Uínlītska Phonology
Syllable Structure
In roots, the structure (as a regular expression) is ˈC?V(C?CV)*C?.
In suffixes, the struvcture is CVC?.
Thus, valid roots include é, ki, and ðœfti, and valid suffixes include -gū, and -tar.
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.
Thus, stress falls on the bolded vowels in a, ka, kapta, kaptara, kaptaran.
Consonants
| p b | t d | k ɡ | ʔ | ||
| f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | θ ð | x ɣ | h |
| tʃ dʒ | |||||
| ɬ l | |||||
| m | n | [ŋ] | |||
| w | j |
The phonemes /x/ and /ɣ/ have allophones [ç] and [ɟ] when immediately adjacent to an apical phoneme. The phoneme /n/ has the allophone [ŋ] when immediately preceeding to a dorsal phoneme.
Consonant changes from Old Norse
sr > ʃ
r > ː / V _ C (also listed under vowels)
rr > ːr / V _ C (by implication)
r > j / (t,d,n) _
r > d / # _
r > l
sl > ɬ
Vowels
In strong syllables
| i iː | ||
| e eː | ə əː | o oː |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| ɑ ɑː |
In weak syllables
| i ĩ | ||
| ə ə̃ | ||
| ɑ ɑ̃ |
Summary of vowel changes from ON
o > ə
y > i
yː > iw
œ > e
œː > ew
œy > oj
ɛ > e
ɛː > ɛ
ɛi > ej
u > o
uː > iw
ɒː > ɑw
ɒ > ɔ
ɒu > əw
i, eː, ɑ, oː and iː remain unchanged.
υr > υː
Further vowel changes in weak syllables
e > i
o,ɛ > ə
ɔ > ɑ
υː > υ
υ(j,w,l,∅)(n,m) > υ̃(j,w,l,∅)
Sound adaptation in borrowed words
Every foreign phoneme (if possible) maps to the identical phoneme in Fínlǣsk.
The following general rules tend to apply to phonemes from various languages without exact duplicates in Fínlǣsk:
| Foreign | q | ɢ | ɴ | ɟ | ɰ | kʷ | ʌ |
| Fínlǣsk | k | ɡ | ŋɡ* | j | w | kw | ɑ |
*Inuktitut /ɴ/ becomes /ɡ/ word-initially.
Sandhi / Liaison
Metaphonemic Symbols
For Vowels
| Symbol | ∅ | ← ↑ → ↓ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ | η | υ | ω | ◌̽ | ◌̾ | ◌́ | ◌̆ |
| Meaning | Nothing | Umlaut | Vowel | (Unrounded) | (Rounded) | Broken | Merged | Long | Short |
For Consonants
| Symbol | ∅ | τ | κ | γ | θ | σ | ζ | ρ |
| Meaning | Nothing | Stop | (Voiceless) | (Voiced) | Fricative | (Voiceless) | (Voiced) | Liquid |
Vowels
Umlauting
| η | ← | ↑ | → | ↓ | ↖ | ↗ | ↘ | ↙ | υ | ω | ◌̽ | ◌̾ |
| a | æ | ų | á | á | ę | ǫ | á | á | a | ǫ | aƿ | a |
| e | ej | i | o | ę | i | ᵫ | œ̨ | ę | e | œ | ję | e |
| ę | ęj | e | ǫ | æ | e | œ | a | æ | ę | œ̨ | jæ | ę |
| i | í | í | u | e | í | ᵫ | œ | e | i | ᵫ | je | i |
| o | œ | u | ó | ǫ | ᵫ | u | ǫ́ | œ̨ | e | o | ǫƿ | o |
| ǫ | œ̨ | u | o | a | œ | o | á | æ | ę | ǫ | æƿ | ǫ |
| u | ᵫ | ju | ú | o | ᵫ | ú | ó | œ | i | u | ƿe | u |
| ų | e | i | u | a | i | ᵫ | ę | ǫ | ų | u | jæ | ų |
| æ | ǽ | ę | a | ǽ | ę | œ̨ | a | ǽ | æ | œ̨ | æƿ | æ |
| jo | jœ | ju | jó | jǫ | ᵫ́ | ju | jǫ́ | jœ̨ | je | jo | aƿ | ᵫ |
Liaison
| Default | i | ᵫ | u | e | œ | ų | o | ę | œ̨ | ǫ | æ | a | í | ᵫ́ | ú | é | œ́ | ų́ | ó | ę́ | œ̨́ | ǫ́ | ǽ | á | |
| i | η > jη | í | ᵫ́ | íj | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ᵫ | υ > ƿυ
ω > jω |
ᵫ́ | ǫj | ƿę́ |
Consonants
Long Clusters
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/.
Sandhi
Some general rules apply to the sandhi process that occurs when compound words are formed:
| Description | Pattern | Example | ||
| From | To | From | To | |
| Stop+Stop with same voicing are unaffected | κ1κ2 | κ1κ2 | -k+t- | -kt- |
| γ1γ2 | γ1γ2 | -b+d- | -bd- | |
| Stop+Stop with different voicing take regr voice assim | γ1κ2 | κ1κ2 | -ɡ+t- | -kt- |
| κ1γ2 | γ1γ2 | -p+ɡ- | -bɡ- | |
| Stop+Fric with same voicing become Fric-Stop | κ1σ2 | σ1κ2 | -k+s- | -xt- |
| γ1ζ2 | ζ1γ2 | -d+v- | -zb- | |
| Stop+Fric with different voicing take progr voice assim | κζ | κσ | -k+v- | -kf- |
| γσ | γζ | -b+s- | -bz- | |
| Fric+Fric with same voicing become geminated stops | σ1σ2 | κː1 | -s+s- | -tː- |
| ζ1ζ2 | γː1 | -v+v- | -bː- | |
| Nas+Nas take retr POA assim & progr voice assim | μ̥1μ2 | μ̥ː2 | ||
| μ1μ̥2 | μː2 | |||
Blanks below denote "no deviation from the above"
| b | d | ð | f | ɡ | ɣ | h | j | k | l | ɬ | m | n | ŋ | p | r | s | ʃ | t | tʃ | θ | v | w | x | z | |
| b | vd | v | vɡ | bɣ | pk | pɬ | m | mn | ŋɡ | pp | bz | bʒ | pt | ndʒ | bð | bɣ | |||||||||
| d | ð | dv | ðɡ | dɣ | tk | tɬ | nm | n | ŋɡ | tp | dz | dʒ | tt | dʒ | ð | zb | dɣ | ||||||||
| ð | zb | ðv | ðð | θk | θt | nm | n | ŋɡ | θp | θs | tʃ | tt | dʒ | θθ | zb | θk | dd | ||||||||
| f | vv | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ɡ | bb |
