Middle Nyángar

Phonology

Phonemes

Consonants

Middle Nyángar contrasts 28 different consonant sounds:

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiodent.		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal		m				n				ŋ
Nasal Geminate		m:				n:				ŋ:
Plosive	p	b			t	d				g	q		ʔ
Plosive Geminate										g:
Ejective					tʼ						qʼ
Implosive		ɓ				ɗ
Fricative	ɸ			v	s̺	s̻						ʁ
Fricative Geminate					s̺:
Lateral Fricative					ɬ
Lateral Approximant						l
Approximant		w						j

Vowels

Despite the moderate consonant inventory, the language only contrasts 3 vowel qualities, also contrasting short and long quantities.

Vowels
	Front		Central		Back
Close	i(:)					u(:)
Open			a(:)

There are also 3 diphthongs, each with a corresponding long diphthong:
/ɑe æu øy/ and /ɑ:e æ:u ø:y/

Allophony

There is a lot of allophony with respect to vowels in Nyángar, which can lead to very bad pronunciations if left out or forgotten.

Consonants

p -> p: (unconditionally)
s̺j s̻j s̺:j -> ʂ ɕ ʂ:
s̺ -> ʃ / V_(C,#)
ŋ ŋ: -> ɲ ɲ: / '_F
p t q -> pʰ tʰ qʰ / '_V
C' -> C̚ / _#
v -> β / mutation from ɸ
m -> 0 / _(C,#) in inflectional affixes and often in all other cases
l -> ɫ / B_#
0 -> k / ŋ_[+plosive, -voice]
ʁ -> χ / next to voiceless
n -> n̩ / C_# where cluster not allowed
ɓ ɗ g: -> p: t’ q’ / next to voiceless consonants
nasal assimilation

Vowels

u -> ʏ / _[+labial]
u u: -> ʉ ʉ: (unconditionally)
V: -> V / _ʔ
ʔ -> j / F_
ɑːe -> ʌi̯ / (q, q’, ʔ)_
ɑːe -> ɑːe̯ / “_.
ɑ -> ɐ / unstressed
æːu -> ɛy̯ / unstressed
i -> ɨə̯ / unstressed
øy -> œ / unstressed _[+ejective, implosive, or geminate]
V -> V~ / _N
æu -> ɛu̯ / unstressed
ɑː -> ɔ̯ə / “_.
iː -> ɐi̯ / unstressed
y̯j -> ɥ / V_V
ə̯j -> j / V_V
y̯ ə̯ i̯ -> ɥ w j / V_V
iː -> i / _C.
øːy -> ɛːy̯ / “_
uː -> ʉ / unstressed
ɑ -> ɐ̥ / s̻_#, [+implosive or +ejective]_#, #_.[+approximant]V
iː -> ɨi̯ / unstressed (even _C)
øːy -> ɛu̯ / unstressed
i -> ɪ̥ / unstressed #_.[+approximant]V
øy -> œʏ̯ / unstressed open
ɑːe -> ɑe / _C#
ɑːe -> ɔːe̯ / stressed open, when spelled <ei>
ɑː -> ɑ / _C.
iː -> i / _j

Orthography

Middle Nyángar uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet in writing. It is a somewhat deep orthography, that is, there is no one-to-one correspondence between phoneme and grapheme. Here are the phonemes again with their corresponding graphemes.

Consonants
Phoneme					Grapheme
m, m:					m
n, n:					n
ŋ, ŋ:					ng
p					p, ph
b, ɓ					b
t					t
d, ɗ					d
g, g:					g
q					c, k
ʔ					h
t'					t, th
q'					c, k, kh
ɸ					f
v					v
s̺, s̺:					s
s̻					z
ʁ					r
ɬ					l, lh
l					l
w					w
j					j

Vowels
Phoneme					Grapheme
ɑ					a, ä
i					i, ï ie
u					o, u, ü
ɑ:					ai, oe
i:					e, ë, ee, ui
u:					iu, ue, uu
ɑe					ia, í
æu					eu, ou
øy					o, ö, eo
ɑ:e					ae, ei, í
æ:u					á, io, ou, oou
ø:y					á, ou, oou, ú

Spelling

In general, spelling is quite straightforward; it just so happens that there are multiple ways to write many of the sounds, and in a few cases, some spellings have multiple pronunciations. There aren't any patterns to this, spelling just has to be learned with pronunciation.

The diaeresis (ä ë ï ö ü) has a specialized function. As you can see, each single vowel has a diaersis counterpart that is pronounced essentially the same as its non-diaeresis version. The diaeresis is only used when a vowel follows another vowel and it creates two syllables, rather than a diphthong.

In general, a glide is inserted in between the two vowels in pronunciation (either [j w ɥ]). Those that introduce a [j] are: aï, aë, eä, eö, eü. Those that introduce a [w] are: aü, iä, iö, iü. Those that introduce a [ɥ] are: oä, oë, öi.

There are also some unusual spelling quirks that are introduced due to the diaeresis, shown in the table below:

Irregular Spelling
Should be					Is Spelled
aä					a, aa
aö					o
eë					ee
eï					ee
ië					ee
iï					ee
oö					oou
oü					oou
uö					uu
uü					uu

In general, these are pronounced as would be expected: aa [ɑ:], ee [i:], oou [æ:u] or [øy], uu [u:] (when the ö comes from [u])

Additionally, uä, uë, uï, uö are pronounced [ɥɑ], [ɥi:], [ɥi], [ɥø] (when the ö derives from [øy])