Vowel Assimilation 2

Although I have already done a post on vowel assimilation (appropriately called 'Vowel Assimilation'), I've given it a second thought, and made

 The Awesome Lurion Vowel Assimilation Chart (or TALVAC)

Yes, I'm making that up while typing. Sometimes my brilliance amazes me.

Oh, and it includes both the Naupilan and the Karvokan accent! How'd you like that?

Well, without further ado, here it is!

Ofcourse you can click on it for a bigger version. How else were you supposed to actually read it?

In case you're wondering how to interpret this fantastic chart (and I know you are):

When a vowel on the left is followed by a vowel on the top, they either assimilate, in which case another vowel(cluster) is shown in the appropriate row and column, or they do not, in which case a hyphen, -, is shown.

The left chart (the big one) is the general Lurion assimilation, the bottom right shows the Karvokan exceptions.

The top right is the Naupilan accented assimilation chart, which is quite compact, as the Naupilans pronounce everything alike and make no distinction between long and short vowels when assimilating.

And to please those who enjoy seeing me make mistakes: no, I did not intentfully forget to add a ~ on the Naupilan α+ο>ῶ and α+ω>ῶ assimilations. But no, I systematically did not add circumfleces on diphthongs (like ε͂ι), so that does not count.

Well, you didn't suspect to see something as shockingly marvelous or overwhelmingly beautiful as TALVAC when you woke up this morning, did you?

Diacritics and stress paterns

I have worked out the vowel assimilation again, which I will post later today or tomorrow, and I realised I haven't said anything about stress paterns.

Please make sure to have read 'Alphabet and Phonology', which I edited today as well.

First of all, I have added some diacritics, although they are not used in regular writing, only in texts explaining stress, vowel assimilation or linguistics, and sometimes in academic texts when differences in pronounciation are invisible, e.g.: δαυcтε or δᾶυcтε, [dæʊstɘ] (the general imperative of  δαιн) as opposed to δάυcтε [da:.œstɘ] (the conjunctive general imperative).

These diacritics are:
The Acute,  ́, used to lengthen vowels: ά ό ύ, and ί
The Grave,  ̀, used to strengthen vowels: ὲ, ὸ and ὶ
The Circumflex,  ͂, used to indicate the assimilation of an α and an ο: ῶ

There are 21 different vowel types:


α, ά, ο, ό, ὸ, ω, ε, e, ὲ, ι, ί, ὶ, υ, ύ, ο͂ι, ᾶι, ῦι, ε͂ι, ε͂υ, ο͂υ and ᾶυ


We can organise these types on how much they attract the stress (from least to most):

ε
{all others}
e
ω
ὸ, ὶ
ὲ

Stressed syllables in roots
The penultimate (the next to last) syllable of the word's root is normally stressed, except when any ε, e, ω or ὲ is present in its root (ὸ and ὶ do not naturally occur in roots); in which case these vowels are stressed (when the same 'stronger' vowel occurs multiple times, the last is stressed).

Examples (the stressed syllable is underlined):
цιδοр ("wing");
ὑм- ("you" (pl)), when there is only one syllable, it is stressed;
πεπαᴧ- ("egg"), the ε is not stressed (except when it is the only syllable);
αнтрωπ- ("human"), the ω is preferably stressed;
ἁнδр ("man"), the ε is not part of the root in words ending on -εр;
ὁικε ("house"), the last syllable is stressed because it is a strong ὲ, thus actually  ̔ο͂ικὲ;
βοцαнтр ("minotaur"), is a combination of βοц- and αнтр;
φυгε- ("to flee");
φυгοр- ("to cause to flee, to chase"), here, the infix -ὸр- is used to indicate causing something.

However, these stresses can be altered by the following affices (from weakest to strongest):

-ὸр-, as above
e-, the past tense prefix
-ὶнт-, the diminutive infix
-ὸнт-, the substantivating infix
-ο͂υ, -ά -ωc, the genitive suffices

Phew, that took some time writing.

Gerimeski phonology

How'd you like that? 2 phonologies on one day!

The Gerimeski phonology is very basic, though, for the Gerimes are much less sophisticated (even more so in the eyes of the Lutes).

p, t, d, k, g
m, n, l, r, s
f, w, j

a, á, o, ó, u, i, í, e, é
/a, ɐ, ɔ, o, u, ɪ, i, ɜ, e/

It's really that basic.
Silly Gerimes.

Farteski phonology

I have been think about what languages the people that surround the lurionas speak, for instance the Fartes. As for now, I've only worked out (most of) the phonology.

