | ! !! single !! geminal !! with nasal | ||
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When these clusters go through the consonant gradation process, the preaspiration changes to /v/. The nasal clusters change to (hpm > vvm, htn > vvn, hkŋ > vvŋ) The vv in these clusters is geminal. | When these clusters go through the consonant gradation process, the preaspiration changes to /v/. The nasal clusters change to (hpm > vvm, htn > vvn, hkŋ > vvŋ) The vv in these clusters is geminal. | ||
Preaspitation can also occur word-initially, such as in htán, meaning young. When this occurs, the word is only aspirated if the preceding word ends in a vowel. In isolation, many speakers would say /ta:n/ for htán. | Preaspitation can also occur word-initially, such as in htán, meaning young. When this occurs, the word is only aspirated if the preceding word ends in a vowel. In isolation, many speakers would say /ta:n/ for htán. | ||
'''STRUCTURE OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS''' | |||
In Thrichian, rules exist as to which consonants can follow, or be adjacent to, which others in clusters. Clusters can contain up to three consonants: an onset, core, and release. Thrichian sorts consonants into three categories: level-1 2 and 3. L1 consonants are nasals /n, m, ŋ/ while L2 consonants are glides and fricatives /h, s, z, ʃ, β, ʒ, f, v, w, j, r/ and L3 consonants are plosives and affricates /p, t, k, ts, tʃ/ Of these, L3 and /v/ can be geminal in clusters. | |||
a. Onsets can be of an equal or lower level than their core. For example, fricative-plosive is permitted, while plosive-fricative is not. | |||
b. The core must be the highest-level consonant in the cluster. These are usually plosives, but not always. | |||
c. The release can be a semivowel or a nasal. There does not always have to be a release. They usually appear at the end of the stressed syllable of a root word like gëhkŋi. This word is an example of one which contains an onset h – L2, a core k – L3, and a release ŋ – L1. | |||
The pattern for triphthong structure can be memorized as 2-3-1 | |||
Sometimes consonant clusters are broken up with the schwa vowel ė. Of course, in colloquial language, this letter is not pronounced, allowing for pronunciations like /ɪˈgʊɞ̆hrtsa/ for iguohėrtea, which is counted as three syllables, not four. In the northern dialect, the presence of h can cause the adjacent consonant to become voiceless. Thus, lihtėli becomes /lihtl̥i/. This means that /r/ and /l/ have voiceless allophones, which also appear next to any voiceless consonant, such as in Thriehčču /θr̥iɜ̆htʃu/ or arcėrkámin /ar̥tsr̥ˈka:min/ | |||
Because of the schwa, it would appear that clusters consisting of more than 3 consonants are permissible, but this is not the case. These clusters are treated as separate syllables, the coda being a syllabic consonant. In the afforementioned example arcėrkámin, the second r acts as the coda for the second syllable. The word is still broken up into its syllables ar+cėr+ká+min but the second syllable, cėr, only consists of voiceless consonants /tsr/. | |||
Many words which have three syllables when properly enunciated, are reduced to two syllables in the colloquial. An example is čúrėmla which becomes /tʃu:rmla/. This syllable structure is very common in basic Thrichian words. The first is long, the second a schwa, and the final is short. Doarėhkku /ˈdɒăr̥hk:u/ is another example of this. Words tend to assimilate to this form, in that the first syllable is long and emphasized and the second or last is reduced, such as with dársa /ˈda:rsa/. | |||
Consonant clusters ht, hc, hč can be realized by some speakers as /sts, sts, ʃtʃ/ when slender and at the beginning of a word, as in htímh /stsi:v/. | |||
'''PHONOTACTICS''' | |||
Thrichian is a stress-timed language. The maximum syllable capacity is shown below, where C = consonant, V = vowel, G = glide. In this model, a geminal consonant is counted as one, as well as digraphs like th, mh which represent one phoneme. | |||
(C)(G)V(V)(CC) | |||
ie.: hkuaippu – dinner /hkwaip:u/ | |||
1. digraphs count as single consonants in this model, making possible syllables such as mhainth /winθ/ – our (dual) | |||
2. any consonant can be geminal (held for twice as long) | |||
3. only voiceless plosives and /v/ can be preaspirated (h-) | |||
Consonant clusters which are permitted: | |||
1. s + plosive | |||
2. l, r, v + plosive, nasal or fricative | |||
3. h + plosive or v | |||
4. h + plosive + nasal | |||
5. n + alveolar plosives or k, f, v, l | |||
6. m, ŋ + plosives or l | |||
7. kt, pt, thr, rst | |||
- ė is pronounced if any of these rules appears broken between or within words. Some speakers may insert this same schwa sound between consonants which are difficult to pronounce, even if there is no ė in the written form. | |||
- the only clusters of more than two consonants that is permitted, not including h-clusters, is rst. | |||
'''STRESS''' | |||
Stress in Thrichian always falls on either… | |||
1. the first syllable, then every other consequent syllable | |||
TAguBUONac | |||
PAImheaGÍ | |||
2. a syllable with a digraph or accented vowel | |||
HAmuSTÁN | |||
paLÁS | |||
3. stress always skips over the vowel ė | |||
RUANlėSIÁN | |||
NUOrėvDAIN | |||
Each diphthong is treated as a single syllable. Even triphthongs such as uoi and uai. Stress is highly dependent on how much phonetic information is being conveyed per syllable. If one syllable contains more phonemes than another, it will be stressed. The above rules work for words which are ambiguous, either unaccented or do not have diphthongs to signal the stressed syllable. | |||
Distinguishable from stress in Thrichian is rhythm, which involves for how long one must hold a sound. This duration of articulation is important for consonants, as it distinguishes between words such as anuogí (vocabulary) and annuogi (to frighten). Vowel length is also discernable in monosyllabic words such as nu/nú. The vowel in the second nú is held twice as long as in nu. Stress must be taken into account when silent ė is written. In the spoken language, often a short time is elapsed to suggest the presence of ė even though it is inaudible. In the compound buolėmhaesta (folk song) the ė causes a very brief pause or extension in the pronunciation of the l to indicate itself. To non-native speakers, the pause is often indiscernable, thus it is used as a gauge for fluency. | |||
In pronunciation, opening diphthongs are simplified when they are no longer on a stressed syllable, due to conjugation or inflection. For example, the name of Thrichia, Thriehčču becomes Thriehččása, meaning Thrichian Language. In the second example, due to the accented á, the diphthong ie simplifies in pronunciation to i. [ˈθɾiɜhtːʃʊ > θɾihˈtːʃasa] This same process applies to uo>wo, oa>wa, ea>e. | |||