Lâura

The Lâura language is a branch of Khulls spoken in Poswob territory that takes its name from discarded words meaning lemonade. It is part of a series of fruit-flavored languages that also includes Apple Pie, Mandarin Orange, Raspberry Wine, and Strawberry Icecream.

Phonology

The phonology of the final stage of Laura resembles a typical language of the family of Poswa and Pabappa despite not being closely related to them. It evolved to this state by a series of sound changes that were typical of languages of the Poswob family but not typical of other Khul languages. Thus, unlike Ogili, which also superficially resembles Pabappa, Laura is fairly conservative since it didn't have to wipe away its entire phonology and vocabulary to become Poswa-like.

Early sound changes

Early Laura speech was characterized by the division of all Khulls phonemes into [+labial] and [+palatal], with no neutral sounds.

The consonants of the parent language were:

p ṗ b m h ʔ ʕ ḷ ṡ ṣ̌ z ŋ̇ ṁ ṅ l x k ḳ ġ ŋ t ṭ d n gʷ xʷ g s r š ž č ǯ kʷ ḳʷ ġʷ pʷ ṗʷ bʷ ʕʷ hʷ

Laura's innovation was to consider of all the non-labialized velars to be "palatal-friendly", and all of the plain alveolars (i.e. not postalveolar) to be "labial-friendly". The plain labials were also considered palatal-friendly, but in Khulls labials had always "defeated" palatals, and that remained true here. Thus the phonology was reinterpreted as

p ṗ b m  h  ʔ  ʕ  ḷ ṡ ṣ̌ z  ŋ̇  ṁ  ṅ  l x k ḳ  ġ  ŋ  t  ṭ  d  n  gʷ xʷ g s  r  š ž č ǯ kʷ  ḳʷ  ġʷ  pʷ  ṗʷ  bʷ  ʕʷ  hʷ

p ṗ b m (ś) ʔ (ź) ḷ ṡ ṣ̌ zʷ ŋ̇  ṁ  ṅ  l ś ć    ǵ  ń  tʷ ṭʷ dʷ nʷ gʷ xʷ ź sʷ rʷ š ž č ǯ kʷ  ḳʷ  ġʷ  pʷ  ṗʷ  bʷ  w   f

The syllabic consonants did not change yet because they behaved as vowels. /l/ did not change because it behaved as the palatal counterpart to /ʕʷ/.

Forward shift of coronals

The [č:tʷ] type opposition was unstable, and soon moved forward. All labialized coronals became labialized bilabials, and all palatalized coronals became plain alveolars except when bordering an /i/. Next the true palatals moved forward into psotalveolars. Thus the phonology shrank to

 p ṗ b m š ʔ ž ḷ ṡ ṣ̌ v ŋ̇  ṁ  ṅ  l č ǯ ñ pʷ ṗʷ bʷ mʷ gʷ xʷ f  s z t d kʷ  ḳʷ  ġʷ    w   

/t d/ were still [c ʒ] in some positions. Note that the language lacked any pure velars and now also lacked palatals; there were only labiovelars and postalveolars.