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.

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.

Syllable-final /n/ had shifted to /m/ and /s/ to /f/; however, it is possible that /s/ > /sʷ/ did not occur in word-final position because of a pan-Khul tendency to bleed it into the next syllable and to pronounce it as [ts] at the end of a syllable.

Also /r/ > /v/ unconditionally, by "escaping" with /zʷ/ instead of turning into a pure approximant. Thus the /v/ phoneme occurs in all positions: word-initially and word-finally from primordial /z/, and in every other position from primordial /r/.

Loss of syllabic consonants

All syllabic consonants that occurred after other consonants changed to /u/ + consonant, thus making /u/ more prominent than in the parent language. However, /ul/ soon changed to just /u/, thus freeing it from needing to occur before a consonant.

Syllabic consonants that occurred after a vowel simply became plain consonants, with /l/ possibly changing to /w/ here as well.

Loss of velar consonants

The language at this point had /kʷ ḳʷ ġʷ xʷ gʷ/ as its only dorsal consonants, and all of them were labialized in all positions. Next, they split three ways, depending on the surrounding phonemes:

• When before a front vowel, they were palatalized to /čʷ čʷ ǯʷ šʷ žʷ/.

• When adjacent to a rounded vowel in either direction, they were transformed into rounded labials: /pʷ ṗʷ bʷ f w/, although the second of these sometimes appeared as a simple /pʷ/ because the front-vowel shift happened first.

• If neither of these conditions were true, they became plain velars /k ḳ ġ x g/. A fourth outcome may be possible, as perhaps they were palatalized after a front vowel as well, and then delabialized if before /a/.

Reorientation of tones

Possibly change the pharyngealized tone to /w/ + vowel, thus creating even more labialized consonants.

Final phonology

Vowels are essentially unchanged from Khulls.

Consonants:

pʷ ṗʷ bʷ mʷ w p ṗ b m f v t d n s z l č ǯ š ž k ḳ ġ x g