"Faux-Austro-Semitic" -- An Artlang for Worldbuilding + Guidelines for Deriving Words with Appropriated Sound Change Rules
(Everything is subject to change!)
Rough Ideas / Goals
A few emphatic consonants.
Syllable structure:
CVC or C(G)VC; where G is glide
Voicedness or voiceless distinction for certain consonants
Voiceless plosives may be aspirated
Symmetrical voice, i.e. Austronesian alignment
Two or three grammatical numbers: Singular, (Dual), Plural
No grammatical gender
Affixes galore. Maybe also infixes too
Phonology
Consonants
Labial
Alveolar
Palatal
Lateral
Velar
Pharyngeal
Glottal
Nasal
m
n
ɲ
ŋ
Plosive
b, p, (pʼ)
d, t, tʼ
ɡ, k, kʼ
ʔ
Fricative
z, s, sʼ
(ɮ), ɬ, ɬʼ
ɣ, x
ʕ, ħ
h
Approximants
j
l
w
This conlang takes inspiration from Middle Chinese and Proto-Semitic for its three-way distinction of certain consonants into tenuis, voiced, emphatic (i.e., ejective) consonants.
There is a lot of ejective consonants here, since I have plans for at least one daughter language to have pharyngealized consonants like in Arabic.
Vowels
Short
Long
Front
Central
Back
Front
Central
Back
Close
iː
uː
Mid
e
(ə)
o
Open
a
aː
(ɐː)
Stressed vowels are long vowels.
Schwas often show up as a result of epenthesis, especially between two consonants within a word boundary. Outside of epenthesis, the schwa seldom occurs.
Front and back vowels in this conlang will also have higher vowel height. This is somewhat inspired by modern English spelling, e.g. a single ⟨e⟩ is usually a plain /e/ but a pair of ⟨ee⟩ often represents /iː/.
However, a lengthened central vowel instead falls in vowel height from /ə/ to /ɐː/.
Potential tonogenesis in daughter languages:
Rising tones from lengthened mid-close and close vowels
Falling tones from lengthened central vowels.
(There might be traces of vowel anti-harmony in conjugation and declension. Unconfirmed.)
Potential loss or gain of vowels in daughter languages.
Syllable Structure
The syllable structure for the conlang is C(W)VC; where C is consonant, W is medial glide (approximant), and V is vowel
Guide to Derivation
In planning this conlang, I took great liberty in appropriating sound changes across different language families.
Proto-Austronesian ⟨S⟩ > Conlang /ɬ/
Remarks: /ʂ/ Shibata (2025); /s/ Blust (2013)
Huh: Arabic ⟨ش⟩ /ʃ/ comes from Proto-Semitic ⟨ś⟩ /ɬ/.
Huh: Proto-Semitic ⟨š⟩ /ʃ/ and ⟨s⟩ /s/ are merged in Arabic.
Proto-Austronesian ⟨h⟩ > Conlang /ħ/
Huh: Because Arabic is lovely and heavenly, and the sound /ħ/ is a well-known exotic sound from Arabic.
Huh: Shibata, Kye. (2025). A reconstruction of Proto-Austronesian coronal consonants: Phonetic evidence from Formosan languages. Dissertation submitted to the Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, January 2025.
Old Chinese /hʷ/ and Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₃⟩ > Conlang /ʕ/
Huh: When I tried to play around with similar sounds to /hʷ/, I feel my pharynx sinking downwards and my tongue going backwards.
Huh: Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₃⟩ was quite likely rounded and voiced. Also see above.
Huh: /r/ becomes /ʁ/ in Perak Malay, which is close enough. In the Roman script, the spelling for /ɣ/ is also used for /ʁ/.
Old Chinese /r/ > Conlang /l/, /ɣ/, /ə/, /a/ or /ː/
Huh: There is no /r/ in Cantonese.
