The rules are as follows:
- Expansion of Intervocalic Voiced Stop to Fricative
- [b],[d] → [v],[ð] / V____[+sonorant]
- Intervocalic /b/ and /d/ become continuant (if this hadn’t already happened in Gothic by this point).
- This does not affect /g/ at this time. OR, Gothic realization of intervocalic /g/ as [γ] reverts to [ɡ].
- Gothic realization of intervocalic /b/ as [β] becomes [v].
- Expands to include /b/ and /d/ before any sonorant (any vowel or l, r, n, m)
- Devoicing of Obstruent Clusters
- CC[+voice] → [-voice]
- Voiced obstruent clusters become unvoiced.
- [Must precede Rhotacism]
- Rhotacism
- z → ʒ
- Rhotacism begins with all instances of /z/.
- [Must follow Devoicing of Obstruent Clusters]
- Final Short Vowel Lengthening
- V́# → V̄
- A stressed final short vowel becomes long.
- [Must precede vowel raising]
- Stressed Long Vowel Raising & Diphthong Contraxion
- V̄́[-low] → [+high]
- A stressed long vowel is raised.
- /ī/ and /ū/ are raised to diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/, respectively.
- /ē/ and /ō/ are raised to /ī/ and /ū/, respectively.
- /ɛ̄/ and /ɔ̄/ are raised to /ē/ and /ō/, respectively.
- /ā/ is not affected.
- [Must follow Short Vowel Raising]
- [Must precede h-Assimilation]
- VV → V̄
- Dipthongs (i.e. ai, au, iu) become condensed into long vowels (ē, ō, ȳ, respectively).
- Do you see how I cleverly averted all the controversy about the pronunciation of /ai/ and /au/ by making both /ɛ̄/,/ɔ̄/ and /ai/,/au/ end up as /ē/,/ō/, respectively? Please note, though, that the short forms remain short.
- [h]-Assimilation
- Vh → V̄Ø
- /h/ is deleted after a short vowel, and the vowel becomes long.
- [Must follow Stressed Long Vowel Raising]
- Umlaut
- V́[-front] → [+front] / ____(σ)/ī/,/j/
- A stressed non-front vowel (i.e. a, ā, o, ō, u, ū) becomes fronted (i.e. e, ē, œ, œ̄, y, ȳ, respectively) when /ī/ or /j/ occurs in the following syllable.
- (Not affected by [i] at this time.)
- Assimilation of Final [s] After a Defricate*
- s# → Ø / [sp],[st],[sk]_____
- /s/ is deleted word-finally after /st/ or /ʃ/.
- [Concurrent with P&A?]
- *Defricate is a completely made-up word. Is there a better (non-lengthy) term for what I’d consider the opposite of an affricate? At least in terms of [s]+stop?
- Palatalization & Affrication
- [sk] → [ʃ] / V[+front][+high] _____
- /sk/ becomes palatalized (“/c/”) when it follows a high front vowel (i.e. e, ē, i, ī)
- [tj],[kj] → [ʧ] and [dj],[gj] → [ʤ]
- /tj/,/kj/ and /dj/,/gj/ become affricates (/tc/ and /dʒ/, respectively).
- Vowel Reduction
- V̄[-stress] → V
- Unstressed long vowels become short.
- [ī,ē,ā,ō,ū,(ȳ) → i,e,a,o,u,(y)]
- V[-stress] → [+reduced]
- Unstressed short vowels are deleted or reduced.
- a → Ø
- i,e,o,u → ə
- [Must follow Umlaut, Palatalization, and Affrication]
- [Must it? Maybe this needs to happen before Umlaut to make sense?]
- Final Obstruent Devoicing (persistent)
- C[+obstruent,+voice,+continuant)]# → [-voice]
- Word-final [v,ð,z] → [f,þ,s]
- [Is this even necessary, since it’s a persistent rule?]
- Syllabic Expansion
- S[+syllabic] → [-syllabic]ə
There are still a few unresolved issues I need to work out or work into this system. Among them (complete with some of my scrawled unanswered questions):
- Voicing of intervocalic fricatives: f,þ,s → +voice / V_____V/Son.?
- Is this necessary?
- Why do I want to do this?
- This would give us [ēði] (< aiþei) instead of [ēþi], but what about aiþþau? [ēþo]? [ēðo]?
- Would have to happen after rhotacism, or that could get ugly.
- g → Ø / ŋ____[+nasal]
- I just think it would sound better when you end up with words like gangna or gangma.
- What else is it going to impact?
- Where to put it? Can this be concurrent with any other rules?
- jj → ʒ
- Why?
- I kind of want /ija/ to become [iʒə], but at what cost? Maybe it should just end up as [ī]?
- How?
- Geminates?
- mf# → m, re: fimf > fim
- Expansion of ŋ-deletion to include Vmf → V̄f?
- No, that would result in fīf instead of fim.
- I hate the /f/ there! I want it gone!
- Could I live with [fīf] instead?
- No, way too Ingvaeonic. It’s got to come out [fim].
- Some sort of [f/b] interaction after [m]?
- Does this violate Verner or the Prime Directive?
- Why not? English does it plenty (comb, climb, lamb...)
- Can I live with fimb? Maybe...
- Hey, what if I did expand ŋ-deletion not only to f but also s and/or þ. It could do some cool things to plural endings, turning the acc.pl. into some nifty shapes.
- Yeah, and also give you uns > ūs, fimf > fīf, and tanþus > tāþa.
- Hello, north-germanic sea coast. No.
- According to the rules above, “badja” would decline thus:
- sing: baða, beʤis, beʤ, baða
- pl: beʤ, beʤe, beʤma, beʤ
- Weird contrast between [ð] and [ʤ]. But cool weird? Dunno yet.
- Re: the h-assimilation rule, what about faíhu?
- [fēu > fēa] is weird and awkward, and I don’t want the vowels to get too uppity.
- Clarify the rule to only apply to [h] when it’s a coda to the short vowels nucleus?
- That would give us [feha], which is even more awkward-sounding.
- [fē]?
- No, that’s Old Norse.
- Still a conundrum.
- For that matter, there are a lot of problems with vowels crashing into other vowels they shouldn't be associating with. kniu/kniwa? Not to mention faíhiwē... yuck.
- Unstressed Short Vowel Reduction:
- The rule I wrote above I think just applies to word-final short vowels. Should it be complete deletion for non-final short vowels, e.g. gytc from gutisk, instead of gytac, as the rules would spit out? Need more examples.
- Clitics become separated from roots.
- –ei (relative) > ī [aj].
- –u– (interrogative) > u > ū > ū [aw].
- Has to occur before final short vowel lengthening.
- Where to put “ū”? Before the verb?
- –uh > ō [ū].
- Frequent cases where it can still be clitic, but immune to unstressed vowel reduction?
- weizuh > wīʒū, or wīs ū?
- Remains clitic for pronouns and determiners only?
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