Re: Conaccents

[Padraic Brown <agricola@WAM.UMD.EDU>]

On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Nik Taylor wrote:

> I was wondering: if someone who spoke your conlang as a first language
> were to speak English, what would their accent sound like?  I'm not sure
> for Kizval, since I haven't worked out the usual pronounciation, only CP
> (Committee Pronounciation).  A few things I'm sure of:
> [st] would become [ts], so that one would say [tsOr] for "store"
> [zd] would become [dz], so that one would say [krEjdz] for "crazed"
> [i]-[I], [e]-[E], [u]-[U], and [o]-[O] are allophones in Kizval, so that
> that would show up in their accent
> Onsets are more limited in Kizval, so that an epinthetic vowel would be
> added to the beginning of words beginning with [s] followed by a
> consonant (except [st]), for example [splIt] would be [Is.plIt]
>

Brithenig speakers have an accent not unlike Welsh; and I'm told by Andrew
that Kernu speakers, to judge from their orthography anyway, have a rather
"obvious" accent, even stronger than normal Brithenig speakers.  Perhaps
somewhat analagous to Al-bamuh tawk. ;^)

Due to the close, if not intimate, proximity of Kemr and Saesein, I doubt
they would have any great trouble with English.  Though based on my
experience with Romance-as-a-first-language English Speakers, I think it
likely that there would be numerous humerous oddities to their English:
like using the ubiquitious -s in improper locations, tacking y- in front
of words that start with st-; tense confusion, etc.

> --
> The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
> arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
> government.--Thomas Jefferson
>
> http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/9785/
> http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Conlang/Con-index.html
>
Padraic.