Welpish Language



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Ord Gored Durnst Topp Welp Gorn

Welpish Language
The Welpish language is structurally akin to ??? and uses Tzotzil phonemes.

Welpish Vowels
i, u, e, o, a

i as in English igloo u as in English utter e as in English elephant o as in English open a as in English all

Welpish Consonants
m, n, b, p, t*, t, k*, k, tz*, tz, ch*, ch, *, v, s, x, j, l, y, r.

m as in English marginal

n as in English never

b as in English bill

p as in English penalty

t* t with glottal stop

t as in English torrent

k* k with glottal stop

k as in English kake

tz* tz with glottal stop)

tz as in English hits

ch* 'ch with glottal stop

ch as in English choke

* a glottal stop as in the space between the two t's of the Cockney bottle

v as in English volley

s as in English salty

x as in English shove

j as in Spanish j or as in Scottish loch but more gently uttered

l as in English lilly

y as in English yell

r is flapped as in Spanish r

Welpish Phonemes
All words in Welpish begin with a consonant (which may be a glottal stop). Consonant clusters are permissible, almost always found at the beginning of a word and consisting of a prefix together with a root. Roots in Welpish occur in the forms CVC (t'ul), CV (lo), CVCVC (bik'it), CV(C)VC (xuvit), CVC-CVC (’ajnil), CVCV (’ama) or CVC-CV (vo'ne). The most common root is CVC. Almost all Welpish words can be analyzed as a CVC root together with certain affixes.

Welpish Stress and Intonation
In normal speech, stress falls on the first syllable of the root in each word and the last word in a phrase is heavily stressed. For words in isolation, primary stress falls on the final syllable except in affective verbs with -luh, first person plural exclusive suffixes, and reduplicated stems of two syllables. In these instances the stress is unpredictable and is therefore indicated with an acute accent.

Welpish Phonological Processes
When intervocalic, /b/ is pre-glottalized and when it is followed by a consonant, b becomes a voiced m preceded by a glottal stop. In final position, b becomes a voiceless m preceded by a glottal stop: thus, tzeb is pronounced [tse*m]

When adding an affix results in double fricative consonants, only one is pronounced: thus xx, ss, nn, or jj should be pronounced as x [sh], s [s], n [n], or j [j (see above)]. For example, ta ssut returning" is pronounced [ta sut] . Other double consonants are pronounced twice, like tztz or chch, in verbal construction or in words with the same two consonants appearing in conjoining syllables: chchan is pronounced [ch-chan]

s changes to x when prefixed to a stem beginning with ch, ch', or x

x changes to s when prefixed to a stem with an initial or final tz or s