Stilio/Phonology

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Snakes have vastly simplified mouths compared to human-being. We are capable of making every sound they make, though some are easier than others. Snakes have no lips. Their soft-palate is occupied with the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ), which acts as a sense of smell. Snakes have no uvula. Their glottis can move aside when eating large prey.

Sentient and non-sentient snakes hiss their entire volume of air without interruption, so a Parseltongue utterances cannot be longer than about fifteen seconds. Stops are typically initial, and in a verb. Whatever vocal-cords they are graced with by magic, snakes cannot speak very loudly or vary pitch beyond very low frequencies. Humans speaking above a whisper, voicing consonants and vowels, are something like "shouting barbarians" to the snakes we were allowed to interview.

Snake mouth anatomy

Given snake anatomy, even with the aide of magic, Parseltongue

  • has no labial consonants
  • has no palatal or alveolar-palatal consonants
    • except the lowered approximant /j̞̊/, a light, whispered 'y'
  • has no uvular or epiglottal consonants
  • has no voiced consonants
  • is all spoken in creaky-voice
  • has no corarticulated consonants
  • has clicks
  • allows all affricates
  • prefer to end an utterance with a sibilant/fricative or a vowel
  • has ejective forms of the stops (and affricates)
  • ingressive sounds are possible

There is a non-phonemic sounds that snakes are readily capable of making, the trilled 'r'. However, /r/ is a highly erotic sound which no snake would make in polite company!

Non-parselmouths should take care not to "round" any consonants or vowels when speaking to a sentient snake. Snakes have no lips, so this can render one's speech unintelligible. English speakers should take greatest care with words beginning with 'r' or any 'sh' sound.

Consonants

Consonants (IPA above, Romanization below)
Dental Alveolar Lateral Retroflex Palatal Velar Radical Glottal
Nasal n̪̊ n̥ ɳ̊ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
m n ṇ ñ ŋ
Unaspirated Stop t̪ t ʈ t͡ʃ~c k ʡ~ʛ̥  ʔ
p t ʈ c k ` '
Aspirated Stop t̪ʰ tʰ ʈʰ cʰ kʰ ʔʰ
ph th ʈh ch kh 'h
Ejective Stop t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ c kʼ
p' t' ʈ' c' k'
Click ǀ ǃ ǁ ‼
pq tq zq ʈq
Nasal Click ᵑ̊ǀ ᵑ̊ǃ ᵑ̊ǁ ᵑ̊‼
npq ntq nzq nʈq
Fricative θ̟ s ɬ ʃ~ʂ ɕ~ç x
f s z ṣ ç x
Approximant l̥ ɻ̊ j̞̊ ɰ̊ ħ h
l r j w g h

The dentals are actually all interdental, with the tongue protruding far out between the teeth.

The retroflex consonants are like those found in Hindi or Tamil. That is, the tip of the tongue is not actually curled backwards, only pushed back past the alveolar ridge. However, most humans have to articulate the retroflex click with the tongue actually curling back on itself (but snakes do not).

The palatal stop /c/ can be said in the way common to those unfamiliar with such a sound (i.e. /tʃ/) with no loss of clarity to a Parselmouth or a snake.

For those unfamiliar with the sound /ɰ/, pronounce a 'w' but leave off the lip-rounding. The lateral fricative (z) is found in Welsh but may be very unfamiliar to English-speakers elsewhere. The pharyngeal approximant (g) is a very raspy 'h', produced as far down the throat as possible. The epiglottal stop (`) is produced very differently in snakes and humans, but is moderately similar to the sound many people use to imitate strong swallowing sounds, only whispered.

Clicks

The dental click (pq) is used in the English "tsk tsk tsk", while the lateral click (zq) is used to spur on a horse. The alveolar click (tq) is made by placing the tongue at the top of the mouth and then letting it slap down. The African version of this click - where the mouth produces an overly loud, hollow sound - should be avoided. The retroflex click (ʈq) is made by curling the tongue tip backwards and then sucking in. Probably because there are ingressive, ʈq and nʈq are not normally parts of words, but exclamatory interjections and ideophones.

Clicks are most often "pre-nasalized", in which case they are written with the letter n before hand (i.e. npq, ntq, nzq, and nʈq). In practice, the nasal quality may match the click in place of articulation or more often be the velar nasal ŋ. Such difference are not phonemic, so all version are spelled the same.

Stop Harmony

"None" (º) "Breathing" (ʰ) "Biting" (')
m/f p ph p'
n/s/z/l t th t'
ṇ/ṣ/r ʈ ʈh ʈ'
ñ/ç/j c ch c'
ŋ/x/w k kh k'
g/h ' 'h `

Most verbs in Parseltongue begin with a stop (in the indicative). These stops are most often underspecified. That is, they conform in place of articulation to the nasal, fricative, or approximant of the subject's classifier.

