Old Azen Phonotactics
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 21 Sep 2015, 15:41.
[comments] oazphonologyphontacticsold azen
Syllables in Old Azen basically adhere to the following form:
(C(j)|Sr|Fl)V(:)(j)(C|NS|rS)
where S is a stop: /p b t d k g/ (or, in the case of the coda, /t͡ʃ/)
and N is a nasal: /m n ŋ/
and F is a fricative: /s h/
A syllable will never have /j/ on both sides of the vowel. There will never be two /j/ in a row, obviously.
To break this down into plain English...
A typical syllable consists of an optional consonant for the onset, a vowel, and an optional consonant for the coda. The vowel may be either long or short, and may be either preceded or followed by the glide /j/ (but not both).
The onset may alternately consist of a stop followed by /r/, or of a fricative followed by /l/. Plain nasals or liquids /m n ŋ l r/ are very rare for onsets. The coda may alternately consist of /r/ followed by a stop, or of a nasal followed by a stop or t͡ʃ (which starts with a stop anyway). However, not all nasals are allowed for all stops! The nasal matches the point of articulation for the stop. Therefore, /mp mb nt nd nt͡ʃ ŋk ŋg/ are all allowed, but something like /mg/ is not.
All consonants are allowed in both the onset and the coda. A syllable will never have the form SrVrS. FlVl is OK, though. (for example, hlal (to break a bone))
Also let's throw in gemination because why not. Only between vowels, and only if the preceding vowel is short, however. Therefore kattē /kat:e:/ (to craft) is a valid word, but *kātte /ka:t:e/ is not. Most commonly this only occurs across morpheme boundaries, e.g. eret 'man', eret-te /eret:e/ 'at the man'.
Stress is variable and simply must be learned.
There is a greater-than-average number of nouns that have stress on the last syllable of the stem, contrasted with a greater-than-average number of verbs with stress on the first syllable, but this rule unfortunately does not apply to all nouns and verbs.
Well, I assume they exist. Somewhere. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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