User:Elector Dark/Sandbox/1

Main Corpus
pˠɑlʋɛn / pˤɒ̰lʋʲən / pɜləʋʲən /  ǂʷɒ̥q'

qʲarʷːs / qɑ̰rʷəs / ɟærɵs

sa ɸɑlʋɛn / ⁿǃɑ̥ ʍɒ̰lʋʲən / ⁿǃæ̰ fɜləʋʲən / ǂʷɒ̥q'ǃa

nxa-falaven-I / nxa-falaven-II / nxa-falaven-III / falaven-nxa-VI

The language is well suited to a script, very likely a more true logographic script than Hanzi!

[sa] ~ ⁿǃɑ̥ ~ ⁿǃæ̰ ~ ⁿǃḁ ɑ ~ ɒ ~ ɜ a ~ ɑ ~ æ

Appears creaky voice is a side-effect of the informal register/modus or maybe an additional effect, stackable onto other modii?

pˤɒlʋʲən / pˤɒ̬lʋʲən / pˤɒ̰lʋʲən pɜləʋʲən / pɜ̬lʋʲən / pɜ̰lʋʲən

No acrolectic or formal modulation; acrolectic usage frowns upon modulation, primal usage operates other processes?

ǂʷɒq' / ǂʷɒ̤q' / ǂʷɒ̥q' ǂʷɒq'ǃa̬ / ǂʷɒ̤q'ǃa̬ / ǂʷɒ̥q'ǃa

The modii wouldn't be fixed but rather fluent and frequently switched-between. Talking to someone far above you would require explicit usage of only the acrolectic form, while general formalities can take a few informal forms. Informal speech can either take in acrolectic forms, for non-close persons, or personal for close persons. Personal speech can take on a few informal attributes, but doesn't often. Every speech form except the acrolectic can take in primal features such as hisses, clicks and ejectives. The primal speech form never takes in any of the other modal features and uses only primal ones. Within the tame form cluster, speech forms can take in things only from adjacent forms, except in some extremely specific circumstances in which the speaker wants to specifically emphasise a certain feature of the object (applicable only to the acrolectic and personal forms).

Feral clicks are part of every non-acrolectic speech form to some extent.

The modulations are:
 * 1) Acrolectic: Ø
 * 2) Consultative:  ~ ~ 
 * 3) Feral:  ~ ~ 
 * - Feral clitics have the equivalent:  ~ ~ 

The primal modus' breathy modulation can be replaced with stiff voice if breathiness is hard to pronounce (a sort of freeform allophony)

Where in primal communication clitics stand after the word they modify and therefore bind to it, they behave like seperate words in consultative speech. Primal clitics most often conform to the modulation of the root of the word to which they bind, but can change their modulation in some circumstances.

Are there regular correspondences between the three tame modii?

Appears:
 * pˠɑlʋɛn ~ pˤɒlʋʲən ~ pɜləʋʲən
 * qʲarʷːs ~ qɑrʷəs ~ ɟærɵs

I don't really understand the connection between the first and second correspondences, as the pattern of the first doesn't fit the second. I guess I should analyse them as two different classes of words, since one is a personal name and the other a planetary name.

Word class would be a convenient way to have different alternations. I see the following attributes change in the first class:
 * 1) ~  ~  (|p|)
 * 2) ~  ~  (|ɛ|)
 * 3) ~  ~  (anaptyxic vowel [ə])

There might be several different archiphonemes that are realised the same in one modus but differently in another. Palatalisation could conceivably be a result of the reduction of /ɛ/ into /ʲə/. That would mean:
 * - [ʋɛ] ~  [ʋʲə] ~  [ʋʲə]

The suprasegmental alternations of apparent /p/ could perhaps be transformed into:
 * - pˠɑ ~ pˤɒ ~ pɜ
 * - pˠ + ɑ ~ pˠ + ˠɒ ~ pˠ + ʲɜ

Thus the suprasegmentality could be cumulative. Explanation: diachronics, some pharyngeal consonant (possibly /*ħ/) had stuff to do with it.

What should be taken as the default form? This bugs me a bit, as I don't know. All three modii have their differences, and while the acrolect is usually somewhat less marked (at least in the first class), the personal modus has unmarked features as well. There doesn't seem to be a totally neutral common ground, as all three modii differ from each other.

Could it possibly mean that the acrolect is actually the most marked form? That would make some sort of sense. That gives me the idea of the following sound law:
 * 1)Acrolectic
 * ja ~ jə > ɛ
 * 2)Consultative
 * ja ~ jə > ʲə

These are a rough draft of what could've caused the <ɛ ~ ʲə> alternation, without any enviroment or trigger included. The change possibly doesn't permeate all enviroments.

The functional orthography would be a sort of tool to indicate protophonemes. To start, I'd classify the |ɛ ~ ʲə| vowel as  or rather a plain  as it's the first vowel I've categorised.

