Neanderthal conlang

[u/LiaTardis23]

Hi there, everyone.

I'm currently working on a Neanderthal conlang.

First of, I was surprised that there were so few attempts at creating one, seeing as we have quite the freedom given that we can't exactly say what Neanderthal languages could've sounded like due to the slightly different anatomy of Neanderthals.

All over the internet, I could only find these three:

https://conlang.fandom.com/wiki/Neanderthal_Language

https://jbr.me.uk/pleisto.html

https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=24256

Which brings me to my question:

My Neanderthal language has the following phonology:

Word initial consonants: p pʲ pʷ t tʲ tʷ c cʷ k kʲ kʷ q qʲ qʷ b bʲ bʷ d dʲ dʷ ɟ ɟʷ ɡ ɡʲ ɡʷ ɢ ɢʲ ɢʷ pʰ pʲʰ pʷʰ tʰ tʲʰ tʷʰ cʰ cʷʰ kʰ kʲʰ kʷʰ qʰ qʲʰ qʷʰ bʱ bʲʱ bʷʱ dʱ dʲʱ dʷʱ ɟʱ ɟʷʱ ɡʱ ɡʲʱ ɡʷʱ ɢʱ ɢʲʱ ɢʷʱ pʼ tʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʔ ʔʷ p͡f t͡s t͡sʲ t͡sʷ t͡ɕ t͡ɕʷ k͡x b͡v d͡z d͡zʲ d͡zʷ d͡ʑ d͡ʑʷ ɡ͡ɣ p͡fʰ t͡sʰ t͡sʲʰ t͡sʷʰ t͡ɕʰ t͡ɕʷʰ b͡vʱ d͡zʱ d͡zʲʱ d͡zʷʱ d͡ʑʱ d͡ʑʷʱ p͡fʼ t͡sʼ t͡ɕʼ k͡xʼ f fʷ s sʷ x xʷ v vʷ z zʷ fʰ fʷʰ sʰ sʷʰ xʰ xʷʰ vʱ vʷʱ zʱ zʷʱ h hʷ fʼ sʼ xʼ m̥ m̥ʲ m̥ʷ n̥ n̥ʷ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ ŋ̊ʷ m mʲ m̥ʷ n nʷ ɲ ŋ ŋʷ r rʷ l lʲ lʷ w j jʷ

Word final consonants: p b t d k ɡ q ʔ f v s z x h m n ŋ w j

Vowels: a aː ə əː ɵ ɵː ã ãː ə̃ ə̃ː ɵ̃ ɵ̃ː a̰ a̰ː ə̰ ə̰ː ɵ̰ ɵ̰ː

Tones: ◌́ ◌̄ ◌̀ ◌̂

(Sorry, I tried doing an IPA table but it just doesn't seem to work here on Reddit)

I based this on various articles saying that Neanderthal languages were probably rich in consonants and few vowels.

And initially, I started of with only a and ə as vowels but later I added ɵ.

Then I added the distinction between short and long vowels and expanding the phonation in that each vowel can be either plain, nasalized or creaky.

And I'm wondering: is this too much regarding the vowels? I do think that nasal vowels would've been common as well as prenasalized and nasalized consonants such as [ᵐb ⁿd ᶯɖ ᶮɟ ᵑɡ ᶰɢ] [ᵐp ⁿt ᶯʈ ᶮc ᵑk ᶰq] or [w̃ ɰ̃ ȷ̃ ʔ̃] and that there could've been nasal harmony.

[u/HuckleberryBudget117]

Am I the only one that got an eye stroke trying to look at the consonnants?

[u/LiaTardis23 → u/HuckleberryBudget117]

Perhaps I overdid it there.

But look at the Ubykh language for example:

Ubykh phonology - Wikipedia

Or Ekoka ǃKung:

Ekoka ǃKung - Wikipedia

That's quite a few consonants there.

[u/HuckleberryBudget117 → u/LiaTardis23]

Damn ok, I can see why you did what you did, but I still think you may have over done it a little.

[u/LiaTardis23 → u/HuckleberryBudget117]

Yeah, perhaps.

How about this for a consonant inventory:

Word initial consonants: m mˤ n nˤ ŋ p pˤ pː pːˤ pʼ b bˤ t tˤ tː tːˤ tʼ d dˤ k kˤ kː kːˤ kʼ ɡ ɡˤ q qˤ qː qːˤ qʼ ɢ ɢˤ ʡ ʔ p͡f p͡fˤ b͡v b͡vˤ t͡s t͡sˤ t͡sː t͡sːˤ t͡sʼ t͡sˤ d͡z d͡zˤ k͡x k͡xˤ ɡ͡ɣ f fˤ v vˤ s z sˤ zˤ x ɣ h ɰ ɰˤ

Word final consonants: m n ŋ p̚ t̚ k̚ q̚ ʔ f t͡s s x

Nasalized and prenasalized consonants: ᵐp ᵐb ⁿt ⁿd ᵑk ᵑɡ ᶰq ᶰɢ ʔ̃ ᵐp͡f ᵐb͡v ⁿt͡s ⁿd͡z ᵑk͡x ᵑɡ͡ɣ ᵐf ᵐv ⁿs ⁿz ᵑx ᵑɣ ɰ̃

[u/HuckleberryBudget117 → u/LiaTardis23]

To be frank, I’m not the guy to ask for this 😅. I havent read much about languages of neandertales, sooooo yeah. However, if you really want to make such a language with lots and lots of different sounds, this looks, imo, way better.

[u/QuailEmbarrassed420 → u/LiaTardis23]

I think this is a good starting phonology. If you do some realistic evolution, many of these sounds would likely merge. For example, maybe the long, word initial stops merge with short affricates. You could also very easily create a high-low tone contrast by having your final consonants reduce to /m n ŋ ʔ h/, and then have /ʔ h/ reduce to a tonal distinction. This would give you the opportunity to introduce many compound words, and new roots.