Phonology
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A general overview of Mi Hong's phonology.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 13 Apr 2022, 16:24.
[comments] mimk
1. Morphology
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After a poor attempt from roughly 2 years ago of integrating Russian with French, I've decided to create a brand new constructed language typography-wise inspired by southeast-asian languages. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to present the full phonology of my second constructed language, Mi Hong.
Consonant Phonemes
Mi Hong relies on a quite typical consonant system of 32 phonemes. Some features of Mi Hong's phonology are:
The following table displays the consonant inventory of Mi Hong:
Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Labio-velar | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | ||||||||
Nasal | ||||||||||||||||
Plosive | voiced | |||||||||||||||
voiceless | ||||||||||||||||
Fricative | voiced | |||||||||||||||
voiceless |
||||||||||||||||
Affricate | ||||||||||||||||
Lateral Approximant | ||||||||||||||||
Approximant | ||||||||||||||||
Trill |
1 loan-words only
2 loan-words only
As opposed to many natural languages which feature the alveolar consonants /t d n/, Mi Hong bases itself on the retroflex consonants /ʈ ɖ ɳ/. Both /ʈ/ and /ɖ/ have variants: ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩. Mi Hong is also notable for its lack of alveolar fricatives in native words.
Consonant examples:
Voiced | Voiceless | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example |
---|---|---|---|
ma | pay | ||
miet | pia | ||
mua | din puat | ||
nuok | tap nay, than | ||
ban | cik wung | ||
guag bia | fut ciak | ||
bua sing | fiat | ||
xi dong, dhay | fuot | ||
fu gong | say | ||
vot | xien | ||
ay vien | hung | ||
ray vuat | di cung | ||
lap | |||
lian | |||
tap lua | |||
yang ma | |||
mu wak | |||
ra | |||
ria | |||
ruang |
Occurrence of Co-articulation
As mentioned, both palatalization and labialization occur solely in bilabial, labio-dental and alveolar consonants. These are assigned the class-representing letter M. The other letters, particularly I and U, stand for every possible vowel that can come after palatalized/labialized consonants while obeying phonotactic rules. Class M consonants become palatalized/labialized when either /i/ or /u/ form a 2 letter sequence with its following letter and give the consonant its palatalization/labialization respectively. Keeping that in mind, palatalization/labialization of consonants in Mi Hong can be showcased like this:
i > ʲ /M_I
u > ʷ /M_U
Silent /g/
The phoneme /g/ will become silent when it follows /ɳ/, as shown in the following notation:
g > ∅ /ɳ_
Vowel Phonemes
Mi Hong features an average-sized vowel inventory of 6 vowels. Here are some of its features:
The following table displays the vowel inventory of Mi Hong:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | |||
Close-mid | |||
Mid | |||
Open-mid | |||
Open |
1 dependent on the environment, allophone of /a/
Occurrence of [ə]
The vowel [ə] will always replace /a/ when it follows /w/. This can be demonstrated with the following notation:
a > ə /w_
/ə/ is also present in the diphthong /ʊə/. In this particular diphthong /ʊ/ is the less permanent member of the diphthong, meaning it can be transcribed like this: /wə/. Thus, the diphthong /ʊə/ obeys the phonological rules of Mi Hong considering its orthographic equivalent is ⟨ua⟩.
Note that this rule does not apply to labialized consonants. In that case, /a/ will remain the same.
Diphthongs
There is a total of 10 diphthongs in Mi Hong, which are classified into 2 distinct orthographic classes in accordance to their features: class X and class W. Both types of diphthongs occur in different environments and require different phonotactic rules.
The following table displays the distribution of the diphthongs in Mi Hong:
Final Vowel | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | e | o | ə | ɪ | ʊ | |||
Initial Vowel | ɪ | |||||||
ʊ | ||||||||
a | ||||||||
e | ||||||||
o | ||||||||
u |
Diphthong examples:
Class X | Class W | Diphthong | Example | Diphthong | Example |
---|---|---|---|
tian | lay | ||
xien | taw | ||
huong nui | rey | ||
xuan vay | roy | ||
low | |||
tuy wang |
Class X
Mi Hong features 4 class X diphthongs. In this type of diphthongs, the first vowel of the diphthong will always be the less permanent member of the diphthong. Class X diphthongs form exclusively after post-alveolar, retroflex, palatal, labio-velar, velar or glottal consonants.
Exceptions
Class X diphthongs may not form after /ɳ/. If a class X diphthong is attached to the consonant /ɳ/, the vowel /ɳ/ is followed by will become silent:
ɪ > ∅ /ɳ_D
ʊ > ∅ /ɳ_T
In this particular circumstance, the following vowels to /ʊ ɪ/ can be every phoneme, omitting diphthongs, vowels that are identical to the followed ones and the schwa. These are marked by the letters T and D.
Class W
There are 6 class W diphthongs in Mi Hong, in which the less permanent member of the diphthong will always be the second vowel of the diphthong. As opposed to class X diphthongs, class W diphthongs may form after every consonant with the exception of palatalized/labialized consonants. Additionally, the syllable should be devoid of coda in order for the nucleus to be a class W diphthong.
Syllable Structure
Every syllable in Mi Hong should follow the following pattern:
(C1)V(C2)
C1 - every consonant.
V - every vowel, including diphthongs.
C2 - /ɖ ʈ g k p ɳ/.
Exceptions
As usual, there are a few exceptions. These include:
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