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Qihep (in Qihep: Qixēp) is a constructed fantasy language

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labialized velar		Labialized velar
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g	kʷ		(ʔ)1
Nasal		m		(ɱ)2			n					ɲ		(ŋ)3
Vibrant								r
Fricative			f	v			s		ʃ				x				h
Affricate									tʃ
Approximants												j		w
Lateral approximants								l

Note:

• [ʔ]¹is not recognised as an independent phoneme but it is interposed between two vowels, or between two identical consonants.

• [ɱ]² and [ŋ]³ are considered allophones of the normal nasal phonemes in front of [f]/[v] and [k]/[g]/[kʷ] respectively.

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near- front		Central		Near- back		Back
Close		i(ː)								u(ː)
Near close			ɪ					ʊ
Close mid		e								o
Open mid		ɛː	œ							ɔː
Near open			æ
Open					aː			ɑ

In Teycil studies, the vowels are grouped in three sets:

• Long vowels [aː], [ɛː], [iː], [ɔː], [uː] are called strong vowels
• Short vowels [ɑ], [e], [i], [o], [u] are called normal vowels
• Some vowels, usually born by some kind of reduction of ancient vowels or diphtongs, [æ], [ɪ], [ɶ], [ʊ], are called weak vowels

As these names are more practical, we will keep on using them while speaking about vowels in this description.

While the strong vowels are thought to be only the long counterparts of normal (short) vowels, the difference is also in quality for three of them.

Diphtongs

Teycil is full of diphtongs. Nonetheless the only diphtong pattern allowed is Vj or Vw. While Vw-type diphtongs can be found in every position inside a word, Vj-type diphtongs can be found only inside a stressed syllable.

As the stress can move on every syllable of the word as it undergoes morphological changes, the Vj-type diphtongs can undergo something like a reduction process, turning into the so-called weak vowels:

• [ɑj] ai → [æ] æ
• [oj] oi → [œ] œ
• [uj] ui → [ʊ] ů
• [ej] ei → [ɪ] î

Examples:

• Paic [ˈpɑik] → pæca [pæˈkɑ]
• Glayc [ˈglɑiʧ] → glæjcīne [glæˈʧiːne]

Diphtongs with long vowel (V:j) are very rare. When unstressed they simply get shorter.