Re: Request for help, Spanish

Nik wrote:

>I'm currently working on Lun=EA (<Lun=E9s < Luna + -=E9s), the official
>language of the Pan-Human Republic.  It is descended from a
>Spanish-lexified creole, with substrate influence from English and
>Esperanto (a language spoken in a number of Lunar colonies), and
>probably other languages.  Now, the questions I have are these:
Ah neato, that sounds like my original plan for Pig.  Spanish vocabulary =
and=20
English grammar or something like that.

>What are the pronunciations of {ll} and {y} in different dialects?
>Particularly in Mexican dialects.
I can answer that, I think.  _elle_ [eje] and _i griega_ have no distinct=
ion=20
whatsoever, but there is a common allophone for both -- they're normally=20
[j], but in harsh speech they become fricatives, precisely a voiced palat=
al=20
fricative [j^ in IPA isn't it?], almost [Z].  I've even heard an affricat=
e=20
[dZ] or something close to that.

>One sound change involves the loss of intervocalic voiced stops.  Now,
>in words like "ciudad", this would produce [sju'a] (I think, or is it
>[sju'A]?).  What should I do with those kinds of words?  Ordinarily,
>unstressed high vowels become glides when prevocalic, but *[sjwa] would
>be impossible.  Would it be reasonable for that to become a rounded
>glide, that is [s;ha]?  Or would it be reasonable for an epenthetic [w]
>to be added, creating [sju'wa]?  Or should I just leave it at [sju'a]?
>Or, might the [j] be vocalized, creating [si'wa]?
No, I think [sju-a] (or [sju-ad]) would be a more reasonable rendering.  =
(No=20
intermediary glottal stop either; that would go better with a dropped /t/=
;=20
thus [ga'o] for [gato] 'cat')  And if you drop all intervocalic voiced=20
stops, you might end up with a ton of homophones!  You could just drop=20
intervocalic <g>, convert <d> to <r> or <l>, and <b> to <v> or <w> (writt=
en=20
as <u>).  So you'd have [awa] for 'water' instead of [aGwa], [lao] for=20
'lake' instead of [laGo], [amaro] for 'beloved' instead of [amaDo], and=20
[sawer] for 'to know (something)' instead of [saBer].  I kinda tend to=20
pronounce Spanish (Mexican of course) with a lot of vocalic lenition, but=
=20
probably more like Castillian Spanish where intervocalic voiced stops bec=
ome=20
their corresponding fricatives.

Now another idea for a switch is to drop final <d> in _ciudad_, _Trinidad=
_,=20
etc.  Or, in line with French, final -ad > -=E9 (e always stressed)?  And=
 my=20
experiment with dropping the final <e> in prepositions and other particle=
s,=20
like spoken French does.

So you'd have a sentence like [mjermano ba a la ilesja bautista dla trini=
re'=20
nla sentro dla sjure'] 'my brother goes to Trinity Baptist Church downtow=
n'.=20
  Of course these are all just ideas of mine.

By the way, I wonder why Spanish doesn't write <nn> for palatal <n>, inst=
ead=20
of <=F1>, so that an extra character isn't necessary?  I mean, it would=20
conform to the most usual convention for indicating palatization, like <l=
l>=20
does (and <rr> indicates a sound shift, from tap to trill).  Also, <=F1>=20
usually comes from Latin <nn> anyway, such as _a=F1o_ 'year' from _annus_=
. =20
(I've seen <ny> as an ASCII alternative, but I still think <nn> looks=20
better, compare <anyo> to <anno>, <cany=F3> to <cann=F3n> for <ca=F1=F3n>=
 'cannon')

>"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of
>kittens" - Abraham Lincoln
Hey, humans tend to wanna make love after fighting too!  Adrenaline is af=
ter=20
all an aphrodisiac...

Danny

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