Angrex

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(T.B.A.)
(chio bei nonth)
Spoken in: (somewhere in North America) ((sämvä en Nof Mäweka))
Conworld: A possible future timeline (arguments to the contrary are welcome)
Total speakers: none yet
Genealogical classification: Indo-European
Germanic
Anglic
(T.B.A.)
Basic word order: SVO
Morphological type: isolating
Morphosyntactic alignment:
Writing system:
Created by:
Tropylium one very late evening in spring 2008

A tentativ name for a future Anglic language. May be switched to a proper geographic-based one eventually.

Owes much to Futurese.

Grand Master Plan

Initial dialect features

Note that these features' current geographical distribution does not necessarily limit Ängrex's, since a few of them are still spreding.

Consonants

  • Whine-wine merger: /ʍ/ merged into /w/.
  • /tj tɹ dj dɹ/ are affricated to /ʧ ʧɹ ʤ ʤɹ/. (Note that palatalization of /sj sɹ zj/ is older and applies to all English varieties, AFATAK.)
  • Medial flapping of /t d/ (to [ɾ] when posttonic) applies. Glottalization does not (except, as widespred, to zero between a fricativ and a syllabic consonant — soften, rustle)
  • Partial interdental loss: /ð/ becomes /d/ in onset position, /v/ in coda. /θ/ also becomes /f/ in coda, but survives in onset position.
  • Coda /d/ is lost after /n l/.
  • The clusters /ns nz/ insert epenthetic /t d/ to become /nts ndz/.

Vowels

  • Yod-dropping: Early Modern English /iʊ/ becomes /uː/ (GOOSE) if preceded by an initial consonant. Likewise /iʊɹ/ → /ʊɹ/. Typical exceptions, such as sugar, sure, apply.
  • The following rhotic vowels are distinguished: /ɪɹ ɛɹ ɜɹ ɑɹ ɔɹ/ (NEAR SQUARE NURSE START NORTH). [ɚ] is an unstressed allophone of /ɜɹ/. /oɹ/ (FORCE) merges into /ɔɹ/; /ʊɹ/ CURE merges varyingly with /ɔɹ/ or the disyllable /uɜɹ/.
  • The cot-caught and father-bother mergers apply, i.e. /ɒ ɔː/ both merge into /ɑː/.
  • Collapse to a three-vowel system in final unstressed position: /iː/ (HAPPY) becomes /eɪ/ (FACE), while /ə ɜɹ/ (COMMA, LETTER) become /ɑː/. /oʊ/ remains. (Phonetically, these are pretty much [e a o].)

The following changes are best considered phonetic detail, since they do not disturb the phonological system.

  • /æ iː uː ʊ/ → [ɪə ɪj ʏw ʏ]
    • need to elaborate on the fate of /æ/ per environment, as well as on other pre-sonorant mergers

Labial/liquid chainshift

One of Ängrex's most caracteristic features.

  • The main chain consists of /ɹ/ → /w/ → /v/ → /b/. Only the onset position is affected.
    • /v/ then devoices to /f/ adjacent to a voiceless consonant
  • Coda /l/ ([ɫ]) → /w/ (the syllabic version lingers on for a while more)
  • Onset /l/ → /ɾ/ before another consonant

Aspiration development

This series of sound changes forms a major isogloss among the Anglic languages.

  • The trigger is the loss of onset /s/ before another consonant. This leads to the phonemicization of aspiration in voiceless stops — as well as of /ɾ/.
  • Aspiration also develops before a non-tautosyllabic consonant such as [ɫ̩].
    • I'd really like to extend this to [ɚ], but that doesn't seem to fit into the timeline.
  • Additionally, /θ ts/ → /t tʰ/.
  • This system is then muddled by application of anti-Grassman's Law, i.e. in a word containing two aspirates within one syllable of one another, the latter is deaspirated.
  • /h/ triggers deaspiration regularly; it's however medially lost in all cases (e.g. megahertz → <mägat>)

Somewhat later

  • The postalveolar sibilants become apical in articulation, in enunciated speech even retroflex. These retain their inherent labialization, and a folloing /w/ is assimilated. An /f/ or /v/ from former /w/, however, is metathesized, giving eg. <phafcyk> from patchwork, <defxa> from dishwasher (note the haplology) and <phase(u)jri> from passageway.

A change that, while common in even contemporary English dialects, should be considered a late adoption in Ängrex on the basis of its effects wrt. aspiration.

  • A coda stop is lost before another obstruent. If another voiceless stop precedes, it gains aspiration.

more vowel shifts

I E V Vw Vj > e & @ u i aU aI eI oI oU > Aw &j ji oj u I@ Ij Y(w) > jA jej jo(w) Or Ar 3r Er Ir > O A @ & j& r= l= n= > A o A~ @{m n N}. > &~

palatalization etc. glide stuff

thj tj dj sj zj nj > ts\h ts\ dz\ s\ z\ J jth jt jd js jz jn ditto j > 0 / _l_ _4_ _BLB_ _RFX_ s z > s` z`/ w_

v > w / V_ Aw > o w > 0 / _RFX_

various

  • dz dz` dz\ > z z` z\ (except prenasal)

Phonology

tʂʰ tɕʰ
p t k
b d ɡ
f s ʂ ɕ h
v z ʐ ʑ
m n ɲ ŋ
w l j
ɾ


i u
e ə o
æ ɑ

Difthongs iu eu ei äu äi ou oi (ai ui??)

Orthography

Per IPA, except:

  • Obviously (?), <r> is /ɾ/ and a digraph with <h> signifies aspiration.
  • /j/ is written as <i>; similarly /w/ as <u> when not in absolute syllable-initial position.
  • <c x j> are /tɕ ɕ ʑ/ before an orthographic <i> (itself silent before another vowel), /tʂ ʂ ʐ/ elsewhere.
    • A silent <r> occurs before retroflexes deriving from former /ɻ/, but also between a retroflex and /i/. E.g. jail → <jriu> /ʐiw/, dale → <jiu> /ʑiw/.
    • need to decide what to do with coda position
  • <ñ ng> are /ɲ ŋ/.
  • <y> is /ə/.
  • The lo vowels are <ä a> = /æ ɑ/.
    • or should /æ/ be the unmarked <a>? /ɑ/ could well be spelled with something derived from <ah> or <ar> or <aw>.