Angrex

(T.B.A.) (chio bei nonth)
Spoken in:	(somewhere in North America) ((sämvä en Nof Mäweka))
Conworld:	A possible future timeline (arguments to the contrary are welcome)
Total speakers:	none yet
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Germanic Anglic (T.B.A.)
Basic word order:	SVO
Morphological type:	isolating
Morphosyntactic alignment:
Writing system:
Created by:
Tropylium	one very late evening in spring 2008

A tentativ name for a future Anglic language. May be switched to a proper geographic-based one eventually.

Owes much to Futurese.

Grand Master Plan

Initial dialect features

Note that these features' current geographical distribution does not necessarily limit Ängrex's, since a few of them are still spreding.

Vowels

• Yod-dropping: Early Modern English /iʊ/ becomes /uː/ (GOOSE) if preceded by an initial consonant. Likewise /iʊɹ/ → /ʊɹ/. Typical exceptions, such as sugar, sure, apply.
• The following rhotic vowels are distinguished: /ɪɹ ɛɹ əɹ ɑɹ ɔɹ/ (NEAR SQUARE NURSE START NORTH). /oɹ/ (FORCE) merges into /ɔɹ/; /ʊɹ/ CURE merges varyingly with /ɔɹ/ or the disyllable /uəɹ/.
• The cot-caught and father-bother mergers apply, i.e. /ɒ ɔː/ both merge into /ɑː/.
• Collapse to a three-vowel system in final unstressed position: /iː/ (HAPPY) becomes /eɪ/ (FACE), while /ə(ɹ)/ (COMMA, LETTER) becomes /ɑː/. /oʊ/ remains. (Phonetically, these are pretty much [e a o].)

The following changes are best considered phonetic detail, since they do not disturb the phonological system.

• /ɑ æ iː uː ʊ/ → [a ɪə ɪj ʏw ʏ]
  • need to elaborate on the fate of /æ/ per environment, as well as on other pre-sonorant mergers

Consonants

• Whine-wine merger: /ʍ/ merged into /w/.
• /tj tɹ dj dɹ/ are affricated to /ʧ ʧɹ ʤ ʤɹ/. (Note that palatalization of /sj sɹ zj/ is older and applies to all English varieties, AFATAK.)
• Medial flapping of /t d/ (to [ɾ] when posttonic) applies. Glottalization does not (except, as widespred, to zero between a fricativ and a syllabic consonant — soften [sɑfn̩], rustle [ɹɑsl̩])
• Interdental loss: /θ ð/ become /t d/ in onset position, /f v/ in coda.
  • eater [ˈiːɾa], ether [ˈiːta]
• Coda /d/ is lost after /n l/.
• The clusters /ns nz/ insert epenthetic /t d/ to become /nts ndz/.

More vowel changes

• Vowel length ceases to be operativ.
• Reduction of unstressed vowels continues. In closed syllables, sufficiently unstressed /i ʉ/ typically reduce to /ɪ ʏ/, /æ ɑ/ to /ə/. Pretonic initial /ə/ (but not /ɪ/) tends to be lost entirely.

Labial/liquid chainshift

One of Ängrex's most caracteristic features.

• The main chain consists of /ɹ/ → /w/ → /v/ → /b/. Only the onset position is affected.
  • /v/ then devoices to /f/ adjacent to a voiceless consonant
• Coda /l/ ([ɫ]) → /w/ (the syllabic version lingers on for a while more)
• Onset /l/ → /ɾ/ before another consonant

Aspiration development

This series of sound changes forms a major isogloss among the Anglic languages.

• The trigger is the loss of onset /s/ before another consonant. This leads to the phonemicization of aspiration in voiceless stops — as well as of /ɾ/.
• Aspiration also develops before a non-tautosyllabic consonant such as [ɫ̩].
• Additionally, /ts/ → /tʰ/.
• This system is then muddled by application of anti-Grassman's Law, i.e. in a word containing two aspirates within one syllable of one another, the latter is deaspirated.
• /h/ triggers deaspiration regularly; it's however medially lost in all cases (e.g. megahertz → <mägat>)
• /h/ is also lost initially before any high vowel or glide.

Somewhat later

• The postalveolar sibilants become apical in articulation, in enunciated speech even retroflex. These retain their inherent labialization, and a folloing /w/ is assimilated. An /f/ or /v/ from former /w/, however, is metathesized, giving eg. <phafcyk> from patchwork, <defxa> from dishwasher (note the haplology) and <phase(u)jri> from passageway.

A change that, while common in even contemporary English dialects, should be considered a late adoption in Ängrex on the basis of its effects wrt. aspiration.

• A coda stop is lost before another obstruent. If another voiceless stop precedes, it gains aspiration.

more vowel shifts

• Rhotic vowels have at least by this time merged with the corresponding plain vowels. /ɔɹ/ becomes a new /o/.
• Lo front vowels rotate down & backwards: /ɛ a/ → /æ ɑ/
• The sequences /əw əj/ become /u i/, even before another vowel.

aU aI eI oI oU > Aw &j ji oj u I@ Ij Y(w) > jA jej jo(w) r= l= n= > A o A~ @{m n N}. > &~

palatalization etc. glide stuff

thj tj dj sj zj nj > ts\h ts\ dz\ s\ z\ J jth jt jd js jz jn ditto j > 0 / _l_ _4_ _BLB_ _RFX_ s z > s` z`/ w_

v > w / V_ Aw > o w > 0 / _RFX_

various

• Voiced affricates lenite to fricativs: /dz dʐ dʑ/ → /z ʐ ʑ/. Before nasals, however, the opposite development is found.
• Certain awkward consonant clusters are resolved: /n/ after an alveolar stop becomes /ɾ/, and /n/ before /ɾ/ becomes /nd/. (Dialectally, the first of these applies before any stop, not just alveolar.)

Phonology

pʰ	tʰ	tʂʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
p	t	tʂ	tɕ	k
b	d			ɡ
f	s	ʂ	ɕ	h
v	z	ʐ	ʑ
m	n		ɲ	ŋ
w	l		j
	ɾ

i		u
e	ə	o
æ		ɑ

Difthongs iu eu ei äu äi ou oi (ai ui??)

Orthography

Per IPA, except:

• Obviously (?), <r> is /ɾ/ and a digraph with <h> signifies aspiration.
• /j/ is written as <i>; similarly /w/ as <u> when not in absolute syllable-initial position.
• <c x j> are /tɕ ɕ ʑ/ before an orthographic <i> (itself silent before another vowel), /tʂ ʂ ʐ/ elsewhere.
  • A silent <r> occurs before retroflexes deriving from former /ɻ/, but also between a retroflex and /i/. E.g. jail → <jriu> /ʐiw/, dale → <jiu> /ʑiw/.
  • need to decide what to do with coda position
• <ñ ng> are /ɲ ŋ/.
• <y> is /ə/.
• The lo vowels are <ä a> = /æ ɑ/.
  • or should /æ/ be the unmarked <a>? /ɑ/ could well be spelled with something derived from <ah> or <ar> or <aw>.