Post your conlang's phonology

[Chengjiang]

Janaharian

Inventory

Nasals: /m n/ <m n>
Stops/Affricate: /p b t d tʃ k ɡ q/ <p b t d ch k g q>
Fricatives: /s z ʃ ʒ x ʁ ɦ/ <s z sh j kh rh h>
Approximants/Trill: /ʋ l r j/ <v l r y>

Lax vowels: /ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɐ/ <i u e o a>
Tense vowels: /i u e o æ ɒ/ <î û ê ô â ą>

Phonotactics

A very wide range of onsets are allowed, but it is rare (although not unknown) for sonorants to precede non-sonorants, with the exception of /ʋ/, found in the common prefix v-. /j/ is almost never found in clusters in native vocabulary, although clusters ending in /j/ can be found in loanwords. /ɦ/ may precede a sonorant, but is otherwise only found as a single consonant in onsets.

Codas are similarly diverse, and unlike onsets it's not uncommon for them not to follow a sonority hierarchy, e.g. majr /mɐʒr/. /j/ never occurs in codas. /ɦ/ is common in codas, but must be adjacent to a vowel.

Vowels cannot abut word-internally. Vowel-vowel hiatus is permitted but uncommon across word boundaries; most vowel-final particles and some suffixes have consonant-final allomorphs to minimize hiatus. Where a vowel-vowel hiatus would be created by adjacent morphemes, varying processes eliminate it, including elision of one of the vowels and insertion of one of /j ʋ ɦ n/, depending on the history of the morphemes in question. The strategy used is often unpredictable synchronically.

Allophony

Voiced stops are fully voiced. Voiceless stops have little to no aspiration. /n t d s z l/ are all laminal denti-alveolar; /r/ is alveolar. /ɛ ɔ/ are mid-centralized, not cardinal open-mid vowels. /e o/ are cardinal close-mid vowels.

The postalveolar, velar, and lateral consonants have "soft" (palatalized) and "hard" (non-palatalized; velarized) allophones. In hard contexts, postalveolars are realized as laminal non-palatalized postalveolars (i.e. the type of "retroflex" found in Polish), velars as velars, and /l/ as velarized [ɫ], yielding the set [ʈʂ ʂ ʐ k ɡ x ɫ] for /tʃ ʃ ʒ k ɡ x l/. In soft contexts, postalveolars are alveopalatal, velars are dorsal palatal/prevelar, and /l/ is clear, non-velarized [l], yielding [tɕ ɕ ʑ c ɟ ç l]. The soft allophones are found before front vowels, in codas after front vowels, and before another palatalized consonant; in a group of palatalizable consonants palatalization spreads backwards until it reaches a vowel or a non-palatalizable consonant. (E.g. kleshą /klɛˈʃɒ/ is [clɛˈʂɒː], with the entire initial cluster soft.) The hard allophones are found in all other contexts. /æ/ is treated as front, but /ɐ/ is not.

In clusters of obstruents, all obstruents assimilate in voicing to the final obstruent. This does not extend to assimilating to non-obstruents except in some non-standard varieties: ksesm /ksɛsm/ is [ksɛsm], not [ksɛzm]. This assimilation can produce phones that don't otherwise exist, such as [dʑ]/[ɖʐ] from /tʃ/ or [ɢ] from /q/. These have a tendency to shift into other phonemes outside of synchronically transparent compounds: In more established vocabulary the voicing-assimilated allophones of /tʃ q x ʁ/ tend to merge into /ʒ ʁ ɦ q/ respectively.

There are a couple of special cases to the voicing assimilation. /ʋ/ assimilates to [f] before a voiceless consonant. /ɦ/ may be optionally devoiced word-initially, and in onset clusters with sonorants condenses with them to a voiceless sonorant: /ɦʋ ɦl ɦr ɦm ɦn/ are phonetically [f l̥ r̥ m̥ n̥]. These may optionally be preaspirated [ʰf ʰl̥ ʰr̥ ʰm̥ ʰn̥]. /ɦʋ/ is often used for /f/ in loanwords.

Lax and tense vowels are distinguished when stressed or word-final. When they are neither stressed nor word-final, the tense vowels merge into the lax vowels. Tense vowels lengthen in open syllables and in stressed monosyllables, and to a lesser extent are often slightly longer than lax vowels in other environments as well.

As in many languages, /n/ assimilates to the POA of a following consonant, generating the segments [ɱ ɳ ȵ ɲ ŋ ɴ] alongside the phonemic nasals. /m/ does not: Compare angê /ɐnɡe/ [ɐɲɟeː] "if" and amgê /ɐmˈɡe/ [ɐmˈɟeː] "you overwrite".

In the vicinity of uvulars, /i/ and /ɪ/ centralize to [ɨ] and [ɘ].

Prosody

Janaharian is a stress-timed language, like English, German, and Russian. There is a roughly equal amount of time between stresses, and stressed syllables tend to be longer than other syllables (to varying degrees depending on intervening unstressed syllables). As noted above, Janaharian distinguishes tense and lax vowels; stressed syllables with a tense vowel tend to lengthen the vowel, whereas stressed syllables with a lax vowel tend to lengthen the consonant coda somewhat, or to be short and allow a bit more time for the following syllable if open.

The position of stress is synchronically unpredictable and thus phonemic. In most cases the stress remains at the position it had in Janaharian's ancestor Old Janah, but subsequent sound changes have made this synchronically irregular.

Dialectical and other variation

/ʒ/ derives primarily from an earlier affricate /dʒ/. This has deaffricated in most dialects, but in the Northern dialect it remains an affricate. In a few cases [ʒ] derived from voicing of a /ʃ/ has also been reanalyzed as this affricate. Relatedly, /ʁ/ derives from an earlier /ɢ/, and a minority of Northern speakers retain this value for the sound.

The standard's set of dorsal fricatives /x ʁ/ is somewhat unusual, and many speakers change it to something more symmetrical. The variation /χ ʁ/ is quite common; /x ɣ/ is also fairly common. Generally speakers with uvulars for both also remove the voiceless fricative's soft allophone [ç], while speakers with velars for both often add a soft allophone [ʝ] to /ɣ/, although this last variation is somewhat stigmatized and primarily associated with rural working-class speech.

