Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Phonetics that I Forgot

I forgot one thing, and intentionally left out another. The thing that I forgot is a fairly small matter, but is very important to pronunciation: stress. The thing that I left out intentionally is a bit larger, but will probably not be important for much time to come: derivational phonetic simplifications.
            Stress in fĺuðét is fairly simple. It comes on the end of the word unless the vowel of that syllable is an é, then the stress comes on the first vowel before it that that is not an é. If all of the vowels in the word are é’s, then stress comes on the last syllable. So veću, "walk" is stressed: ve-ĆU, and fĺuðét is stressed: fĺ-U-ðét, because its last syllable’s vowel is an é, and the syllable before that is a u, which can have stress. And one more thing that I forgot: é cannot end a word without a consonant after it.
           
Fĺuðét derives words from other words by attaching affixes, which leads to odd series of consonants that do not always fit in one’s mouth. Because of this there are certain rules that one can follow to simplify the sounds of unwieldy mixtures.
A couple of preliminary rules:
1. The preceding sound always modifies the following sound, and not vice versa.
2. If three or more sounds come together, then first expand semi-vowels into regular vowels, then if there are still groups of three or more consonants, then keep only the first and last sound of each group, and simplify them.

The sounds are simplified according to the following set of rules:

1. Stop + Stop:

a. Initial p > unvoice following sound and remove p except before ć or j where j is unvoiced and the initial t (t + ś = ć) is replaced with p.
b. Initial b > voice following sound and remove b except with ć or j where the ć is voiced and the initial d (d + ź = j) is replaced with b.
c. Initial t > remove initial t.
d. Initial d > voice following sound and remove initial d.
e. Initial ć > unvoice following sound and remove initial t before t.
f. Initial j > voice following sound and remove initial d before d.

Stop + Fricative:

a. Initial p > align inital p to following sound’s voicing and remove f or v.
b. Initial b > remove f or v.
c. Initial t > unvoice following sound and turn f into wh.
d. Initial d > voice following sound and turn v into w.
e. Initial ć > align ć to following sound’s voicing and turn f into wh and v into w.
f. Initial j > turn f into wh and v into w and remove initial d (d + ź = j) before t or d.

Fricative + Stop:

a. Initial f > align initial f to following sound’s voicing and remove initial f before p and b.
b. Initial v > voice following sound and remove initial v before p or b.
c. Initial þ > align initial þ to following sound’s voicing and remove t, d, ć, and j.
d. Initial ð > voice following sound and remove d, and j.
e. Initial ś > align to following sound’s voicing.
f. Initial ź > voice following sound.

Fricative + Fricative:

a. Initial f > remove f
b. Initial v > voice following sound and remove initial v.
c. Initial þ > align þ to following sound’s voicing, turn f into wh, and turn v into w, and remove initial þ before ś or ź.
d. Initial ð > voice following sound, turn v into w, and remove initial ð before ź.
e. Initial ś > align ś to following sound’s voicing and turn f into wh, and turn v into w.
f. Initial ź > voice following sound and turn v into w.

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