Lizardsquid, maker of noises @lizardsquid@computerfairi.es

@DialMforMara we'll see, then!

@DialMforMara oh! how so?

I've now ordered Bernice Summerfield Series 1... hopefully I enjoy it

Any thoughts? Does this feel natural?

So, here's my idea: historically, the affix /nɯ-/ was attached to the front of nouns to form the plural, and because this contains /ɯ/ (a back vowel) the rest of the word is forced to be all back vowels (because of vowel harmony).

so (originally), to pluralise /pɛɬá/, you would say /nɯpɤɬʌ́/

But hundreds of years of language change meant that the /nɯ/ ended up being dropped, and the only difference between singular and plural is the vowels inside.

In real life languages with complex vowel changes, these were historically created by a affix that, after several sound changes, was dropped at some point.

So, in order for my vowel harmony system to actually exist, it can't have occurred intentionally – it must have been the consequence of a historical affix.

(continued)

So tɬɯ́qtɤ has vowel harmony (meaning there are 2 categories of vowels, and a word can only ever contain vowels form one category or the other, not from both) but unlike real world languages the vowel harmony actually has a grammatical effect on the word.

So for example, pɛɬá is cat (all vowels are front vowels), and pɤɬʌ́ is cats (all vowels are back vowels).

But, this is not particularly realistic...

(continued)

and after all that, I'm going to melt into bed.

goodnight~