Phonology
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Allophones schmallophones
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 3 May 2019, 05:27.
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4. Kuoggvi Script
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6. Thuun cases
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There used to be articles for vowels and consonants separately, but now they are together.
Including length distinctions and polyphthongs, Thuun, at last count, has 103 vowels.
You may ask: "Why are there so many vowels?" Well:
1) Because I like them
2) That's it, really
If you think 103 vowels is too much, you can take comfort in that there're only 9 qualities, which can be lengthened or combined into polyphthongs. If you want, you could also choose to treat the extra lengths and polyphthongs as clusters (which in a number of cases is etymologically justified), leaving Thuun with only 9 vowel phonemes.
Thuun's entire vowel inventory is actually quite symmetric, although there are a few exceptions and many allophones. The rest of this article will cover some of them.
There are 9 phonemic qualities, which can each be short or long (eg. /i/, /i:/). Overlong forms (eg. /i::/) also exist, but they're pretty uncommon and aren't always represented in writing.
| Unrounded | Rounded | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back |
| i /i/ | y /y/ | u /ʉ/ | |
| ë /e/ | e /ɤ/ | ö /ø/ | o /o/ |
| ä /æ/ | a /ɑ/ | ||
- Long and overlong forms of mid-vowels /e ø ɤ o/ are less common
- e /ɤ/ varies between [ʌ~ə~ɤ~ɯ]
Monophthongs have shortened allophones that may show up in unstressed syllables:
| Unrounded | Rounded | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back |
| i [ɪ] | y [ʏ] | u [ʉ] | |
| ë [ɛ] | e [ə] | ö [œ] | o [ʊ] |
| ä [a] | a [ɐ] | ||
- Short i and e are always pronounced in their respective shortened forms, regardless of stress
Thuun has a large inventory of diphthongs and triphthongs, all of which can be phonemically long or overlong (eg. /ie̯:/, /ie̯::/). Allophonic short diphthongs appear in unstressed syllables.
Polyphthongs can either be part of a word stem or may arise from compounding or consonant deletions, but are always pronounced in one syllable. All of the components of each polyphthong are pronounced with roughly the same qualities as their respective monophthongs (eg. ëäi is /eæ̯i̯:/, uo is /ʉo̯:/), so I will not be providing IPA for the following tables:
U series
This is the most complete diphthong series:
| Opening | Closing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back |
| yö | uo | öy | ou |
| yë | ue | ëy | eu |
| yä | ua | äy | au |
I series
Mostly filled in, but is lacking a few of the opening variety:
| Opening | Closing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back |
| iy | iu | yi | ui |
| öi | oi | ||
| ië | ie | ëi | ei |
| äi | ai | ||
A series
Only a few here:
| Opening | Closing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back |
| öä | oa | ||
| ëä | ea | äë | ae |
Triphthong I series
Every triphthong in Thuun begins opening, which then closes into an i:
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| yöi | uoi |
| iëi | iei |
| öäi | oai |
| ëäi | eai |
-Triphthongs are much less common than diphthongs
Thuun has a system of backness vowel harmony. A vowel can come in one of three classes: front (y ë ö ä), back (u e o a), and neutral (i). All the vowels in a word have to harmonise to the same backness as the vowel in the previous syllable. Some examples:
Front: myöl + as + en → myöläsën
Back: muol + as + en → muolasen
The neutral vowel can go with either front or back vowels, but when isolated it always behaves like a front vowel:
Front: myöl + ipsi + en → myölipsën
Back: muol + ipsi + en → muolipsen (not *muolipsën)
Neutral-back: kiiko + as + en → kiikoasen
Neutral: miim + as + en → miimäsën (not *miimasen)
Compound words are generally unaffected by vowel harmony. For example, noinpëkki "hovercraft" is made up of noin + pëkki.
Thuun has a small inventory of only 8 consonant phonemes, but there are many rules governing their use.
Here is a table full of consonants:
| Phoneme | Allophones |
|---|---|
| <m> /m/ | [m̥] near voiceless consonants |
| <n> /n/ | [n̥] near voiceless consonants may be [ŋ] before or after /k/ |
| <p> /p/ | [b] weak grade, after long vowels, or word-final |
| <t> /t/ | [d] or [ð] weak grade, after long vowels |
| <k> /k/ | [g] weak grade, after long vowels, or word-final |
| <s> /s/ | [s~s̠~ʃ~h] or even [ɬ] |
| <l> /l/ | [l̥~ɬ] or [θ] near voiceless consonants [ɫ] especially near back vowels may be [ɮ] after long vowels |
| <j> /j/ | may be [ɥ] before round vowels often [.] intervocalically |
/p t k/ become voiced after long vowels or diphthongs, eg.:
sapa [s̠ɑpɑ] | kielit [kiɤ̯:lɪt] | ykä [ykæ]
saapa [s̠ɑ:bɑ] | kielait [kiɤ̯:lɑi̯d] | yökä [yø̯:gæ]
The rule above doesn't apply to /p t k/ when geminated, but may apply in some clusters, eg.:
saappa [s̠ɑ:ppɑ] or [s̠ɑ:pɑ] | jielkun [jiɤ̯:lgʉn] or [jiɤ̯:l̥kʉn]
In most dialects, /p k/ but not /t/ are always voiced when at the ends of words, eg.:
mëämip [meæ̯:mib] | jëlkik [jɛl̥kɪg]
Clusters
Thuun's maximum syllable structure is C1VC2 ; C1 can be any consonant, C2 can be any consonant except for /j/.
In native words, clusters can only occur when surrounded by vowels, eg. <säskä> /sæskæ/ is a perfectly permissible Thuun word, but <säsk> and <skä> are not.
Double consonants (such as <mm>, <ss>, etc.) behave in the same manner as clusters; I usually transcribe geminates as sequences rather than long consonants, eg. <mëmmi> is /memmi/ but not /mem:i/.
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