Upper Imstian Phonology

This site describes the phonology of Upper Imstian tending to the local idiom of Imst (Iisch, adj. iischlorisch). As mentioned in the main article, there is no official orthography used for the language. Nevertheless here it is tried to establish one based partly on German.

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Uvular
Nasal		m				n
Plosive	p	ḅ (b)			t	ḍ (d)					k	ġ (g)	q (g, k)
Fricative			f	v (w)	s		ʃ (sch)						χ (ch)
Affricate			pf		ʦ (tz)		ʧ (tsch)
Approximants										j
Trill						r				ʀ (rr)
Lateral Approximant						l

• [q] is an allophone of [k] and [ġ] and only appears in front of [ʀ]: krromo ['qʀɔmʌ] come (participle).
• [ʀ] <rr> developed from Germanic *kw > Old Upper Imstian [χw] <chw>. It is not an allophone of original [r]: krroit ['qʀɔɪt] had (participle) vs. krottzo ['krɔʦ:ʌ] to scratch.

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Front Central		Back-to-mid		Back
	Unround	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded	Unround	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
High	i (i)							u (u)
Near-close			ɪ (i)			ʊ (u)
Open-mid	ɛ (e)						ʌ (o)	ɔ (o)

• [ɪ] and [ʌ] are allophones of [i] and [ɔ] in unstressed syllables: progrom [prʌ'ġrɔm] program vs progromiero [prʌġrʌ'miɪ̯rʌ] to program
• [ɛ] becomes [ɪ] if unstressed: telfo ['tɛlfʌ] phone vs. tilfoniero [tɪlfʌn'iɪrʌ] to phone
• [i], [u] and [ɔ] can also appear as long vowels in stressed syllables: meer ['mɛːr] more.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs only appear in stressed position.
uo [uɔ]: luo ['luɔ] to watch
ou [ɔʊ]: lou ['lɔʊ] lamb
eu [ɛʊ]: leubi ['lɛʊḅɪ] lambs
ie [iɪ]: koschtriero ['kʌ'ʃtriɪrʌ] to castrate
oi [ɔɪ]: goi [ġɔɪ] to go

Gemination

Unlike Standart German, Upper Imstian shows consonant gemination within words. This is marked with a double letter:
wello ['vɛlːʌ] to want
schpittzo ['ʃpiʦ:ʌ] pike;top

Stress

As in German, the stress is usually on the first Syllable of the stem, even in foreign loanwords, especially those from French (trotwo ['trɔtvʌ] pavement by French trottoir, biiro ['ḅi:rʌ] bureau). Exceptions are some verbal prefixes of motion: loufo ['lɔʊfʌ] to walk vs. uufoloufo ['u:fʌˌlɔʊfʌ] to walk up.