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Phonology of Mannish
Oct. 3rd, 2014 14:24This post probably won't interest most people, since I'm going to write about my conlang, Mannish. Mannish is a conservative Germanic language with lots of Celtic influence. It's spoken on (a very fictitious version of) the Isle of Man.
Mannish and the preexisting, Celtic Manx language lived in relative harmony, with Mannish taking the place of higher prestige. However, in the 18th or 19th centuries, Manx went extinct because of the enroaching English language. Mannish currently is almost extinct, though it is going through a revival. It is mostly spoken in the mountainous south.
Today, I'll just talk some on the phonology. Mannish has 26 consonants, 15 vowels, and 6 diphthongs.
diphthongs are: oj, i@, u@, aj, aw, and @1
The voiceless plosives are aspirated, and the voiced plosives range from fully voiced to lenis and unvoiced.
z` cC C are rather rare, as are } }: .
w is often shifted to v\ , and W is often pharyngealized.
ts_j is just that, and it is never produced as tS, though it'll probably head that way.
The orthography was kinda based on Welsh, but I made some bad assumptions and so it turned out to not be like Welsh, but it still looks like Welsh. Oops. It turned out okay, just not as accurate as I'd like.
I'll show you the logo I made for the ATT or MLA, both of which stand for the Mannish Language Association. I will state that I intended for neither of these acronyms to come out as they did, but also that I am not unhappy about this development.
Translated, that says: "the Mannish Language Association: Nuturing and growing", so I'm not too creative with mottos. I will also say that the 'c' in 'tuallylyscôni' should be a 'g', according to the orthographical rules, but, whatever.
Also interesting to note is that traditional Mannish speakers are very antipathetic towards revitalization efforts due to the traditional taboo against writing the Mannish language down or even speaking it in front of a non-speaker.
Ciao, all
Mannish and the preexisting, Celtic Manx language lived in relative harmony, with Mannish taking the place of higher prestige. However, in the 18th or 19th centuries, Manx went extinct because of the enroaching English language. Mannish currently is almost extinct, though it is going through a revival. It is mostly spoken in the mountainous south.
Today, I'll just talk some on the phonology. Mannish has 26 consonants, 15 vowels, and 6 diphthongs.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Nasal | m | n | J | N | ||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |||
| Affricate | ts_j | cC | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | S C | x | h | |
| Rhotic | 4 | z` | ||||
| Lateral | l | K | L | |||
| Approximant | j | W w |
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i i: | } }: | u u: |
| Near-High | I | U | |
| Mid | E e: | @ | O o: |
| Low | a a: |
diphthongs are: oj, i@, u@, aj, aw, and @1
The voiceless plosives are aspirated, and the voiced plosives range from fully voiced to lenis and unvoiced.
z` cC C are rather rare, as are } }: .
w is often shifted to v\ , and W is often pharyngealized.
ts_j is just that, and it is never produced as tS, though it'll probably head that way.
The orthography was kinda based on Welsh, but I made some bad assumptions and so it turned out to not be like Welsh, but it still looks like Welsh. Oops. It turned out okay, just not as accurate as I'd like.
I'll show you the logo I made for the ATT or MLA, both of which stand for the Mannish Language Association. I will state that I intended for neither of these acronyms to come out as they did, but also that I am not unhappy about this development.
Translated, that says: "the Mannish Language Association: Nuturing and growing", so I'm not too creative with mottos. I will also say that the 'c' in 'tuallylyscôni' should be a 'g', according to the orthographical rules, but, whatever.
Also interesting to note is that traditional Mannish speakers are very antipathetic towards revitalization efforts due to the traditional taboo against writing the Mannish language down or even speaking it in front of a non-speaker.
Ciao, all
