Lakhesian - Work in progress

[Malliki]

So. I have always wanted to create a language. This thread is for documenting my work as it progresses. Everything I post here may change at any time, for any reason. So don't take it as authoritative, until I say so.

Sounds
Consonants
I decided I wanted a sound system that is familiar enough to English that you can pronounce it, but not quite the same. These are the consonants so far:

Stops: p, p t kicatives: f, s, s (as in shoot), x (as in German Bach), xnApproximants: w, r, l, l(as the y in year)
Nasals: m, n, n,
Now you might think one of two things. Perhaps what that tiny j is for. It denotes palatalization, which is when you finish a consonant by raising the tongue up to the hard palate, like you're pronouncing a little j or y after the consonant. The other question could be where all the voiced consonants have gone. The simple answer is that I've decided not to have b, d, g, v, z, zh or any of the other voiced consonants, except the nasals and the approximants.

Vowels
Here I went for simplicity.
a, e, i, o, u; pronounced as in Spanish.
a:, e:, i:, o:, u:; same as above, but long. All similar realisations of these sounds are valid, as long as they don't glide over to another vowel.

Syllable structure
Here I also opted for simplicity. the syllable structure is
(C) - V - (C-palatalized)

Stress
Also, simplicity. Gentle stress on the first syllable, similar to Hungarian.

Alphabet
Translitterated
a, e, i, o, u, c(=, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, x(=x), y, '. The final letter, the apostrophe, denotes palatalization of the preceeding consonant. Long vowels are marked with an acute accent, like á.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

Looks good

[Oroigawa Koreyasu]

OH NO! I HAVE COMPETITION FOR NIFTY LANGUAGE!

[Jonas]

YES YOU HAVE!

OH NO! MY BOYCOT IS RUINED.

[b3n|<3r|\|]

Mine remains indefatigable.

This looks like a good start, Mikey.

[Malliki]

Thanks for all your kind words. I hope that this will actually be the mother language of the language(s) now spoken in Lakhesis. That will take some more work, but I'm in no hurry. I just need to get over the word creation hurdle. I can call this Proto-Lakhesian for the time being. The Lakhesian as it is spoken now will have English loanwords etc.

[hypatias mom]

This is a really good start. I can't wait to hear it spoken. (You can perhaps introduce it on the news podcast.)

[Malliki]

I'll have to make it and learn it first, but that sounds like an idea.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

It's a damn good idea actually. A fluently spoken conlang in a radio broadcast would blow the microworld away.

[b3n|<3r|\|]

Sounds like a great idea. First there are the little issues of making it and learning it, but after that, that's definitely worth air time on EBR.

[Malliki]

I will try. I would of course have it written down and just read it out aloud, but as Benkern said, I will have to finish it and then learn it. At least how to pronounce it.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

At least nobody's going to pick you up on any little mistakes. You're already the world authority on Lakhesian language.

[Malliki]

I should be. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to design the alphabet? I want it to be original, but still feel familiar.

[Oroigawa Koreyasu]

Like...a new alphabet? Like, not the latin alphabet?

I did that with Tokish and it's soooooooooo hard!

[Malliki]

Yes, like, not the Latin alphabet. I want it to be familiar, yet not copied. Got any good ideas on how to design the letters so they look good?

[Oroigawa Koreyasu]

Take a pen and a piece of paper and make random strokes.

I didn't make written tokish that way, though. Written tokish involves compounding single stokes into syllabic letters...it's balls hard. So much harder than the spoken language or the latinized written language.

[Malliki]

I've started making some words now, and Lakhesian looks Slavic-African.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

I eagerly await whatever the hell such a thing as a Slavic-African vocabulary sounds like...

[Jess]

Maybe we should re-discover Yardistani?

[hypatias mom]

I'm sure Nick still has records of it.

[Malliki]

Some examples of valid words, they don't mean anything yet:

witë
ngäsas
rírek
ngöec

This is not overuse of umlauts. It denotes palatalization of the preceeding consonant.