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Quethan Phonology and Orthography
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A short introduction to Quethan phonology.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 3 Dec 2018, 16:39.

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Menu 1. Phonology 2. Prosody 3. Orthography 4. Allophony 5. Consonant mutations 6. Vowel height
(Soo, here's a short introduction to Quethan phonology. It's still very unfinished and constantly changing. Enjoy my broken English.)

[edit] [top]Phonology


Inventory
Consonants
Phonemes in brackets are phonemic only in certain consonant mutations.

LabialDentalPalatalVelarLabio-VelarGlottal
Plosive (p)t (tʰ d ⁿd)k (kʰ kʲ ᵑk g) kʷ (ᵑkʷ gʷ)(ʔ)
Affricate ʦ (t͡ɬ)
Nasal nŋŋʷ
Fricative s(x xʷ)(h)
Lateral Fricative ɬ
Approximant jw
Lateral Approximant l

Vowels
Quethan has eight (/i ĩ e o u ũ a ə/) phonemic vowels. The system was developed from a three vowel system /i u a/. The stress patterns caused unstressed /i/ turn into /e/ in closed syllables and /ə/ in open syllables, /u/ into /o/ in closed syllables and /ə/ in open syllables and /a/ into /e/. When the stress became fixed /e o ə/ became phonemic. All vowels can be short or long.

FrontCentralBack
Closed i ĩu ũ
Mid eəo
Open a

Diphthongs

There are two diphthongs in Quethan: /iu̯/ and /ui̯/. They are usually realized as [y ɯ].

[edit] [top]Prosody


Stress

Stress is fixed on the first syllable.

Intonation

The neutral intonation starts high and ends low. In casual language a rising intonation is used to mark a question.

[edit] [top]Orthography


Current Quethan orthography contains following letters:

a á c t s k ł ı í y l n ng ngw u ú į* į́ * ų ų́ w (e é o ó)

* Dotless i with an ogonek doesn't seem to exist in unicode. In LaTeX I can use \k{ı} and \k{\'{ı}} but here I will use į and į́ instead.

The letters are spelled out as:

las lás cá tá sá kú łá lıs lís yá lá ná ngá ngwá lus lús nįn n į́ n nųn nų́n quá wá
(bá dá les fá gá há má los pá rá xá zá)

Letters <d b f g h m p r x z> appear only in modern loanwords such as DVD and WıFı. Brand and place names tend to keep their original spelling except in some particularly misleading cases such as Afrika (not Awlıka or Africa).

An apostrophe symbol <'> is used to indicate a syllable break in unclear situations. For example:
sun'nuwaık [hun:uvɔ] and su'nnuwaık [huⁿduvɔ].

An acute <´> separates different parts of compoud words.

[edit] [top]Allophony


A rough list of allophones and environments they occur in. (These aren’t carved into stone)

Consonants:
k > q /_a, a_
k > x / V_V
k > c / _i
kʷ > xʷ / V_V
kʷ > p , word finally
t > θ / _ t, k
t > t͡ʃ / _i, j
t > ɾ / V_V
t͡s > c͡ç / _i, j
t͡s > d͡z / N_
t͡s > ʒ / _N
t͡s > s / V_V
ŋ > n / _t
ŋ > x / _n,ŋʷ
ŋʷ > m, word finally
ŋʷ > β / V[+nasal]_V[+nasal]
ŋʷ > n / _t
ŋʷ > ŋ / _k
ŋʷ > xʷ / _n,ŋ
n > ∅ / _s
n > ŋ / a_, _k
n > θ / _ŋ,ŋʷ
s > ʃ / _i
s > x / _w
s > h / _u, u_
l > ʎ / _i
l > d / N_
l > n / n_
ɬ > sʲ / _i,j
ɬ > h, word finally
w > h / _C
w > v / V_V
j > ʃ / t_

Vowels:
Quıetan’s three cardinal vowels /i u a/ have eight allophones: [i u e o ɔ a y ɯ].

a(:) > o(:) / _w, kʷ, ŋʷ
a(:) > e(:) / _j, j_
a(:) > ɔ(:) / w_
iu̯ > y
ui̯ > ɯ

[edit] [top]Consonant mutations


Quethan has three different word initial consonant mutations: so , neutral and hard contrasted to the unmutated ones. The mutations are triggered by certain morphological environments such as different word order or diphthong final syllables at morpheme boundaries. Hard mutation is triggered by different word order, genitive marker, plural, imperative and adverbial case, neutral mutation by passive sentences, conditional mood and dative case and so mutation by vocative interjections, optative and in archaic language preterite. The mutated consonants aren’t considered as phonemes of their own but as subphonemes of the unmutated consonants.

Initial consonantHard mutationNeutral mutationSoft mutation
t /t/tt /tʰ/dt /d/th /h/
k /k/kk /kʰ/gk /g/kh /h/
kw /kʷ/kw /kʷ/gkw /gʷ/kwh /xʷ/
n /n/nn /ⁿd/sn /s/nh /h/
ng /ŋ/nng /ᵑk/hng /x/ngh /x/
ngw /ŋʷ/nngw /ᵑkʷ/hngw /xʷ/ngwh /xʷ/
c /t͡s/cc /t/sc /s/ch /h/
s /s/ss /t͡s/hs /h/sh (silent)
ł /ɬ/łł /t͡ɬ/hł /h/łh (silent)
y /j/yy /kʲ/hy (silent)yh (silent)
w /w/ww /p/hw (silent)wh (silent)
l /l/ll /t/hl /h/lh (silent)


[edit] [top]Vowel height


Object of a transitive verb is marked by lowering the vowel. Only /a/ (and /e/ as its former unstressed allophone) is not affected. /i/ becomes /e/ and /u/ /o/. /e/ is written as <e> (<ę>) and /o/ as <o> (<ǫ>).

Examples:

Ngáyuktıw.
[ŋa:jutʃy]
ABSAbsolutive (case)
TRANS object, INTR argument
.G1Gender 1 (gender/class)
for nonsemantic, very language-specific, or not-yet-added word classes
-dog-see
'The dog sees.'

Kácásyoktıw(yá).
[qa:sa:sjotʃy(je:)]
ERGErgative (case)
TRANS subject; agent
.G1Gender 1 (gender/class)
for nonsemantic, very language-specific, or not-yet-added word classes
-cat-dog.OBJObject (argument)-see(-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient
.G1Gender 1 (gender/class)
for nonsemantic, very language-specific, or not-yet-added word classes
)
'The cat sees the dog.'
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