Thangha'

Thangha' is another language spoken in my far future Antarctic conworld (after runaway global warming has melted most of the ice but made most of the rest of the world uninhabitable). It is spoken by nomads who inhabit the centre of the continent.. Because each group of nomads speak their own dialect, Thangha' is a Pluricentric language. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Thangha's has become a lingua franca across much of East Antarctica (through other ethnic groups trading with the nomads). To give an example of the diversity, the initial consonant in the name of the language can be pronounced as [tˤ], [θˤ], [θ], [tsˤ], [sˤ], [tʰ], [tsʰ] or occasionally [ts]. The consonant that begins the second syllable is usually prononuced [x], but a few dialects pronounce it as as [χ], [ħ] or [h].

Phonology

Vowels

In stressed syllables, most dialects distinguish 6 plain oral vowels /a/, /iː/, /uː/, /e/, /o/, two nasal vowels /aⁿ/ and /əⁿ/, and one glottalised vowel /əʔ/. The difference between /iː/ vs. /e/ is more dependent on length than height. For example, a short [i] is more likely to be heard as /e/ than /iː/, and a long /eː/ is more likely to be heard as /iː/ than /e/. The back vowels /uː/ and /o/ are similar in this regard.

In unstressed syllables, the plain oral vowels /iː/, /uː/, /e/ and /o/ (i.e. all of the plain oral vowels except /a/) merge to /ə/ (which is still distinct from /əʔ/.

In non-word final syllables, it is very common for nasal vowels to unpackinto a sequence of oral vowel + nasal consonant (which is homorganic with the following consonant). For example, the vowel of the first syllable in the language name Thangha' is phonemically /aⁿ/, but is usually heard as [aŋ] (or [aɴ] for speakers who use a uvular fricative instead of a velar fricative).

Thangha' is well on the way to developing a second phonemic glottalised vowel /aʔ/, from coalesence of the sequence /a/ + Stop + /əʔ/ (unstressed). For example, in careful speech, Thangha' is heard as /ˈtˤaⁿxapəʔ/, however in normal conversation it is almost always contracted to /ˈtˤaⁿxaʔ/.

Consonants

There is considerable variation between dialects here:

	Labial	Pal. Labial	Dental / Alveolar	Lab. Dental	Alveolo-Palatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Lab. Velar	Lab. Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	mʲ ~ mj	n	nʷ ~ nw			ɲ ~ nj
Voiced Stop / Affricate	b	bʲ ~ bj	d	dʷ ~ dw	dʑ	ɖ	ɟ ~ gj	g		gʷ ~ gw ~ gb
Voiceless Stop	p	pʲ ~ pj	t	tʷ ~ tw		ʈ	c ~ kj	k	q	kʷ ~ kw ~ kp	qʷ ~ kf ~ qp	ʔ
Voiceless Affricate			ts ~ tɬ		tɕ
"Aspirated" Consonant	pˤ ~ pʰ		tˤ ~ θˤ ~ θ ~ tsˤ~ sˤ ~ tʰ ~ tsʰ ~ ts				cç ~ kɕ ~ ks
Fricative	f	fʲ ~ fj	s	sʷ ~ sw	ɕ	ʂ	ç ~ ɬ	x ~ χ ~ ħ ~ h		xʷ ~ χʷ ~ ʍ ~ ɸ
Flap / Trill					ɾʲ	ɽ			ʀ		ʀʷ ~ ⱱ
Lateral							ʎ		ɫ		ɫʷ ~ ɫw
Semivowel							j			w

Most dialects turn flaps into trills after glottal stops.

The "aspirated" consonants were originally aspirated stops, and a very small number of dialects preserve this pronunciation, however in the vast majority of dialects these have undergone sound shifts.

A few dialects merge the aspirated dental consonant into the voiceless alveolar affricate. In these dialects, Thangha' would be pronounced [ˈtsaŋxaʔ].

Some dialects merge /ɫʷ/ into /ɫ/.

Labialised labial consonants /mʷ/, /bʷ/, /pʷ/ (and sometimes /fʷ/~/ɸ/) occur as separate phonemese in a few dialects. But most dialects have merged these with the plain labials.

Some dialects merge /xʷ/ into /f/ (or /ɸ/ in one dialect that treats this as a distinct phoneme to /f/).

Stress

Syllable stress is not fixed, and can occur on any syllable of a word. However, as mentioned earlier, the range of vowels that can occur on unstressed syllables is limited.

Phonotactics

Only CCV syllables are permitted (this assumes that nasal and glottalised vowels are distinct phonemes). Furthermore, the only permissible consonant clusters (that are not affricates / cases of secondary articulation in at least some dialects) are /pf/, /tf/ and /pç/~/ps/~/pɬ/.