Trentish Phonology

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<< Trentish

Phonemic Inventory

Consonants

labial alveolar palatal velar glottal
plosive p pʼ pʰ (pʷ?) tʼ tʰ tʷ c cʰ cʷ k kʼ kʰ kʷ ʔ
nasal m n ɲ ŋ
lateral l tɬ
fricative s ʃ x

Vowels

i y ʊ u
e ø o
ʌ ɔ
ɑ

Orthography

Orthography is phonemic.

  • Labials: b /p/, p /pʼ/, ph /pʰ/, pw /pʷ/
  • Dentals: t /tʼ/, th /tʰ/, tw /tʷ/
  • Palatals: /c/, tʼh /cʰ/, tʼw /cʷ/
  • Velars: g /k/, k /kʼ/, kh /kʰ/, kw /kʷ/
  • Glottal: q /ʔ/
  • Nasals: m, n, ny /ɲ/, ng /ŋ/
  • Laterals: l, ƛ /tɬ/
  • Fricatives: s, sh /ʃ/, x
  • Vowels: i, ü /y/, uh /ʊ/, u, e, ö /ø/, oh /o/, r /ʌ/, o /ɔ/, a /ɑ/

Internal Sandhi

Word-level

  • Trentish words can only end in a vowel or a nasal. Stops and /l/ occurring at the end of a word are nasalized, thus /thɑk/ "wear" becomes [thɑŋ]. /ʔ/ and the other consonants are dropped.

Syllable-level

Syllable-final
  • Plain voiceless consonants disappear, lengthening the previous vowel:
    /xlɔʔ/ "washed, clean" → [xlɔɔkʷʌ] "be washed".
  • Ejectives and /l/ turn to nasals as at the word level:
    /tʰɔl/ "upon" → [tʰɔŋkʷʌ] "be on top of".
  • Labialized consonants reduce to [w]:
    /kitʷ/ COLL → [kiwcʷecʷe] "set of journeys".
  • Aspirated consonants fricativize:
    /pʼɑlɑkʰ/ "hate" → [pʼɑlɑxpʼɑlɑŋ] "grudge".
Syllable-initial after a nasal
  • Aspirated stops are ejectivized by a preceding original nasal:
    /tʰɑŋ/ "wear" → [xɑntʼɑŋ] "wear that"
  • Labialized stops inherit preceding nasality:
    /cʷe/ "go" → [xɑnɲʷe] "go up yonder".
  • Plain stops are aspirated by a preceding nasal:
    /pɑ/ TOP → [xɑnpʰɑ] "yonder"
  • Ejective stops geminate a preceding nasal:
    /pʼɑlɑŋ/ "hate" → [xɑmmɑlɑŋ] "hate that"
Syllable-inital after /ɲ/
  • /ɲl/ > [ɲʎ]
  • /ɲx/ > [ɲç]
  • /ɲm/ > [ɲmʲ] etc.