Although still frowned on by traditionalists, a merger of the soft allophones of the postalveolars and velars is becoming increasingly common, especially in urban dialects and among younger speakers. /tʃ k/ yield [tɕ], /g/ yields [dʑ], /ʃ x/ yield [ɕ], and /ʒ/ yields [ʑ]. Note that, outside of the uncommon intersection of this feature with the Northern dialect's retention of /dʒ/, this introduces a contrast between a voiced affricate and a voiced fricative at this POA.

The realization of /ʋ/ varies. Some Northerners have a fricative [v], and some Southerners have a labial-velar approximant [w]. Almost all have [f] in devoicing contexts.

The lax vowels are subject to a lot of mergers. Eastern dialects merge the mid and close lax vowels, yielding a three-vowel system of /ɪ ʊ ɐ/. The Central dialect merges /ɐ/ and /ɔ/ to [ʌ]. A subdialect of Central has only [ɪ ɛ] in soft environments and only [ɯ̽ ʌ] elsewhere, creating a vertical, two-vowel system among the lax vowels. Southern speech, meanwhile, has a different tense vowel system, with a single open vowel /a/; some instances of /æ ɒ/ in the standard are /e o/ in this system, while others are /a/.

While hard and soft consonants are allophones in standard speech, some dialects have innovated a phonemic distinction. As noted above, some speakers have a vertical lax vowel system and thus have a marginal soft-hard contrast before lax vowels. Speakers with /a/ may have minimal pairs of soft and hard consonants before this vowel. Finally, elision of word-final unstressed vowels has generated minimal pairs of soft and hard consonants for some speakers, similarly to Romanian's contrastive word-final palatalization.

[Pogostick Man]

That is a cool phonology, Chengjiang.

Standard Täptäg

/m m̥ n n̥ ɲ ɲ̊/ <m mh n nh nj njh>
/p pʲ pʰ pʲʰ b bʲ b̥ b̥ʲ t tʲ tʰ tʲʰ d dʲ d̥ d̥ʲ k kʰ kʲ kʲʰ g g̊ gʲ g̊ʲ/ <p pj ph pjh b bj bh bjh t tj th tjh d dj dh djh k kh kj kjh g gh gj gjh>
/s z ʃ ʒ h ɦ/ <s z sj zj ḥ h>
/w j/ <w j>

/u ũ o õ ɑ ɑ̃ æ æ̃ e ẽ i ĩ/ <u ų o ǫ a ą ä ą̈ e ę i į>

The ring diacritic on the voiced plosives indicates slack voice.

[opipik]

/p pʷ b bʷ mb mbʷ t tʷ d nd k kʷ ɡ ɡʷ ŋɡ ŋɡʷ ʔ/ <p p~pw b b~bw mb mb~mbw t t~tw d nd k k~kw g g~gw ŋg ŋg~ŋgw c>
/m mʷ n ŋ~ɲ ŋʷ~mɲ/ <m m~mw n ŋ~nj ŋw~mnj>
/ɾ/ <r>
/β βʷ s h~ç~ɸ hʷ~çʷ~ɸʷː/ <w w~vw s h h~hw>
/l j/ <l y>

/i u e~ʷo a~ʷɒ/ <i u e~o a~â>

[Chengjiang]

That is a cool phonology, Chengjiang.

Thanks! Janaharian is my oldest conlang, although it's changed a lot since its inception around 2006. Its sound system took shape through my using features I liked from Russian, Persian, Hindustani, and Turkish, and then adjusting the result until a cohesive whole developed. Most of all of my languages, this is a labor of love.

I hope it's not an obnoxiously long post. I realize looking through the thread that most people aren't going into quite this level of detail, and so I hope I'm not going against the spirit of the thread here.

[Travis B.]

I hope it's not an obnoxiously long post. I realize looking through the thread that most people aren't going into quite this level of detail, and so I hope I'm not going against the spirit of the thread here.

No, I like the level of detail; I much prefer it over simply posting a bunch of phonemes and associated graphs.

[Chengjiang]

No, I like the level of detail; I much prefer it over simply posting a bunch of phonemes and associated graphs.

Excellent! Here's Janaharian's ancestor Old Janah.

Inventory

Nasals: /m n/ <m n>
Stops/Affricates: /p b t d dz ȶ ȡ k ɡ q ɢ/ <p b t d z c j k g q ġ>
Fricatives: /s ʃ x ħ/ <s š x h>
Approximants/Trill: /w l r j/ <w l r y>

Short vowels: /i u e o a/ <i u e o a>
Long vowels/Diphthongs: /iː uː eː oː aː ai au/ <ii uu ee oo aa ai au>
Short nasal vowels: /ã/ [ĩ ũ ẽ õ] <ą į ų ę ǫ>
Long nasal vowels/Diphthongs: /ĩː ũː ẽː õː ãː ãĩ ãũ/ <įį ųų ęę ǫǫ ą ąą ąį ąų>

(Early Old Janah also had diphthongs with mid or close vowels as the starting point and any of /i u a/ as the ending point. These generally monophthongized later.)

Notes on transcription

Although the reconstruction of Old Janah is fairly secure, the exact value of a few sounds is uncertain, and for that reason I'm mostly using the romanization here. Each consonant letter used here represents a single consonant letter in the Ndasti alphabet used for Old Janah and its contemporary, Ndasti.

The sounds written c j here may have been stops /ȶ ȡ/ or affricates /tʃ dʒ/; the descendant languages all have fricatives or affricates for these sounds, but they pattern more like stops in Old Janah.

z yields a fricative /z/ in most descendants but /ts/ in Shaddawan, and the letter used represents /ts/ in Ndasti; based on this and on sound changes from Proto-Qalic to Old Janah it is generally reconstructed as a voiced affricate /dz/.

h is the Janah branch of the Qalic family's development of Proto-Qalic /χ/. It yields a glottal fricative or zero in the descendant languages, but processes tying the semivowels w y to vocalizations i u also connect h to a (and to diphthongs ending in an open vowel in early Old Janah) and grammarians referred to it as a "semivowel" alongside w y, and so it is reconstructed as a pharyngeal here. Although I've shown it as voiceless, it is possible that it was voiced.

