Kyovantic
Current conlang.
Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatalized Postalveolar | Palatal | Labialized Palatal | Velar | Labaialized Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | /m/ m | /n/ n | /ɲ/ ṅ | /ŋ/ ŋ | |||||
Plosive | /p b/ p b | /t d/ t d | /ʔ/ h | ||||||
Fricative | /ɸ β/ f v | /θ ð/ þ ð | /s z/ s z | /ɕ ʑ/ ṡ ż | /ç ʝ/ k̇ ġ | /x ɣ/ k g | |||
Affricative | /ts dz/ c x | /tɕ dʑ/ ċ ẋ | |||||||
Approximant | /j ʲ/ e i | /ɥ/ u | /ɰ/ y | /w/ o | |||||
Tap | /ɾ/ r | ||||||||
Lateral Fricative | /ɬ ɮ/ kl gl | ||||||||
Lateral Approximant | /l/ l | /ʎ/ l̇ |
- Consonants with the dot accent can’t appear before a vowel. When the corresponding sound is before a vowel, it’s written without the accent and an i next to the consonant. (e.g. maṡ+a=masia).
- r at the end of a word is pronounced as /ð/.
- The approximants aren’t pronounced correspondingly when in between two consonants.
- When a voiced and voiceless consonant are right next to each other, they both become voiceless.
- p t are the end of a word pronounced as /p̚ t̚/, respectively.
- g in between two of the same vowel is silent.
Vowels
Tense
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | /i y/ e u | /ɯ u/ y o | |
Open-Mid | /ɜ ɞ/ a w |
- Tense vowels are only pronounced when before a consonant that isn't doubled
- A vowel that is doubled has a longer sound than its original
Lax
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close-Mid | /e ø/ e u | /ɤ o/ y o | |
Open | /a ɶ/ a w |
- Lax vowels are only pronounced when proceeding a doubled consonant (or tc and dx)
- A vowel that is doubled has a longer sound than its original
Diphthongs
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close-Mid | /øʏ/ ᵫ | /oɪ/ œ | |
Open | /aɪ/ æ |
Stress
Stress normally falls on the first syllable of a word. However, there is irregular stress. This is denoted by an acute accent on that specific syllable's vowel to show the irregularity.
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns in Kyovantic decline based on gender, number, and case. The two articles used in the languages are suffixes.
Gender
There are three genders in Kyovantic: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Their standard form is nominative singular. Each noun's gender can usually be distinguished by the letter that that noun ends with.
Masculine
Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, a diphthong, -ta, or -se. Any word that describes something animate and male is masculine. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the masculine version always ends in a consonant.
Feminine
Feminine nouns usually end in -a, -e, -o, -u, -y, -ð, or -amg. Any word that describes something animate and female is feminine. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the feminine version always ends in -a.
Neuter
Neuter nouns usually end in -e, -o, -g, or any doubled vowel. Any word that describes something animate and the gender is not known or the gender is neither male nor female is neuter. With words that can be different genders (e.g. teacher, student), the neuter version always ends in -e.