featural script - tones
2011-Apr-22, Friday 17:18![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qiihoskehI've been working on tone combinations for the featural script language.
1-syllable words have either rising (R, ') or falling (F, ^) tone. There may also be "unaccented" toneless words as well.
For words of 2 or more syllables, the following rules apply:
1. if the last 2 tones are (originally) the same, the penult is "accented", else the ultima is "accented".
2. an "accented" R or F tone is retained.
3. for each syllable before the "accented" one,
R becomes high (H, `) and F becomes low (L, unmarked).
4. when the penult is "accented", the ultima becomes L.
In addition, R becomes H in a blocked syllable unless the nucleus is a diphthong.
The actual script has only 2 diacritics, analogous to ^ for F, ' for R or H, and no marking for L or unmarked.
A epenthetic schwa is toneless and not counted as a nucleus.
1-syllable words have either rising (R, ') or falling (F, ^) tone. There may also be "unaccented" toneless words as well.
For words of 2 or more syllables, the following rules apply:
1. if the last 2 tones are (originally) the same, the penult is "accented", else the ultima is "accented".
2. an "accented" R or F tone is retained.
3. for each syllable before the "accented" one,
R becomes high (H, `) and F becomes low (L, unmarked).
4. when the penult is "accented", the ultima becomes L.
In addition, R becomes H in a blocked syllable unless the nucleus is a diphthong.
The actual script has only 2 diacritics, analogous to ^ for F, ' for R or H, and no marking for L or unmarked.
A epenthetic schwa is toneless and not counted as a nucleus.