'''I've kind of noticed that this subscript system isn't particularly useful for actual writing or anything, besides the fact that it's the only useful way I can think of that doesn't include actual combining diacritics. I might have to do something about it I don't know.'''

The very inconvenient anaptyxic vowel [ə] could just be a side-effect of the more intimate modus. By analysing it as anaptyxic removes much of the troubles found with analysing a new vowel.

Appears the personal form tolerates less of suprasegmentality than the non-personal forms and seems prone to more assimilation than the others:


 * q ~ q ~ g
 * qʲa ~ qɑ ~ ɟæ
 * q-ʲa| ~ |q-ɑ| ~ |ɡ-ʲæ|

Here we observe the following in the informal modus: /ɡʲ/ > /ɟ/

The acrolectic form has a tendency to assimilate central vowels it seems, while the informal form likes the vowels (as a contrast):


 * rʷ: ~ rʷə ~ rɵ
 * 2/2 ~ 1/2 ~ 0/2

The second row shows how many of the features are assimilated. In the first, both the vowel and its rounding are assimilated; in the second only the rounding is assimilated; in the third both features surface in the vowel. Here it might be appropriate to analyse the vowel as underlyingly |ʷə| (which is consistent with the other |ʲə|). Does it appear that it is not only /r/ that assimilates features? Could that be extended to any single liquid?

A general assimilatory law:
 * - In the acrolect, all features of marked schwas assimilate to preceeding liquids. In cases where the marked schwa normally carries the syllable, the liquid becomes nuclear.
 * - In the informal modus, only the suprasegmental becomes assimilated (this also happens to non-liquids).
 * - In the personal forms, the marked schwas almost always incorporate the suprasegments into themselves, except in situations in which the preceeding consonant would be changed (such as after a |g|)

It seems now that the two "classes" might in fact be related now.

The following apply for the incorporation:
 * - ʷə > ɵ
 * - ʲə > ɜ

All three tame modii apply the incorporation in initial, post-glottal and prevocalic positions, though.

Particles and adpositions usually come before their modified in the tame modii, but the order is rather free in the feral modus, save for the fact that either all the modifiers come before or after.

Some more examples:

ʋkʲərj:n / ʋkʲərjən / ʋəkɜrjən paħɛq / pˠɑħʲəq / pæʕɜɡ but paʕʲːqʲa / pˠɑʕʲəqɑ / pæʕɜɟæ

Some transformations:
 * /gʲ/ > /ɟ/
 * /ɸˠ/ > /ʍ/
 * /ɸʲ/ > /f/
 * /sʲ/ > /ʂ/ (only informal)
 * /Cʲˠ/ > /C/
 * /Cˠˠ/ > /Cˤ/
 * /Cʲʲ/ > /Cj/
 * /Cl/ > /Cɬ/

These don't seem to apply to the primal modus, as there clearly are examples of violations. What does apply to all, though:
 * /C'T/ > /CT'/ (/ʂ'ʈ/ > /ʂʈ'/; but not /ʈ'ʂ/ > /ʈʂ'/)
 * /Cʔ/ > /C'/ (except when no ejective result possible, then it remains /Cʔ/)

Some more general ones that I haven't decided where apply:
 * /βˠ/ > /b/

By now I think I should do a sort of a more complete archiphoneme list or chart.

Open Questions

 * 1) What do the modulations do?
 * 2) Conjugation of verbs, declension of pronouns, nouns and adjectives?
 * 3) What is the status of the feral modus and how does it compare to the tame modii?
 * 4) Parsing of information - how does it differ from human parsing?
 * 5) Morphosyntactic alignment? How does it work?
 * 6) Besides the fact that I threw in "ergative" and "absolutive" for no reason other than shits and giggles, there seem to be two core cases - three if I for some reason include the commitative as a core case. Why would I do that though?

Primal
The primal register uses much wider terminology than do the tame registers.

Names do not come up in this modus, but instead pronouns and determiners replace them.

The exclusive dual and plural mean that of the two or many individuals, only one is addressed.

The third person forms are far simpler:

The stems on the left are generic, the stems on the right are mirative or emphatic.

Terminology
A register is one of the four forms of speech, also called a modus. A speech form is a very close and related concept, but not the same thing. Where a modus is clean-cut and precisely defined as containing certain forms, a speech form is a manner of speaking, conforming to a primary modus and taking in attributes of other modii. While "speech form" is a descriptive term, "modus" is a prescriptive term. A speech form may mesh elements from modii other than its primary. Speech forms are named according to their primary modus. The primal speech form is the cleanest-cut one, being identical to the primal modus. Usually, when I use form by itself, it may mean both "[speech] form" and a generic "form"; this is distinguishable from context.

A modulation is a grade in the voicing ablaut. There are three modulations. Acrolectic words do not modulate.

A marked schwa is an underlying schwa that carries a suprasegmental behind it.