How to make naturalistic vowel inventories | Conlang Tips

[@kidyomu89]

God I am shocked how little subscribers who have, your content is so good and professional

[@ColinGorrie]

Thank you so much!

[@Bossman50.]

That’s what I was thinking

[@Thelaretus]

Right?

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

I could have listened to at least another 30 minutes on this topic. Very entertaining!!

[@xhesil8848]

The most primitive contrast is height, the higher vowels are more likely to have a pairwise continuum, although you can have up to 6 vowels at the same height, usually 3, sometimes 4 First 2: Front Unrounded & Back Rounded Other qualities: Front Roundest, Back Unrounded, Central Unrounded, Central Rounded Central Rounded is the rarest to be phonemically contrastive At lower heights, the tendency is central to back, Unrounded. If paired, the most likely pairing is Front Unrounded and Back Unrounded.

[@mountainboydk]

Great info, thank you!

[@ColinGorrie]

Glad it was helpful!

[@surdika2188]

What program do you use to draw? I've seen it for a long time, but I've never known what it was called

[@ColinGorrie]

It’s called Sketchbook - there’s a new version that costs money but also an old version, which was free (and that’s the one I’m using)

[@Hwelhos]

reminds me of when i had 3 different i's in an otherwise normal 6 vowel system (standard +schwa) bc i became ɨ after k and q, then k and q became t͡ʃ and k before ɨ this made ɨ phonemic since there alr was a t͡ʃ i also became i̝ after c, ɲ and j then c and ɲ became k and ŋ

[@konokiomomuro7632]

I'd say linguists will put it as /ɪ/ [i, ɪ, ɨ]

[@Hwelhos]

@@konokiomomuro7632 not really due to them being phonemic after dorsals and t͡ʃ for ɨ

[@cogitoergosum9069]

Fun fact: that vowel chart at the beginning is almost identical to Lithuanian's phonology 🤣 (minus length distinction, diphthongs, and /ɔ/)... Also Lithuanian is almost *worse* because is also has /æ/ thrown into the mix

[@asgerhougardmikkelsen8770]

As a dane, the way he slowly and inefficiently writes the æ is weirdly annoying