So, let's now see how the proposed Burgundian language developed over 1,500 years and what it has become (I shall make one final reservation, and later on I will refer to my language as if it were an existing idiom of a people living in Eastern Europe).
Let's first take a look at the phonetic system of the Old Burgundian (which is nearly same as Gothic) language.
Old Burgundian had the following consonants:
labial p, b, f, m
dental t, d, þ, s, z
glides w, j
alveolar r
lateral l
velar k, g, h, q, hw
Old Burgundian preserved the original velar nature of the sounds h and hw, which developed into glottal consonants in Gothic and Vandalic, h being eventually lost in the latter. Later on, however, closer to the Middle Burgundian stage, the sound x became glottal in most environments, except after sonorants and in initial position before r and n. In modern language this x became g: OB. xramns 'raven' > NB. granns, OB. marxs 'horse' > NB. margs, OB. xnakko 'nape' > NB. gnaka, but OB. axma 'spirit' > NB. axma.
It is worth noting that the sound [h] was signified with the letter h in the original Gothic alphabet, but the letter was lost since then and substituted with the one originally signifying the combination [ks], probably under the influence of the Greek χ (cf. the Gothic spelling of the word 'Christ', Xristus). During the Old Burgundian stage, the two letters were used interchangeably, but later on the letter h came to be used only at the beginning of words, marking its change to a glottal consonant, and finally it was dropped out of the alphabet during the Middle Burgundian stage.
As for the letter 'hw', it was lost already in Late Old Burgundian, as the sound denoted by this letter quite quickly merged with p, passing through a short period of a [ɸ] pronunciation, similar to the -f- of Japanese words like Fuji. This is how the unique Burgundian interrogative stem p-, not found elsewhere in Germanic languages, came to exist, so OB. hwat 'what' became NB. pat, and OB. hwaiwa 'how' became NB. pep (with assimilation).
The plosive b, d, g where pronounced as fricative [β, ð, ɣ] after vowels, being devoiced at the end of the word, e.g. xlaif 'bread', but xlaiba 'loaves of bread'. During later stages of the language's development, these consonants acquired a stop articulation in all positions, but before that they were dropped in the position before -i-, which became the source of the modern 'vowel + glide' combinations. The same happened with w. Thus, OB. ragin 'advice' became NB. rajn, OB. galewjan 'to set free' became NB. galejen, and OB. gadilings 'relative' became NB. gajlings. Old fricatives were also lost between the vowel i and following sonorants, e.g. OB. rigns 'rain' became NB. rin.
Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives became voiced stops after sonorants as early as in Old Burgundian, for example, *wilþijaz 'wild' became wildis (modern vild).
The distribution of reflexes of devoiced b, d, g in the modern language is quite uneven. While g always yields voiced g, the situation with b and d is more difficult. For example, leufs 'beloved' (stem leub-) became leufs, with an f-reflex, but lif 'life' (stem lib-) became lib, with a b-reflex. As for d, it has regularly been preserved, but sometimes it yielded a voiceless -t at the absolute end of the word, e.g. NB. dut from OB. duþ/dud 'to, for', verbal ending -t from -d/-þ, and even at the end of the stem, e.g. NB. vitet from OB. witoþ 'law' (from earlier witodus).
The sounds þ, t, d were generally lost before l, for example maþl 'meeting place' became mal, and the word litils 'small' (Middle Burgundian litls) became lil.
The Burgundian language hasn't ever known the phenomenon of vowel umlaut before j, which is observed in all other modern Germanic languages. Instead, Burgundian consonants got palatalized before j, e.g. xauzjan 'to hear' ([xauzjan]) came to be pronounced [xu:ʑen]. Dentals were the first to become palatalized, as seen in the oldest borrowings that have č in their original forms, e.g. tjas 'time' from Proto-Slavic *časъ. Velars weren't palatilized until quite recently.
The sound x was lost between consonants, e.g. OB. alxs 'temple > NB. als, OB. fulxsn 'secret, riddle' > NB. fulsn.
The combination sk became sx very early, quite quickly coming to be pronounced [ʃ]. There are two exceptions from this rule: firstly, sk did not change into sx before j, thus ejsxen 'to be embarassed' (< OB. aiwiskon), but ejskjen 'to make embarassed' (< OB. aiwiskjan). Secondly, the combination skr came to be pronounced [ʃkr], e.g. skreunja ['skreunja] 'earth-house' became ['ʃkrɯ:ɲa].
