Conlang Year: Week 3
We've made it to week three! The prompts can be found here.
Day 15: Compile IPA charts for your conlang
We've already done this in the previous posts, but I found a nice Google Sheets IPA chart here and will be using that to keep track of my phonemes moving forward. Here's the chart as it currently stands.
Day 16: Play around with syllable structures
I am a big fan of consonant clusters, so we're going to generally allow pretty complex syllables along the lines of CCCVCC. I like the idea of restricting the diphthongs to open syllables. I don't know how closely I'm going to hold to sonority hierarchy in terms of what order consonant sounds are allowed to occur in a cluster. It's all going to depend on how I feel saying things as we move along.
We're going to stay away from syllabic consonants for the moment, though.
Day 17: Create nonce forms of varying lengths
I'm using Zompist to help me with generating some sounds here.
pɛp θaðd aɪ ɪ.y xɪ
nɸaʒpa yxyɢ ɣɛðdʌp βaɪ.y ɛɪzɸy
ʃθapqaɣɛɪ ɣɛbɸɛɪ.y aθʌsa
I like the way these sound! I haven't settled on prosody yet and it took some work to be able to say them, but they fit together in a way that's pleasant. Most of them feel more natural if I stress the first syllable.
Day 18: Write a section on syllables and stress
As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm starting with initial stress.
These are my currently valid syllable forms where C is a consonant, V is a vowel, and D is a diphthong: V D CD CCD CV CVC CCV CVCC CCCV CCVC CCVCC CCCVC CCCVCC
Here's a list of my current Romanization scheme - subject to change, we probably won't be seeing it used much for a while:
IPA Symbol m m
p p
b b
ɸ ḟ
β ṽ
n n
t t
d d
θ þ
ð ð
s s
z z
ʃ š
ʒ ž
ɾ ř
ʎ ł
ŋ ŋ
x x
ɣ ğ
q c
ɢ q
y ü
ɪ ı
ɛ e
a a
u u
ʌ ʌ
I'm still debating whether I should use separate letters to represent the diphthongs.
Day 19: Create five proto-forms for body terms
Thekkish is spoken by humans, so it makes the most sense to start with human body parts:
eye - ɛɪ.ʌ
nose - yɾ.taɪ
mouth - sma
head - sɛɪ.byŋʃ
arm - θy.ɸum
hand - ʃaɪ
torso/body - ɢyx.qɪ
leg - θmub
foot - Ʒðaɪ
Day 20: Create proto-forms for terrain features
Thekkish developed in hot river valleys, so water features and things that shape those are going to be where I start here.
hill - qaɪ.a
stream - βyð.ɪ
pond - θaðd
wetland - y.xyɢ
rapids - ɛɪ.ɛɪ.tʌ
Day 21: Create five proto-forms for weather
Once again, we're sticking with the hot river valley theme - we've got terms for both the wet and dry seasons here.
fog - mzɛɣ.ʌ
dry heat - aɪ.ɛɪ
wet heat - a.θʌ.sa
rain - pɛp
thunder - ðɪd.xɛ
lightning - ɸaɸ
wind - nɪð.uβ