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So I've decided to try my hand at a Turkic conlang. It's called Proto-Oguq and is really a first step towards a family of Turkic conlangs. It forms a third branch of the Turkic languages (the other two being Oghur Turkic and Common Turkic). Speakers of Oguq languages are found primarily in Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
I don't have a complete phonology yet, but it is reasonably complete. Enough that I have moved onto other parts of the language.
Phoneme Inventory:
Stops: <p> /p_h/ <b> /p/
<t> /t_h/ <d> /t/
<k> /k_h/ <g> /k/
Affricates: <c> /tS/
Fricatives: <s> /s/
<h> /h/
Nasals: <m> /m/ <n> /n/
<j> /J/ <ng> /N/
Laterals: <l> /l/ <lh> /K/
Trills: <r> /r/ <q> /R\/
Glides: <y> /j/
Vowels: <i> /i/ <ü> /y/ ï /M/ <u> /u/
<e> /e/ <ö> /2/ a /A/ <o> /o/
Allophonic variation:
Word initially *p is [f]. Intervocally and immediately after nasals the plain voiceless stops are voiced. The velar stops have uvular allophones before and after back vowels. *g spirantizes between non-high vowels.*c is pronounced [dZ] immediately after nasals. *y is also pronounced [dZ] in word initial position. As an orthographic note <nk> is /Nk/ but <ng> is always /N/, never /Ng/. This latter cluster is written <ngg>.
Vowel harmony:
All vowels in a word agree in backness (the first vowel in a word determines backness). There's also a limited rounding harmony. Generally speaking, all non-initial syllable vowels are unrounded. However, non-initial high vowels agree in roundness with the preceding vowel.
Stress falls on the first syllable of a word, but monosyllabic function words are unstressed.
Sound changes from Proto-Turkic to Proto-Oguq
The most important changes are:
1) *r` > *q
2) *l` > *lh
3) voiceless stops > voiceless aspirates
4) voiced stops > voiceless stops unless intervocal or immediately after a nasal
5) long vowels were shortened
There are a few other changes, but I won't bother getting in to them.
Proto-Turkic is generally reconstructed with no word initial *p. However, Khalaj has word initial h- in many words linked with Altaic cognates pointing to initial *p`-. It is thus thought that Altaic *p` > *h /#_. And then in the non-Khalaj languages this *h was lost. Proto-Oguq supports the hypothesis that *p` > *f /#_. Then after the split of Proto-Oguq with the rest *f > *h. This change probably started even before the split since Proto-Oguq further has *f > *h /_u.
Lexicon:
The bulk of the lexicon is inherited from Proto-Turkic. There will also be a substantial number of borrowings from Crimean Tatar, Gagauz, Turkish, Latin, Romanian, Old Prussian, Bulgarian, Russian, Old Church Slavonic, Arabic, and Crimean Gothic (including words from Gothic that I'll presume were present in Crimean Gothic).
Now I'm off to work on nominal morphology.