Paiodd

Phonology

Vowels

In Paiodd, all vowels exist in a hierarchy according to strength. The farther forward and high a vowel is, the weaker it is. The farther back and high it is, the stronger it is. The following is a list of the vowels, in order from weakest to strongest.

  /ə/ /i/ /e/ /a/     /o/ /u/
                  /ɔ/
    /ɪ/ /ɛ/ /æ/

The vowels in each row only interact with each other when vowels change, as they often do in Paiodd. A change in vowel to a stronger or weaker vowel can occur in both nouns and verbs to indicate whether an inflected noun is related to a verb or another noun, and to indicate which tense a verb carries. For more on these specific cases, see the sections on Nouns and Verbs below.

To explain the relationship of the vowels, however, what I mean is that depending on the word, /o/ may become either /ɔ/ or /a/, and /ɔ/ may become either /a/ or /æ/. However, /æ/ will always strengthen to /ɔ/, and weaken to /ɛ/. /ɛ/ will always strengthen to /æ/ and weaken to /ɪ/, and so on.

Similarly, both /i/ and /ɪ/ weaken to /ə/. However, /ə/ never occurs as a root vowel, so one need not worry about whether it strengthens to /i/ or /ɪ/.

Consonants

The consonants in Paiodd also interact with each other, but only in nouns, so these interactions will be explained in the section on Nouns. The consonants are:

/p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ /θ/ /x/ /b/ /d/ /g/ /v/ /ð/ /ɣ/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /ŋ̥//w/ /j/ /ɹ/ /l/ /h/ /s/ /ʃ/ /ʧ/ /z/  /ʒ/ /ʤ/

There are a few possible consonant clusters, most of which are the same or similar to English.

In word-initial position, the stops /p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ as well as the fricative /f/ can be combined with the approximants /ɹ/ and /l/. In addition, /m/, /v/ and /θ/ can also combine with /ɹ/ in word-initial position.

Likewise, /s/ can combine with any of the voiceless stops, as well as /θ/, /ɹ/ and /l/ in word-initial position.

Any of the consonants may occur with the semi-vowels /j/ and /w/, which mark aspect in verbs.

Any consonants may occur in any combination word-medially, though voicing assimilation may result, and approximants /ɹ/ and /l/ assimilate to a preceding /s/ /ʃ/ /z/ /ʒ/ /m/ /n/ /t/ /d/ /l/ or /ɹ/. The resulting double consonants are pronounced doubled.

In word-final position, any consonant may occur singly and voiced stops may occur doubled (though they are usually pronounced as a single consonant in this case). The permissible clusters in word-final position are:

/m/ before labials
/n/ before alveolars
/s/ before voiceless stops
/ɹ/ before stops and fricatives
/l/ before stops and fricatives

Pronouns

There are three personal pronouns in Paiodd, which can be made plural by adding the prefix æ-:

gué /gʷeː/ I
nir /nɪɹ/  you
sem /sɛm/  he, she, it

The plurals are:

ægué /ægʷeː/ we
ænir /ænɪɹ/  you (pl)
æsem /æsɛm/  they

These pronouns do not change form, as Paiodd does not have cases. To show possession and other relationships between pronouns and other nouns, the noun suffixes are attached to the pronouns as prefixes. In this case, there may not be any difference between the singular and plural forms of the prefixed pronouns. In other words, íagué can mean either 'my' or 'our'. Sometimes, however, the plural prefix may co-occur with other prefixes, giving for example, íægué, 'our'. For a complete list of the prefixes, see Noun Suffixes below.

Paiodd word order demands that the subject be directly attached to the verb, so the only difference between subject pronouns and object pronouns is where they occur in the sentence.

Gué nir dur.  You love me.
BUT Nir gué dur. I love you.

There is also no copula in Paiodd, so to express the sense of 'to be' one has only to place the noun or adjective that describes the pronoun after it in the sentence.

Gué piver. I am the king.
Nir shopía. You are beautiful.

Nouns

Nouns are perhaps the most interesting feature in Paiodd. Although there is no gender or case, they do inflect to indicate whether they are related to other nouns, or to the verb in their clause.