Efenol

Efenol
Pronunciation	[/e.fe.ˈnol/]
Created by	–
Date	2010
Language family	Proto-Indo-European Latin Romance Spanish Old Efenol Efenol

Efenol /e.fe.ˈnol/ is an a posteriori constructed language descended from modern Spanish. Its phonology was inspired by Sindarin and Celtic languages and the language features consonant and vowel mutation in its morphology. It was created around the year 2010.

Efenol is a pluricentric language with a wide range of dialects. Southern Efenol, the earliest variety to split off, is distinct enough to be considered a different language and will not be covered in this article. The western variety, Western Efenol or Efenol del'Oth (/e.fe.ˈnol de.ˈloθ/) serves as the main standard language.

The name "Efenol" comes from "español", one of the Spanish names for the Spanish language itself.

About Efenol dialects

In addition to Western Efenol, the standard dialect where most examples in this article will be drawn from, Efenol features several dialectal varities. The main division affecting Efenol varieties is the split between Southern Efenol (which may be considered a separate language) and the so-called North-Central Efenol, which may also be referred as Efenol proper. This article will mostly deal with North-Central Efenol varieties.

The main dialects of the North-Central Efenol ar:

• Western Efenol, the standard variety and the largest Efenol proper dialect by number of speakers.
• Northern Efenol, a more conservative variety and the second largest North-Central dialect by number of speakers.
• Eastern Efenol, which features vowel reduction and palatalization of velars.
• North-Eastern Efenol, which can be seens as a transitional variety between Northern and Eastern Efenol.
• Central Efenol, often grouped together with Western Efenol.
• North-Western Efenol, closely related to Western Efenol but divergent in a number of ways.
• "Hunzad", a particularly divergent form of Northern Efenol which features vowel harmony.
• Several "mixed" dialects which combine Western and Central Efenol features with Southern Efenol features.

Extrafictionally, many of these dialects were originally planned as revisions of the Efenol language (whose original form most closely resembles Western Efenol) before being reworked as dialects.

Despite the fact that Western Efenol is the culturally-dominant form of the language and prevails in written material, each variety has its own dialectal orthography, many of which are fundamentally different from the standard orthography used for the Western dialect.

It should also be noted that there is some intradialectal variation as well. Particularly, there are some features which vary between Standard Efenol (based on the Western dialect) and other regional forms of Western Efenol.

Phonology

Note: Unless otherwise noted, the content of this section is based on the Western Efenol standard.

Consonants

Western Efenol	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Alv.-Pal.	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	m	n				ŋ
Plosives	p b	t d				k g
Fricatives	f v	θ ð	s z	(ʃ) (ʒ)	(ç)	x	h
Approximants					j	w
Flap			ɾ
Trills			r			ʀ
Laterals			l		ʎ	ɫ

Notes:

