Proto-Pehian

Disclaimer:

I'm a novice, I do not deny this, & I never claimed, nor claim to know enough linguistic concepts to make a good conlang. From the feedback of other people & compared to other projects I do realize my language is very generic & nooby for a naturalistic language, but IMHO I'm proud that I can make at least something that works like a language. Still, I'm trying my best for the language to be a bit alien/unlike other languages, especially English & Russian (the ones I know), & to not turn it into a "kitchen sink" or a relex I'd trash later. The reason I post it here is for people to be able see the conlang from inside-out, so they can use it & say how good are my language elements. I welcome feedback & criticism, & also ideas on how to improve this conlang!

Disclaimer II:

Although now Proto-Pehian is near the point I consider it "usable", everything here is subject to change. I may do it in twisted ways that render previous Proto-Pehian sentences ungrammatical. If you want to look for old versions, please go to the thread on the CBB.

Overview

Proto-Pehian is a daughter language of Proto-Kesto-Pehian & a proto-language of all Pehian languages, spoken about 4500 years ago. It's a synthetic nominative–accusative language.

Geographically, Proto-Pehian emerged from the northern dialects of Proto-Kesto-Pehian, encouraged by rapid segregation of the northern tribes from the southern. By the time Proto-Pehian reached the point at which it is presented here, southern tribes already identified themselves differently.

Phonology

Stress pattern is penultimate if a word ends on a vowel, or final if it ends on a consonant. Stress is always regular, no matter any inflection, so post-word inflection (suffixes) affects stress.

Syllable sturcture is at most (F)(C)(C)V(F)(C), where F is a s or c, C is any consonant, V is any vowel.

Plosive & pulmonic consonants can't end words. a & e weaken to u in unstressed syllables, except e stays itself after palatal consonants. y & i are distinguished only word-initially. Historical short i mutates to j when after vowels & unstressed. u mutates to a if before a stressed vowel. tl clusters get replaced w/ q whenever they occur.

   
Consonants   		    
Labial   		    
Dental   		    
Alveolar   		    
Retro­flex   		    
Palatal   		    
Velar   
   
Nasal   		    
<m> /m/   		    
   		    
<n> /n/   		    
   		    
   		    
   
   
Plosive   		    
<p> /p/
   
<b> /b/   		    
   		    
<t> /t/
   
<d> /d/   		    
   		    
[c]2 [ɟ]2   		    
<k> /k/
   
<g> /ɡ/   
   
Fricative   		    
<f> /f/ [v]5 6   		    
<th> /θ/   		    
<s> /s/ <z> /z/   		    
<c> /ʂ/ <zh> /ʐ/   		    
[ç]2   		    
<x> /x/     <gh> /ɣ/5   
   
Trill   		    
   		    
   		    
<r> /r/   		    
   		    
   		    
   
   
Approx.   		    
<w> /w/   		    
   		    
   		    
   		    
<j> /j/   		    
   
   
Liquid   		    
   		    
   		    
<l> /ɫ/ [ʎ]3   		    
   		    
   		    
   
   
Pulmonic   		    
   		    
   		    
<q> /t͡ɬ/   		    
   		    
   		    
   
   
Vowels   		    
Front   		    
Central   		    
Back   
   
Close   		    
<i> /i/   		    
<y> /ɨ/1   		    
<o> /o/   
   
Mid   		    
<e> /ɛ/ [e]2   		    
<u> /ə/4   
   
Open   		    
<a> /a/   

¹phonemic only word initially, merged with /i/ elsewhere.

²[ɡ], [k] & [x] palatalize to [ɟ], [c] & [ç] before [ɛ], which itself becomes [e]. Only [ɡ] palatalizes before [i].

³a word final allophone of l

⁵[f] & [x] become vocalized ([v] [ɣ]) between vowels

⁶[w] becomes [v] word initially

⁷Dialectically, th can be realized as [ɬ] & also become [ʎ] word finally

WIP