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Rubaga Orthog. Part 2

From:Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
Date:Thursday, August 1, 2002, 7:11
Last time I posted the consonants, which I've revised somewhat, thanks to
comments from Wright and Jesse. Now for the vowels! (well OK, most probably
don't want to read something this long and complicated ((assuming it gets
past their filters)), but it _is_ on topic, and I don't want to be accused
of doing nothing but chat ;-) If I'm lucky, the diacritics might even come
out right.

Jeff J.

  Rubaga Orthography Sketch, Part 2

4. Vowels, Length, and Accent
I'll start again with some terminology.

A vowel is "strong" when it's occluded (i.e. its syllable ends in a
consonant; in this case, the vowel is a short vowel and the consonant
forms a moric coda. A vowel is also strong when it's followed by a
hard or firm mark; this produces a long pure vowel. In both of these
cases, a strong vowel has a high tone when stressed, and a low tone
when unstressed. For many Rubaga speakers, there is a third case,
relating to inserted vowels.

A vowel is "weak" otherwise. When stressed, it forms a diphthong or a
long vowel, and has a falling tone. The specific diphthong or long
vowel depends on whether the following consonant is fronted, rounded,
or lowered, and partly on the preceding consonant, as well as on the
the vowel letter. When unstressed, the weak vowel becomes a short
vowel with low tone. The specific quality also varies. Final vowels in
words of at least 2 syllables form a special case.

Except for stressed monosyllabic words, and a few others, stress falls
on the penultimate syllable.

I'd better mention that E before another vowel letter is silent and is
there only to indicate that the preceding consonant is fronted, that O
before another vowel letter only indicates rounding, and that A before
another vowel letter only indicates lowering. The combinations EA and
OA are very common, while AO, AU, EO, EU, OE, and OI are much less so.

4.1. Vowel Phones
For reference, these are the phonetic symbols used for vowels.

                 |   front   central   back
    close (high) | i                   :    u
    close lax    |   I                 :   U
    close mid    |     e               :  o
    mid          |              @      :
    open mid lax |       E       3     : O
    near open    |                6    :
    open (low)   |           a        A:

    Vowels to the right of the separator : are rounded, all others are

Schwa [@] is more commonly a close mid vowel, and very short.
The most common open vowel is central [a_"], but I've substituted
either [a], [A], or [6], sometimes arbitrarily and sometimes according
to alternate pronunciations.

4.2. Basic Vowel Mapping
Here's how the vowel letters map to the vowel phones. The column
labels are the letters, and the entries show phonetic symbols.

                       |  I      E      A      O      U
    strong             |
     + R               |  I      E      a      O      U
     + other consonant |  i      e      6      o      u
     + mark            |  i:     e:     a:     o:     u:
    weak, stressed     |
             + fronted |  ii     Ei     ae    Oi Ei  ui ii
             + lowered |  i@     E3     a6     O3     u@
             + rounded | iu uu  Eu Ou   Ao     Ou     uu
    weak, unstressed   |
             + fronted |  I      E     3 E     O E   U I
             + lowered |  I     E 3     3      O 3    U
             + rounded | I U    E O    3 O      O     U
    final unstressed   |         I *    3 *     U *

    * Variation in the final unstressed vowels will be covered later.

Where a pair of values is given, the choice depends on the preceding
consonant. The rules aren't completely determined yet, but I think that:
    1)  [3], [O], or [Ou] for E and [uu] for I are preferred after
        [f_j], [v_j], [t_S], [d_Z], [S], [Z], [c], [J\], [j\], [C], [J],
        and probably [pj], [bj], [mj] (and [j] ???);
    2)  [3], [E], or [Ei] for O and [ii] for U are preferred after
        [h_O], [T_w], [D_w], [k_w], [g_w], [x_w], [G_w], [N_w], and
        [w] when written as B (and other [w] ???);
    3)  [E] for A is preferred after
        [f], [v], [t], [d], [T], [D], [s], [z], [X], [R], [h];
    4)  [O] for A is preferred after
        [f], [v], [X], [R], [h].

