Trâi

Todo

Borrow be- from Wiebian? (as pâ- or på-)

• tnong = iron
• sâmm = to read
• Jo'kneam (often pronounced like Jockneam) = capital of Trâyermein

Introduction

Trâi /tʀɑːj/ is a Naengic language inspired by Khmer.

Phonology

Consonants

Trâi consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	nj /ɲ/	ng /ŋ/
Stop	plain	p /p/	t /t/	z /c/	k /k/		' /ʔ/
	implosive	b /ɓ/	d /ɗ/
Fricative		w /v/	s /s̠/		-s, -ch [x]		h /h/
Liquid			l /l/	lj /ʎ/		r /ʀ~ʁ/
Approximant		w [w]		j /j/

Allowed final consonants: [p t c k m n ɲ ŋ l ʀ w j x]

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	ie /iː/	ü /ɨ/	ü /ɨː/	u /ʊ/	u /uː/
Close-mid	e /e/	e /eː/	ö /ə/	ö /əː/	o /o/	o /oː/
Open-mid	ä /ɛ/	ä /ɛː/			å /ɔ/	å /ɔː/
Open	a /a/	a /aː/			â /ɑ/	â /ɑː/

Diphthongs, not counting "r-colored" diphthongs: ae aö ao äi ei öü ou ia/ea ua /ae aə ao ɛɪ əɪ əɨ əʊ iə uə/

Vowels with -j or -w finals: üw üi ui ai âi åi eai uai eaw/iaw aoi aöi /ɨw ɨj uj aːj ɑːj ɔːj iəj uəj iəw aoj aəj/

R-coloring

Like German, Trâi vocalizes syllable-final /ʀ/ to [ɐ] after certain nuclei, which heavily affects preceding vowels.

• /iː, iə/ + /ʀ/ > [iːɐ]
• /ɨː, ɨə/ + /ʀ/ > [ɨːɐ]
• /uː, uə/ + /ʀ/ > [uːɐ]
• /eː/ + /ʀ/ > [eːɐ]
• /əː, əɨ/ + /ʀ/ > [əːɐ]
• /oː/ + /ʀ/ > [oːɐ]
• /ɛː, ɛɪ/ > [ɛːɐ]
• /ɔː/ + /ʀ/ > [ɔːɐ]
• /əɪ/ + /ʀ/ > [əɪɐ]
• /əʊ/ + /ʀ/ > [əʊɐ]
• /ae/ + /ʀ/ > [aɪɐ]
• /ao/ + /ʀ/ > [aʊɐ]
• /aː, aə/ + /ʀ/ > [aː]
• /ɑ, ɑː/ + /ʀ/ > [ɑː]

Phonotactics

A word may not end in a short vowel; it also may end in at most one consonant. There are also many complex initial clusters and sesquisyllabic words.

Rules for writing rimes

• Following a long vowel or diphthong, the finals /p t c k m n ɲ ŋ l ʀ x/ are written as ⟨p t z k hm hn hnj hng hl hr s⟩. The h is not used for resonant finals if the nucleus is a diphthong or ie /iː/.
• Following a short vowel, the finals /p t c k m n ŋ l ʀ x/ are written as ⟨pp tt zz ck mm nn nnj ng ll rr ch⟩.