Vesenian

Vesenian (native: vesenesko /veseˈnesko/) is a Slavic language.

Introduction

Vesenian is an attempt to create a "Spanish-sounding" Slavic language.

Phonology

Consonants

Vesenian consonant phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar/ Guttural
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Stop	voiceless	p	t		c ~ tʃ	k
	voiced	b	d			ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ	s		x
	voiced	v	ð	z	ʝ
Approximant		(β̞)	(ð̞)		(j)	(w) (ɣ˕)
Lateral				l	ʎ
Trill				r
Tap				ɾ

Phonological history

From Proto-Slavic (with original vowel length preserved) to Proto-Vesenian

Vowels

• *oRC > *oRъC
• *eRC > *eRьC
• *ъRC > *ъRъC
• *ьRC > *ьRьC
• Weakening of yers:
  • Yers were considered weak (and were likely shortened to some extent but were not completely dropped) when final, and when followed by a syllable in the same word that did not contain a weak yer.
  • Yers followed by a syllable containing a weak yer were considered strong.
  • Weak yers could not carry an accent. Therefore, any accent they had was shifted to the previous vowel, resulting in the neoacute.
• All final-syllable accents were shifted to the previous syllable (or the syllable before that if the penultimate syllable contained a weak yer), forming more cases of the neoacute.
• Neoacute vowels (including yers) were lengthened.

Consonants

• *šč > *sc / adjacent to front vowels
• *č > *c / adjacent to front vowels
• *č > *ť / otherwise
• *ždž > *zdz / adjacent to front vowels
• *ždž > *žď / otherwise
• *ž > *z / adjacent to front vowels
• *š > *s / adjacent to front vowels
• *ś > *s / everywhere

Proto-Venesian prounciation notes

• Preserved *š = /ç/
• Preserved *ž = /ʝ/
• *ť = /c/
• *ď = /ɟ/
• *ь = /ɪ/
• *ъ = /ʊ/

From Proto-Vesenian to Early Old Vesenian

Vowels

• Reformulation of strong and weak yers (only applies to short yers):
  • The earlier distinction between strong and weak yers was lost.
  • Final yers were preserved except when part of a polysyllabic inflectional ending and in some other exceptional cases.
  • Elsewhere, yers were dropped whenever phonotactically feasible (with the second of a sequence of two yers being dropped when possible), lengthening the preceding vowel. This process was highly susceptible to analogy.
  • Yers were also added to break impermissible consonant clusters. The quality of the yer was in accordance with the vowel of the syllable that it split.
  • A front yer was also added word-initially before clusters of a sibilant + consonant.
• *ь̄ > e
• *ъ̄ > o
• *e > ь / before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)
• *o > vъ / initially before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)
• *o > ъ / non-initially before palatal consonants (j, ž, š, ť, ď)

From Early Old Vesenian to Late Old Vesenian

Vowels

• ь, ъ > i / adjacent to j, ž, š
• ь, ъ > e / adjacent to ť, ď
• ь > e / otherwise
• ъ > o / otherwise
• ě > ē
• ę > ēN / before a consonant (N = homorganic nasal to following consonant)
• ę > ē / otherwise
• ǫ > ōN / before a consonant
• ǫ > ō / otherwise

Consonants

• šť > ť / initially
• šť > jť / otherwise
• žď > ď / initially
• žď > jď / otherwise
• ť > č /c/ (purely transcription change)
• ď > ž /ʝ/
• j > ∅ / #_i

Transcription Notes

• Long vowels are consistently marked with macrons.

From Late Old Vesenian to Modern Vesenian

Vowels (vowel length marked)

• Non-final posttonic short vowels were often dropped where phonotactically feasible.
• Posttonic long vowels were shortened.
• ē > ië (note: ë = /ə/)
• ō > uë
• ā > a
• ī > i
• ū > u
• ȳ > ë
• ë > e
• CjV, CijV > CiV (i.e. became an opening diphthong)
• uej > ui /u̯i/
  • This occurred after gC > jC and resulted in Old Vesenian ōgC becoming uiC.
• Cuie > Cui
  • This (and the change below) occurred after CvV > CuV
• Cui > Cuj / before non-front vowels

Consonants

• š /ç/ > x
• c > ť /θ/
• j > j /ʝ/ / except when before a consonant (i.e. in a closing diphthong) or after /i/, in which case it is pronounced /j/
• ž > j /ʝ/
• dz > ď /ð/
• dl > gl
• tl > kl
• g > j / before consonants
• x > f / before consonants
• fv > f
• v > u /w/ / adjacent to consonants and word-finally
• r > r /ɾ/
• ř > ř /r/
• m > n / word-finally