#consonant clusters

[language-dragon]

The beauty of compounding languages is coming across seemingly impossible consonant clusters like ‘kststr’, but really it’s just about how stuff grows

[possessivesuffix]

Spirantization in Iranian, part 1

(”Spiranization”, if you will?)

*cw (general Iranian) > *sp (widespread central Iranian, could be with intermediate *s̻w) > *sf (general unconditional *p > f)

This parenthetical warrants some further comments, actually.

To start off with some background… The Iranian languages are distinguished within the Indo-European family by “partial Grimm’s Law”: the voiceless stops *p *t *k become the corresponding spirants *f *θ *x when before another consonant (no matter if in coda or in a syllable-initial consonant cluster). Going from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Proto-Iranian we end up with at least the following consonant clusters:

*pr > *fr, *pć > *fš, *pt > *ft

*tr > *θr, *tn > *θn, *tj > *θj

*kr > *xr, *km > *xm, *kš > *xš, *kć > *xc, *kt > *xt

There could have been more of these yet, such as *pn > *fn or *kw > *xw, but I have not seen explicit evidence for all possibilities.

Some recent accounts also route the supposed PII aspirated stops through this. Instead of assuming *pH *tH *kH > *pʰ *tʰ *kʰ already in PII and then these separately > *f *θ *x, it’s possible to consider development that’s independent of Indo-Aryan: first the same preconsonantal lenition to give *fH *θH *xH, followed by simple loss of the laryngeal. (I am honestly not sure if this is ingenious or contrived. Perhaps both?)

These spirant clusters are fairly well preserved in Avestan. In other languages they often lenite or otherwise simplify further — which I think is a major contributing factor to why people familiar with only the European IE languages might find Iranian languages to look rather unfamiliar. Already in Old Persian, for example, *θr develops to a consonant normally transcribed ‹ç› — the pronunciation is unclear, perhaps /ts/ or /rʰ/ — while *θn and *θj develop to /šn/ and /šj/.

The deep diversity of the Iranian languages guarantees though that some good examples of these spirants can be found in the languages as still spoken today. In Modern Persian, for example, /ft/ remains, as in هفت /hæft/ ‘seven’ (< PIr. *hafta < PII *sapta < PIE *septḿ̥). For *xš we could cite, say, Ossetian ӕхсин /æxsin/ ‘lady’; for *fr, Kurdish farwâr ‘present’ (= “foreborne”, i.e. “that which has been brought forward”); etc.

(→ Part 2)

[stephenescher]

An In-Depth Guide to Creating a Phonology - Part 5: Phonotactics

An In-Depth Guide to Creating a #Phonology - Part 5: #Phonotactics #conlang #conlanging

So far in this series, I’ve been explaining the various kinds of sounds that you can include in your conlang. But in addition to having a limited inventory of sounds, languages also have restrictions on how those sounds can be arranged in a syllable. These restrictions are called phonotactics.

The Structure of a Syllable

First, it is important to understand the structure of a syllable. A…

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[brimful-of]

What starts with 'F' and ends with 'uck'?

Kids, consonant clusters and big trucks. YeahWrite #352 nonfiction. Come read some others.

Q: What starts with ‘F’ and ends with ‘-uck’?

When my eldest was still shorter than me, still small enough to clamber up onto my lap, take my face in his chubby little hands, and very seriously demand my attention, we lived in a remote town in the far northwest of Australia. (Now he demands my attention by shoving his phone two inches from my nose and insisting I watch whatever video, or chuckle…

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[naskawomah-blog]

Spittin’ Letters

There are many words in Nakoma where two (or more) consonants become best friends and we’re wondering what it’s all about.

The majority of consonant clusters, such as gl, kt, mn and so on, have a “schwa” (ə) sound in between. So, the word níkla, meaning “black”, is pronounced more like “nee-kuh-lah” as opposed to “neek-lah”. 

There are a few exceptions, where pairs of consonants take on a different sound (see Orthography).

