Ahu (formerly known as Xuáli):
Vowels
Spanish, Japanese, Swahili, Hebrew
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i u
e o
a/ii/ and /uu/ may be pronounced as long vowels (as all other sets of identical adjacent vowels). Alternatively, for some speakers, the syllabic vowel of the pair dissimilates to [ɨ] or [ʉ] (for /i/ and /u/ respectively). When there is a series of two adjacent, unstressed high vowels between consonants, which one is syllabic is largely a matter of choice, with most speakers preferring [ju] and [wi] over [iw] and [uj], although a preceding post-alveolar consonant tends to prevent /i/ from becoming non-syllabic.
Consonants
Welcome to Europe.
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m n ŋ
b d g
p t k
dz dʒ
ts tʃ
v z ʒ
f s ʃ h
l
ɾ/p/ /g/ and /f/ occur fairly infrequently in the lexicon
Syllables and Sandhi
Unter a phonetic analysis, syllables are (C)V(C). A phonemic analysis expands this to (C)(S)V(S)(C) (where (S) is an optional semivowel).
Any consonant may begin a syllable.
The only consonants that may end a syllable are /m n ŋ t k v z ʒ f s ʃ l/
Final /t/ and /k/ are pronounced with no audible release. They may be pronounced [d] and [g] before voiced sounds in the next syllable, although this is subject to a great deal of dialectic variation. When this occurs within the same word, they are generally written as <d> and <g> (their equivalents in the native script), such as <zadvau> 'writes something illegal' (from /zat/ 'writes' + /vau/ 'commits a crime')
/p/ is disallowed at the end of a syllable as syllable final /p/ turned into /v/ a while back, however, /p/ may end a syllable if the following syllable also begins with /p/ giving rise to /p.p/, which, like other consonants doubled across syllable boundaries, becomes pronounced as a geminate: /pː/.
Through the processes of compounding, two stops placed together were first assimilated to the POA and voicing of the latter consonant, creating a geminate consonant. Geminate stops were subsequently devoiced. For example: /tʃaɾak/ 'is a lizard' + /dak/ 'is a frog' = /tʃaɾattak/ 'is a newt'. (/tʃaɾakdak/ > /tʃaɾaddak/ > /tʃaɾattak/)
Word final /t/ and /k/ are voiced to /ɾ/ and /g/ with the addition of an oblique suffix. For example:
/ʃak/ 'swallows' > /ʃagai/ 'swallows it.INAN'
/zat/ 'writes' > /zaɾai/ 'writes it'
Occasionally, a historical affricate resurfaces from /t/. For example:
/pat/ 'swats' > /patsas/ 'swats it.ANIM'
In the two lower registers, xux ('the speech of men') and xubal ('the speech of soldiers'), the attributive particle e sometimes also causes these changes to take place. The attributive particle is then written as a suffix.
Sequences of the alveolar stops, affricates and plosives followed by a non-syllabic /i/ typically merge with the postalveolar consonants, losing the /i/
/di/ > /dʒ/
/dzi/ > /dʒ/
/ti/ > /tʃ/
/tsi/ > /tʃ/
/zi/ > /ʒ/
/si/ > /ʃ/
Women tend to avoid this, frequently preserving both sounds, although it depends on the word.
The post-alveolar consonants make distinguishing an immediately following, non-syllabic /i/ difficult. This causes /i/, to retain its syllabicity (Hi, Spell-checker! Thanks for checking up on me! Nope, I'm fine, thanks.) in these places.
Word stress
In underived native root words, stress always falls on the first vowel. However, there are many derivational infixes which are inserted into the word immediately before the stressed vowel and do not take the stress. Proper nouns formed from appositional phrases may retain the original stress. Loanwords also retain original stress. In all of these instances, stress is marked orthographically when it is not on the initial vowel of a word.
Sentence stress
Sentences frequently contain stretches of contentives separated by functors ('particles'). In a stretch of contentives (an appositional phrase), the last contentive takes the main stress.
). You would really do me a great favor if you could tell me which natlangs the sound of my conlang reminds you of. If you need a longer recording to be able to judge, I can upload something else tomorrow.
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