• Affecting all dialects::
  • As usual, nasal codae assimilate to neighbouring consonants. For instance, all instances of /nf/ become /ɱf/.
  • The stops /t/ and /d/ are usually dental although alveolar realizations can also be found. Most Efenol speakers fail to notice any difference between these two pronunciations.
  • Other than in Eastern Efenol, voiced stops are truly plosives in all contexts. This contrasts with Spanish where the phonemes often transcribed as /b/, /d/ and /g/ are typically realized as voiced approximants.
  • As it was also the case in Spanish, the flap /ɾ/ does not occur in word-initial position.
• About Western Efenol:
  • A glottal stop /ʔ/ only appears as a lenited form of /g/ for some speakers. Most speakers drop it altogether.
  • The phoneme /ʃ/ is only found as a palatalized /s/ and may alternate with /sj/. Its voiced version /ʒ/ is marginal and is equivalent to the rare /zj/ sequence.
  • In Western and North-Western Efenol word-final /v/ are often realized as [β].
  • The phoneme /ç/ may only arise as a rare lenited form of /ʃ/ (where it would corresponds to a /hj/) or as an allophone of a word-final /g/, particularly after an /i/. In the latter case, some Western Efenol speakers may also use [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
  • In Western Efenol, the phoneme /r/ only occurs at the beginning of a lexeme (it may appear in non-word-initial position in compounds or if preclitics or prefixes are involved). Most Western Efenol speakeres fully merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into /ʀ/, regardless of the context. This common merger, however, is not reflected in Standard Efenol.
  • All instances of word-final /l/ with a preceding /i/ are palatalized to /ʎ/. This is also true for North-Western Efenol but not for any other Efenol variety. This pronunciation isn't reflected in writing.
  • The velarized lateral /ɫ/ is in free variation with the lateral fricatives /ɬ/ and /ɮ/.
• About other dialects:
  • Central Efenol is the only major variety to preserve /ɲ/ (Spanish <Ñ>) as a distinct phoneme. The sound may still be found in other dialects as an allophone of /n/.
  • Northern Efenol does not allow any instances of word-initial /ŋ/. Many speakers will also pronounce word-final /ŋ/ as /ŋg/ (which may also be analyzed as /ng/) or simply /n/ and thus lack [ŋ] as a distinct phoneme. This may also be found for some North-Eastern and Central Efenol speakers.
  • Dialects other than Western and North-Western Efenol lack the glottal stop /ʔ/ phoneme.
  • In Eastern Efenol voiced stops and voiced fricatives are merged into a single voiced approximant series. Thus, [b] and [v] in other varieties correspond to Eastern Efenol [β̞].
  • Eastern Efenol merges the phonemes /s/ and /z/ into /s/. This is also the case for most Central Efenol speakers and a small minority of Western Efenol speakers.
  • The phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are only found as such in the Western and North-Western dialects.
  • The phoneme /ç/ is found in North-Eastern Efenol as a lenited form of /g/ and in Northern and North-Western Efenol as a word-final allophone of /g/ (as in Standard Efenol).
  • Eastern Efenol features the phoneme /ʝ/.
  • Central Efenol features the phoneme /ɣ/.
  • Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol merge /x/ and /h/ into /x/. Meanwhile, some forms of Northern Efenol (most notably Hunzad) merge both phonemes to /h/, although most Northern Efenol speakers keep the distinction.
  • A minority of Northern Efenol speakers feature a pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ as a phoneme arising from a lenited /g/ (typically expressed as /x/ in Northern Efenol). This subdialectal feature, once also found in North-Western and some forms of Western Efenol, is sharply falling out of use.
  • Eastern, North-Western and most forms of North-Eastern Efenol feature alveolo-palatal affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.
  • Northern and North-Eastern Efenol feature an alveolar affricate /ts/.
  • Some Eastern and North-Eastern varieties feature a voiceless approximant /ʍ/.
  • Unlike Western (and North-Western) Efenol, the alveolar trill /r/ may occur word-medially in other dialects. Only Northern and Central Efenol allow a word-final trill.
  • Northern Efenol merges the trills /r/ and /ʀ/ into /r/. This is also found in some forms of Central and North-Eastern Efenol.
  • In Northern and Eastern Efenol /ʎ/ is in free variation with /lj/.
  • The phoneme /ɫ/ is merged with /l/ in Eastern, North-Eastern and Central Efenol and replaced with /ɬ/ or /ɮ/ (in free variation) in most forms of North-Western Efenol. Northern, some North-Western and a small amount of Central speakers keep the phoneme /ɫ/ unchanged. The Hunzad Northern Efenol variety replaces /ɫ/ with /gl/, a curious development as Spanish /gl/ is a common source for Efenol /ɫ/.

Vowels

While the vowel inventories vary from dialect to dialect, all varieties expand on the pentavocalic Spanish inventory, ranging from 6 to 15 different vowel qualities.

Standard Efenol, based on the most common Western Efenol varieties, distinguishes 8 different vowels:

• A central low vowel, [ä]. For the sake of convenience (and due to the lack of a contrasting front low vowel), this phoneme is usually transcribed as /a/.
• Mid-high phonemes /e/ and /o/. Notice that unlike Spanish <e> and <o> which are actually true mid vowels [e̞] and [o̞], Standard Efenol /e/ and /o/ are true mid-high [e] and [o].
• High /i/ and /u/ as in Spanish.
• The rounded front-vowel /y/.
• Mid-low /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.

