User:Wattmann/Sandie

Western Mountains Qåuls is a language spoken along the ridges of the Western Mountains. It is bordered on the north by Inland Qåuls (or, more commonly, Qóll), on the west by Seashore Wargish and on the south by Swamp Wargish.

Western Mountains Qåuls is a language with a very low morpheme-to-word ratio, as there are never more than two morphemes per word. The morphemes are very specialized and fusional, and there are some consonant mutations and ablauts, together grouped under stem alternations.

Phonology

/pʰ ʰp t tʰ ʰt k kʰ ʰk q qʰ ʰq/ < p' 'p t t' 't k k' 'k q q' 'q>
/s sʰ ʂ ʂʰ/ < s s' š š' >
/ɬ ɬʰ/ < ł ł' >
/t͡s t͡sʰ ʰt͡s t͡ɬ t͡ɬʰ ʰt͡ɬ/ < c c' 'c č č' 'č >
/m mʱ n nʱ/ < m mh n nh >
/ʋ r l j ɰ/ < v r l j w >

/a e ø ɨ ʉ ɒ u (ɵ ɜ)/ < a e ø i y å u (o ë) >
/a̤ e̤ ɒ̤ ṳ/ < ah eh åh uh >
/ɒ͡a e͡ɨ ɒ͡ɨ/ < åa ei åi >

Stem Alternations and "Bleeding"

In WMQ, there are some regular alternation sets.
The most important is aspiration reversal and bleeding. When aspiration reversal happens, post-aspirated obstruent become pre-aspirated and vice versa. Bleeding happens if the obstruents follow another obstruent that's not post-aspirated and they switch from post-aspiration to pre-aspiration. In such cases, the first consonant acquires post-aspiration and the second one loses its newly acquired pre-aspiration.

The ablaut of /a → e → ɨ → ɒ → a/ can cause a lenition of consonants in that syllable. Lenition happens this way: post-aspirates lose aspiration, unaspirates gain pre-aspiration, modal nasals become breathy. Breathy nasals trigger breathiness in vowels as an assimilation.

When followed by a nasal, breathy vowels can diphthongize during nasal syncope.
Syncope happens when a syllable is both followed and preceeded by vowels and is unstressed.
Syncopated nasals reflect themselves as length on the previous vowel which then undergoes diphthongization in the following manner: /ṳ → ɒ͡a; e̤ → e͡ɨ; ɒ̤ → ɒ͡a; a̤ → ɒ͡ɨ/. Vowels left behind in syllables after syncope, if not diphthongised or diphthonɡs already, become semivowels in the following manner: /{a ɒ ɜ} → ɰ; {e ø ɨ ɵ} → j; {u ʉ} → ʋ/.
Breathy vowels that are not phonemic can occur phonetically nonetheless.

The ablaut of /ɒ → ø → e → ɒ/ causes fortification of consonants in that syllable invariably. Fortification happens this way: all obstruents become post-aspirates, breathy nasals become modal.

Geminate lenition is a different process. Geminates can lenite in two ways: /C: → ʰC/ and /C: → Cs/. These two lenitions are seperate and occur only morphologically without any other preconditions.

Coronal nasals can fortify under the right circumstances. The fortification is always: /n → t; nʱ → st/. /nʱ/ always passes on its breathiness to the vowel.

Fortification of /ɒ̤S/ and /a̤S/ where S = {s sʰ ʂ ʂʰ} results in /eks/.