Teycil

From FrathWiki
Revision as of 02:45, 31 July 2012 by Bukkia (talk | contribs) (→‎Vowels)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
Bilabial Labio-
dental
Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal
Plosive p b t d ç ʝ k g
Nasal m [ɱ]1 n [ŋ]2
Vibrant r
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ x χ ʁ ħ
Affricate
Approximants j w
Lateral
approximants
l

Note:

  • [ɱ]1 and [ŋ]2 are considered allophones of the normal nasal phonemes in front of [f]/[v] and [k]/[g] respectively.

Vowels

Vowels
Front Near-
front
Central Near-
back
Back
Close i(ː) u(ː)
Near close ɪ ʊ
Close mid e o
Open mid ɛː œ ɔː
Near open æ
Open ɑ

In Teycil studies, the vowels are grouped in three sets:

  • Long vowels [aː], [ɛː], [iː], [ɔː], [uː] are called strong vowels
  • Short vowels [ɑ], [e], [i], [o], [u] are called normal vowels
  • Some vowels, usually born by some kind of reduction of ancient vowels or diphtongs, [æ], [ɪ], [ɶ], [ʊ], are called weak vowels

As these names are more practical, we will keep on using them while speaking about vowels in this description.

While the strong vowels are reckoned to be only the long counterparts of normal (short) vowels, the difference is also in quality for three of them.

Orthography

Teycil uses the normal Latin alphabet to be written. Consonants are written with all available letters (except for w, which is not used); as the number of consonantal phonemes is higher than the letters, some digraphs are used (but they are not taken as single letters).

Vowels are more complicated. Long vowels are marked with a makron (¯) over the corresponding letter. Other types of letters are used to mark the weak vowels.

Consonants

Simple letters are used to mark these consonants, except for j, which is always part of a digraph, and y, which can represent the semivowel [j], but only as part of a digraph:

Letter b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v x y z
IPA [b] [k] [d] [f] [g] [x] no IPA
value
[ħ] [l] [m] [n] [p] [χ] [r] [s] [t] [v] [?] [j] [z]

There are some phonemes which are expressed by some digraphs:

Letter jc jg jq jr js jx jz
IPA [ʧ] [ʤ] [ʝ] [ʁ] [ʃ] [ç] [ʒ]

When these digraphs are used after a Vj-type diphtong, where the semivowel is marked by i, the sequence V + i + j + C is reduced to V + y + C. Some examples:

  • Paic [ˈpajk] river
  • Pajc [ˈpaʧ] street
  • Payc [ˈpajʧ] father