Huh: Also in this conlang there's /ɣ/ anyway that sounds close enough. (Refer to Malay varieties in northern Malaya)
Huh: I love the Johor-Riau and Received Pronounciation accents, and I especially enjoy how they treat final /r/.
Proto-Semitic /r/ > Conlang /ɲ/
Huh: Mandarin /r/ is related to Middle Chinese 日 initial which would sound more like /ɲ/
Proto-Austronesian ⟨N⟩ corresponding to Malay /l/ > Conlang /ɬʼ/
Huh: Crap, I ran out of alien space bats… Hey, don't you think the Bopomofo symbols ㄌ and ㄉ look very similar?
Huh: Also folks are saying Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /dˤ/ came out of the sound /ɮˤ/, ultimately from Proto-Semitic /ɬʼ/.
Huh: In some Hokkien varieties, /d/ and /l/ are somewhat allophones.
Huh: Oh, and in modern Cantonese, people are replacing initial /n/ with /l/ — the lazy sound phenomenon.
Proto-Austronesian ⟨C⟩ > Conlang /tʼ/ or maybe /sʼ/
Remarks: /ʈ/ Shibata (2025), /t͡s/ Blust (2013)
Huh: ⟨C⟩ is usually a letter for /t͡ʃ/ in Malay.
Huh: It is speculated that Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /sˤ/ was once pronounced /t͡sʼ/.
Huh: Also Hebrew ⟨צ⟩ with the sound /t͡s/, and the earlier letter used to stand for some emphatic consonant. The Hebrew letter is cognate to Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /sˤ/ by the way.
Huh: /tʼ/ and /sʼ/ both are alveolar sounds.
Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₂⟩ > Conlang /x/ or maybe /ħ/
Huh: It is speculated that ⟨h₂⟩ is somewhere between /x/ and /ħ/, most likely being /ħ/.
Huh: But /ħ/ is already assigned to Proto-Austronesian ⟨h⟩ for conlang derivation.
One prominent consonant likely lateral and fricative
Ends with a high vowel
Inspirations:
Hokkien lí 汝, lú 汝
Indonesian Slang lu
Proto-Austronesian *[i-]Su, *[i-]ka-Su, *=Su (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
Cantonese nei5 你
Standard Malay -mu ـمو
Proto-Semitic *-tī̆
sia // -ia
High front vowel followed by a low vowel
Inspirations:
Proto-Semitic *šiʼa
Proto-Austronesian *s(i)-ia, *=ia (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
Standard Malay ia اي
aŋi // -ŋi
First-person exclusive plural ("me and them but not you")
Nasal consonant prominently featured
Ends in a high front vowel.
Inspirations:
Old Chinese *ŋajʔ 我
Hakka ngai2 𠊎
Standard Malay kami کامي
Proto-Semitic *niḥnū̆, *-nū̆, *-nī̆, *-nā̆
Standard Arabic naḥnu نَحْنُ, -nā ـنَا
Proto-Austronesian *i-ami, *[i-]k-ami, *-mi (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
qiħtā // -tā
First-person inclusive plural
Inspirations:
Proto-Austronesian *([i])ita, *[i-]k-ita, *=ta (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
Standard Malay kita کيت
Proto-Semitic *-niḥnū̆, *-nū̆, *-nī̆, *-nā̆
Standard Arabic naḥnu نَحْنُ, -nā ـنَا
Informal Malay kiter
naɬin // -ɬin
Second-person plural
One prominent consonant likely lateral and fricative
Inspirations:
Hokkien lín 恁
Proto-Semitic *-tin
siɲa // -ɲa
Third-person plural
Inspirations:
Proto-Austronesian *si-da, *n(i)-ia (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
Proto-Semitic *-šinnā
Malay -nya ـڽ
Cebuano silá
Enclitic pronouns may depend on the attached verb or noun for its case.
In the oblique case, enclitic pronouns may appear:
after verbs in the dative voice, instrumental voice, or after prepositions, where they will mean the destination, beneficiary, goal, or instrument of the prepositions. (e.g., "to me", "with you", "to him");
after nouns in the construct state, where they will become possessive determiners. (e.g., "my", "your", "her").
