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LotM - Jul 16: Laceyiam
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Allophonic processes and fun grammatical quirks abound in our latest LotM!
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 7 Jul 2016, 19:54.

[comments] [history] Menu 1. Phonology and Orthography 2. Grammar and Morphology 3. More on Laceyiam 4. A Note on LotM We're halfway through 2016! Congratulations to  Laceyiam and its creator @[Deactivated User]

[top]Phonology and Orthography

Laceyiam is certainly replete with phonemes, 34 to 35 phonemic consonants (not including blends), 18 phonemic vowels, and another 8 diphthongs. Some highlights include aspiration being distinctive on both voiced and voiceless stops, a series of retroflex consonants, a uvular nasal and fricative, and a distinction between /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ (which reminds me oh so much of Polish).

Vowels are somewhat complicated and exist in an interesting arrangement. The high vowels, [i] and [u], come in several phonemic varieties: /i iʱ ʲi ʲi: i: u uʱ u:/. [e] has a few itself, /e eʱ e:/. [o] is entirely missing (which is interesting, considering [e] is all over)

Here is some information on allophony, stolen right from the source:

The most important allophonic processes involve /g/ and /ʀ/. About /g/: - in onsets, it is always [g] except in post-tonic word-final /ga/ (explained below); - in codas it forms a closing diphthong with the preceding vowel: after a front vowel or /a/ it is [i̯], after a back vowel, /ə/ or /a:/ it is [u̯]. /ug u:g/ are realized [ɔu̯ ɔ(:)u̯], /(ʲ)ig (ʲ)i:g/ are realized [(ʲ)ai̯ (ʲ)a(:)i̯]. After a diphthong, it is [ɐ̯], forming a triphthong. /ei̯g/ is realized [ɑi̯ɐ̯]; - a word-final /ga/ syllable immediately following the stress (that is, the stressed syllable is the one immediately before and has no coda (diphthongs do not count as coda) follows the exact same rules above, so that /'kʰe.ga/ (dog) is realized ['kʰei̯]. About /ʀ/: - the sequence /ʀj/, as well as /ʀ/ before /ʲi(:)/, is realized [ʝ]. That same allophone is also used word-initially; - in codas, it is usually [ɐ̯], but is realized as a glottalization of the preceding vowel if the next consonant is a voiceless stop; - coda /ei̯ʀ/ is realized [ɑi̯ɐ̯]. Other processes: - /a a:/ before the phone [ŋ] are realized [au̯]; in that same environment /e e:/ are realized [ei̯], as well as (for most speakers, strictly non-standard but increasingly accepted) /ø/ is realized [œʏ̯]. - /e e:/ are [ɛ ɛ:] in closed syllables, except when the coda is a nasal consonant; - intervocalically, the sequence /st/ is realized [ht].

Orthography is pretty straight-forward and generally phonemic, though there are plenty of digraphs for both consonants and vowels.

[top]Grammar and Morphology

Laceyiam has a rich verbal morphology with an Austronesian alignment, tons of voices (five of them, in fact), all sorts of adpositional replacement using locative and directional verbs, and what I believe to be the highlight, exterior and interior verbs. Exterior and interior verbs somewhat map to transitive and reflexive/reciprocal verbs, respectively. For an example, the verb lāluńjake, which means "to bend (transitive)" when exterior but "to bow (oneself)" when interior.

Nouns are just as complex, riddled with ablaut and declined for eleven cases. In a refreshing vein (or just plain original), there are no adjectives nor relative clauses (true ones, at least) in Laceyiam - instead, all of that is handled by attributive verbs.

[top]More on Laceyiam

Crave more? Check out its articles, translations, phrasebook, grammar test, grammar tables, typlology, or LexiBuild sets.

[top]A Note on LotM

Got suggestions for how the next LotM should be written? See something in Laceyiam that wasn't covered and you wish it had been? Hate my guts and want to tell me? Feel free to shoot us (either argyle or phi2dao) a PM with your thoughts, suggestions, and hate mail. Also feel free to drop by the LotM clan if you have other feedback, want to join in the voting process, or nominate a language!
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on 07/07/16 19:540[Deactivated User]summary edit
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