qiihoskeh: myo: kanji (Default)
qiihoskeh ([personal profile] qiihoskeh) wrote2011-04-22 05:18 pm

featural script - tones

I'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.