The names of the three classes of stops are calques of the Parseltongue names themselves. Underspecified stops are as a T with the class symbols as a small superscript, e.g. ŋaTʰaşo = ŋakhaşo.

Ingressive

There are a small number of ingressive words in Parseltongue, mostly interjections, ideophones and onomatopoeias. There is no special notation for these words: they are either italicized or set off in down-arrows before and after (e.g. ↓kss↓). The retroflex clicks (i.e. ʈq and nʈq) are ingressive, but not marked as such in any way.

Allophony

  • k/x + l > /ɫ̥/
  • k/x + z > /ʟ̝̊/
  • m/f + l > /l̪/

Gemination

English does distinguish between geminate and non-geminate consonants (cp. "hiss seal" and "hiss eel") but it is often irrelevant. In Parseltongue, however, it is of great import. Stops cannot be geminated.

Vowels

Vowels (IPA above, Romanization below)
Front Center Back
High i ɯ
i u
Near-high ɪ ʊ̜
ï ü
High-mid e ɤ
e o
Low-mid ɛ ʌ
ë ö
Near-low æ ɐ
a ä

Like the Niger-Congo family of languages in Africa, Parseltongue has a system of five vowels, each of which has a twin with Advanced Tongue Root (ATR). These five vowels can be arranged in a 'V', with /i/ in the top-left. /e/ is in the middle-left and /a/ at the bottom. The unrounded (because, again, snakes have no lips) versions of /o/ and /u/ are the right-middle and top-right components of the 'V'. With this pattern in mind, one can see how /i/ and /u/ are "high", while /e/ and /o/ are "mid". /a/ is "low". /i e a/ are "front" and /u o a/ are "back". Notice how, in regards to frontness/backness, /a/ is both.

Like consonant gemination, all vowels exist in long and short versions.

There are no vowel-vowel diphthongs, but any vowel can be coupled with j or w. Which vowel hiatus occurs (which is often), snakes and Parselmouths do not glide between vowels, but neither are there excrescent glottal stops.

Vowel Harmony

Front Back
High i/ï u/ü
Mid e/ë o/ö
Low a/ä

Vowels have three attributes

  • +high vs. +mid vs. +low
  • +front vs. +back (a/ä is both)
  • +ATR vs. -ATR

Underspecified vowels are written as a capital V with the set attribute(s) in small superscript, e.g. të+sV+high,+front = tësä.


Phonotactics

Snake vowel chart.svg

Like the Salish language of the Pacific-Northwest, Parseltongue can be extremely difficult to analyze phonotacticly. Even with enunciating as one would to a fool or simpleton, snakes never cease a continuous airstream. We managed to persuade our Burmese python to geminate stops (normally forbidden by Parseltongue phonotactics) but could not get her to supply prolonged glottal stops to ease our analysis! Syllable boundaries, therefore, are highly arbitrary. The same snake we interviewed regard this as an unimportant, human problem, akin to transcribing choking or sneezing!

Under our analysis, there are three over-arching types of syllable with regard to nuclei: vowels, liquids, clicks, and fricative. Affricates -- whether they share place of articulation or not -- are simply counted as stop + fricative.

  1. Vowel nuclei (of either length)
    1. May have neither onset nor coda: V(:)
    2. May have an onset consonant: CV(:)
      1. which may have a coda sonorant (which can be geminate): CV(:)R(:)
    3. May have just a coda sonorant (which may be geminate): V(:)R(:)
    4. May have a fricative plus approximant onset cluster: FAV(:)
      1. which may have a coda sonorant (which can be geminate): FAV(:)R(:)
  2. Liquid nuclei (with or without gemination)
    1. May have neither onset nor coda: B(:)
    2. May have a fricative onset (which may be geminate): F(:)B(:)
  3. Fricative nuclei (with or without gemination)
    1. May have neither onset nor coda: F(:)
    2. May have an onset stop: SF(:)
  4. Click nuclei (without without gemination)
    1. May have neither onset nor coda: Q(:)
    2. May have a sonorant onset (which may be geminate): R(:)Q(:)
  • F = any Fricative (f + s + z + ṣ + ç + x)
  • N = any Nasal (m + n + ṇ + ñ + ŋ)
  • B = N + r + l
  • A = any Approximant (l + r + j + w + g + h)
  • R = Sonorants (F + N + A)
  • S = any Stop (including aspirated versions)
  • Q = any Click, including pre-nasalized Clicks
  • O = Obstruents (S + Q)
  • C = any Consonant (R + O)
  • V = any Vowel (a + ä + e + ë + i + ï + o + ö + u + ü)

While nasals can be geminate, one nasal may never be followed by another (across syllable boundaries).

Aesthetically, snakes find it distasteful to have stops or clicks in the middle of an utterance. Hence, while it would be possible through appropriate case use to have any word order, verbs almost always come first.