Some Western speakers may merge /e/ and /ɛ/ to /e̞/, /o/ and /ɔ/ to /o̞/ or both; yielding the minimal vowel inventory for any Efenol variety: /a e̞ o̞ i y u/ in comparison to Standard /a ɛ ɔ e o i y u/. Some speakers which preserve the /e/ vs /ɛ/ distinction may realize the latter as /ɜ/.

The Central dialect merges /o/ and /ɔ/ into /o̞/ and is otherwise identical to the Standard language: /a ɛ e o̞ i y u/.

The North-Western dialect also merges /o/ and /ɔ/ (although the result is typically still realized as a mid-high [o]) but replaces the vowel /ɛ/ with /ə/ (which also arise from a reduced vowel but may still appear in stressed position). This results in the inventory /a ə e o i y u/.

Northern Efenol merges Standard Efenol /o/ and /ɔ/ into /o̞/ and has the rounded vowel /ø/ (actually also a mid-vowel [ø̞]) instead of Standard /ɛ/. Thus the Northern vowel inventory is comprised of /a e̞ ø̞ o̞ i y u/.

The defining feature of the Hunzad variety of Northern Efenol is that it features two vowel harmony classes: 'light' (with front vowels) and 'dark' words (with back vowels). Most vowel phonemes are split into a light and a dark equivalent: Northern /a/~[ä] becomes light [a] or dark [ɒ], /e/ becomes [e] or [ɘ], /ø/ becomes [ɘ] or [ø], /o/ becomes [ʌ] (or [ɘ]) or [o], /i/ becomes [i] or [ɨ]~[ʉ] (in free variation), /y/ becomes [ɨ]~[ʉ] or [y] and /u/ becomes [y] or [u]. This results in a 11-vowel inventory comprised of /a ɒ ʌ e ø ɘ o i y ɨ~ʉ u/.

Eastern Efenol, however, features the largest vowel inventory as it features lax and tense vowel pairs due to vowel reduction. Tense vowels include /ä e ø o i y u/ while their lax equivalents can be /a ɛ œ ɔ ɪ ʏ ʊ/ although nearly all Eastern Efenol varieties merge unstressed /ɛ/ and /œ/ into /ɛ/ while some varieties also merge stressed /e/ and /ø/ into /e/. In addition to those vowels, Eastern Efenol features a schwa /ə/ as an epenthetic vowel. Thus, the vowel inventory is /a ä ɛ (œ) ɔ ə e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/ with /œ/ being absent from most forms of Eastern Efenol. North-Eastern Efenol features the same vowel inventory (and largely with the same variations) but usually omitting the schwa /ə/ except perhaps as a reduced /ä/ in free variation with [a]: /a~ə ä ɛ (œ) ɔ e ø o ɪ ʏ ʊ i y u/.

In all dialects vowel length is phonemic and independent from stress. In Eastern and North-Eastern dialects long vowels have tense vowel qualities. Thus, a long /iː/ in Standard Efenol would always correspond to an Eastern /iː/ (rather than */ɪː/) even the stress lied elsewhere.

Clusters of short vowels are typically realized as diphthongs.

Prosody

Efenol features phonemic lexical stress. Stress typically falls on the last syllable but it is not predictable. Stress is completely independent from vowel length.

A rising intonation is associated to questions (which may be formed by intonation alone, as it is also the case in standard Spanish).

Orthography

Despite the fact that Standard Efenol (based on Western Efenol) dominates the written language, each dialect has an orthography of its own.

There are two main families of dialectal orthographies: western-like (based on the Standard, Western orthography) and northern-like (an alternative originally formulated for Northern Efenol). There are major differences between the two: western-like orthographies use a large number of digraphs and for the most part have only one pronunciation for each letter while northernlike orthographies use a reduced number of digraphs but have letters whose pronunciation vary depending on their position within a word.

It should be noted that voiced fricatives like /ð/ are more common in word-medial or word-final position than matching voiced plosives like /d/ while the opposite takes place word-initially: words beginning with /ð/ are near non-existing while words beginning with /d/ are common. Northern-like orthographies take advantage of this fact by re-using one letter representations for initial voiced stops (such as <d> for /d/) and for non-initial fricatives (<d> for non-initial /ð/). For example, the Efenol word for 'decided', decendeded from Spanish "decidido", becomes the 10-letter long Western Efenol word "dethidhidh" in a western-like orthography but is mereley 7 letters long in Northern Efenol: "dezidid" despite the word having identical pronunciation in both varieties: /de.θi.ˈðið/. It should be noted that northern-like orthographies often look closer to Spanish while western-like orthographies typically have a more ideosyncratic look.

