The BG Language Creation Guide

Phonological Variation

Part 1

One of the consequences of a small segment inventory is that changing a single segment results in the change of many,many words!

40 Nouns with Phonological Variation

* = changed a phoneme to one of its allophones:
*ashes ka-kaqu (end of)-wildfire
*(end of) ka- bound derivational prefix
*ashes ka-qu-mana-ya (end of)-bound-sun-small (qumanaya = bondfire
*(bound/subjugated) qu- bound derivational prefix
*child mici-ya person-small
*cloud ka-susu-siqu end--water-snow (kasusu = sky) (na class)
*siqu snow
*day naqu-di bright-continuous (note this is not na class)
*bright naqu adj
*earth kaka
*egg pipa-kiq bird-seed
*(wild) fire kaqu (na class)
*(camp)fire qu-mana-ya bound-star-small
*fish maqu
forest samu
*friend aqu
*heart kasi (m class; physical heart: tangible)
*heart kasi (na class) emotion or center
*house ci-dusi hardened-yurt (houses are relatively new on the island: people traditionally lived in soft-sided yurts of woven fabric)
*dusi yurt
*leaf pimala-yaqu tree-hand
*yaqu hand
*man kali
*person mici
*refreshment (of the soul) ala-siq rain-good (na class)
*good Siq adj
*river li-sa spirit-move (since the village is on the sea:moving fresh water is very important and considered sacred) (na class)
*seed kiq
*shaman, sage; mici-ya-li-ha person-small-spirit-know
*know ci-ha hardened-know; to be educated, to know facts
*sky ka-susu (end of) water (na class)
*smoke li-kaqu spirit-wildfire (from a wild fire (na class)
*smoke li-qu-mana-ya spirit-bound-sun-small, white smoke from a campfire
*stone ci-nala hardened-sand
*story li-kasi-ni spirit-hear-together note kasini = family (not na class)
*water Susu
*daq duck
*dragon ci-nala-piq hardened-sand-essence (cinala = stone
*essence -piq; denotes the prototype or essence of a thing, bound derivational affix from /adjverb piqu
*alive piqu adj
*live -piqu (verb)
*moss liaq

Part 2

Part 3

Stress is fixed and word initial. However, no {q}-final syllable can be stressed. If a [q] has been deleted (see above) that syllable still cannot be stressed even if the [q] is no longer present on the surface. If the syllable containing the [q] ending is word initial, stress shifts one syllable to the right. The exception to this rule is dealt with in the section on negating verbs. *


Note to the PrenLanger: the creator of Liqupa might not necessarily have known about negating verbs at the phonetics step. S/he must have come back later to add this.
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Updated 3/28/2011