Phonology Weirdness
1 min read · 212 words
Lhannish has 7 base vowels, a as /a/, e as /e/, i as /i/, o as /o/, u as /u/, w as /ɯ/, and y as /ɨ/. Lhannish also has 3 base syllabic consonants /r̩/, /m̩/, and /l̩/. All the syllabic consonants can be voiceless, velarized, or voiceless and velarized.
This can lead to some pretty amusing consonant clusters. Like "khlhlmhjhi" /k͡ˠl̥ˠl̩m̥̩ˠj̥ˠy/, meaning "To translate" or "jhrhmak" /j̥ˠr̥ˠm̩ɑkˠ/, meaning "A flashcard". Or even words that don't have vowels, like "kcrhmhp" /kˠʃˠr̥̩ˠm̥ˠpˠ/, meaning "The spelling of a word".
The 7 base vowels can darken into differnt forms depending on their environment and being around velarized consonants.
For example, /a/ can change into /ɑ/, /ɔ/, or /ɐ/ depending on the consonants around it. With this in mind, Lhannish can have up to a total of 14~17 vowels (not including syllabic consonants).
As Show Below ↓
Vowel Inventory | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
High | i y | ɨ | ɯ u |
Near-high | ɪ | ʊ | |
High-mid | e | o | |
Mid | ə | ||
Low-mid | ɛ | ɜ | ɔ |
Near-low | ɐ | ||
Low | a | ɑ |
Consonants.
Lhannish's consonant inventory is fairly normal... until you see that every voiceless consonant is also velarized.
↓Manner/Place→ | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m m̥ˠ | n n̥ˠ | ||||
Stop | pˠ b | tˠ d | kˠ g | |||
Affricate | ʧˠ ʤ | |||||
Fricative | sˠ z | ʃˠ ʒ | xˠ ɣ | h | ||
Approximant | j̊ˠ j | |||||
Trill | r r̥ˠ | |||||
Lateral approximant | l l̥ˠ |
Co-articulated phonemes
↓Manner/Place→ | Labial-velar |
|---|---|
Approximant | w |
Each consonant has a voiceless, velarized counterpart. All of them except for /h/, and /w/.
Lhannish also has two unique doubly articulated consonants, /g͡l/ and /kˠ͡l̥ˠ/.