User:Ceige/Lexember Language

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Introduction

Influences include:

  • Kiritimati (Christmas Island ala Kiribati)
  • Japanese & Ainu
  • Austronesian

Examples:

  • Christmas > kirmat | きりまっ、待
  • Christian > kirsan | きりさん、〜様
  • Merry > mei, mai | めい、まい、美

Sound Changes

  • CLV > CVr
  • -VF > -VP

Phonology

Consonants

Plosives

  • p (b) t k (*g)

/b/ might only be allowed in VCV situations. Not sure if /g/ is allowed too. Likely heavy restrictions on their occurrence.

This would leave /t/ the sole plosive for its POA, which is explainable by the /t/ /d/ merger of English'. Dento-alveolars are also better represented elsewhere (fricatives and liquids)

/t/ may change to palato-alveolar in the environment of /i/, and from there it is tempting to mirror Japanese.

Fricatives

  • (f) s h

/f/ might only be allowed in Cu situations

Sonorants

  • m n y w r

/n/ is the only nasal allowed at the end of a syllable, leaving /m/ to join /w/ and /y/ as syllable-initial consonants only. In contrast, /r/ yields to /n/ or /Ø/ word initially.

Vowels

  • a e i o u
  • ai, au, ei, *ou

/ou/ is exceedingly rare, if even possible. /ei/ is increasingly marginalised by some speakers and can merge with /ai/ - for others, /ei/ survives. /au/ is often realised as [äo] or [ao], and /ai/ sometimes as [äɪ], [ɑɪ] or [ɑj]. This has led to the suggestion that /au/ be replaced with /ao/ and written as such, without mirroring that with <ae>

Vocabulary

Western Loans

Salient Examples

  • Christmas -> kirmat
  • Christian -> kirsan
  • England -> Inan – Presumably Iran > Inon
  • Britain -> Pirten, Birten
  • Rabbit -> abi, nabi (bunny > bai?)

Obscure Examples

  • sai (confident affirmative) < "safe to say", "savvy".
  • kai (plural marker) < "guys" (-> mikai, yukai)
  • niti (free, freedom) < "liberty"

Sino-Xenic loans

  • dai (big) cf. Jp. dai
  • hak (school) cf. Jp. gaku
  • daihak (university) cf. Jp. daigaku