Ilog-kwa

(ìloN kwa): My first serious attempt at a constructed language, started July 2006. A work in (very) slow progress.

Phonology

Ilog-kwa uses 17 Roman letters to represent 17 (or 19?) phonemes.

/p t k/ <p t k>

/m n N/ <m n g>

/l j w/ <l y w>

/s S h/ <s x h>

/ts tS/ <ts tx> (I am not sure if these are phonemes; they only occur across syllable boundaries).

/a e i o u/ <a e i o u>

Allophones:

/T/ <t-coda followed by stop or nasal>

/x/ <k-coda followed by stop or nasal>

/K/ <l-coda followed by h>

There is no phonemic voicing or aspiration distinction.

From here on, I will write in the orthography.

Phonotactics

Syllables may take these structures: (C) (C) V (C).

Legal onsets: null, any consonant, any non-approximant consonant + 1 approximant, l + w or y.

Legal nuclei: any vowel.

Legal codas: Any consonant, with the following execptions: p cannot be a coda. y cannot be the coda in a syllable with an e or i nucelus. w cannot be the coda in a syllable with an o or u nucleus.

Sandhi and Allophony

t and k codas are spirantized when they are followed by a nasal or a stop, i.e. t becomes /T/ and k becomes /x/.

When l occurs next to h in either sequence, the resulting sound is /K/.

The silibants have a strong tendency to be voiced when they occur next to nasals. The stops also tend to be voiced in certain positions. Because voicing is non-phonemic, "wrong" voicing will not alter the meaning of any word or utterance.