Katäfalsen

Introduction

Katafalsen (pronunciation: [ˈkɑtɑfɑlsɛn]) is an apriori language, which is partially inspired by Basque, Hebrew and Latin. The aim was to construct a language with simple phonology along with unorthodox grammar and syntax. Katafalsen is highly synthetic and features a free word order and ergative-absolutive alignment.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Modern Katafalsen are as follows:

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/
Stop	voiced	b /b/	d /d/		g /g/
	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/		k /k/
Fricative		f /f/	s /s/		h /x/
Approximant			r /ɹ/	j /j/	w /w/
Lateral approximant			l /l/

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Katafalsen is quite symmetrical as there are three front, back, rounded and unrounded vowels each.

	Front		Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i /i/	y /y/		u /u/
Mid	e /e̞/			o /o̞/
Open			a /ɑ/

The only vowel that distinguishes length is /ɑ/ contrasting phonemically with /ɑː/. The long vowel is represented by ⟨ā⟩ or ⟨ā⟩.