Hallo conlangers!

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:48:39 -0400 Herman Miller wrote:

> [...]
> 
> The current explanation for the history of /ë/ and /y/ that I'm working 
> out is that they were allophones of the front vowels /e/ and /i/ 
> adjacent to sounds produced in the back of the throat (possibly uvular, 
> pharyngeal, or epiglottal sounds of some kind, which were lost). So a
> word like /kwëna/ "to hear" would be < /kweHna/, where /H/ represents a 
> sound that causes /e/ to be pronounced [@].

That sounds plausible.  Uvulars, pharyngeals and epiglottals are
all likely to cause backing of front vowels.  That of course does
not rule out the possibility that *some* of the relevant tokens
resulted from the unrounding of /o/ and /u/.  Your nonfront
unrounded vowels may have two different origins!

>       It could potentially be the 
> same sound that alters /r/ and /l/ to the voiceless /ŕ/ and /ł/ in the 
> modern language, as in the word "xyŕa" (from *xiHra?) But the problem 
> with that is words like "lërvi": *lHervi would produce /łërvi/, and 
> *leHrvi would produce /lëŕvi/. (Besides, *sl and *sr are looking more 
> plausible as an origin for /ł/ and /ŕ/.)

Yes, if such problems occur, it is probably not the same sound.
*sl and *sr indeed look very plausible as an origin for /ł/ and
/ŕ/.  There is no need to ascribe these to the same sound as the
nonfront unrounded vowels.

> [...]
> 
> > Keep in mind also that /@/ and /1/ need not have developed by parallel
> > courses.
> >
> > Alex
> 
> Yes, that's a good point. One option I've been considering is an 
> original vowel system of /a/ /i/ /u/ /@/, with various splits and 
> mergers that I haven't worked out. I don't have any particularly good 
> reason for those four vowels except for symmetry, and the idea that /a/ 
> /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ is too ordinary of a vowel system.

What is wrong with /a e i o u/, except that is has been used so
often (including natlangs)?  But if you think it is overused,
do something different.  If you start with /a i u @/, you can
first split each of the four vowel phonemes vertically:

/a/ > /a ~ @1/
/i/ > /e ~ i/
/u/ > /o ~ u/
/@/ > /@2 ~ 1/

Then merge /@1/ and /@2/, and you have the 7-vowel system of
Tirelat.

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