User:Chrysophylax/merrish

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Background

Merrish
Mbhath her Maer
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|[[mwaθ χeɾ maːeɾ]]]]
Created byChrysophylax
SettingArdam
Isolate
  • Merrish
Language codes
ISO 639-3qmw

Phonology

Consonants

Chrysophylax/merrish has 18 consonants. A significant portion are fricatives.

bilabial labiodental dental (post)alveolar velar uvular
nasal m n
stops t d ⟨c⟩ k g ⟨k⟩ q
fricatives f v ⟨th⟩ θ ⟨dh⟩ ð ⟨z⟩ s̺ˡ ⟨s⟩ ʃ ⟨ch⟩ x ⟨h⟩ χ
tap ⟨r⟩ ɾ
approximant ⟨bh⟩ w

Vowels

Chrysophylax/merrish has, in the traditional analysis, a phonemically vertical three-vowel system. There is no length distinction. Phonetically, the low vowel a can be realised as a back, semi-rounded vowel [ɑʷ] before uvular consonants or as an (occasionally long) [æ] before a historical /j/ (written ⟨gh⟩ in the orthography).

Some have argued one should count another vowel phoneme æ on the basis of minimal pairs such as mbha [mwa] and mbhagh [mwæː]. Traditionally, however, consensus has been that in light of its restricted appearance (only appearing before historical /j/, does not appear in CVC syllables) and metrical patterning (CV syllables with *æ count as heavy syllables unlike those with an /a i u/), æ is at most a marginal, emerging phoneme and better viewed as an allophone of /a/.

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