IPA *
latinised

p, b, t, d, θ, ð
p, b, t, d, th, dh

k, kh, g, x, χ
k, q, g, x, ch

m, n, l, r, ɾ
m, n, l, rr, r

s, ʃ, z, ʒ
s, sh, z, zh

f, v, w, j
f, v, w, y

h, ʔ
h, -
After a consonant, the h is drawn as a ', to avoid conflicts with digraphs, e.g.: th is [θ], t' is [th].

i, ɪ, y, ʏ/ø, u
í, i, ú, ü, u

e, ɜ/ə, ɛ
é, e, è

a, ɐ, o, ɔ, ɒ
á, a, ó, o, ô

This is ofcourse not the actual Fartan script.

Some examples (they are total gibberish, but show possible phoneme-clusters):

F'orténash, chramènozhin, qalrüt'enís, rrakxônáhá.

The Karvokan and Naupilan Accent

The Karvokes and the Naupiles, who live in my conworld, are by definition luriones, because they speak Lurioneski. They do, however, speak with an accent. Because there is no constant communications between the different cities, the way words are written changes as well. (You might want to have read phonology before continuing.)

The Karvokan accent
The main feature of the karvokan accent is that they pronounce a lot of weak υ's as ц's. For instance:

υ > ц;

Нαυπιᴧα (Naupila; [næʋpila]) is pronounced [nɐvpila] (or [nɐfpila]).

ευтιι ('good'; [ɛʋtii]) is pronounced [ɛvtii].

Another feature is that a lot of silent ε's are dropped:

ε > ';
ᴧυβεр ('book') > ᴧυβр.

The Naupilan accent
As naupiles are merchants, they are very busy men and therefore have no time to pronounce 'all those long vowels' *. The following changes have occured:

ει > ι;
ειδειн > ιδιн ('to see').
ου > ο;
παтрο мου > παтрο мο ('my father').
ιι > ι;
ευтιι > ευтι ('good').
ιι > ι ('he goes').

Also, strong vowel versions (α:, υ:, ι: and ι.) are ignored when vowel assimilation is concerned. E.g.:

ἁοмα > ὡмα ('we have').

Furthermore, υ's are pronounced (but not written) as ι's.
Finally, the ι: is pronounced as the semi-vowel [j] to form more diphthongs:

Λυтια (Lutia; [lytia] or [lytija]) is pronounced [lɪtja].

*This is actually quite paradoxal, because you can imagine how hard it might be to understand someone who speakes with such an accent.

Vowel Assimilation

Vowels may assimilate, depending on their length.
The following types can be distinguished:

α, α:, ο, ω, ε, e, ι, ι:, ι., υ, υ:, ει, οι, αι, υι, ου, αυ, ευ

Here the : marks longer vowels. The ι. is a special type, as it is short but strong; it is used e.g. in the verb suffices -ιc, -ι and -ιтε.

They can be categorised according to their length/strength:

ε
α, ι, υ
o
α:, ω, e, υ:, ει, οι, αι, υι, ου, αυ, ευ
ι:, ι.

The first two rows are weak, the last two are strong.

Assimilation occurs when a weak and a strong vowel meet.
(This is only a rule of thumb, though.)

E.g.:
αα - αα
α:ε - α:
α:ω - α:ω
αει - αι

The ο is medially strong, e.g.: αο - ω or eο - eο (both strong), but οω - ω (weak).
The ι: never assimilates (e.g.: ι:α - ι:α), and the ι. 'eats' all weak vowels, including the ο (e.g.: αι. - ι. or ωι. - ωι.).

Alphabet and Phonology

Edited as of June the 26th.

Let us start with the alphabet and phonology of Lurion. As you might guess, it is ancient greek based, so a lot of graphemes might look the same. However, some are not, for instance the ε, which is a short E (e.g. as in 'let') in Lurion, but is a long E in ancient greek (e.g. as the 'a' in 'make').

The phonemes are shown in IPA.

Consonants

Π, π - [p]
Β, β - [b ]
Т, т - [t]
Δ, δ - [d]
Κ, κ - [k]
Γ, г - [g]
М, м - [m]
Н, н - [n]
Λ, ᴧ - [l]
Р, р - [r]
Φ, φ - [f]
Ц, ц - [v]
C, c - [s]
Z, z - [z/dz/tz]
X, x - [x]

῾ - [h]

Vowels


A, α - [a] [ɐ]
E, e - [e]
Є, ε - [ɛ] [ə]
Ι, ι - [i:] [ɪ]
Ο, ο - [o] [ɔ]
U, υ - [y] [ʏ]
W, ω - [o:]
Capital, small - [long/stressed] [short/unstressed]

When a vowel is followed by more than one consonant or when it is the last vowel, it is short, if it is followed by one consonant or none, it is long. The E and W are always stressed.

Diphthongs

οι, υι, αι - [oj], [uj], [aj]
ει [ɛi]
ου [u ]
αυ [ʌʋ]
ευ [ø]

Therefor, these are not diphthongs:
ωι [o.i], eι [e.i], ωυ [o.y], eυ [e.y]