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Ekrunakni: phonology
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prepare for onset barrage
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 11 Jun 2017, 02:37.

[comments] Menu 1. Vowels 2. Consonants 3. Phonotactics 4. Epilogue
- A Guide to Hanitlami -
Ekrunakni Sheimika


: Phonology :


Now that you have stumbled upon this page, hello! This is where the Hanitlami phonology (in other words, how each letter is pronounced) is explained. In a nutshell, pronouncing Hanitlami words seems easy, but then everything changed when the fortis and the aspirates and the onset cluster nation attacked. So, it's handy to have this for your reference.

Now, let the tables and the onset barrage begin ~

[top]Vowels

G.GraphemeP.PhonemeExample
a/a/ Ntha "river"
e/ɛ/ Fthe "bird"
i/i/ Lomi "plant"
o/ʌ/ Okto "to birth"
u/ɯ/ Lura "world"
Diphthongs
ai/aj/ Raiko "deep"
ei/ɛj/ Shei "hanitlam"
oi/ʌj/ Foine "to serve"
ui/ɯj/
au/aʋ/ Kau "to speak"
eu/eʋ/ Keu "to honor"
ia/i.a/ Gia "father"
ie/i.ɛ/ Tieni "mind"
io/i.ʌ/ Tio "to move"
iu/i.ɯ/ Tiu "to return"
eo/ɛ.ʌ/ Feo "salt"

Hanitlami uses the classic 5 vowel format: a e i o u. No, it's not pronounced as the classic "a e i o u", it's "a ɛ i ʌ ɯ". Nope, rounded vowels don't into Hanitlami. Another way to imagine that is 아애이어으. Then there's eleven legal diphthongs, ai ei oi ui au eu ia ie io iu eo. Then there's (i), which by the way, also sometimes act as a consonant, like as observed in (ia) and its (i_) friends (see Consonants).

[top]Consonants

NasalsPlosivesFricatives and Affr.AffricatesOthersApproximants, Laterals, and the "Rhotic"
mnngpbtdkgphthchppttkkszfvshtchhwilr
mnŋpbtdkgszɸβɕxʋjlɾ

Those are the consonants that are present in Hanitlami. Yes, there are four phonation distinctions - tenuis, aspirated, fortis, and modal consonants. The aspirated consonants are the consonants which has a "h" sound after the articulation of that consonant, which occurs in English in the words like pin, although it is allophonic (non-contrastive). The "voiceless" b, d, and g - marked by a dot below in the IPA (e.g. d̥) - are known as the "fortis" consonants - imagine Korean ㅃ (pp), ㄸ (tt), and ㄲ (kk). This 4-way phonation distinction can be said as one of the trickiest part in Hanitlami learning. (but anyways, JUST DO IT!)

Counting, and there are about 24 (base) consonants. Also, there is this weird letter called (i), which is normally orthographically (i) but it becomes /j/, under conditions specified below.

The letter (i), outside the context of diphthongs, becomes /j/ instead of /i/ when the (i) is preceded by a word boundary or a vowel, and if it's succeeded by either (a) or (o). For a better picture: In the word Ika "to hunt" and Tio "to move", (i) is /i/. But, in the words Iam "to shine", Ioru "half", and Meia "mother", the (i) is pronounced as /j/. This means, /j/ is a rather restricted consonant in Hanitlami.

[top]Phonotactics

At maximum, Hanitlami's per-syllable phonotactics is CCCvC. Three phonemes worth of onsets, and only one for the coda. Only nasals (m n ng) and (h) are allowed on the word-final coda. This means you will see stuff like in Anakastatkim "to a conqueror, AGEAgent (role)
cause or initiator of event/action
-conquer-DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location
.SENTSentient (class)
e.g. humans
", with the word-final (m) and the clusters (-st-) and (-tk-). These clusters are governed, using some particular set of rules. And yes - In Hanitlami, these may appear word-initially, i.e. it can be an onset, even if the onset is alien to most natlangs. Below here are the possible cluster arrangements (all hail the onset clusters~)

*This is not an exhaustive list.

Standard plosive clusters (FP) [F] + [P] + C + [r] + V ▶ F = voiceless fricatives but h (f s) ▶ P = voiceless plosives (p t k) ▶ C = any plosive except voiced and ejectives (p t k ph th) [r] cannot coexist with a cluster that has F, P, and C at once. ✓ stra, ktra ✗ sktra, fkpre Possible clusters (60): sp sph st sth sk fp fph ft fth fk spr sphr str sthr skr fpr fphr ftr fthr fkr kt pt kth pth kp tp kph tph tk pk ktr ptr kthr pthr kpr tpr kphr tphr tkr pkr fkt fpt fkth fpth fkp ftp fkph ftph ftk fpk skt spt skth spth skp stp skph stph stk spk
Pr-losive base clusters (PR) C + [r,l] + V ▶ C = any plosive except ejectives (p b t d k g ph th) Possible clusters (16): pr phr br tr thr dr kr gr pl phl bl tl thl dl kl gl
Fricative-nasal clusters (FN) F + N + [P] + V ▶ F = voiceless fricatives (f s h) ▶ N = core, nasals (m n ng) Possible clusters (9): fm fn fng sm sn sng hm hn hng
Other clusters ▶ Prenasalized (8) : mp mph mb nt nth nd ngk ngg ▶ Plosive-S (3) : ks tsSometimes instead considered as a base sound, because affricates ps ▶ Nasal-lateral (2) : ml ngl ▶ H + liquid (3): hm hn hl

So, to close things up: There are about 101 possible consonant clusters. (Yes, that's a lot of clusters.) These may appear word-initially or within words, but not word-finally. That being said, only nasals (m n ng) and (h) are allowed to appear word-finally. (A bit of side note: some of the clusters might never appear in Hanitlami, because Hanitlami has a favor on CCV over CCCV, which is simpler and more generally intuitive.)

[top]Epilogue

In Hanitlami, there are a total of 12 vowels, 24 consonants, and a bunch of consonant clusters. These are one of the very foundations of the Hanitlami language. But, there's still to come - from animacy classes to verbs to other things.

For other Hanitlami stuff, like the translations and the dictionary, you can look at the lang page here:  Hanitlami

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