The only short nasal vowel with phonemic status was ą, but regular contraction of long nasal vowels in certain environments yields short counterparts to them which are affected distinctly by sound changes linking Old Janah to its descendants.

Phonotactics

Old Janah allowed a moderately complex syllable structure, with two-consonant onsets and mostly one- but occasionally two-consonant codas. It did not allow as many different types of cluster as modern Janaharian does, but it did allow most initial obstruent + sonorant clusters and Ancient Greek-style two-obstruent clusters, e.g. tl ps sb dm ck zw. Syllables could end in any single consonant except m n w y h, and less commonly in clusters of stop + s or clusters of a liquid or sibilant followed by a stop.

Short vowels in hiatus tended to merge to a long vowel or diphthong; if at least one vowel was long y was inserted after front vowels, w after round back vowels, and h after open vowels. In sequences with an oral and a nasal vowel, nasality spread to the oral vowel.

Allophony

Long vowels contracted and diphthongs monophthongized (with somewhat irregular results) before coda clusters and before certain types of cluster word-internally. (I'm still working out the details.) As noted above, short nasal vowels į ų ę ǫ occurred in this environment. Short nasal vowels also sometimes occur due to nasality spreading from a nasal vowel. ą, as noted, occurred in all environments.

Fricatives were probably voiced intervocalically in Late Old Janah and may have been in Early Old Janah. They were almost certainly voiced in clusters with voiced stops.

The glides w y were nasalized when adjacent to nasal vowels, and h r l may have been as well.

Prosody

Old Janah had moraic timing and distinguished three lengths of syllable: short (one mora), consisting of an optional onset and a short vowel; long (two morae), consisting of an optional onset and a long vowel/diphthong or a short vowel followed by a single consonant; and overlong (three morae), consisting of an optional onset and a long vowel/diphthong followed by a single consonant or a short vowel followed by a cluster.

Stress in Old Janah was phonemic, but was most commonly found on the final syllable of the root, which was usually penultimate to the word itself. A few suffixes attracted stress. Stress was indicated by a raised pitch on the stressed syllable.

[Atrulfal]

/tʼɑnfɤsː/ <Thanfëz>

/m mː n nː/ <m mm n nn>
/p pʼ pː pʼː t tʼ tː tʼː kʷ kʷʼ kʷː kʷʼː/ <p ph b bh t th d dh k kh g gh>
/ts tsʼ tsː tsʼː tʃ tʃʼ tʃː tʃʼː/ <ț țh ḑ ḑh ç çh c ch>
/f fː s sː ʃ ʃː ɕ ɕː x xː χ χː ħ ħː/ <f v s z ś ź ş j x ğ ḫ ġ ḩ ģ>
/j jː w wː r rː ɮ ɮː/ <y yy w ww r rr l ll>

/i y ɯ u e ø ɤ o æ ɑ/ <i ü ï u e ö ë o ä a>
/iː yː ɯː uː eː øː ɤː oː æː ɑː/ <í ű i̋ ú é ő e̋ ó a̋ á>

Syllable Structure

C = any consonant
V = any vowel

(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

While a single syllable may be CCCCVCCCC, this is really, really rare while the CVC and VC patterns are the most common.

Prosody

Stress is not phonemic in Thanfëz. Usually the first syllable of a word is normally stressed and follows a pattern of alternating (trochaic) stress, in which each odd-numbered syllable is relatively stressed and even-numbered syllables are unstressed.

Palatalization

Before the front vowels /i(ː), y(ː)/ and the consonant /j(ː)/, consonants become palatalized. For some the palatalization goes further as it is shown in the table bellow.

/m mː n nː/ [mʲ mːʲ ɲ ɲː]
/p pʼ pː pʼː t tʼ tː tʼː kʷ kʷʼ kʷː kʷʼː/ [pʲ pʲʼ pʲː pʲʼː c cʼ cː cʼː kᶣ kᶣʼ kᶣː kᶣʼː]
/ts tsʼ tsː tsʼː tʃ tʃʼ tʃː tʃʼː/ [tʃ tʃʼ tʃː tʃʼː tʂ tʂʼ tʂː tʂʼː]
/f fː s sː ʃ ʃː ɕ ɕː x xː χ χː ħ ħː/ [fʲ fʲː ʃ ʃː ɕ ɕː ʂ ʂː ç çː χʲ χʲː ħʲ ħʲː]
/j jː w wː r rː ɮ ɮː/ [j jː wʲ wʲː rʲ rʲː ɮʲ ɮʲː]

Vowel Harmony

Thanfëz's system of vowel harmony is a front/back system with no neutral vowels. The stressed syllable, which usually is initial syllable, of each single word controls the frontness or backness of the entire word.

Front Vowel Class
/i(ː) y(ː) e(ː) ø(ː) æ(ː)/

Back Vowel Class
/ɯ(ː) u(ː) ɤ(ː) o(ː) ɑ(ː)/

Consonant Gradation

The first and only plosive at the onset of a secondarily stressed closed syllable lenites.

Long plosives become short, short plosives become voiced.

/p pʼ pː pʼː t tʼ tː tʼː kʷ kʷʼ kʷː kʷʼː/ [b ɓ p pʼ d ɗ t tʼ gʷ ɠʷ kʷ kʷʼ]

With palatalization it changes too.

[pʲ pʲʼ pʲː pʲʼː c cʼ cː cʼː kᶣ kᶣʼ kᶣː kᶣʼː] [bʲ ɓʲ pʲ pʲʼ ɟ ʄ c cʼ gᶣ ɠᶣ kᶣ kᶣʼ]

[Travis B.]

I have to notice that when you list your phonemes and now they are spelled, you list the short phonemes with traditionally fortis letters and long phonemes with traditionally lenis letters. This really should be the other way around, especially since your short phonemes allophonically voice, unlike your long phonemes.

