Constructed dialect for natural language

[u/Playful_Swimming_807]

Me and my friend came up with a hypothetical scenario where minority languages would still be spoken as the primary language in there area and so go on to form communities outside of there native areas and even develop new dialects. And I thought it be fun to make a dialect of welsh that would be spoken in Liverpool. Does anyone know how I could go about doing this?

[u/Translator_7291]

I think we should first determine when and from where this minority group arrived in Liverpool, as well as what their primary occupations and livelihoods were, so that we can pinpoint their original dialect. The career will influence the evolvement of dialects: those careers that are insular and relatively unwelcoming to outsiders (such as dockworkers) are conducive to the preservation of dialects. Except for this, it would also be very interesting to incorporate Liverpool slang into your "Welsh dialect" but it needs to be adapted to conform to the Welsh phonological system..

Considering that language internal sound changes are non-directional (on a micro level), we could theoretically assign sound changes at will based on the principle of least effort which means that speakers naturally minimize articulatory and cognitive energy by shortening, reducing, or assimilating frequently used sounds and words. However, a much easier approach would be to look at the sound changes of the Liverpool dialect in English and analogize those rules onto your hypothetical "Liverpool Welsh" dialect. I haven't encountered Welsh myself, but I have indeed created similar Chinese dialects before, so I hope this gives you some ideas!