Dec04 – A Constructed Language

Dec04 Phonology and Orthography

Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".

Letters and Sounds

The tables show the relevent phonetic symbols (in IPA) with the corresponding orthographic (romanization) symbols. The 27 letters used are:
a b c č d e f g h i k l m n o p r s š t u w x y z ž ' — j q v aren't used.

In the following tables, an asterisk * indicates that the letter is used for more than one sound.

Vowel Qualities

There are 5 vowel qualities and 4 diphthongs. There are no other vowel sequences. The diphthongs are [ɪu] iw, [ɛu] ew, [ai] ay, and [ʊi] uy.

Vowel Qualities
front central back

high i i - - - u u

mid - e̞ e - - - o̞ o -

low - a a - -

Vowel Qualities
	front	central	back
high	i	i	-	-	-	u	u
mid	-	e̞	e	-	-	-	o̞	o	-
low	-	a	a	-	-

Consonant Qualities

There are 22 consonant phonemes using 26 phones.

Consonants
labial coronal dorsal guttural

nasal voiced m m - - n n* - ɲ n* ŋ n* - -

stop voiceless p p - - t t - - k k - ʔ '

voiced b b - - d d - - g g - -

affricate voiceless - - t͡s c t͡ʃ č - -

voiced - - d͡z z d͡ʒ ž - -

fricative voiceless - f f - s s ʃ š ç h* - ʍ h* χ x h h*

rhotic voiced - - r r - - -

vocoid voiced - - l l - j y - w w - -

Consonants
	labial	coronal	dorsal	guttural
nasal	voiced	m	m	-	-	n	n*	-	ɲ	n*	ŋ	n*	-	-
stop	voiceless	p	p	-	-	t	t	-	-	k	k	-	ʔ	'
voiced	b	b	-	-	d	d	-	-	g	g	-	-
affricate	voiceless	-	-	t͡s	c	t͡ʃ	č	-	-
voiced	-	-	d͡z	z	d͡ʒ	ž	-	-
fricative	voiceless	-	f	f	-	s	s	ʃ	š	ç	h*	-	ʍ	h*	χ	x	h	h*
rhotic	voiced	-	-	r	r	-	-	-
vocoid	voiced	-	-	l	l	-	j	y	-	w	w	-	-

Phonotactics

Onsets

The onset is a single consonant phoneme or, initially, a cluster or null.
The initial clusters are numerous.

Rhymes

Phonetically, the following rhyme types appear:

light: -V
heavy: -Vː, -VV, -VC

The vowel o is never long.
The long vowels Vː appear as penult rhymes when the ultima is heavy.
A coda h may assimilate to an onset: the allophone [ç] appears before y, the allophone [ʍ] appears before w, and the allophone [h] appears otherwise.
A coda nasal may assimilate to an onset: the allophone [m] appears before p, b, m, the allophone [ɲ] appears before y, the allophone [n] appears before t, d, n, ', h, c, č, z, ž, and the allophone [ŋ] appears otherwise.

Prosody

In polysyllabic words, the penult is stressed unless the rhyme is o, in which case the antepenult is stressed. Monosyllabic words are unstressed.

Morphophonology

The vowels i, e, a, and u, alternate with iy, ey, aw, and uw, respectively; the latter appear before a vowel and the former appear elsewhere. This means that a -y or -w suffix may seem to disappear when no vowel follows.

page started: 2017.Dec.09 Sat
current date: 2017.Dec.12 Tue
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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