Phonology
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Notes on phonological ideas present in Feirie
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 2 Feb 2018, 21:23.
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1. Lexicon Remarks
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
There are never codas in Feirie. Nuclei are restricted to a single vowel only. Onsets may be a single nasal consonant, a single voiced consonant, or a cluster of consonants. This cluster may end with a voiced consonants, but can only otherwise contain voiceless ones. Clusters may be up to five consonants long. There are no restraints on what consonants may follow each other, occasionally leading to odd sequences like 'kwllssgw'. In such cases, where rounded and unrounded consonants meet, the entire syllable become rounded [xʼʷʰls̺ʰɣʷ] > [xʼʷʰlʷs͎ʰɣʷ]. This triggers the mutation of rounded sibilants becoming whistles.
Emotions, as felt by the speaker, are often, in fast and casual speech, expressed using a system of tones, each corresponding to an emotion category. These tones are never used lexically, but occur often in set phrases and colloquial speech.
| Category | Base Meanings | Tone | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Past Positive | joy, affection, happiness, caring, compassion | bottom / ˩ | 4 |
| Past Negative | sadness, dismay, shame, gloom | high / ˦ | 2 |
| Present Positive | surprise, amazement, astonishment | low / ˨ | 3 |
| Present Negative | anger, rage, jealousy, aggravation | rising / ˧˥ | 31 |
| Future Positive | hope, eagerness, anticipation | falling / ˧˩ | 24 |
| Future Negative | fear, horror, alarm | top / ˥ | 1 |
These tones are applied to the stressed syllable, that is, the ultimate one of the word that the emotion is related to from the speakers perspective. This is often up to the individual to interpret, as both a speaker and a listener. Different speakers will use the tones differently, and often will even use tones sarcastically, that is, using the opposite tone to the one meant.
Tones are not marked by the native orthography in any way, but, since most of the set phrases that uses tones are predictable, it isn't necessary.
Nasal syllables are usually slightly higher pitched than a non-nasalized ones. Stressed syllables are also usually higher. Thus, the highest notes in Feirie, are stressed, nasalized, future-negative-marked ones. However, it is to be noted that Feirie is not strictly a pitch accent language, as there are times where the 'stressed' syllable is not higher, and the actual method of 'stress' marking is to raise the volume of it. Monosyllabic words do not raise in volume, while the longer a word is, the volume of the word might raise gradually with each syllable.
Instances when the loudest syllable is not also the highest is pitch include:
1. Between two nasalized, and therefore higher pitched, syllables,
2. Marked with a emotion requiring a low tone, as the emotion tones completely override the stress pitch.
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