Both kinds of orthographies are intended to be unambiguous to read although stress isn't marked realiably in all cases. On the other hand, spelling is not fully predictable from pronunciation in either orthography family since some sounds are written differently depending on whether the phoneme is the result of lenition (or another form of consonant mutation) or not. For instance, the words ban ('they go', from Spanish "van") and pban ('(made) of bread', from Spanish "de pan") are spelled differently despite both being pronounced /ban/ since the /b/ in the latter is a lenited form of the /p/ in pan ('bread', from Spanish "pan").

In addition to western-like and northern-like orthographies, Hunzad, a variety of Northern Efenol, has distinct orthography (with little commonalities to either group) devised by linguists who studied the dialect. However that orthography never caught on with Hunzad speakers themselves who'd typically use the usual Northern Efenol orthography instead.

Common features of western and northern-like orthographies

Some common features found in both kinds of orthographies include:

• Being based on the Latin alphabet, avoiding (for the most part) unusual pronunciations.
• Marking long vowels with a circumflex accent, e.g. <â> for the long version of <a>.
• Using digraphs with the letter <h> as their second element.
• Using the letter <c> for the phoneme /k/ even before /e/ and /i/ (Eastern Efenol's orthography being an exception to this).
• Using <cg>, <pb> and to mark lenited 'c', 'p' and 't'.
• Marking stress position through the same strategy: an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel except when it's on the last syllable of a word or when the vowel already carries a diacritic.

The last point makes it possible to distinguish words like madher /ma.ˈðeɾ/ (wood) from mádher /ˈma.ðeɾ/ (mother) although it fails to determine whether a word like mîrchël (Wednesday) would be /miːɾ.ˈxɛl/ (as expected by a lack of acute accents) or /ˈmiːɾ.xɛl/ (with a missing acute accent over the <î> as it already carries a circumflex accent). Luckily, in the case of "mîrchel", both pronunciations are valid and synonymous.

Western-like orthographies

Western-like orthographies are used for Western Efenol (the basis for Standard Efenol), North-Western Efenol and by some Central Efenol speakers (which may also choose to write in a northern-like orthography).

Key features of western-like orthographies include the usage of digraphs for most fricatives such as <ch> for /x/, for /θ/ and <dh> for /ð/. Except for <r>, which is pronounced /r/ word-initially or /ɾ/ otherwise, letters and digraphs retain the same pronunciation regardless of their position within a word.

The following table shows the sound correspondences for letters and digraphs in these orthographies:

