Uínlītska Phonology

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Syllable Structure

BNF

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WORD ::= SIMPLE | SIMPLE WORD | SIMPLE COMPLEX WORD | WORD SUFFIX
SIMPLE ::= STRONGVOWEL | C STRONGVOWEL | Q STRONGVOWEL 
COMPLEX ::= C WEAKVOWEL | Q C WEAKVOWEL | Q WEAKVOWEL
SUFFIX ::= C WEAKVOWEL | C WEAKVOWEL C | C STRONGVOWEL
STRONGVOWEL ::= COREVOWEL | COREVOWEL ':' | EXTVOWEL | EXTVOWEL ':' | EXTVOWEL '*'
WEAKVOWEL ::= COREVOWEL | COREVOWEL '~'
COREVOWEL ::= 'i' | 'ə' | 'ɑ'
EXTVOWEL ::= 'e' | 'o'
C ::= 'ʃk' | 'sk' | 'p' | 't' | 'tʃ' | LIQUID | SIBILANT | NASAL
Q ::= '·' | LIQUID | SIBILANT
LIQUID ::= 'w' | 'j' | 'l'
NASAL ::= 'm' | 'n'
SIBILANT ::= 's' | 'ʃ' | 'f' | 'x' | 'z' | 'ɬ'

Stress

The first syllable of any root takes primary stress. Secondary stress in words of three or more syllables falls immediately before the last consonant, including suffixes. Prefixes are not stressed.

Thus, stress falls on the bold and italic vowels in a, ka, kafta, kaftasa, kaftasat.

Consonants

p		t		k	ʔ
f	θ	s z	ʃ	x	h
			tʃ
		ɬ l
m		n		[ŋ]
w			j

The phoneme /n/ has the allophone [ŋ] when immediately preceeding a dorsal phoneme.

The phoneme /x/ has the allophone [ç] when immediately preceeding an apical phoneme, or /j/.

Vowels

Description

There are 7 short (oral) vowels, 5 long (oral) vowels, and 3 (short) nasal vowels.

Short vowels

IPA	ɑ	e	ɛ	ə	i	o	ɔ
Orthographic	a	e	ę / æ	ø	i	o / u	ǫ

Long vowels

IPA	ɑː	eː	əː	iː	oː
Orthographic	á	é	ǿ	í	ó

Nasal vowels

IPA	ɑ̃	ə̃	ĩ
Orthographic	ā	ø̄	ī

Tables

Stressed

i iː
e eː	ə əː	o oː
ɛ		ɔ
		ɑ ɑː

Unstressed

i ĩ
	ə ə̃	(o)
		ɑ ɑ̃

The vowel /o/ can occur as a vocalic allophone of /w/.

Sound adaptation in borrowed words

Every foreign phoneme (if possible) maps to the identical phoneme in Uínlītska.

The following general rules tend to apply to phonemes from various languages without exact duplicates in Uínlītska:

Foreign	q	ɢ	ɴ	ɟ	ɰ	kʷ	ʌ
Uínlītska	k	ɡ	ŋɡ*	j	w	kw	ɑ

*Inuktitut /ɴ/ becomes /ɡ/ word-initially.

Optional Letters

Almost all affixes (and a noticable number of stems) start and/or end with an "optional letter", and sometimes more than one.

An optional letter is a phoneme or archiphoneme that technically forms part of the morpheme in question, but which may or may not be realised depending on its environment in the whole word.

There are two kinds of optional letter, those that appear unless suppressed, and those that disappear unless invoked.

Within dictionaries and grammars, both kinds are written with superscript letters; the first kind appear unadorned, while the second kind are parenthesized.

In other (i.e. normal) circumstances, isolated morphs do not naturally appear in their underlying forms. If forced to produce the isolated form of a given morph, most native speakers fully pronounce all optional letters.

Ablaut

Base vowel

η

a

á

e

é

ę

i

í

o

ó

ǫ

ø

ǿ

i-mutation

υ

e

é

i

í

e

i

í

i

í

e

e

é

u-mutation

ω

ø

ǿ

eu

éu

ęu

i

í

o

ó

ǫ

o

ó

breaking

ю

ǫ

ǫj

ui

oui

ǫui

weak

ы

a

a

i

i

ø

i

í

ø

ø

a

ø

ø

Sandhi

CCC sequences are phonotactically disallowed, though note that this means phonemic sequences (things like tj /tʃ/ are considered single consonants under these rules). The following is a simple summary of the rules, in the order they are applied, along with contrived examples.

