An Experimental Conlang - Phonology & Orthography

[The 16-symbol syllabary] [Onset trigrams (consonants)]
[Rime trigrams (vowels)] [The complete 64-symbol syllabary ]  

In the Introduction page it was stated that:

• that his language has two sources:
  1. Jeff Prothero's 'Plan B' and Jacques Guy's 'Plan C'
  2. The notion of an oligosynthetc language
• The vocabulary of our language will consist of the 64 Yì Jīng hexagrams, read as 64 distinct syllables, each being associated wth a 'semantic primitive' meaning.
• This means extending he syllabary of 16 sylmbols developed from (1) above (see Appendix 1) to a syllabary of 64 symbols.

 

The 16-symbol syllabary

Let us, therefore, consider first the 16-symbol syllabary derived from a consideration of Jeff Prothero's 'Plan B' and Jacques Guy's 'Plan C'.

To achieve the sixteen syllables we have:

• two vowels:
  • Front:   /e/ - realized as any front vowel from [ɪ] down to [ɛ] inclusive;
  • Back:    /o/ - realized as any front vowel from [ʊ] down to [ɔ] inclusive;
• and eight consonants, consisting of four grades of sonorants and obstruents, thus:

  	Sonorant	Obstruent	Note: The 'zero' consonant is realized as a semivocalic onset, i.e. [j] before /e/ and as [w] before /o/. The obstruents are voiceless when initial, but may become voiced between vowels. The phoneme /l/ may be realized as any dental or alveolar approximant, whether lateral or not, or as a dental/alveolar flap.
  grade #0	(zero)	/k/
  grade #1	/l/	/s/
  grade #2	/n/	/t/
  grade #3	/m/	/p/

The four grades occur in four series such that series #0 & #1 are sonorants, and series #2 & #3 are obstruents, the even series having the vowel /o/ and the odd having the vowel /e/.

Our sixteen syllables are mapped to bit quartets thus:

• The two most significant bits denote the grades 0 to 3 thus: 00 01 10 11.
• The two least significant bits denote the series 0 to 3 thus: 00 01 10 11
  (It will thus be observed that:
  - the first of these two bits indicates whether the consonant is a sonorant [0] or an obstruent [1],
  - and the second indicaties whether the vowel is /o/ [0] or /e/ [1]).

The complete syllabary is given in the table below . The sixteen symbols chosen to represent each syllable is shown in bold type; also shown are the phonemic values*, and the bit pattern.

	series #0	series #1	series #2	series #3
grade #0	w /wo/ 0000	y /je/ 0001	g /ko/ 0010	k /ke/ 0011
grade #1	r /lo/ 0100	l /le/ 0101	z /so/ 0110	s /se/ 0111
grade #2	n /no/ 1000	ñ /ne/ 1001	d /to/ 1010	t /te/ 1011
grade #3	µ /mo/ 1100	m /me/ 1101	b /po/ 1110	p /pe/ 1111

* The phonemic status of the semivocalic onsets [w] and [j] is left ambiguous or controversial, as in Modern Chinese.
 

 

Onset trigrams (consonants)

The Yì Jīng hexagrams are composed of two trigrams; so let us consider the eight trigrams first. These are composed of three monograms (or lines). There are only two possible monographs:

Monogram		Traditional qualites	Binary value
	yīn	soft, insubstantial, wet, diffuse, cold, tranquil, feminine	0
	yáng	hard, solid, dry, focused, hot, aggressive, masculine	1

Note: the traditional values are not of my invention; they are given here for interest only. As they have no bearing on the phonology, no further reference is made to them on this page.

Traditionally the monograms that compose a trigram are read, from our point of view, from bottom to top, e.g.
☶ is 001₂ (i.e. 1₁₀); ☴ is 011₂ (i.e. 3₁₀); ☲ is 101₂ (i.e. 5₁₀).

But, of course, the Chinese have traditiionlly read from top to bottom, and the speakers of this language did likewise. Therefore, when the language was being fashioned, the upper trigram would have been read from top to bottem as the syllabic onset and lower trigram as the rime, i.e. we are, in effect, reading from the lowest significant bit down to the highest significant bit. There are eight possible trigrams (0..7), and as the top part of a hexagram, they represent one of the possible consonant onsets similar to the onsets found in the 16-symbol syllabary above; but this tme it is the two least signifant bits (the top two monograms) that define the 'grade', and the most significant bit (the third monogram) that shows whether the consonant is a sonorant (0 or yīn) or an obstruent (1 or yáng), thus:

	Sonorant	Obstruent	Note: The Roman letters are, of course, not used by the speakers of the language themselves. They are used only in transcriptions by 'outsiders'. The zero consonant is realized as w [w] before back vowels and y [j] before front vowels. As above, l is realized variously as a lateral approximant, or a dental/alveolar approximant. The binary numbers are given for interest only. They do not form part of the spoken or written language.
grade #0	☷ w, y 000	☳ k 100
grade #1	☶ l 001	☲ s 101
grade #2	☵ n 010	☱ t 110
grade #3	☴ m 011	☰ p 111

 

Rime trigrams (vowels)

All syllables are of the simple CV type; therefore. he eight lower trigrams simply denote vowels. We could use something like the 8-vowel Turkish system. This, however, was not done. We have the back ~ front dimension of the 16-syllable syllabary; and, as in the Turkish system, we also have high ~ low dimension. However, there is no rounded ~ unrounded opposition; front vowels are unrounded and back vowels rounded. The third dimension in our language is provide by tone: rising tone ~ falling tone.