In the indirect case, they may appear:
as suffixes to verbs in the active voice, where they assume the role of direct objects. (e.g., "me, you, her").
Cases
Personal<br>(Singular)
Personal<br>(Plural)
Common
Construct
Direct
sī
sāng
su
sa, s'
Indirect
nī
nāng
nu
na, n'
Oblique
kī
kāng
ku
ka, k'
Nouns assume grammatical cases according to their role in a clause or a sentence. A preceding article (or the lack thereof) marks the case of the noun.
There are four cases in this conlang, namely: direct, indirect, oblique, and construct.
Here, the noun's semantic nuances is tightly dependent on the verb. The same noun under the same case may reflect different semantic roles when the voice (or trigger) of the verb differs.
Direct:
The direct case marks the main focus of the clause.
For the actor voice, the noun in the direct case assumes the role of an actor, agent, or performer of the verb's action.
For the patient voice, the direct noun is the patient or target of the action.
For the instrumental voice, the direct noun is the instrument involved in the action.
For the dative voice, the direct noun is the location. the recipient, or the goal.
Indirect:
Outside of the actor voice, the indirect noun is usually the actor, agent, or performer of the verb's action.
Oblique:
The oblique case covers nouns which are neither the focus of the clause, nor assuming the role of the actor, agent, or performer.
For example, a noun in the oblique case may be an instrument of an action, an origin of departure, a target destination, and an object.
Shoutouts:
Blust, Robert. (2015). The Case-Markers of Proto-Austronesian. Oceanic Linguistics 54(2): 436-491, December 2015.****
CounterArchon in conlangs
"Faux-Austro-Semitic" -- An Artlang for Worldbuilding + Guidelines for Deriving Words with Appropriated Sound Change Rules
(Everything is subject to change!)
Rough Ideas / Goals
CVCorC(G)VC; where G is glidePhonology
Consonants
This conlang takes inspiration from Middle Chinese and Proto-Semitic for its three-way distinction of certain consonants into tenuis, voiced, emphatic (i.e., ejective) consonants.
There is a lot of ejective consonants here, since I have plans for at least one daughter language to have pharyngealized consonants like in Arabic.
Vowels
Schwas often show up as a result of epenthesis, especially between two consonants within a word boundary. Outside of epenthesis, the schwa seldom occurs.
Front and back vowels in this conlang will also have higher vowel height. This is somewhat inspired by modern English spelling, e.g. a single ⟨e⟩ is usually a plain /e/ but a pair of ⟨ee⟩ often represents /iː/.
However, a lengthened central vowel instead falls in vowel height from /ə/ to /ɐː/.
Potential tonogenesis in daughter languages:
(There might be traces of vowel anti-harmony in conjugation and declension. Unconfirmed.)
Potential loss or gain of vowels in daughter languages.
Syllable Structure
The syllable structure for the conlang is C(W)VC; where C is consonant, W is medial glide (approximant), and V is vowel
Guide to Derivation
In planning this conlang, I took great liberty in appropriating sound changes across different language families.
Grammar
Nouns
Pronouns
akū // -kū
naɬū // -ɬū
sia // -ia
aŋi // -ŋi
qiħtā // -tā
naɬin // -ɬin
siɲa // -ɲa
Enclitic pronouns may depend on the attached verb or noun for its case.
In the oblique case, enclitic pronouns may appear:
In the indirect case, they may appear:
Cases
Nouns assume grammatical cases according to their role in a clause or a sentence. A preceding article
(or the lack thereof)marks the case of the noun.There are four cases in this conlang, namely: direct, indirect, oblique, and construct.
Here, the noun's semantic nuances is tightly dependent on the verb. The same noun under the same case may reflect different semantic roles when the voice (or trigger) of the verb differs.
Shoutouts: