Trentish Phonology

From FrathWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

<< Trentish

Phonemic Inventory

Consonants

labial alveolar palatal velar glottal
plosive p pʼ pʰ (pʷ?) tʼ tʰ tʷ c cʰ cʷ k kʼ kʰ kʷ ʔ
nasal m n ɲ ŋ
lateral l tɬ
fricative s ʃ x

Vowels

i y ʊ u
e ø o
ʌ ɔ
ɑ

Orthography

Orthography is phonemic.

Vowels
a e i o oh ö r u uh ü
/ɑ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /ø/ /ʌ/ /u/ /ʊ/ /y/
Consonants
b p ph pw m d t th tw n s sh x
/p/ /pʼ/ /pʰ/ /pʷ/ /m/ /t/ /tʼ/ /tʰ/ /tʷ/ /n/ /s/ /ʃ/ /x/
tʼh tʼw ny g k kh kw ng l ƛ q
/c/ /cʼ/ /cʰ/ /cʷ/ /ɲ/ /k/ /kʼ/ /kʰ/ /kʷ/ /ŋ/ /l/ /tɬ/ /ʔ/

Spelling changes to reflect changes in pronunciation such as internal sandhi. Geminated vowels and consonants are spelled double; in digraphs the first letter is doubled (e.g., ssh, nny, uuh).

The letter r is strictly vocalic and has no consonantal value.

W is mainly used as in digraphs as a sign of labialization, but does occur in some loanwords by itself; by those unfamiliar with [w] proper it is pronounced [ʔʷ].

Internal Sandhi

Word-level

  • Trentish words can only end in a vowel or a nasal. Stops and /l/ occurring at the end of a word are nasalized, thus /thɑk/ "wear" becomes [thɑŋ]. /ʔ/ and the other consonants are dropped.

Syllable-level

Syllable-final
  • Plain voiceless consonants disappear, lengthening the previous vowel:
    /xlɔʔ/ "washed, clean" → [xlɔɔkʷʌ] "be washed".
  • Ejectives and /l/ turn to nasals as at the word level:
    /tʰɔl/ "upon" → [tʰɔŋkʷʌ] "be on top of".
  • Labialized consonants reduce to [w]:
    /kitʷ/ COLL → [kiwcʷecʷe] "set of journeys".
  • Aspirated consonants fricativize:
    /pʼɑlɑkʰ/ "hate" → [pʼɑlɑxpʼɑlɑŋ] "grudge".
Syllable-initial after a nasal
  • Aspirated stops are ejectivized by a preceding original nasal:
    /tʰɑŋ/ "wear" → [xɑntʼɑŋ] "wear that"
  • Labialized stops inherit preceding nasality:
    /cʷe/ "go" → [xɑnɲʷe] "go up yonder".
  • Plain stops are aspirated by a preceding nasal:
    /pɑ/ TOP → [xɑnpʰɑ] "yonder"
  • Ejective stops geminate a preceding nasal:
    /pʼɑlɑŋ/ "hate" → [xɑmmɑlɑŋ] "hate that"
Syllable-inital after /ɲ/
  • /ɲl/ > [ɲʎ]
  • /ɲx/ > [ɲç]
  • /ɲm/ > [ɲmʲ] etc.