Verse:Hmøøh/Society and politics

Phonology

The phonology was inspired by Southeast Asian languages, and the orthography is a homage to some guy who advocated writing Vietnamese more like German and partially to my old daydreams about how a German missionary would have transliterated Khmer.

Consonants

Bơlơn consonants (Aesthetic Romanization)
		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	nh /ɳ/	ng /ŋ/
Plosive	tenuis	p /p/	t /t/	z /c/	k /k/		ʼ /ʔ/
	aspirated	ph /pʰ/	th /tʰ/	zh /cʰ/	kh /kʰ/
	breathy-voiced	b /bʱ/	d /ɗʱ/	ɟ /ɟʱ/	g /gʱ/
Fricative	voiceless	v /f/	ß /s/	x /ç/	ch /x/		h /h/
	voiced		s /ð/
Approximant		w /β̞/		y, j /j~ʝ/
Liquid			l /l/			r /ʀ/

Geminate /cc(ʰ)/ and /kk(ʰ)/ are tz(h) and ck(h)

Or

(Represents the way Talsmic-speaking scholars were likely to transliterate it)
		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	ñ /ɳ/	ng /ŋ/
Plosive	tenuis	p /p/	t /t/	ŧ /c/	c /k/		ʼ /ʔ/
	aspirated	pʰ /pʰ/	tʰ /tʰ/	ŧʰ /cʰ/	cʰ /kʰ/
	breathy-voiced	b /bʱ/	d /ɗʱ/	dŧ /ɟʱ/	g /gʱ/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	th /s/	s /ç/	ch /x/		h /h/
	voiced		ð /ð/
Approximant		v /β̞/		z, ı /j~ʝ/
Liquid			l /l/			ŗ /ʀ/

Vowels

Vowels (Aesthetic 1)
	Front		Back
			unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	í /iː/	ư /ɯ/	ứ /ɯː/	u /u/	ú /uː/
Close-mid	e /e/	é /eː/	ơ /ɤ/	ớ /ɤː/	o /o/	ó /oː/
Open-mid	ê /ɛ/	ế /ɛː/			ô /ɔ/	ố /ɔː/
Open			a /a/	á /aː/

Vowels (Aesthetic 2)
	Front		Back
			unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	ih /iː/	ï /ɯ/	ïh /ɯː/	u /u/	uh /uː/
Close-mid	e /e/	eh /eː/	ë /ɤ/	ëh /ɤː/	o /o/	oh /oː/
Open-mid	ä /ɛ/	äh /ɛː/			å /ɔ/	åh /ɔː/
Open			a /a/	ah /aː/

Vowels (Talsmic-eye(or is it ear?)-view transliteration)
	Front		Back
			unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	í /iː/	y /ɯ/	ý /ɯː/	u /u/	ú /uː/
Close-mid	e /e/	é /eː/	ơ /ɤ/	ớ /ɤː/	o /o/	ó /oː/
Open-mid	ê /ɛ/	ế /ɛː/			ô /ɔ/	ố /ɔː/
Open			a /a/	á /aː/

Diphthongs

Diphthongs often distinguish length.

ai, ei / ái, ếi /aːɪ̯/
ay, ey / ai, êi /aɪ̯/
ao / áu /aːʊ̯/
au / au /aʊ/
aa / áơ /aːɜ̯/
aư / ay /aɯ̯/
eư, êư / ớy /ɤːɯ̯/
ơư / ơy /ɤɯ̯/
ee / éi /eːɪ̯/
ia / ie /iɜ̯/
ie / íe /iːɜ̯/
oo / óu /oːʊ̯/
ua / ua /uɜ̯/
uo / úa /uːɜ̯/
ưa / ya /ɯɜ̯/
ươ / ýa /ɯːɜ̯/

Phonotactics

C[r/l/j/β]VC is the max. syllable structure.

Features

• Marked absolutive
• Possessum and possessor are both marked
• Absolutive, ergative/oblique
• Spatial tenses/directionality
• Pluractionality requires the antipassive
• More prefixing than suffixing
• Non-reduced relative clauses
• ??? Polysynthesis ???