Cave Angel Language [CVA]
▲
4▲ 4 ▼ 0
New
90 words
Cave Angel Language
Cave Angel LanguageRegistered by
[Deactivated User] on 5 February 2020
Language type
A priori
Species
Human/humanoid
About Cave Angel Language
A humanoid alien species with some similar biological and social characteristics to termites, living in caves under the sun-baked surface of a tidally locked planet. Their "wings" are actually feathery antennae (like a moth's, only bigger) which they use to sense sounds and other air movements. Their "hair", on the other hand, is chemosensory antennae.
They breathe through spiracles on either side of the neck, meaning that there is no connection between the mouth/throat and the lungs. Instead, where a human nose and sinuses would be, there is a secondary air sac that evolved primarily as a resonator for echolocation chirps, but is also used to make the sounds of their speech.
More drawings here.
I imagine their speech as fairly high-pitched due to the small size of the resonator compared to a human's trachea, which would limit the wavelength of sounds it can resonate.
Also due to the air sac's smaller size compared to human lungs, Cave Angel languages use a lot of clicks (which don't require airflow) and both egressive and ingressive sounds (as the amount of consecutive inflow or outflow is limited).
You may notice that the phonology contains tonal clicks. Cave Angels can adjust the resonant frequency of the air sac above the roof of their mouth by changing the amount of air inside. As these clicks are produced with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, the resonant frequency of the air sac determines which frequency produced by the click gets amplified. In this way they can produce tone contrast in clicks.
They breathe through spiracles on either side of the neck, meaning that there is no connection between the mouth/throat and the lungs. Instead, where a human nose and sinuses would be, there is a secondary air sac that evolved primarily as a resonator for echolocation chirps, but is also used to make the sounds of their speech.
▼ Click here to toggle hidden content below
More drawings here.
I imagine their speech as fairly high-pitched due to the small size of the resonator compared to a human's trachea, which would limit the wavelength of sounds it can resonate.
Also due to the air sac's smaller size compared to human lungs, Cave Angel languages use a lot of clicks (which don't require airflow) and both egressive and ingressive sounds (as the amount of consecutive inflow or outflow is limited).
You may notice that the phonology contains tonal clicks. Cave Angels can adjust the resonant frequency of the air sac above the roof of their mouth by changing the amount of air inside. As these clicks are produced with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, the resonant frequency of the air sac determines which frequency produced by the click gets amplified. In this way they can produce tone contrast in clicks.
Sample of Cave Angel LanguageCan't find any yet.
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Palatal | Velar | Other | |||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ ↓ɸ | ↓f̂ f̌ | ↓θ̂ θ̌ | ↓ŝ š | ↓ʃ̂ ʃ̌ | ç ↓ç̂ | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | p͡ɸ ↓p͡ɸ | p̪͡f ↓p̪͡f | t̪͡θ ↓t̪͡θ | t͡s ↓t͡s | t͡ʃ ↓t͡ʃ | c͡ç ↓c͡ç | t͡ɬ ↓t͡ɬ | |||||||||||
| Lateral fricative | ɬ ↓ɬ | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | ↓r̻̝ r̻̝1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Click | ʘ | ǀ | ǃ | ǁ | ǂ | ʞ | ||||||||||||
| Blends | t↓r̻̝ tr̻̝ |
- like Czech ř
| Vowels | Front | |
| Close | i | y |
OtherThe only phonemic quality in vowels is rounded/unrounded; I put the two vowels as i and y to avoid confusion with e which is used as the ingressive marker. Vowels only "count" when they are egressive, not ingressive.
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Cave Angel Language. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 Cave Angel LanguageOrthography [edit] | ||||||||||
| '// | b/ʘ/ | c/ʃ̌/ | d/ǀ/ | ec/↓ʃ̂/ | ef/↓f̂/ | eh/↓ɸ/ | ekx/↓c͡ç/ | el/↓ɬ/ | epf/↓p̪͡f/ | eph/↓p͡ɸ/ |
| er/↓r̻̝/ | es/↓ŝ/ | etc/↓t͡ʃ/ | etl/↓t͡ɬ/ | etr/t↓r̻̝/ | ets/↓t͡s/ | etv/↓t̪͡θ/ | ev/↓θ̂/ | ex/↓ç̂/ | f/f̌/ | g/ʞ/ |
| h/ɸ/ | i/i/ | j/ǂ/ | kx/c͡ç/ | l/ɬ/ | pf/p̪͡f/ | ph/p͡ɸ/ | q/ǃ/ | r/r̻̝/1 | s/š/ | tc/t͡ʃ/ |
| tl/t͡ɬ/ | tr/tr̻̝/ | ts/t͡s/ | tv/t̪͡θ/ | v/θ̌/ | x/ç/ | y/y/ | z/ǁ/ | |||
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | ||||||||||
- like Czech ř
Additional NotesThe letter ' makes the sound before it longer.
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Cave Angels: Society
gender roles, naming conventions, et al.
08-Jan-21 19:29Cave Angels: Biology
An alien species
08-Jan-21 19:27CVA Verb Conjugation 22-Aug-20 20:57