[Pole, the]

Janaharian

Inventory

Nasals: /m n/ <m n>
Stops/Affricate: /p b t d tʃ k ɡ q/ <p b t d ch k g q>
Fricatives: /s z ʃ ʒ x ʁ ɦ/ <s z sh j kh rh h>
Approximants/Trill: /ʋ l r j/ <v l r y>

Lax vowels: /ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɐ/ <i u e o a>
Tense vowels: /i u e o æ ɒ/ <î û ê ô â ą>

Phonotactics

A very wide range of onsets are allowed, but it is rare (although not unknown) for sonorants to precede non-sonorants, with the exception of /ʋ/, found in the common prefix v-. /j/ is almost never found in clusters in native vocabulary, although clusters ending in /j/ can be found in loanwords. /ɦ/ may precede a sonorant, but is otherwise only found as a single consonant in onsets.

Codas are similarly diverse, and unlike onsets it's not uncommon for them not to follow a sonority hierarchy, e.g. majr /mɐʒr/. /j/ never occurs in codas. /ɦ/ is common in codas, but must be adjacent to a vowel.

Vowels cannot abut word-internally. Vowel-vowel hiatus is permitted but uncommon across word boundaries; most vowel-final particles and some suffixes have consonant-final allomorphs to minimize hiatus. Where a vowel-vowel hiatus would be created by adjacent morphemes, varying processes eliminate it, including elision of one of the vowels and insertion of one of /j ʋ ɦ n/, depending on the history of the morphemes in question. The strategy used is often unpredictable synchronically.

Allophony

Voiced stops are fully voiced. Voiceless stops have little to no aspiration. /n t d s z l/ are all laminal denti-alveolar; /r/ is alveolar. /ɛ ɔ/ are mid-centralized, not cardinal open-mid vowels. /e o/ are cardinal close-mid vowels.

The postalveolar, velar, and lateral consonants have "soft" (palatalized) and "hard" (non-palatalized; velarized) allophones. In hard contexts, postalveolars are realized as laminal non-palatalized postalveolars (i.e. the type of "retroflex" found in Polish), velars as velars, and /l/ as velarized [ɫ], yielding the set [ʈʂ ʂ ʐ k ɡ x ɫ] for /tʃ ʃ ʒ k ɡ x l/. In soft contexts, postalveolars are alveopalatal, velars are dorsal palatal/prevelar, and /l/ is clear, non-velarized [l], yielding [tɕ ɕ ʑ c ɟ ç l]. The soft allophones are found before front vowels, in codas after front vowels, and before another palatalized consonant; in a group of palatalizable consonants palatalization spreads backwards until it reaches a vowel or a non-palatalizable consonant. (E.g. kleshą /klɛˈʃɒ/ is [clɛˈʂɒː], with the entire initial cluster soft.) The hard allophones are found in all other contexts. /æ/ is treated as front, but /ɐ/ is not.

In clusters of obstruents, all obstruents assimilate in voicing to the final obstruent. This does not extend to assimilating to non-obstruents except in some non-standard varieties: ksesm /ksɛsm/ is [ksɛsm], not [ksɛzm]. This assimilation can produce phones that don't otherwise exist, such as [dʑ]/[ɖʐ] from /tʃ/ or [ɢ] from /q/. These have a tendency to shift into other phonemes outside of synchronically transparent compounds: In more established vocabulary the voicing-assimilated allophones of /tʃ q x ʁ/ tend to merge into /ʒ ʁ ɦ q/ respectively.

There are a couple of special cases to the voicing assimilation. /ʋ/ assimilates to [f] before a voiceless consonant. /ɦ/ may be optionally devoiced word-initially, and in onset clusters with sonorants condenses with them to a voiceless sonorant: /ɦʋ ɦl ɦr ɦm ɦn/ are phonetically [f l̥ r̥ m̥ n̥]. These may optionally be preaspirated [ʰf ʰl̥ ʰr̥ ʰm̥ ʰn̥]. /ɦʋ/ is often used for /f/ in loanwords.

Lax and tense vowels are distinguished when stressed or word-final. When they are neither stressed nor word-final, the tense vowels merge into the lax vowels. Tense vowels lengthen in open syllables and in stressed monosyllables, and to a lesser extent are often slightly longer than lax vowels in other environments as well.

As in many languages, /n/ assimilates to the POA of a following consonant, generating the segments [ɱ ɳ ȵ ɲ ŋ ɴ] alongside the phonemic nasals. /m/ does not: Compare angê /ɐnɡe/ [ɐɲɟeː] "if" and amgê /ɐmˈɡe/ [ɐmˈɟeː] "you overwrite".

In the vicinity of uvulars, /i/ and /ɪ/ centralize to [ɨ] and [ɘ].

Prosody

Janaharian is a stress-timed language, like English, German, and Russian. There is a roughly equal amount of time between stresses, and stressed syllables tend to be longer than other syllables (to varying degrees depending on intervening unstressed syllables). As noted above, Janaharian distinguishes tense and lax vowels; stressed syllables with a tense vowel tend to lengthen the vowel, whereas stressed syllables with a lax vowel tend to lengthen the consonant coda somewhat, or to be short and allow a bit more time for the following syllable if open.

The position of stress is synchronically unpredictable and thus phonemic. In most cases the stress remains at the position it had in Janaharian's ancestor Old Janah, but subsequent sound changes have made this synchronically irregular.

Dialectical and other variation

/ʒ/ derives primarily from an earlier affricate /dʒ/. This has deaffricated in most dialects, but in the Northern dialect it remains an affricate. In a few cases [ʒ] derived from voicing of a /ʃ/ has also been reanalyzed as this affricate. Relatedly, /ʁ/ derives from an earlier /ɢ/, and a minority of Northern speakers retain this value for the sound.