Letter	Pronunciation	Notes
a	/a/ [ä]	Also <á> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
â	/aː/ [äː]
b	/b/
bh	/v/	Represents a lenited < b > /b/.
	/v/	Word-finally, typically realized as [β] in Western and North-Western Efenol.
bw	/v/	Represents a lenited <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/). Not used in North-Western Efenol.
c	/k/	Always represents a /k/ sound (other than in digraphs), unlike English or Spanish <c>.
ch	/x/
chw	/xw/, /x/	Represents a mutated <pw> /p/ (descended from a Spanish /kw/). Not used in North-Western Efenol. The pronunciations /xw/ and /x/ are in free variation in Western and Central Efenol, with /xw/ being preferred in the former and /x/ in the latter.
cg	/g/	Represents a lenited <c> /k/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or possessive, in that case the /g/ sound is spelled as <g>.
d	/d/
dh	/ð/
dj	/dʒ/	Only found in North-Western Efenol.
e	/e/	Also <é> if stressed and not in the final syllable. Some Western Efenol speakers realize the phoneme as [e̞] and merge it with /ɛ/.
	/e̯/, /j/	Non-syllabic pronunciation when next to another vowel. Pronounced as a non-syllabic /e/ in North-Western Efenol and in some Western Efenol subdialects and as a /j/ or a non-syllabic /i/ in most Western Efenol varieties (including Standard Efenol) and in Central Efenol. May be written 'i' in Central Efenol.
ê	/eː/	Some Western Efenol speakers pronounce /eː/ as [e̞ː].
ë	/ɛ/, /ə/	/ɛ/ in Western and Central Efenol (may also be merged with /e/ into [e̞] in the former. /ə/ in North-Western Efenol.
f	/f/
g	/g/
	[ç]	Word-finally in Western and North-Western Efenol. Other pronunciations may also be found, including [ʝ], [x], [ɣ] or simply [g].
gh	/ʔ/, Ø, /ɣ/	Represents a lenited, lexeme-initial <g> /g/. Pronounced as either a glottal stop or as a null phoneme (silent) in Western and North-Western Efenol and as a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in Central Efenol.
h	/h/
hb	/b/	Represents a word-final /b/ descended from a Spanish /mb/ that alternates with the digraph <mm> /m/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
hd	/d/	Represents a word-final /d/ descended from a Spanish /nd/ that alternates with the digraph <nn> /n/. Not used in North-Western Efenol.
hg	/g/	Represents a word-final /g/ descended from a Spanish /ng/ that alternates with the digraph <ng> /ŋ/ (or <nn> /n/ in Central Efenol). Not used in North-Western Efenol
i	/i/	Also <í> if stressed and not in the final syllable.
	/j/	An alternative to non-syllabic <e> in Central Efenol.
î	/iː/
ij	/yː/	Orthographic equivalent to <ŷ>; preferred for long /y/ in Western and North-Western Efenol; <ŷ> is preferred in Central Efenol.
j	/ʒ/	Only found in North-Western Efenol.
l	/l/
	/ʎ/	In Western and North-Western Efenol when word-final and preceded by an /i/.
lh	/ʎ/
lw	/ɫ/, [ɬ], [ɮ]	All three realizations are found in free variation in Western and North-Western Efenol while the phoneme is absent from Central Efenol.
m	/m/
mh	/v/	Represents a lenited <m> /m/
mm	/m/	Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /mb/.
n	/n/	May assimilate to adjacent consonants.
nn	/n/	Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /nd/. Central Efenol speakers who merge /ŋ/ and /n/ may also use <nn> /n/ to represent a former Spanish /ng/.
ng	/ŋ/	Some Central Efenol speakers may merge it with /n/ or, more rarely, with /ɲ/.
ñ	/ɲ/	Only found in Central Efenol.
o	/o/	Also <ó> (not to be confused with <ò>) if stressed and not in the final syllable. Pronounced as a true mid-vowel [o̞] in Central Efenol and in regional varieties of Western Efenol which merge /o/ and /ɔ/ (it should be noted that, despite featuring such a merger, North-Western Efenol keeps the upper-mid pronunciation [o]).
ô	/oː/	Mid [o̞ː] in Central Efenol and in Western varieties that merge /o/ and /ɔ/.
ò	/ɔ/	Only found in Western Efenol.
p	/p/
pb	/b/	Represents a lenited /p/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, in that case the /b/ sound is spelled .
ph	/f/	Represents a mutated /p/.
pw	/p/	Represents a /p/ that descends from a Spanish /kw/. This distinction is relevant in Western and Central Efenol as <pw> behaves different than under consonant mutation. In North-Western Efenol /p/ behaves in the same way regardless of its origin and the digraph <pw> isn't used.
r	/r/	Word-initially. Most Western and North-Western Efenol speakers merge /r/ and /ʀ/ into the latter.
	/ɾ/	Non word-initially.
rh	/ʀ/	Some Central Efenol speakers merge /ʀ/ and /r/ into /r/. Those speakers may replace all instances of <rh> with <r> (if word-initial) or <rr> (otherwise).
rr	/r/	Only used in Central Efenol for non word-initial /r/.
s	/s/
sc	/ʃ/	Only used in North-Western Efenol.
se	/ʃ/, /sj/	Preceding a vowel. The phoneme /s/ palatalizes to /ʃ/ in North-Western Efenol and in most Western varieties while the sequence is just interpreted as /sj/ in Central Efenol or in other Western Efenol varieties.
sh	/h/	Represents a lenited 's' /s/.
she	/ç/	Represents a lenited <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
ss	/z/	Represents a mutated /s/.
sse	/ʒ/	Represents a mutated <se> /ʃ/; see notes for <se>.
t	/t/
tc	/tʃ/, /ʃ/, /s/	Represents the phoneme /tʃ/ in North-Western Efenol. In Western Efenol, <tc> is used sparingly and may be pronounced as /ʃ/ or /s/. In Central Efenol the digraph is replaced with the letter /s/.
td	/d/	Represents a lenited <t> /d/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, then the /d/ sound is spelled <d>.
th	/θ/
u	/u/	Also <ú> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word.
û	/uː/
v	/v/	Replaced with <bh> in word-final position.
w	/w/
wh	/vw/, /v/	Represents a lenited <w> /w/. Read /vw/ in most forms of Western Efenol and as /v/ in Central Efenol, North-Western Efenol and in other Western Efenol varieties.
y	/y/	Also <ý> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word (although speakers are particularly likely not to write the acute accent if the affected vowel is an <y>).
ŷ	/yː/	In Western and North-Western Efenol <ŷ> is often replaced with the digraph <ij>.
z	/z/	Many Central Efenol speakers merge /s/ and /z/ into /s/. Those speakers may rewrite words with <z> in Standard Efenol with an .

