East-C Altaic'

Yet another phonology excercize. This one originated from the observation that labialized velars are common; labial-velars and labialized uvulars are restricted to certain areas, but still common within them. These areas (chiefly: west Africa on one hand, Ethiopia and northwest America on the other) however do not overlap [1], and thus labial-uvular consonants do not exist in any natlang. Clearly this a basically random gap that needs to be filled! The overall sound here seems so far quite unique to me, which is good.

This will probably eventually be forked to a separate daughterlang page.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Postalveolar	Velar	Labial-velar	Uvular	Labial-uvular	Glottal
Voiceless stops (P)	p	t		c /ʧ/	k	kp	q	qp
Voiced stops (B)	b	d	dr /ɖ/	j /ʤ/	g	gb		xb /ɢb/
Nasals (N)	m	n	nr /ɳ/		ŋ (ng)	gm /ŋm/		xm /ɴm/
Fricativs (F)	v /β/	s	sr /ʂ/	sy /ʃ/			x /ʁ/		h
Approximants (A)		l	ll /ɭ/	y /j/		w

• /β/ is written <b> after /t/ and in some words intervocally.
• /ʂ ʃ/ are written <s> in coda position.
• /ɭ/ is written <l> before another retroflex.

Long vowels

	Front	Back
Hi	í /iː/	ú /uː/
Mid	ie /iɛ̯/	ua /uɔ̯/
Lo	é /aɪ̯/	á /ɑː/

Short vowels

Hi i, u /ɪ ~ ʊ/; lo e, a /ɛ ~ ʌ/.

There's a front-back harmony in effect which prohibits short back vowels occuring after front vowels, and vice versa. Factor in that the first vowel of a word is always long, and hey presto, we have only two short arkivowels.

A final lo short vowel is reduced to shwa or elided wholesale before a word beginning with a sonorant.

Stress

Final if it's a long vowel, on the penult if that has a long vowel but the final doesn't, initial otherwise. In the first 2 cases, there's secondary initial stress.

Phonotax

CV{t, c, S, m, n, ŋ, L}

dr nr ll xm do not occur word-initially. b does not occur intervocally.

Occuring clusters:

• tP tŋ tb (=/tβ/) ty tw
• ck cy cw
• SP Sv SS Sw
  • This arkiphoneme is /ʂ/ before another /ʂ/, /ʃ/ before /ʃ ʧ/, as well as word-finally or before a non-coronal after a front vowel; and /s/ elsewhere.
• mp
• n + coronal other than /ɖ ɳ ɭ l/; ny nw
• ŋP ŋB ŋŋ ŋF ŋl ŋy ŋw
  • except ŋb ŋɖ ŋʤ
  • ŋq ŋqp ŋx ŋxb have [ɴ]
• lP lB lF ly lw
  • ldr lsr are /ɭɖ ɭʂ/)

A final t or c is elided before a word beginning with a voiced stop.

Sound changes from Proto-East Altaic'

(partial list)

• Front vowel chain shift: æ → e → i → əɪ
• ʊ → o
• syncope
• e o tensen, then → iɛ uɔ
• ɪ ɜ → ɪ~ʊ, ɛ~ʌ as decribed
• əɪ → aɪ
• ʈ → ɽ
• Prenasalization drops before stops, creating a voiced stop series
  • also mβ → mw → ŋw intervocally
  • remaining preconsonantal non-postvocalic nasals vocalize
• Labialized velars & uvulars become labial-velars & -uvulars
• ɢ → ʁ; b → β intervocally
• cluster cleanup:
  • elimination of 1st member
    • t d → ∅ / _ɽ
  • regressiv gemination
    • m n → l / _l
    • S → N / _N
    • t → m / _m
    • P → S / _S
  • tb → tβ
  • labiodorsalization w/ regressiv voicing
    • kb km → gb ŋm
    • qb qm → ɢb ɴm
    • gp gm → kp ŋm
    • etc.
  • sj → ʃ
• ɽ → ɭ in coda position, → ɖ intervocally, → ∅ elsewhere
• ll → ɭ
• ʂ, ʃ → j intervocally in front-harmonic context, later generalized in certain suffixes to back-harmonic context too

Test words

orthography	pronunciation	late PEA'?
diesetbeyi	/ˈdiɛ̯sɛtβɛjɪ/	*dēsa-t-baṣ-ī
srúxmu	/ˈʂuːɴmʊ/	*ṣū-q-mi
syétbenná	/ˌʃaɪ̯tβɛnˈnɑː/	*šay-t-baṣ-nā
nguajasqí	/ˌŋuɔʤʌsˈqiː/	*ŋ°ōnja-səq-ī
déxessikpi	/ˌdaɪ̯ʁɛsːɪkpɪ/	*ndayŋxa-səq-sik°i