The Sep10 Constructed Language

Sep10 Phonology and Orthography

Letters, Phonemes, and Phones

The 32 letters used are a á b c ç d e é f g h i í j k l m n o ó ø ǿ p r s t þ u ú w x y; the letters q v z aren't used.

The 1st table shows the 27 consonant phones (22 phonemes) that can appear while the next 2 tables show the 6 short and 6 long vowels; the corresponding orthography is also given. Letters marked with an asterisk * appear in more than one place in the tables.

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial				Coronal						Dorsal								Guttural
Stops	V'less	p	p	-		-		t	t	-		-		k	k	kw	kʷ	-		-
	Voiced	b	b	-		-		d	d	-		-		g	g	gw	gʷ	-		-
Nasals	Voiced	m	m	-		-		n*	n	-		n*	ɲ	n*	ŋ	-				-
Affricates	V'less	-				-				c	t͡ʃ	-								-
	Voiced	-				-				j	d͡ʒ	-								-
Fricatives	V'less	-		f	f	þ	θ	s	s	x	ʃ	ç	ç	h*	x	-				h*	h
	Voiced	-				-			z		ʒ	-								-
Trills	Voiced	-				-		r	r	-		-								-
Approximants		-				-		l	l	-		y	j	-		w	w	-		-

Vowels

Short Vowels

	Front								Central		Back
High	i	i	-						-		-				u	u
Mid-high	-		e ø	e ø	-				-		-		o	o	-
Mid-low	-			ɛ œ	-				-		-			ɔ	-
Low	-								a	ä	-

Long Vowels

	Front								Central		Back
High	í	i:	-						-		-				ú	u:
Mid-high	-		é ǿ	e: ø:	-				-		-		ó	o:	-
Low	-								á	ä:	-

• Vowels are automatically long before y, w, p, t, k, and kw and are written without accents.
• The mid-low short vowels occur in closed syllables.
• Each diphthong consists of a non-high vowel followed by a high vowel.

Syllables

Syllables are (C)V(:|V|N|L|S), where N is a nasal homorganic to the following consonant, L is a liquid, and S is a fricative. Any single consonant may appear as an onset.

• Coda n assimilates to the following onset's point of articulation.
• Coda s and x are voiced before b, d, g, and j and voiceless otherwise.
• Coda h is [x] and onset h is [h].
• The liquids, nasals, and voiceless fricatives can be geminated, written double.

(C)V syllables are light; all others are heavy.

Stress

There are a number of rules for accent placement:

• Only one of the last 3 syllables may be accented.
• If no other rule applies, the antepenult is accented (assuming 3 or more syllables).
• A heavy penult supercedes the antepenult.

Other Phonology

A morpheme-initial voiceless stop or affricate will become the corresponding voiced stop or affricate when appended to a stem ending in a vowel (lenition).

The voiceless fricatives f, þ, ç, and h vocalize before a voiced stop or affricate; f becomes u, ç becomes i, and the others manifest as vowel lengthening.

Final Feature

Some morphemes have a final feature, notated as ' in the grammar and the vocabulary. How it appears in actual words depends on what follows.

• It manifests as d or g before a vowel.
• It has no effect at the end of a word.
• It geminates voiceless fricatives.
• It prevents lenition of voiceless stops and affricates.
• Otherwise, it lengthens the preceding vowel.

page started: 2014.Sep.13 Sat
current date: 2014.Sep.15 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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