One of these is the ŋn combination. When the úwa (ŋ) is placed before any other consonant except n, it doesn’t change. But because ŋ and n are so similar, they are pronounced like the Spanish ñ or the Portuguese nh.

So, šiŋna, the Nakoma for “brown”, is pronounced “sheen-yah”.

There are dozens of consonant pairings in Nakoma. Many are the result of a final consonant followed by an initial consonant, and others are two best friends just chilling out have a grand old time.

[onestopkorean]

How do I know which words irregulars are applied to? Also syllables with 4 letters, how do I know which letter is the one being pronounced? Is there a way to know or do I just pretty much have to memorize these things one by one? Sorry for bothering, thank you for having this blog, it's been helpful!

First, I apologize for the late reply. I wanted to be sure that I did not forget an important part of the explanation on consonant clusters (syllables with four letters).

For the most part, I don’t know of any rule that can be used to tell which verbs are conjugated irregularly; I think the key is memorization. However, I do know that the irregular -ㅂ다 verbs that are conjugated as -워/와 are conjugated that way because they were originally spelled with a letter that is no longer used in modern Korean. But that isn’t a rule that can be used easily unless you are familiar with the original letters of Hangul, and it only applies to a few verbs as far as I know.

As for syllables with four letters, two consonants appearing at the bottom of a syllable block can be referred to as a consonant cluster. Here is a list of example syllables containing the possible consonant clusters (I could not type only the consonant cluster on a Korean keyboard): 넋, 앉, 많, 닭, 삶, 덟, 곬, 핥, 읊, 싫, 값.

When talking about the two bottom letters of a four-letter syllable block, the general rule is to pronounce the first letter and drop the second. However, that is not always the case, so you will need to memorize them.

Ex. 넋 (soul, spirit) - pronounced [넉]

Ex. 앉 (verb stem of the verb 앉다, “to sit”- not a word on its own) - pronounced [안]

Ex. 많 (verb stem of the verb 많다, “to be many”- not a word on its own) - pronounced [만]

Ex. 닭 (chicken) - pronounced [닥]

Ex. 삶 (life, existence) - pronounced [삶]

Ex. 여덟 (native Korean numeral eight) - pronounced [여덜]

Ex. 외곬 (single-minded, inflexible) - pronounced [외골]

Ex. 핥 (verb stem of the verb 핥다, “to lick”- not a word on its own)- pronounced [할]

Ex. 읊 (verb stem of the verb 읊다, “to recite”- not a word on its own)- pronounced [읍]

Ex. 싫 (verb stem of the verb 싫다, “to be undesirable”- not a word on its own)- pronounced [실]

Ex. 값 (price) - pronounced [갑]

If the syllable block comes before another syllable block that begins with a vowel sound, both of the bottom letters from the first syllable block are pronounced, with the second letter carrying over to begin the next syllable.

Additionally, the usual pronunciation rules apply. Unless the first letter in a consonant cluster is ㄹ, the consonant that carries over will become tense due to the presence of the first consonant.

Ex. 없을 거예요 (will not exist) - pronounced [업쓸 거예요] Ex. 값이 (price + subject particle -이) - pronounced [갑씨]

Ex. 앉다 (to sit) - pronounced [안따]

Ex. 읊다 (to recite) - pronounced [읍따]

And, in keeping with the normal pronunciation rules, a ㅎ in the presence of an untensed, unaspirated consonant will still cause that consonant to become aspirated.

Ex. 많다 (to be many) - pronounced [만타]

Lastly, if the consonant cluster ㄹㄱ appears before a syllable that begins with ㄱ, ㄹ is pronounced, and the next syllable is pronounced as though it begins with the tense consonant ㄲ (due to tensification).

Ex. 밝게 (brightly) - pronounced [발께]

I hope this helps!

[house-carpenter]

...

Kartvelian languages never disappoint.

[amaactivities-blog]

Consonant Blends or Consonant Clusters

bl br ch cl cr dr fl fr gl gr pl pr sc sh sk sl sm sn sp st sw th tr tw wh wr sch scr shr sph spl spr squ str thr