Classical Chinese'

Sample vocabulary

• arawagiʃʃinat
• kogeeronoʃkioowon
• elewargaranaanawe
• paaokokokʃorda
• nonigirguriʃkaoo
• ʃeleleeronaneerenek
• kaginniroʃoweaalaka
• tenekwaruguʃaadun
• peʃeʃaanerogoronowee

Phonological analysis

• Vowels [i e eː a aː o oː u]
• Word-initial consonants: [p t k ʃ n]
• Word-medial consonants: [k d ɡ ʃ n r l w]
• Word-final consonants: [t n k]

Clusters seem to include [ʃʃ ʃk kʃ kw rɡ nn].

The distinction between [l] and [r] seems very minor, with [l] mostly occurring between front vowels. Likewise the distinction between [k] and [ɡ] applies mostly intervocally.

We might be able to analyze medial [k ɡ] as /kk k/. Similarly, tho there's no medial [t], medial [d] might be /t/. I now see my original idea to have [r] as the medial allophone of /t/ seems unlikely: if [rɡ] is to be /tk/, medial voicing/lenition needs to apply thru two stops, but [ʃk kʃ] demonstrate it not applying thru a stop and a fricativ? OTOH not even single medial [ʃ] is voiced, so /ʃ/ is clearly more resilient to voicing (perhaps its distinguishing feature is not continuancy, but stridency). There is also the option of an underlying /r/ fortified to [t] adjacent to a word boundary.

These models differ in a few testable respects: an underlying /t/ or /d/ would lead to clusters [ʃt tʃ], while an underlying /r/ would lead to [ʃr rʃ].

The labial situation seems more straightforward: the two possibilities initially suggesting itself are [w] = /u/ and [w] = /p/, but since there is no overlap between these two scenarios, we can simply go with a single labial phoneme [p w u] = /P/ as long as no roots beginning with [pu-] turn up.

The cryptolect

A highly unusual feature appearing in Classical Chinese is the creation of ritual jargon based on repeating religious chants with distinct phonetical variations. See Proto-Insane for details.