Jul17 –  A Constructed Language

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Jul17 Phonology and Orthography

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

Vowel Qualities

There are 5 vowel phonemes; each occurs both short and long. Long vowels are marked with macrons.

Vowel Qualities

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

Consonant Qualities

There are approximately 20 consonant phonemes.

Consonant Qualities

		labial				coronal				dorsal						guttural
stop	voiceless	p	p	-		t	t	-		-		k	c	kʷ	qu	-
	voiced	b	b	-		d	d	-		-		g	g	gʷ	gu	-
nasal	voiced	m	m	-		n	n*	-		-		ŋ	n*	-		-
fricative	voiceless	-		f	f	s	s	-		ç	x*	x	x*	xʷ	xu	h	h
trill	voiced	-				r	r	-		-						-
vocoid	voiced	-				l	l	-		j	i*	-		w	u*	-

Syllables and Prosody

Syllables are (C(L))V(V)(C).

Orthographic Notes

• The letter i represents the consonant [j] between vowels and the vowel [i] otherwise.
• The letter u represents the consonant [w] between vowels and is part of the prevocalic digraphs qu, qu, and xu; otherwise, it represents the vowel [u].
• However, on occasion, intervocalic i and u are syllabic (vowels); this is indicated by placing a macron on the preceding vowel letter, e.g. āio [ai.o]

Phonotactics

• The allophone [ŋ] occurs before c, q, or g while [n] occurs elsewhere.
• The allophone [ç] occurs next to i or e while [x] occurs elsewhere.
• The voiced obstruents b, d, and g are always followed by a vowel or a liquid + vowel.
• The digraph qu is always followed by a vowel.
• Consonantal [j] is deleted (or at least not written) after i or e.
• Consonantal [w] is deleted (or at least not written) after u or o.

Two adjacent protolanguage vowels may combine into one long vowel or diphthong, as shown in the following table:

Vowel Combinations

	+ 0	+ *i	+ *ə	+ *a	+ *u
*i	i	ī	io	ia	iu
*ə	e, o	ē	ē, ō	ā	ō
*a	a	ai	ā	ā	au
*u	u	ui	ue	ua	ū

• The resulting vowels o and ō appear, rather than e and ē, before protolanguage *kʷ, *gʷ, *kʷʰ, and *h², or after *h².
• Stem vowel *ə is sometimes deleted before a vowel-initial suffix.
• The combination c + u becomes the digraph qu before a vowel.

page started: 2013.Jul.20 Sat
current date: 2013.Aug.04 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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