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Phonology

Consonants

Although the specific realizations vary, all major dialects of Rttirri distinguish the same consonant phonemes.

	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/	rn /ɳ/	ny /ɲ/
Plosive	p /p/	t /t/	rt /ʈ/	ty /c/	k /k/	hh /ʔ/
Ejective	pp /pʼ/	tt /tʼ/	rtt /ʈʼ/	tty /cʼ/	kk /kʼ/
Fricative	f /f/	s /ʃ/	rs /ʂ/	sy /ç/		h /h/
Affricate		ch /t͡ʃ/
Approximant	w /w/		rr /ɻ/	y /j/
Flap			r /ɽ/

In addition, the consonants l /l/ and kh /x/ are used in loanwords.

Vowels

Modern Standard Rttirri has a four-vowel inventory.

	Front	Back
High	i /i/	u /u/
Mid	e /ø/
Low		a /ɑ/

In addition, the mid vowels e /e/ and o /o/ are used in loanwords.

Phonotactics

Modern Standard Rttirri does not allow final consonants, and the only initial clusters allowable are of the following form: (f s sy) + (m n r rr). There are no geminate consonants.

No dialects of Rttirri distinguish vowel length, but the following diphthongs are allowed: ai au ei eu ui iu.

Stress is usually on the first syllable of a word, with secondary stress applied to every subsequent odd-numbered syllable. Loanwords and foreign names typically preserve their original stress, however.

Dialectology

Rttirri has many regional dialects.

Modern Standard Rttirri

The modern standard variant of the language is not spoken natively by many native Rttirrians, except those from highly educated and wealthy families, but it is widely used in news broadcasts and automated recordings such as those on subway systems - in this respect, it occupies a similar niche to that of Received Pronunciation in the UK. It is characterized by the following features:

• Because the usual aim of MSR is to "speak clearly", allophony is minimized - for example, consonants are not voiced intervocalically as they are in most dialects, and /w/ remains phonetically [w].
• The vowels /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ are merged to /ɑ/; thus, words like /tɑwi/ "brick" and /tʌwi/ "to survive" are pronounced the same.

Eastern Rttirri

Eastern Rttirri is spoken in much of the eastern half of the country, from the border with Myanmar to Fukanucha and eastern Kikai. This area of the country, centered on the capital city of Iharnara, is known for its large immigrant communities, decaying industry, high crime, and shrinking population, comparable to the Rust Belt of the United States. Eastern Rttirri, which is considered the most innovative dialect, is characterized by the following features:

• Intervocalically within a word, voiceless consonants are voiced.
• /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ are merged to [ä].

• After palatal consonants and in the last syllable of a word, it is raised as far as [e].

• /ø/ lowers to [œ].

• After retroflex consonants and in the last syllable of a word, /ø/ is backed as far as [o].

• /h/ fronts to [x] before phonetically front vowels, or [χ] before back ones.
• /w/ is realized as [b] in all positions. In loanwords and foreign names, /w/ is often rendered as a full [u] instead, while /b/ is increasingly imported as a fully voiced [b] instead of as [p].
• /j/ becomes a fricative sound, [ʝ]. Likewise, diphthongs containing /i/ become /Vʝ/ or /ʝV/ sequences. This pattern is not usually applied to loanwords.
• /i/ is backed to [ɨ] after retroflex consonants, and /u/ is fronted and unrounded to [ɨ~ɘ] after palatal consonants - in word roots, but not in affixes. Many scholars argue that there has been a phonemic split and that /ɨ/ is a legitimate vowel in Eastern Rttirri.
• Eastern Rttirri shows extensive reduction of unstressed vowels, creating clusters that do not exist in other dialects.
• Diphthongs are pronounced more as /VV/ sequences with a hiatus.
• The evidential particles lose their final vowels, instead being pronounced as bare consonants.
• The past-tense affix -pu becomes simply -p.

Fukanucha Rttirri

The particularly advanced sub-dialect of Fukanucha shows the following additional features:

• The already fronted /ɑ/ is further fronted to [a].
• The already lowered /ø/ is unrounded to [ɛ~æ].
• The -n evidential particle may be realized simply as nasality on the preceding vowel. Likewise, the -ny evidential particle may be realized in the same way, with the addition of a final [ʝ].

Western Rttirri

Western Rttirri is used in most of the western half of Rttirria, from western Kikai to the beaches of Hima. This area of the country, centered on Rttirria's largest city, Efunari, is wealthier, more ethnically homogeneous, and increasingly culturally relevant. However, in recent decades the dialect has also begun to creep up to the sparsely populated north of Rttirria. The dialect's high cultural prestige and the rapid growth of the northern city of Tettufane (many of whose residents are from Hima or the Efunari area), are starting to solidify Tettufane as a Western Rttirri-speaking city. Western Rttirri is characterized by the following features:

• Intervocalically within a word, voiceless consonants are voiced.
• Intervocalically within a word, /w/ is fricativized to [v]. In this position, it merges with /f/, which is voiced to [v].
• Most speakers merge /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ to /ɑ/; however, some older and rural speakers maintain the distinction.
• In all positions, /ʔ/ disappears.
• When stressed, /i/ and /u/ diphthongize to [əi] and [əu].
• The diphthongs /ɑi ɑu/ tense to [oi] and [eu].
• In all positions, /ø/ raises to [y].

• The diphthong /øi/ merges with it.

• The past-tense affix -pu tends to be substituted with the past-perfect affix -fe.

Kikai Rttirri

Kikai occupies a transitional zone between the Western and Eastern dialect areas. As a result, its dialect can be considered an mixture of Eastern and Western Rttirri, but younger speakers, especially in the city of Kikai itself, are tending to use a more Western pronunciation.

Northern Rttirri

Spoken only by rural and isolated communities in northern Rttirria, and by older people in the Tettufane metropolitan area, this dialect is being crowded out by the influence of Western Rttirri. One of the most conservative dialects, it is characterized by the following features:

• Unlike in other dialects, voiceless consonants remain voiceless between vowels.
• Likewise, /w/ is pronounced clearly as [w] in all positions.
• The distinction between /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ is maintained.
• After retroflex consonants, /i/ and /u/ lower to [e] and [o].

• When not stressed, the diphthong /ɑu/ merges with [o]. As a result, some scholars argue that /o/ is its own phoneme in Northern Rttirri.

• The consonants /t͡ʃ/ and /c/ have lost their phonemic contrast and become allophonic: [c] is pronounced after front vowels and [t͡ʃ] after back ones.

Rseperupu Rttirri

Localized to the small island province of Rseperupu, off the coast of western Rttirria, Rseperupu Rttirri is characterized by the following features:

• Intervocalically within a word, voiceless consonants are voiced.
• Intervocalically within a word, /w/ is fricativized to [v].
• /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ are merged to [ä].
• /ø/ is unrounded to [e].