Each of the three dimensions are denoted by each monogram of the lower trigram, thus:

	topmost monogram	middle monogram	bottommost monogram
yīn	falling tone	low vowel	back vowel
yáng	rising tone	high vowel	front vowel

Putting this all together, we arrive at:

	Back vowel	Front vowel	Note: In the Roman transcription, the grave accent denots falling tone and the acute rising tone. The vowels transcribed as o and e are closer to IPA [ɔ] and [ɛ] r espectively, than to [o] and [e]. As in the table above, the binary numbers are given for interest only. They do not form part of the spoken or written language. (It may seem that we are giving alternately consonantal values and vocalic values to contiguous bit-strings just as in Plan B. But the objection I had with Plan B was that the same Roman symbol was being given both a consonantal and a vocalic value according as to whether the symbol appeared in an odd numbered place or an even numbered place within a stream of characters. In this language its symbols, i.e. hexagrams, are represented by a 6-bit group and this group of 6 bits is always read the same way. Moreover, in the Roman transcription, consonant are represented by consonant symbols and vowels by vowel symbols.)
Low vowels	☷ ò 000	☳ è 100
	☶ ó 001	☲ é 101
High vowels	☵ ù 010	☱ ì 110
	☴ ú 011	☰ í 111

 

The complete 64-symbol syllabary

Putting the above two sections together, we arrive at the full 64-symbol syllabary. This is shown in the table below where:

• the first row of each cell shows the hexagram;
• the second row gives the Roman alphabet representation of the syllable;
• in the third row, the first number in italics shows the position of each hexagram in the 'traditional' King Wen sequence. and the second number shows its position in the older, but less used, Fuxi sequence;
• The bottom row gives, for interest, the bit pattern in octal numbers, each octal digit corresponding to the component trigrams.

bottom \ top	☷	☶	☵	☴	☳	☲	☱	☰
☷	䷁ wò 02-01 00	䷖ lò 23-02 01	䷇ nò 08-03 02	䷓ mò 20-04 03	䷏ kò 16-05 04	䷢ sò 35-06 05	䷬ tò 45-07 06	䷋ pò 12-08 07
☶	䷎ wó 15-09 10	䷳ ló 52-10 11	䷦ nó 39-11 12	䷴ mó 53-12 13	䷏ kó 62-13 14	䷷ só 56-14 15	䷞ tó 31-15 16	䷠ pó 33-16 17
☵	䷆ wù 07-17 20	䷃ lù 04-18 21	䷜ nù 29-19 22	䷺ mù 59-20 23	䷧ kù 40-21 24	䷿ sù 64-22 25	䷮ tù 47-23 26	䷅ pù 06-24 27
☴	䷭ wú 46-25 30	䷑ lú 18-26 31	䷯ nú 48-27 32	䷸ mú 57-28 33	䷟ kú 32-29 34	䷱ sú 50-30 35	䷛ tú 28-31 36	䷫ pú 44-32 37
☳	䷗ yè 24-33 40	䷚ lè 27-34 41	䷂ nè 03-35 42	䷩ mè 42-36 43	䷲ kè 51-37 44	䷔ sè 21-38 45	䷐ tè 17-39 46	䷘ pè 25-40 47
☲	䷣ yé 36-41 50	䷕ lé 22-42 51	䷾ né 63-43 52	䷤ mé 37-44 53	䷶ ké 55-45 54	䷝ sé 30-46 55	䷰ té 49-47 56	䷌ pé 13-48 57
☱	䷒ yì 19-49 60	䷨ lì 41-50 61	䷻ nì 60-51 62	䷼ mì 61-52 63	䷵ kì 54-53 64	䷥ sì 38-54 65	䷹ tì 58-55 66	䷉ pì 10-56 67
☰	䷊ yí 11-57 70	䷙ lí 26-58 71	䷄ ní 05-59 72	䷈ mí 09-60 73	䷡ kí 34-61 74	䷍ sí 14-62 75	䷪ tí 43-63 76	䷀ pí 01-64 77

It will be seen from the above that, like Plan B, the language can be readily expressed in bit streams if one so wishes. Also it will be noticed from the octal numbers that the binary representation of each hexagram has exactly the same ordering as the Fuxi sequence. This is the sequence used by the speakers of this language.

 

Created March 2006. Last revision: Copyright © Ray Brown