The standard's set of dorsal fricatives /x ʁ/ is somewhat unusual, and many speakers change it to something more symmetrical. The variation /χ ʁ/ is quite common; /x ɣ/ is also fairly common. Generally speakers with uvulars for both also remove the voiceless fricative's soft allophone [ç], while speakers with velars for both often add a soft allophone [ʝ] to /ɣ/, although this last variation is somewhat stigmatized and primarily associated with rural working-class speech.

Although still frowned on by traditionalists, a merger of the soft allophones of the postalveolars and velars is becoming increasingly common, especially in urban dialects and among younger speakers. /tʃ k/ yield [tɕ], /g/ yields [dʑ], /ʃ x/ yield [ɕ], and /ʒ/ yields [ʑ]. Note that, outside of the uncommon intersection of this feature with the Northern dialect's retention of /dʒ/, this introduces a contrast between a voiced affricate and a voiced fricative at this POA.

The realization of /ʋ/ varies. Some Northerners have a fricative [v], and some Southerners have a labial-velar approximant [w]. Almost all have [f] in devoicing contexts.

The lax vowels are subject to a lot of mergers. Eastern dialects merge the mid and close lax vowels, yielding a three-vowel system of /ɪ ʊ ɐ/. The Central dialect merges /ɐ/ and /ɔ/ to [ʌ]. A subdialect of Central has only [ɪ ɛ] in soft environments and only [ɯ̽ ʌ] elsewhere, creating a vertical, two-vowel system among the lax vowels. Southern speech, meanwhile, has a different tense vowel system, with a single open vowel /a/; some instances of /æ ɒ/ in the standard are /e o/ in this system, while others are /a/.

While hard and soft consonants are allophones in standard speech, some dialects have innovated a phonemic distinction. As noted above, some speakers have a vertical lax vowel system and thus have a marginal soft-hard contrast before lax vowels. Speakers with /a/ may have minimal pairs of soft and hard consonants before this vowel. Finally, elision of word-final unstressed vowels has generated minimal pairs of soft and hard consonants for some speakers, similarly to Romanian's contrastive word-final palatalization.

That's quite an interesting phonology!

[opipik]

One dialect:

/t̪ t̻ ʨ k/ <ț t c k>
/n̪ n̻ ȵ/ <n̦ n ɲ>
/ɸ ð ɹ̝ ʝ h/ <f d z ỹ h>
/w j/ <w y>

/ɪ ə/ <i a>
/iː ɑː oː ʉː/ <ī ā ō ū>

/ˈi ˈɛ ˈɒ ˈo ˈʉ/ <í e á o u>
/ˈiː ˈeː ˈæː ˈɒː ˈoː ˈuː/ <î ē ǣ â ô û>

Another dialect:

/t k/ <t k>
/n~ȵ/ <n>
/z ʃ ʒ h hʷ/ <z s ỹ h f>
/w l j/ <w d y>

/ɪ ʊ ɐ/ <i u a>
/iː eː ɔː oː uː/ <ī ē ɔ̄ ō ū>

/ˈɪ ˈɛ ˈa ˈɔ ˈo ˈʊ/ <í e á ɔ ó u>
/ˈiː ˈeː ˈɛː ˈaː ˈɔː ˈoː ˈuː/ <î ê ɛ̄ ā ɔ̂ ô û>

The standard language:

/p t ȶ k/ <p t c k>
/m n ȵ/ <m n ɲ>
/ɸ β s z ʃ ʒ ʑ h/ <f v s z š ž ỹ h>
/w j/ <w y>

/ɪ ɐ ʊ/ <i a u>
/iː eː aː ɑː oː uː/ <ī ē ā ɑ̄ ō ū>

/ˈɪ ˈe ˈa ˈɑ ˈo ˈʊ/ <í e á ɑ o ú>
/ˈiː ˈeː ˈɛː ˈaː ˈɑː ˈɔː ˈoː ˈuː/ <î ê ɛ̄ â ɑ̂ ɔ̄ ô û>

Some dialects preserve features not found in the standard language.

The ancestor:

/p b t d tʲ dʲ c ɟ k ɡ/ <p b t d tʸ dʸ c j k g>
/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ɲ ŋ>
/ɸ β s z sʲ zʲ ɕ ʑ h/ <f v s z sʸ zʸ š ž h>
/w l j/ <w l y>

/ɪ e ɛ ɐ ɔ o ʊ/ <i e ɛ a ɔ o u>
/iː eː ɛː aː ɑː ɔː oː uː/ <ī ē ɛ̄ ā ɑ̄ ɔ̄ ō ū>

Stress is contrastive. <V́ in short vowels, V̂ in long vowels>

[syzithryx]

Mine is nowhere near as exciting as some of y'all's.

Characters, and acceptable sounds
(in Sälkc alphabetic order - most common pronunciations first)
<i> - [ɪ]
<a> - [ä,ə]
<o> - [o,ɔ]
<e> - [ɛ,e,æ]
<y> - [i,y,j]
<u> - [u,ʊ,ʋ]
<x> - [x]
<r> - [ɾ, ɽ]
<p> - [p,pʰ]
<l> - [l,ɺ]
<t> - [t,tʰ]
<n> - [n,ŋ]
<k> - [k,kʰ,q]
<z> - [z]
<b> - [b,bʰ]
<dh> - [ð]
<d> - [d,dʰ]
<v> - [v]
<h> - [ɧ,fʲ,hʷ]
<s> - [s]
<g> - [g,gʰ]
<th> - [θ]
<c> - [ʃ,ç]
<m> - [m]

<ao> is not pronounced [äo] but rather [ɒ]. <ä> is the same, really just another way of writing <ao>.
<zy> or <j> is uncommon but pronounced [ʒ].
<lh> is also uncommon, pronounced [ɬ] (the lateral voiceless fricative)

[Chengjiang]

That's quite an interesting phonology!

Thank you! I'm pleasantly surprised with how well people like it!

[jal]

Sajiwan has either a fairly simple phonemic inventory with fairly complex allophony (the diachronic approach) or a fairly complex phonemic inventory with fairly simple allophone (the synchronic approach). I've come to prefer the latter, to avoid it being seen as "a variant of English pronounced funny", as many creoles are (by ignorant people).

