Techomonic
CBBic is the provisional designation of a collaborative project on the Conlanger Bulletin Board aimed at the construction of a fictional branch of the Indo-European language family. The chief contributors are Üdj, WeepingElf (Jörg Rhiemeier) and Salmoneus.
Setting
The languages are meant to descend from the language of a group of people who were "dropped off" along the way by the people who trekked eastward along the Eurasian steppe to become the ancestors of the speakers of Tocharian. The languages will be written in conscripts derived from the Kharoshthi script.
Proto-CBBic phonology
Consonants
In the IPA:
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspirated stops | *pʰ | *tʰ | *cʰ | *kʰ | |
| Neutral stops | *p | *t | *c | *k | |
| Voiced stops | *b | *d | *ɟ | *ɡ | |
| Sibilants | *s | *ʂ | *ɕ | ||
| Nasals | *m | *n | *ɲ | *ŋ | |
| Liquids | *l | *r | |||
| Semivowels | *w | *j |
In an IAST-derived notation, which may be easier for most people to type:
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspirated stops | *ph | *th | *ch | *kh | |
| Neutral stops | *p | *t | *c | *k | |
| Voiced stops | *b | *d | *j | *g | |
| Sibilants | *s | *ṣ | *ś | ||
| Nasals | *m | *n | *ñ | *ṅ | |
| Liquids | *l | *r | |||
| Semivowels | *w | *y |
Vowels
| Front unround |
Front round |
Back unround |
Back round | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *ü (y) | *ï (ɨ) | *u |
| Mid | *e | *ö (ø) | *ë (ə) | *o |
| Open | *ä (æ~ɛ) | *a |
All vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are marked with acute (e.g. *é), or those with umlaut dots with double acute (e.g., *ő).
Sound changes
(incomplete draft) (Note: for these changes, I've used the IPA instead of the IAST-derived notation.)
- Laryngeals "as usual", but with triple reflex as in Greek [please explain in more detail]
- Syllabic resonants develop *ə as prop vowel before the resonant
- Labiovelars lose labialization, with rounding of following vowel, e.g. *kʷe > *kø
- Palatovelar stops become palatals, e.g. *ǵ > *ɟ
- *s > *ʂ after *r, *u, or dorsal consonants
- *s > *ɕ after *i
- Dental stops become velars before *w, e.g. *dw > *ɡw; also, *sw > *ʂw
- Dentals become palatals before *j, e.g. *tj > *c; also, *sj > *ɕ (Note: the *j is deleted.)
- *e lowered to *æ except before an *i in the following syllable
- Voiceless and voiced-aspirated stops merge as aspirated stops, e.g. *t > *tʰ, *bʰ > *pʰ
- Grassmann's Law: aspirated stops lose aspiration before another aspirated stop later in the word
- Front vowels are centralized before velars, *r and *ʂ, e.g. *ek > *ək
Proto-CBBic morphology
(not determined yet)