Let's first take a look at the phonetic system of the Old Burgundian (which is nearly same as Gothic) language.
Old Burgundian had the following consonants:
labial p, b, f, m
dental t, d, þ, s, z
glides w, j
alveolar r
lateral l
velar k, g, h, q, hw
Old Burgundian preserved the original velar nature of the sounds h and hw, which developed into glottal consonants in Gothic and Vandalic, h being eventually lost in the latter. Later on, however, closer to the Middle Burgundian stage, the sound x became glottal in most environments, except after sonorants and in initial position before r and n. In modern language this x became g: OB. xramns 'raven' > NB. granns, OB. marxs 'horse' > NB. margs, OB. xnakko 'nape' > NB. gnaka, but OB. axma 'spirit' > NB. axma.
It is worth noting that the sound [h] was signified with the letter h in the original Gothic alphabet, but the letter was lost since then and substituted with the one originally signifying the combination [ks], probably under the influence of the Greek χ (cf. the Gothic spelling of the word 'Christ', Xristus). During the Old Burgundian stage, the two letters were used interchangeably, but later on the letter h came to be used only at the beginning of words, marking its change to a glottal consonant, and finally it was dropped out of the alphabet during the Middle Burgundian stage.
As for the letter 'hw', it was lost already in Late Old Burgundian, as the sound denoted by this letter quite quickly merged with p, passing through a short period of a [ɸ] pronunciation, similar to the -f- of Japanese words like Fuji. This is how the unique Burgundian interrogative stem p-, not found elsewhere in Germanic languages, came to exist, so OB. hwat 'what' became NB. pat, and OB. hwaiwa 'how' became NB. pep (with assimilation).
The plosive b, d, g where pronounced as fricative [β, ð, ɣ] after vowels, being devoiced at the end of the word, e.g. xlaif 'bread', but xlaiba 'loaves of bread'. During later stages of the language's development, these consonants acquired a stop articulation in all positions, but before that they were dropped in the position before -i-, which became the source of the modern 'vowel + glide' combinations. The same happened with w. Thus, OB. ragin 'advice' became NB. rajn, OB. galewjan 'to set free' became NB. galejen, and OB. gadilings 'relative' became NB. gajlings. Old fricatives were also lost between the vowel i and following sonorants, e.g. OB. rigns 'rain' became NB. rin.
Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives became voiced stops after sonorants as early as in Old Burgundian, for example, *wilþijaz 'wild' became wildis (modern vild).
The distribution of reflexes of devoiced b, d, g in the modern language is quite uneven. While g always yields voiced g, the situation with b and d is more difficult. For example, leufs 'beloved' (stem leub-) became leufs, with an f-reflex, but lif 'life' (stem lib-) became lib, with a b-reflex. As for d, it has regularly been preserved, but sometimes it yielded a voiceless -t at the absolute end of the word, e.g. NB. dut from OB. duþ/dud 'to, for', verbal ending -t from -d/-þ, and even at the end of the stem, e.g. NB. vitet from OB. witoþ 'law' (from earlier witodus).
The sounds þ, t, d were generally lost before l, for example maþl 'meeting place' became mal, and the word litils 'small' (Middle Burgundian litls) became lil.
The Burgundian language hasn't ever known the phenomenon of vowel umlaut before j, which is observed in all other modern Germanic languages. Instead, Burgundian consonants got palatalized before j, e.g. xauzjan 'to hear' ([xauzjan]) came to be pronounced [xu:ʑen]. Dentals were the first to become palatalized, as seen in the oldest borrowings that have č in their original forms, e.g. tjas 'time' from Proto-Slavic *časъ. Velars weren't palatilized until quite recently.
The sound x was lost between consonants, e.g. OB. alxs 'temple > NB. als, OB. fulxsn 'secret, riddle' > NB. fulsn.
The combination sk became sx very early, quite quickly coming to be pronounced [ʃ]. There are two exceptions from this rule: firstly, sk did not change into sx before j, thus ejsxen 'to be embarassed' (< OB. aiwiskon), but ejskjen 'to make embarassed' (< OB. aiwiskjan). Secondly, the combination skr came to be pronounced [ʃkr], e.g. skreunja ['skreunja] 'earth-house' became ['ʃkrɯ:ɲa].
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