Ahakqau

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INTRODUCTION

Trying to create a phonologically and morphologically less complex conlang.

PHONOLOGY

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Ahakqau has a total of thirteen consonants which according to WALS (the World Atlas of Language Structures) is a small inventory. The consonant inventory is notable for the presence of a lateral obstruent and an initial velar nasal.

  Labial Central Alveolar Lateral Alveolar  Palato-Alveolar Velar
Voiceless Stop /p/ /t/ /tɬ/ /tʃ/ /k/
Voiced Fricative /v/ /ɹ/ /l/ /ʒ/ /ɣ/
Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/

NOTE: While /ɹ, l/ are not phonetically fricatives, they pattern phonologically with the rest of the voiced fricatives.

Vowels

Ahakqau has a total of three short monophthongs, three long monophthings and six diphthongs making a total of twelve phonological vowels. Long monophthongs are realised as diphthongs but patterb with the short monophthongs. According to WALS, which only considers the quality of monophthongs, this is a small vowel quality inventory.

Short Front Long Front Short Central Long Central Short Back Long Back
High Monophthong /i/ /eɪ/ /u/ /oʊ/
Low Monophthong   /ä/ /ɛə/
Front Central Back
High Diphthong /ɔɪ/ /iə/, /uə/ /ɛʊ/
Low Diphthong /aɪ/   /ɑʊ/

Orthography

Ahakqau is written in the Latin alphabet. It is a phonemic alphabet which also reflects sandhi.

Latin Letter IPA Value
⟨a⟩ /ä/
⟨aa⟩ /ɛə/
⟨ai⟩ /aɪ/
⟨au⟩ /ɑʊ/
⟨g⟩ /ɣ/
⟨i⟩ /i/
⟨ia⟩ /iə/
⟨ii⟩ /eɪ/
⟨iu⟩ /ɛʊ/
⟨j⟩ /ʒ/
⟨k⟩ /k/
⟨l⟩ /l/
⟨m⟩ /m/
⟨n⟩ /n/
⟨ŋ⟩ /ŋ/
⟨p⟩ /p/
⟨q⟩ /tɬ/
⟨r⟩ /ɹ/
⟨t⟩ /t/
⟨u⟩ /u/
⟨ua⟩ /uə/
⟨ui⟩ /ɔɪ/
⟨uu⟩ /oʊ/
⟨v⟩ /v/
⟨x⟩ /tʃ/