On the Terrible De-Grammaticalization in Hujulukinat—Hans Forz SpecGram Vol CL, No 4 Contents The Assumption of Slang—Jonathan van der Meer

More On Moundsbar

Tropical Storm Jose
My title is, despite its melisonance, not quite apt, since my previous note on this strange language, published in the journal Quaestio, was in error in almost every respect. Afterthought prompts the conclusion that this was due to my having obtained most of the data by telephone.

In any event it turns out that the many vowel phones of Moundsbar can be wrestled down to seven vowel phonemes: an open central unrounded, written /a/, two close back rounded, two close front unrounded, and two central vowels, a higher and a lower, which can only be described as square. Examples follow:

mi     ‘one juju bean’
me ‘he flies up’
su ‘he flies down; two juju beans’
so ‘so?’
sa ‘mother (son or daughter speaking)’

Especially important is the distinction among /o/, /0/, and /+/:

kpo     ‘pigs; linguists’
kp0 ‘he keeps pigs; he is an informant’
kp+ ‘he has much pudding’

Apertures for these last three vowels are shown below: 

\     /             \     /             \     /
O     O             O     O             O     O
 
   ^                   ^                   ^
   o                   0                   +

(Though I am not a physical anthropologist it is hard to overlook the fact that younger Moundsbarians have no ears. This is due to the rather severe nature of topicalization; see my earlier article.)

In addition to the seven vowel phonemes there is a nasal syllabic which I write as /N/. Its two principal allophones are shown below. 

      \     /             \     / 
      O     O             O     O 
  
         ^                   ^ 
         N                  /\/

Examples:

dNk     ‘they (pl) walk’
tNk ‘how many string-shaped avocado peelings?’

My next note on Moundsbar will treat the (controversial) pulmonic ingressive uvular trill, or “voiced snore.” If, that is, my funding holds out.

—Metalleus

Hurricane Katrina

On the Terrible De-Grammaticalization in Hujulukinat—Hans Forz
The Assumption of Slang—Jonathan van der Meer
SpecGram Vol CL, No 4 Contents