Consonants:
Sajiwan has four main points of articulation: labial, dental, palatal and velar, and a full set of labialized plosives and fricatives.

plosives: /p b t d k g/ [p b t̪ d̪ k g]
labialized plosives: /pʷ bʷ tʷ dʷ kʷ gʷ/ [pʷ bʷ t̪ʷ d̪ʷ kʷ gʷ]
nasals: /m n ɲ ŋ/ [m n̪ ɲ ŋ]
trill: /r/ [r ʀ] - some speakers have [ʀ] in certain (but not all) environments, but this is non-standard
fricatives: /f s/ [f s̪ z̪] - [z] is a common allophone of /s/ in voiced environments (e.g. intervocalically)
labialized fricatives: /fʷ sʷ/ [ɸʷ sʷ]
affricates: /tʃ dʒ/ [c͡ç ɟ͡ʝ] or [ç ʝ] - /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are pronounced as palatal affricates, though increasingly - especially amongst the younger generation - they are lenited to fricatives
approximant: /ʋ j/ [ʋ j]
laterals: /l ʎ/ [l̪ ʎ]
others: /w/ [w b̞ʷ] - before a rounded back vowel (i.e. /o/ or /u/), /w/ has an allophone that is an almost (or sometimes entirely) closed [w], which is nontheless distinct from /bʷ/.

Vowels:
Sajiwan has four vowel heights, which is exceptional amongst CEC's (which typically have four). Most vowels come in short and long variants, except for the front rounded ones, which are always long.

close: /i iː yː u uː/ [i iː yː u uː] - /iː/ and /uː/ are marginal at best
mid: /e eː øː o oː õː/ [e ɪ eː øː o ɔ oː ɔː ɒ̃ː] - /e/ has allopohone [ɪ] (when short), /o/ has allophone /ɔ/ (both long and short). Nasal /o/ is low, and may be pronounced /ɒ̃ɰ̃/ (with a trace of original /n/).
open: /a aː ãː/ [ɐ ɐː ɐ̃ː]

Phonotactics:
Sajiwan doesn't allow more than CCVCC, though CVC and CCVC are more typical. /l/ and /n/ kan be syllabic (the latter only marginally used). Due to the origin of it's phonemic inventory, there are many restrictions to what phonemes can appear where (e.g. labialized consonants are almost always followed by a long vowel, palatal /n/ either preceeded or followed by one, etc.).

If anyone's interested in the diachronics of all of this let me know.


JAL

[spanick]

Dengvas Voidōs (aka Voidosian)

Consonants

/p t k b d g/ <p t k b d g>
/v s/ <v s>
/m n/ <m n>
/l/ l
/r/ r
/j/ y

Vowels

/i y e ø u o ɔ a/ <i ui e oe u o oa a
/iː yː eː øː uː oː ɔː aː/ <ī ūi ē ōe ū ō ōa ā>
/oi ai au/ <oi ai au>

Syllable Structure

Basic syllable structures:

(s)(C)V(C)(s)

*/s/ cannot precede voiced stops.

Stress

Still working on this, but stress is generally fixed to the root but certain suffixes may move the stress off the root. I currently do not mark for stress.

Phonotactics

Still working on this as well. Right now I only have two rules to speak of:

/b d g/ => /p t k/ | ___ [-voi]

The second is that two like vowels create a long vowel across morpheme boundaries but not dissimilar vowels:
Ex: voido-os => voidōs but voido-es => voidoës.

[Nortaneous]

i am making an indo-european conlang. here is the phonology of my indo-european conlang

Consonants[edit]
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Affricate (t͡s) (d͡z) (t͡ɕ) (d͡ʑ)
Nasal m n (ŋ) (ɴ)
Fricative (ɸ) s z (ɕ) (ʑ) (ç) h
Flap ɾ ~ ɺ
Approximant j ɰᵝ
Notes

Voiceless stops /p t k/ are slightly aspirated: less aspirated than English stops, but more so than Spanish.[1] /t d n/ are laminal denti-alveolar (that is, the blade of the tongue contacts the back of the upper teeth and the front part of the alveolar ridge) and /s z/ are laminal alveolar. The compressed velar is essentially a non-moraic version of the vowel /u/. It is not equivalent to a typical IPA [w], since it is pronounced with lip compression ([ɰᵝ]) rather than rounding.[citation needed]
Consonants inside parentheses are allophones. Most notably, all taps and laterals are allophones of one underspecified phoneme. With the growing tendency of /h s z t d/ being pronounced distinctly (i.e., without the typical Edonese allophonic variation described below) in loanwords, [ɸ ɕ ʑ t͡s d͡z t͡ɕ d͡ʑ] are now tending to occur phonemically in recent loans.[2] /ɴ/ may be considered an allophone of /n m/ in syllable-final position or a distinct phoneme.
See below for more in-detail descriptions of allophonic variation.

Before /i/, /t d s z/ alveolo-palatal [tɕ dʑ ɕ ʑ] (often romanized ch j sh j) and before /u/ they are [ts dz] (often romanized ts dz/z).
/z/ is pronounced [dz] by many speakers when word-initial or following the moraic nasal. It is [dʑ~ʑ] before /i/.[3]
/h/ is [ç] before /i/ and /j/ About this sound listen (help·info), and [ɸ] before /u/ (often romanized f) About this sound listen (help·info),[4] coarticulated with the labial compression of that vowel.
ɴ is a syllable-final moraic nasal with variable pronunciation depending on what follows.
/r/ is an apical postalveolar flap undefined for laterality. That is, it is specified as neither a central nor a lateral flap, but may vary between the two. It is similar to the Korean r. To an English speaker's ears, its pronunciation varies between a flapped d ([ɾ], as in American English buddy) and a flapped l [ɺ], sounding most like d before /i/ and /j/ About this sound listen (help·info), most like l before /o/, and /a/ About this sound listen (help·info), and most like a retracted flap [ɾ̠] before /e/. It is occasionally realized as a trill [r], especially when conveying a vulgar nuance in speech. The phenomenon is called rolled tongue (巻き舌 makijita?) in Edonese, and is usually transcribed by repeating katakana ru, e.g. ガルルルル for a dog's growl. It is sometimes transcribed with an l–ɾ ligature, lɾ.


