Jan03 –  A Constructed Language

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Jan03 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 č d e f g h i j k l m n ň o p q r s š t u w x y z ž;
v isn't used.

Vowel Qualities

There are 6 vowel phonemes (both long and short) and 4 diphthongs: [əi] ei, [əu] ou, [ae] ae and [ao] ao.

Vowel Qualities

	front				central		back
high	i(:)	i	-		-		-		u(:)	u
high-mid	-		e(:)	e	-		o(:)	o	-
mid	-				ə(:)	y	-
low	-				a(:)	a	-

Consonant Qualities

There are 32 consonant phones occurring as 30 consonant phonemes.

Consonant Qualities

		labial								coronal						dorsal						guttural
nasal	voiced	m	m	mʲ	mi	-				n	n*	-				ɲ	ň	ŋ	n*	-		-
stop	voiceless	p	p	pʲ	pi	-				t	t	-				-		k	k	kʷ	ku	ʔ	q
	voiced	b	b	bʲ	bi	-				d	d	-				-		g	g	gʷ	gu	-
affricate	voiceless	-								-		t͡s	c	t͡ɕ	č	-						-
	voiced	-								-		d͡z	z	d͡ʑ	ž	-						-
fricative	voiceless	-				f	f	fʲ	fi	-		s	s	ɕ	š	ç	x*	x	x*	xʷ	xu	h	h
trill	voiced	-								-		r	r	-		-						-
vocoid	voiced	-								l	l	-				j	j	-		w	w	-

The voiceless stops and affricates are sometimes aspirated. Coda stops are released.

Syllables and Prosody

The possible syllable types are: (C)V, (C)V:, (C)VV, (C)VC, and (C)VVC.

Stress usually falls on the last content morpheme.

Phonotactics

• The letter q doesn't appear as an onset except when the preceding morpheme (in the same word) ends in a consonant.
• The allophone [ç] appears as an onset before [i] and [e] and as a coda after [i], [e], [əi], and [ae]; otherwise [x] appears.

• The long vowels [i:], [u:], [e:], [o:], [ə:], and [a:] appear only in stressed open syllables.

• The palatal consonants pi, bi, mi, fi, ň, and j don't appear before i, e, ei, or ae.
• The labiovelar consonants ku, gu, xu, and w don't appear before u, o, ou, or ao.
• The diphthongs don't appear before coda r, l, q, or a nasal coda.

• Coda [m] appears before p(i), b(i), or m(i).
• Coda [ŋ] appears before k(u), g(u), or w.
• Coda [ɲ] appears before ň or j.
• Coda [n] appears otherwise.

• There are no phonemic geminates; however, coda q may assimilate to the POA of a following stop or affricate.

page started: 2014.Jan.04 Sat
current date: 2014.Jan.19 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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