East-C Altaic'

This will probably eventually be forked to a separate daughterlang page.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Postalveolar	Velar	Labial-velar	Uvular	Labial-uvular	Glottal
Voiceless stops (P)	p	t		c /ʧ/	k	kp	q	qp
Voiced stops (B)	b	d	dr /ɖ/	j /ʤ/	g	gb		xb /ɢb/
Nasals (N)	m	n	nr /ɳ/		ŋ (ng)	gm /ŋm/		xm /ɴm/
Fricativs (F)	v /β/	s	sr /ʂ/	sy /ʃ/			x /ʁ/		h
Approximants (A)		l	ll /ɭ/	y /j/		w

• /β/ is written as <b> after /t/ and in some words intervocally.
• /ʂ ʃ/ are written <s> in coda position.
• /ɭ/ is written <l> before another retroflex.

A final t or c is elided before a word beginning with a voiced stop.

Long vowels

	Front	Back
Hi	í /iː/	ú /uː/
Mid	ie /iɛ̯/	ua /uɔ̯/
Lo	é /aɪ̯/	á /ɑː/

Short vowels

Hi i, u /ɪ ~ ʊ/; lo e, a /ɛ ~ ʌ/.

There's a front-back harmony in effect which prohibits short back vowels occuring after front vowels, and vice versa. Factor in that the first vowel of a word is always long, and hey presto, we have only two short arkivowels.

A final lo short vowel is reduced to shwa or elided wholesale before a word beginning with a sonorant.

Stress

Final if it's a long vowel, on the penult if that has a long vowel but the final doesn't, initial otherwise. In the first 2 cases, there's secondary initial stress.

Phonotax

CV{t, c, S, m, n, ŋ, L}

dr nr ll gm xm do not occur word-initially. b does not occur intervocally.

Occuring clusters:

• tP tŋ tb (=/tβ/) ty tw
• ck cy cw
• SP Sv SS Sw
  • This arkiphoneme is /ʂ/ before another /ʂ/, /ʃ/ before /ʃ ʧ/, as well as word-finally or before a non-coronal after a front vowel; and /s/ elsewhere.
• mp
• n + coronal other than /ɖ ɳ ɭ l/; ny nw
• ŋP ŋB ŋŋ ŋF ŋl ŋy ŋw
  • except ŋb ŋɖ ŋʤ
  • ŋq ŋqp ŋx ŋxb have [ɴ]
• lP lB lF ly lw
  • ldr lsr are /ɭɖ ɭʂ/)

Sound changes from Proto-East Altaic'

• Front vowel chain shift: æ → e → i → əɪ
• ʊ → o
• e o become tense, then → iɛ uɔ
• ɪ ɜ → ɪ~ʊ, ɛ~ʌ as decribed
• əɪ → aɪ