Weakening[edit]
Non-coronal voiced stops /b, ɡ/ between vowels may be weakened to fricatives, especially in fast and/or casual speech.

However, /ɡ/ is further complicated by its variant realization as a velar nasal [ŋ]. Standard Edonese speakers can be categorized into 3 groups (A, B, C), which will be explained below. If a speaker pronounces a given word consistently with the allophone [ŋ] (i.e. a B-speaker), that speaker will never have [ɣ] as an allophone in that same word. If a speaker varies between [ŋ] and [ɡ] (i.e. an A-speaker) or is generally consistent in using [ɡ] (i.e. a C-speaker), then the velar fricative [ɣ] is always another possible allophone in fast speech.

/ɡ/ may be weakened to nasal [ŋ] when it occurs within words — this includes not only between vowels but also between a vowel and a consonant. There is a fair amount of variation between speakers, however. Some, such as Vance (1987), have suggested that the variation follows social class; others, such as Akamatsu (1997), suggest that the variation follows age and geographic location. The generalized situation is as follows.

At the beginning of words:

all present-day standard Edonese speakers generally use the stop [ɡ] at the beginning of words.
In the middle of simple words (i.e. non-compounds):

A. a majority of speakers uses either [ŋ] or [ɡ] in free variation:
B. a minority of speakers consistently uses [ŋ]
C. most speakers in western Edotan and a smaller minority of speakers in Kantō consistently use [ɡ][5]
In the middle of compound words morpheme-initially:

B-speakers mentioned directly above consistently use [ɡ].

Palatalization and affrication[edit]
The palatals /i/ and /j/ palatalize the consonants preceding them:[7]

/m/ > palatalized [mʲ]
/ɡ/ > palatalized [ɡʲ]
etc.
Exceptionally, /k/ and /ɡ/ before /e/ are also palatalized.

For coronal consonants, the palatalization goes further so that alveolopalatal consonants correspond with dental or alveolar consonants[8]

Of the allophones of /z/, the affricate [dz] is most common, especially at the beginning of utterances and after /ɴ/ (or /n/, depending on the analysis), while fricative [z] may occur between vowels. Both sounds, however, are in free variation.

In the case of the /s/, /z/, and /t/, when followed by /j/, historically, the consonants were palatalized with /j/ merging into a single pronunciation. In modern Edonese, these are arguably separate phonemes, at least for the portion of the population that pronounces them distinctly in English borrowings.

The vowel /u/ also affects consonants that it follows:[9]

/h/ > bilabial fricative [ɸ]
/t/ > dental affricate [ts]
Although [ɸ] and [ts] occur before other vowels in loanwords (e.g. [ɸaito], 'fight'; [ɸjɯ̥ᵝːdʑoɴ], 'fusion'; [tsaitoɡaisu̥to], 'Zeitgeist'; [eɾitsiɴ], 'Yeltsin'), [ɸ] and [h] are distinguished before vowels except u（e.g. English fork v.s. hawk >[ɸoːkɯᵝ] fooku v.s [hoːkɯᵝ] hooku). *[hɯᵝ] is still not distinguished from [ɸɯᵝ] (e.g. English hood v.s. food > [ɸɯᵝːdo] fuudo).[10] Similarly, *[si] and *[zi] do not occur even in loanwords so that English cinema becomes [ɕinema] shinema.[11]

The moraic nasal /ɴ/[edit]
Some analyses of Edonese treat the moraic nasal as an archiphoneme /N/;[12] however, other, less abstract approaches, take its uvular pronunciation as basic, or treat it as coronal /n/ appearing in the syllable coda. Even when the nasal coda is proposed as /N/, it is in a complementary distribution with the nasal onsets within a syllable.[citation needed] In any case, it undergoes a variety of assimilatory processes. Within words, it is variously:[13]

uvular [ɴ] at the end of utterances and in isolation.
bilabial [m] before [p], and [m]; this pronunciation is also sometimes found at the end of utterances and in isolation.[citation needed] Singers are taught to pronounce all final and prevocalic instances of this sound as [m], which reflects its historical derivation.[citation needed]
dental [n] before coronals /d/, /t/, and /n/; never found utterance-finally.
velar [ŋ] before [k] and [ɡ].
some sort of nasalized vowel before vowels, approximants (/j/ and /w/), /r/, and fricatives (/s/, /z/, and /h/). Depending on context and speaker, the vowel's quality may closely match that of the preceding vowel or it may be more constricted in articulation. This pronunciation is also found utterance-finally.[7]
Some speakers produce [n] before /z/, pronouncing them as [ndz], while others produce a nasalized vowel before /z/.[14]

These assimilations occur beyond word boundaries.[citation needed]

Gemination[edit]
While Edonese features consonant gemination, there are some limitations in what can be geminated. Most saliently, voiced geminates are prohibited in native Edonese words.[15] This can be seen with suffixation that would otherwise feature voiced geminates.

However, voiced geminates do appear in loanwords. These loanwords can even come from languages, such as English, that do not feature gemination in the first place. For example, when an English word features a coda consonant followed by a lax vowel, it can be borrowed into Edonese featuring a geminate; gemination may also appear as a result of borrowing via written materials, where a word spelled with doubled letters leads to a geminated pronunciation.[18] Because these loanwords can feature voiced geminates, Edonese now exhibits a voice distinction with geminates where it formerly did not:[19]

suraggā スラッガー ('slugger') vs. surakkā ('slacker')
kiddo キッド ('kid') vs. kitto ('kit')

This distinction is not very rigorous. For example, when voiced obstruent geminates appear with another voiced obstruent they can undergo optional devoicing (e.g. doreddo ~ doretto, 'dreadlocks'). Kawahara (2006) attributes this to a less reliable distinction between voiced and voiceless geminates compared to the same distinction in non-geminated consonants, noting that speakers may have difficulty distinguishing them due to the partial devoicing of voiced geminates and their resistance to the weakening process mentioned above, both of which can make them sound like voiceless geminates.[20]