Accent is very hard to detect at times in Parseltongue. It appears that almost all words are emphasized on the first syllable, though pronouns tend to be enclitic. Unusually stress patterns are marked with an acute on the nucleus (e.g. Nagíni).


↓1st\2nd→ m n ṇ ñ ŋ p t ʈ c k ' f s z ṣ ç x l r j w g h ǀ ǃ ǁ ‼
m Y No No No No Y No No No Y Y Y No No No No Y l̪ No No No Y Y No No No No
n No Y No No No Y Y No No No Y No Y Y No No No Y No No No Y Y
ṇ No No Y No No
ñ No No No Y No
ŋ No No No No Y
p No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y l̪ Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
t No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
ʈ No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
c No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
k No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y ɫ̥ Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
' No No No No No No No No No No No Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
f Y Y
s Y
z Y
ṣ Y
ç Y
x Y
l Y
r Y
j Y
w Y
g Y
h Y
ǀ Y Y Y No
ǃ Y Y Y No
ǁ Y Y Y No
‼ No No No No

Orthography

Gemination is indicated by doubling the letter

  • a is /æ/ as in Sally
    • ä is /ä/ as in father
  • b is not used
  • c is /c/, much like English 'ch' in church, but not made of two parts (t + sh), and without an accompanying breath-out
    • ch is like c, but with the breath of air
    • c' is the ejective of c, as in beatboxing
  • ç is like 'sh' + 'y' said quickly, as in mesh yet
  • d is not used
  • e is /e/ as in bet
    • ë is /ɛ/ as in Scottish bet, like the vowel in thanks said rapidly (no diphthong)
  • f is /θ/ as in thin, never they (with the tongue-tip sticking farther out between the teeth)
  • g is /ħ/ like a harsh 'h' said low in the throat
  • h is /h/ as in harpie (and can end a syllable!)
    • also used after p, t, and k to produce aspirated stops
  • i is /i/ as in sheet
    • ï is /ɪ/ as in shit
  • j is /j/ as in "yes" (In Parseltongue, it is like /ɪ/ - not /i/ - made into a consonant)
  • k is /k/ as in "kit", but without a breath of air
    • kh is the same as k, but with the breath of air
    • k' is /k'/ as in beatboxing 'k'
  • l is /l/ as in lull, but can also be velarized, or dental

N=nmñŋņ
C=pdtʈc
T=q
S=szxfşç
R=rljghwy
V=aäeëiïoöuü

(.)b|$1$1

SV
NV
RV
V
NVS
SVS
RVS
NVR
SVR
RVR
SRV
CV
CVS
CVR
CRV
TV
SS

http://zompist.com/gen
  • m is the dental /n/ as in tenth
  • n is /n̥/ as in nun whispered
    • ñ is /ɲ̊/ as in Russian nyet whispered
    • ṇ is /ɳ̊/, like English n but with the tongue tip curled further back.
    • ŋ is /ŋ/, as in sing (but can begin a syllable!)
  • o is /ɤ/ like 'foe' without the lip rounding (not a diphthong, like Spanish)
    • ö is /ʌ/ like an English cot without lip-rounding
  • p is /t̪/ like the 't' in uncouth talk, said rapidly, with the tongue between the teeth, but without a breath of air
    • p' is /t̪ʼ/, an ejective dental t, as in beatboxing
    • ph is the same as p but with the exhaled breath
    • pq is the dental click, like spurring a horse on
  • q is only used in digraphs to produce clicks after p, t, ʈ, and z
  • r is /ɻ̊/ as in peruse whispered (be careful not to put the tongue-tip behind the alveolar ridge)
  • s is /s/ as in sass
    • ṣ is like /ʃ/ as in shush (without lip-rounding and with the tongue-tip further back)
  • t is /t/ as in star', without a breath of air
    • t' is /t'/, an ejective 't' as in beatboxing
    • th is the same as t but with the exhaled breath
    • tq is the alveolar click, like children imitating horses trotting
  • ʈ is a 't' but without the breath of air escaping and with the tongue-tip curled further back
    • ʈ' is /t'/, an ejective 't' as in beatboxing
    • ʈh is the same as ʈ but with the exhaled breath
    • ʈq is the retroflex click
  • u is /ɯ/, an unrounded version of shoot
    • ü is /ʊ̜/, an unrounded version of cut
  • v is not used
  • w is /ɰ̊/, like a whispered 'w' without lip rounding
  • x is /x/, as in loch or Bach
  • y is not used
  • z is /ɬ/, like the Welsh 'll'
  • ' is the glottal-stop, like the dash in uh-oh
    • 'h is the aspirated glottal stop, if you will uh-ho
    • ` is the epiglottal stop or the unvoiced ingressive velar stop, like a whispered imitation of swallowing
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