Feb18 –  A Constructed Language

1 Feb18 Phonology and Orthography

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1.1 Letters and Sounds

The tables show the relevent phonetic symbols (in QAPA) with the corresponding orthographic symbols. The 25 letters and consonant digraphs used in the romanization are:
a b c d e g h i j k l m n o p r s sl t tl u v x y z — f q w are not used.

In the following tables, an asterisk * indicates letters with allophones.

1.1.1 Vowel Qualities and Quantities

There are 5 short vowels, 0 long vowels, and 0 diphthongs, except as possible phonetic variations. The vowel e

Vowels

	front										central		back
high	i	i	-								-		-								M	u
low-mid	-						E		-		-		-		V	o	-
low	-								a	a	-		-

1.1.2 Consonant Qualities

There are 21 onset consonants (23 phones), 21 coda consonants (23 phones), and 18 geminate consonants.

Onset Consonants

		labial				coronal						dorsal								guttural
nasal	voiced	m	m	-		-		n	n	-		-								-
stop	voiceless	p	p	-		-		t	t	-		-		k	k	-				?	'
	voiced	b	b	-		-		d	d	-		-		g	g	-				-
affricate	voiceless	-				t)K	tl	t)s	s*	t)$	c	-								-
	voiced	-				-		d)z	z*	d)*	j	-								-
fricative	voiceless	-				K	sl	s	s*	$	x	-		x	h	-				-
	voiced	-		v	v	-		z	z*	-		-								-
rhotic	voiced	-				-		r	r	-		-								-
approximant	voiced	-				-		l	l	-		j	y	-						-

Coda Consonants

		labial				coronal						dorsal								guttural
nasal	voiced	m	m	-		-		n	n*	-		J	n*	N	n*	-				-
stop	voiceless	p	p	-		-		t	t	-		-		k	k	-				?	'
	voiced	b	b	-		-		d	d	-		-		g	g	-				-
affricate	voiceless	-				t)K	tl	-		t)$	c	-								-
	voiced	-				-				d)*	j	-								-
fricative	voiceless	-				K	sl	s	s	$	x	-		x	h	-				-
	voiced	-		v	v	-		z	z	-		-								-
rhotic	voiced	-				-		r	r	-		-								-
approximant	voiced	-				-		l	l	-		j	y	-						-

Geminate Consonants

		labial				coronal						dorsal								guttural
nasal	voiced	m:	mm	-		-		n:	nn	-		-								-
stop	voiceless	p:	pp	-		-		t:	tt	-		-		k:	kk	-				?:	''
affricate	voiceless	-				t:)K	ttl	t:)s	ts	t:)$	tc	-								-
fricative	voiceless	-				K:	ssl	s:	ss	$:	xx	-		x:	hh	-				-
	voiced	-		v:	vv	-		z:	zz	-		-								-
rhotic	voiced	-				-		r:	rr	-		-								-
approximant	voiced	-				-		l:	ll	-		j:	yy	-						-

1.2 Phonotactics

1.2.1 Onsets

• An onset is a single consonant or null.
• The onset y becomes null between i and a vowel.
• The onset v becomes null between u and a vowel.
• The affricate allophones of s and z appear after n and l.
• The coda stop p may also be «P».

1.2.2 Rhymes

The rhyme types are:
light: -V
heavy: -V:, -VC

• Coda nasals assimilate to following plosives and nasals in point of articulation.
• The vowel «E» is inserted between coda and onset where these are incompatible.

1.2.3 Prosody

page started: 2025.Feb.22 Sat
current date: 2025.Feb.22 Sat
content and form originated by Jeffrey S. Jones (qiihoskeh)

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