• If an orthographic j occurs anywhere in the CCC sequence, it is moved to the end: mantj /mɑntʃ/ + kun /kun/ > mantkjun /mɑnttʃun/
• Phonemic "double" or "long" consonants lose their first orthographic component: mantkjun /mɑnttʃun/ > mankjun /mɑntʃun/.

Sound Change rules in sc.py format

# Some shenannigans to workaround multi-char symbols and funky mappings
* ǫ́ ǫː _
* e ɛ _
onlng = áéíóúýœæ
onsht = aeiouyøɛ
* 0 ː <onlng>_
* <onlng> <onsht> _
nonipa = aǫþv
ipa = ɑɒθw
* <nonipa> <ipa> _
blb = pbfvφβmλρ
alv = tdθðsznlr
vlr = kgxɣфвŋля
tv = bdg
tu = ptk
t = tu~tv
sv = vzɣ
su = fsx
spri = fsxvzɣ
ssec = φθфβðв
s = su~sv
cv = tv~sv
cu = tu~su
c = cu~cv~ʔʃ
C = c~λρlrляwjmnŋ
v = eioɛɑɒə
vt = jjwjʔwɣ
fv = eoɛɒ
uv = iəəɑ
r = λρlrля
w = λρlrляwj
rt = bbddgg
ro = lrlrlr
rv = əəiiɑɑ
n = mnŋ
nt = bdg
nr = wlj
na = ɑɑɑ

# Read ON as IPA
* f v _
* v f #_
* 0 s x_
* 0 s z_
* z t _
* r Ω <vlr>_
* <t> <s> _Ω
* Ω 0 _
* g Ω _
* Ω g n_
* Ω g #_
* Ω x _s
* Ω x _t
* Ω ɣ _
* k x _s
* k x _t
* l ɬ #h_
* l ɬ <cu>_#
* l ɬ <cu>_<cu>
* n ŋ _<vlr>
* qu kw _
* q k _
* <C> 0 <C>#1_

#t > s, tt > st, d > t, dd > ʔt (et al)
* <tu> <su> _<^v>
* <tu> <su> #_
* <tu> <su> <^su>_#
* <tu> s _<tu>
* <tv> ʔ _<tu>
* <tv> 0 _<tv>
* <tv> <tu> _

#More fricathivization
* s ʃ #_<c>
* s ʃ _<vlr>
* θ ɬ _
* ð z _
* x c ʃ_
* ʃ s _c
* ʃ s _<c>

#Vowels
* o ə _
* øy oj _
* øː ew _
* ø e _
* yː iw _
* y i _
* ɛi ej _
* ɛ Ω _ː
* ː 0 Ω_
* ɛ e _
* Ω ɛ _
* ɒː ɑw _
* ɒu əw _
* uː iw _
* u o _

#Eliminate 'r'
* r ː <v>_
* r j <alv>_
* r n _<alv>
* r d #_
* r l _
* ɫ l _
* l ɬ s_
* l ɬ s_
* s 0 _ɬ

#Vowel reduction in noninitial syllables
* 0 Ω <v><^v>*<v>_
* 0 Ω Ω<^v>*<v>_
* <fv> <uv> _Ω
* ː 0 Ω_
* <n> ƞ Ω_
* <w><n> ƞ#1 Ω_
* Ω 0 _

#Deal with glide and/or vowel clusters and other mess
* j i <c>_<c>
* j i #_<c>
* j i <c>_#
* w o <c>_<c>
* w o #_<c>
* w o <c>_#
* i j <c>_<v>
* i j <v>_<c>
* o w <c>_<v>
* o w <v>_<c>

#Epenethenetic stuff
* 0 a <c>_x<c>
* 0 i <c>_s<c>
* 0 i <c>_ʃ<c>
* 0 a <c>_f<c>

#Convert IPA to standard Finla orthography
fipa = ɑəɛɒw
fnonipa = aøęǫu
fsht = aeioø
flng = áéíóǿ
fnas = ā‽ī‽ø
* <alv>ʃ #1j _
* <vlr>ʃ #1j _
* ʃ0 sj _
* <r> <ro> _
* ə ø _
* <fipa> <fnonipa> _
* <fsht> <flng> _ː
* ː 0 _
* <fsht> <fnas> _ƞ
* øƞ ø̄ _
* ƞ 0 _
* 0 h _ɬ
* ɬ l _
* x h _
* ɣ g _