Aug06 –  A Constructed Language

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Aug06 Phonology and Orthography

The tables show the relevent phonetic symbols (in IPA) with the corresponding orthographic (romanization) symbols. The letters used are: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u w x y; v z aren't used.

Vowel Qualities

There are 5 basically short vowel phonemes; long vowels occur only as allophones of the corresponding short vowel.

Vowel Qualities

	front				central		back
high	i	i*	-		-		-		u	u*
mid	-		e	e	-		o	o	-
low	-		-		ä	a	-		-

Consonant Qualities

There are approximately 23 consonant phonemes.

Consonant Qualities

		labial				coronal						dorsal						guttural
stop	voiceless	p	p	-		-		t	t	-		-		k	c	-		-
	voiced	b	b	-		-		d	d	-		-		g	g	-		-
nasal	voiced	m	m	-		-		n	n	-		ɲ	ny	ŋ	n(h)	-		-
affricate	voiceless	-				t͡ɬ	tl	-		t͡ʃ	c	-						-
	voiced	-				-				d͡ʒ	j	-						-
fricative	voiceless	-		f	f	ɬ	sl	s	s	ʃ	x	-				χ	q	h	h
trill	voiced	-				-		r	r	-		-						-
vocoid	voiced	w	w	-		l	l	-				j	y	-				-

Orthographic Notes and Phonotactics

• The phoneme /ŋ/ is written n when used as the coda and as nh when geminate.
• The phoneme /h/ appears only as an onset.
• The letter l appears only as or in onsets.
• The letter r appears only as a coda.
• The digraphs ny, nh, and sl appear only as a geminates.
• Apparently simple clusters such as pl are pronounced as geminates ([p:l] in this case).
• However, if the first consonant in the cluster is a voiced obstruent, the preceding vowel is lengthened instead of the consonant, e.g. ebb is [e:.b].

Consonant Clusters

There are no onset clusters. The medial clusters, including geminates, are:

Medial Consonant Clusters

pp	pl	py	tt	tl	tc	kk	kl	kw
bb	bl	by	dd	ll	dj	gg	gl	gw
ff	fl	fy	ss	sl	xx	qq	ql	qw
mp	mpl	mpy	nt	ntl	nc	nk	nkl	nkw
mb	mbl	mby	nd	nl	nj	ng	ngl	ngw
rp	rpl	rpy	rt	rtl	rtc	rk	rkl	rkw
rb	rbl	rby	rd	rr	rdj	rg	rgl	rgw
rf	rfl	rfy	rs	rh	rxx	rq	rql	rqw
fp	fpl	fpy	ft	ftl	ftc	fk	fkl	fkw
sp	spl	spy	st	stl	stc	sk	skl	skw
xp	xpl	xpy	xt	xtl	xtc	xk	xkl	xkw
qp	qpl	qpy	qt	qtl	qtc	qk	qkl	qkw
tp	tpl	tpy	pt	ptl	pc	pk	pkl	pkw
kp	kpl	kpy	kt	ktl	kc	tk	tkl	tkw
cp	cpl	cpy	ct	ctl	--	ck	ckl	ckw
mm	--	my	nn	--	ny	nh	--	nw
rm	--	--	rn	--	--	--	--	--
sm	--	--	fn	--	--	--	--	--
xm	--	--	xn	--	--	--	--	--
qm	--	--	qn	--	--	--	--	--
--	--	--	tm	--	cm	km	--	--
pn	--	--	--	--	cn	kn	--	--

Syllables and Prosody

There are four kinds of syllables:

1. (C)V
2. (C)VC
3. C(C)VC
4. C(C)V

They occur as follows: 0 or more type 1, a type 2, 0 or more type 3, and a type 4.

page started: 2013.Aug.09 Fri
current date: 2013.Aug.12 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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