Hive English Orthography

[qiihoskeh]

Inspired by a couple of the Norwescon panels, I came up with yet another conlang idea.


The syllable structure is strictly (C)V (but maybe word-final (C)VC).

Consonants:

* Voiced: b, d, g, m, n
* Voiceless: p, t, k, q (= [?]), h

Probably, p, t, k are aspirated. They are also the consonants that could occur word-final.

Vowels:

v  [v]   [f]
z  [z_m] [s_m]
s  [z_a] [s_a]
r  [z`]  [s`]
i  [j\]  [C]
u  [G_w] [x_w]
x  [R]   [X]
l  [l]   [K]

The first phone for each vowel is used after a voiced consonant, the second after a voiceless consonant. I'm not sure if I have the CXS exactly perfect. The _a phones are intended to be narrow deeply grooved "whistling" sibilants, and the _m phones are intended to be wide shallow sibilants. Optionally, a fricative could be used instead of [l].

It's not clear if |h| is actually pronounced, or just indicates voicelessness.

I'm using "Hive English" as a temporary working title because:

1) I want to use English as a lexifier, if I ever figure out how to convert English phonemes to the aforementioned. Low vowels are an especial problem.

2) Just the sound of the language spoken should give people the hives.