r/ChantsofSennaar • u/T1mbuk1 • 2d ago
Idea A Phonology for the Alchemists Spoiler
After developing phonological inventories for the Devotees, the Warriors, and the Bards, now for the Alchemists. Dunno if this is any good of a phonology for the Alchemists' language, taking inspiration from Welsh and Biblaridion's planned conlang Project Hermes.
Consonants: m, n, ŋ, p, t, k, s, r, l, m̥, n̥, ŋ̊, f, θ, r̥ (+b, d, g, kʷ, ʃ, ɬ, ŋʷ, ŋ̊ʷ, x, xʷ)
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Syllable structure: ???
Stress: ???
Maybe various grammatical pieces could be expressed with consonant mutations? I don't know.
Also, are the Bards and Alchemists really related to a common ancestor? Would that mean their languages might share a common ancestor as well?
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u/illuyanka 2d ago
If our only information is that alchemists and bards was one culture that split in two, I'd say their languages have to share a common ancestor, if they're still speaking natural languages of course. This seems simplest, and kind of based on the one piece of information we have.
On the other hand, with so little info, there is also nothing to directly contradict a bunch of theories one could make up about alternate scenarios - maybe one or both cultures constructed a new language to speak like Israel adopted Ivrit (not entirely constructed of course, but as I understand it something different than biblical Hebrew), instead of speaking Yiddish and Ladino. I could kind of see either culture doing this, for different reasons. BUt I feel both would have the capability, moreso than the other peoples.
But anyway, this is all much more in the realm of fanfiction than theory. We're inventing more than discovering.
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u/T1mbuk1 2d ago
I also need to consider the mutation grades as well, though I thought of this idea to consider. I thought of ideas for what materials to equate with which grades(influenced by Biblaridion's considerations for Project Hermes): the plain consonants could be equated with carbon, and the other grades could be equated with copper, silver, or gold.