4.3. Final Unstressed Vowels and Inserted Vowels
Since this part and the preceding part are concerned only with the
pronunciation of words in isolation, the following discussion assumes
that elision doesn't occur. For the moment, we'll also assume that a
word is neither an enclitic nor followed by one.

Under certain circumstances, a final E or O is silent; under certain
other circumstances, a final E or O will "cross over" the preceding
consonant (see below). Neither of these can occur if the consonant
preceding the final E or O is hard or firm. A final A doesn't become
silent or cross over.

4.3.1. Silent Final E and O
For a final E or O to be silent, it must follow a soft consonant which
follows a vowel letter. The soft consonant is pronounced as part of
the preceding syllable giving it an extra-long duration (i.e. becomes
a moric coda instead of an onset).

4.3.2. Vowel Crossover
Crossover may be thought of as the final vowel being pronounced before
the preceding consonant. Another analysis would make the final vowel
silent with another vowel inserted in speech before the consonant.

For crossover to occur, the final E or O must follow either M, N, R, L,
or a soft consonant. Whichever of these occurs must in turn follow a
consonant letter, which I'll label C1; if C1 is soft, crossover is
optional and otherwise mandatory. In the optional case, the stressed
syllable may become short, or C1 may be geminated, or the preceding
vowel may become long, depending on the dialect.

The vowel inserted before R is [E] for E and [O] for O; otherwise the
vowel inserted is [I] for E and [U] for O. The preceding consonant
retains its original neutral quality.

    Usually, final L + E, L + O, and soft B + O don't occur, due to
    orthographic substitution. Also, crossover tends to be indicated
    in writing when a soft mark is used, e.g. {---`ud} for [---UD_w],
    rather than {---`do}.

A very short schwa [@] may be inserted in speech between 2 adjacent
consonants when the latter is M, N, or a soft consonant and crossover
doesn't occur.

4.3.3. Enclitics
When an enclitic (with a soft consonant) is added, the final vowel of
the base is first "converted" (pronounced as if it were) as follows:

    written   |  E      EA     A      OA     O
    converted |  I      E      A      O      U

Then the enclitic vowels E and O become silent, resulting in a long
final unstressed syllable. An enclitic A is retained, producing a pair
of short unstressed syllables.

The enclitic -GO is a special case: the final syllable ends in [oG_w]
after A and in [uG_w] otherwise.

4.4. Some Vowel Examples
Now for the vowels in the previous set of examples:

hard:  {cábo}  ["ka:.bU]   {ságe}   ["sa:.J\I]   {éto}    ["e:.tU]
firm:  {îbra}  ["iv.r`3]   {lôga}   ["lo:.N3]
soft:  {cabe}  ["kaev_j]   {teage}  ["t_Saej\]   {dugato} [dU"RAoT_w]

{cábo}: A + ' = [a:]; final unstressed O after hard = [U].
{ságe}: A + ' = [a:]; final unstressed E after hard = [I].
{éto}:  E + ' = [e:]; final unstressed O after hard = [U].
{îbra}: I + ^ = [i:], shortened to [i] before 2 consonants; final
        unstressed A = [3].
{lôga}: O + ^ = [o:]; final unstressed A = [3].
{cabe}: stressed A before soft fronted = [ae]; final unstressed E after
        single soft is silent.
{teage}:  E before A is silent; stressed A before soft fronted = [ae];
        final unstressed E after single soft is silent.
{dugato}: unstressed U before low = [U]; stressed A before soft rounded
        = [Ao]; final unstressed O after single soft is silent.

Some examples of crossover:
    {teábre}   ["t_SA:.bEr]
    {can`do}   ["ka:.nUD_w]
    {nobne}    ["nov.JI] or ["no.vIJ] (etc.)

And some with enclitics:
    {teage-go}   ["t_Sae.j\uG_W]
    {teage-se}   ["t_Sae.j\IS]
    {teage-sea}  ["t_Sae.j\I.S3]
    {teagea-go}  ["t_Sae.j\oG_W]
    {teagea-se}  ["t_Sae.j\ES]
    {teagea-sea} ["t_Sae.j\E.S3]