There is some dispute about how gemination fits with Edonese phonotactics. One analysis, particularly popular among Edonese scholars, posits a special "mora phoneme" (モーラ 音素 Mōra onso) /Q/, which corresponds the sokuon ⟨っ⟩.[21] However, not all scholars agree that the use of this "moraic obstruent" is the best analysis. In those approaches that incorporate the moraic obstruent, it is said to completely assimilate to the following obstruent, resulting in a geminate (that is, double) consonant. The assimilated /Q/ remains unreleased and thus the geminates are phonetically long consonants. /Q/ does not occur before vowels or nasal consonants. This can be seen as an archiphoneme in that it has no underlying place or manner of articulation, and instead manifests as several phonetic realizations depending on context, for example:

Another analysis of Edonese dispenses with /Q/ and other

Gemination can of course also be transcribed with a length mark, but this notation obscures mora boundaries.

/d, z/ neutralization[edit]
The contrast between /d/ and /z/ is neutralized before /u/ and /i/: [zɯᵝ, dʑi]. By convention, it is often assumed to be /z/, though some analyze it as /d/, the voiced counterpart to [ts].
Sandhi[edit]
Various forms of sandhi exist.

Vowels[edit]

The vowels of Standard Edonese on a vowel chart. Adapted from Okada (1991:94).
Vowel phonemes of Edonese
Front Central Back
Close i ɯ
Mid e o
Open a
/ɯ/ is close centralized back compressed vowel [ɯᵝ] About this sound listen (help·info). It is pronounced with the lips compressed toward each other but neither rounded like nor spread to the sides like [ɯ].
/e, o/ are mid [e̞, o̞].[22]
/a/ is central [ä].[22]
All of the Edonese vowels are pronounced as monophthongs. Except for /u/, the short vowels are similar to their Spanish or Italian counterparts.

Vowels have a phonemic length contrast (i.e. short vs. long).

[Travis B.]

The phonology of your Indo-European conlang is so close to that of Standard Japanese that you did not need to make any changes to the Japanese wiki page except for find-and-replace-ing "Japanese" for "Edonese"!

[Frislander]

Oo, this actually sounds quite interesting: Indo-European speakers somehow migrated to Japan and developed their own branch of the family (I presume). I would like to see more of this. M<ind you, why it developed to be so close to Japanese I could not tell you.

[Chengjiang]

i am making an indo-european conlang. here is the phonology of my indo-european conlang

[literally Japanese's phonology]

Is this some kind of joke?

[jal]

Is this some kind of joke?

Nort has a... weird sense of humor.


JAL

[vokzhen]

Iirc Nort's done stuff like that before when he's annoyed by how unoriginal and/or stupid people are being. If that's the case, I'm not sure what's so offensive here, though.

[KathTheDragon]

That said, he did actually come up with sound changes to produce Japanese's inventory, over in his scratchpad thread.

[Travis B.]

Nort's thing at the moment is to produce sets of sound changes that turn PIE's phonology into the phonologies of various non-IE Real Life languages.

[Chengjiang]

Nort's thing at the moment is to produce sets of sound changes that turn PIE's phonology into the phonologies of various non-IE Real Life languages.

Ah, OK, and this was him being cheeky about it.

[Nortaneous]

Nort's thing at the moment is to produce sets of sound changes that turn PIE's phonology into the phonologies of various non-IE Real Life languages.

Ah, OK, and this was him being cheeky about it.

correct

a component of the joke is that *h2ewsreh2-steh2no, i.e. 'sunrise land', becomes 'edotan', hence 'edonese'

presumably -tan ought to be -to; cf. 'tōkyō-to'. currently, unstressed word-final /o/ becomes /u/ after nasals, and then unstressed word-final /mu nu/ become the moraic nasal in words of >2 morae. so, instead of -ano > -anu > -an, -ano > -ão > -o.

[Porphyrogenitos]

A very simple thing I came up with, somewhat inspired by Hebrew spirantization:

Phoneme inventory

Nasals: /m n/ <m n>
Stops: /p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
Fricatives: /s/ <s>
Approximants + trill: /l r/ <l r>
Semivowels: /j w/ <y w>

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

Syllable structure

Syllable structure is strictly (C)V(C). Loanwords with initial clusters undergo prothesis of /a/, e.g. Latin Francia > Apransya

The sequences /ij/ /ji/ /uw/ and /wu/ are forbidden. If they occur as a result of morphological processes, they are dissimilated to /ej/ /je/ /ow/ and /wo/, respectively.

Vowel hiatus is forbidden. If hiatus occurs as a result of morphological processes, the vowels are separated by /g/ if different, but merge into one vowel of regular length if of identical quality.

Allophony

The most significant allophonic process is spirantization, by which the stops become fricatives intervocalically.

/p b t d k g/ > [f v θ ð x ɣ] between vowels. E.g. /tapit/ > [tafit], /tapit/ + /a/ > [tafiθa]

/s/ is voiced to [z] between vowels

All stops and fricatives assimilate in voicing to the following consonant, e.g. /esdatgo/ > [ezdadgo]

The sequences /tj/ and /sj/ undergo palatalization, resulting in [t͜ʃ] and [ʃ], respectively. These allophones are also subject to voicing intervocalically, producing the further allophones [d͜ʒ] and [ʒ]. E.g. /tjasja/ > [t͜ʃaʒa]

Dialectal variation

Some varieties simplify geminates to singletons, producing a TT > T > S chain shift and producing a phonemic distinction between the unspirantized and spirantized stop realizations.

Some varieties expand spirantization to even more environments, such as all postvocalic environments. E.g. standard /pagdak/ > [pagdak] vs. dialectal /pagdak/ > [paɣdax]

Some varieties drop [ɣ], resulting in hiatus. E.g. standard /tug/ + /a/ > [tuɣa] vs. dialectal [tua]

Loanwords in some dialects have resulted in the spirantized realizations becoming phonemic, as well.