With the exception of Central Efenol's <ñ> (considered a letter on its own, collated between <n> and <o>), letters with diacritics and digraphs aren't taken into account for collation purposes.

One noticeable feature of western-like orthographies and of Efenol as a whole is the usage of the interpunct or middle-dot <·>. This punctuation mark is used to separate articles from consonant-initial nouns: a (the, singular feminine definite article) + man (hand): a·mhan (the hand). North-Western Efenol also uses an interpunct for plural definite articles before vowel-initial nouns: ah (the, plural feminine definite article) + evich (bees): ah·evich. Otherwise, contractions where the second element beings with a vowel are indicated with apostrophes: l (singular definite article) + avech (bee): l'avech.

Apostrophes are also used to indicate the attributive/genitive case of nouns (typically expressed through lenition) when the initial consonant of the noun is invariable to lenition. For example, the attributive form of falth (silver) becomes 'falth (of silver, made of silver) despite keeping its pronunciation unchanged (compare cóver, 'copper' vs the lenited form cgóver, 'of copper, made of copper').

Northern-like orthographies

Northern-like orthographies are used for Northern Efenol, Eastern Efenol, North-Eastern Efenol and by some Central Efenol speakers (which may also choose to write in a western-like orthography). The orthography of the Southern Efenol language (not covered in this article) is also closest to the northern model.

Key features of northern-like orthographies include the usage single letters for some sounds represented as digraphs in western-like orthographies such as <h> for /x/ instead of Western <ch> or <z> for /θ/ instead of Western .

Another salient feature of northern-like orthographies is that the letter <d> represents voiced stops word-initially but stands for voiced fricatives in other positions.

The following table shows the sound correspondences for letters and digraphs in these orthographies:

Letter	Pronunciation	Notes
a	/a/ [ä]	Also <á> if stressed and not in the final syllable. In Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol, an stressed short <a> will be pronounced as a central [ä] while an unstressed short <a> is reduced to a frontal [a] or, in some North-Eastern varieties, a schwa [ə].
â	/aː/ [äː]
b	/b/	Represents a bilabial approximant, [β̞], in Eastern Efenol.
bb	/b/	Used in Central Efenol to represent a word-final /b/ descended from a Spanish /mb/, corresponds to Western -hb.
bh	/v/	Represents a lenited 'b' /b/. Not used in Eastern Efenol.
c	/k/, /tʃ/	In Northern, North-Eastern and Central dialects, <c> always represents a /k/ sound (other than in digraphs), unlike English or Spanish <c>. In Eastern Efenol, however, the letter <c> represents the phoneme /tʃ/ before front vowels and /k/ elsewhere. A large number of Eastern speakers prefer to sidestep this ambiguity by always using the letter <ç> for /tʃ/ and spelling all remaining /k/'s as <k>.
ch	/x/	Represents a mutated <c> /k/ (or potentially an Eastern Efenol <k> /k/).
cg	/g/, /dʒ/	As /g/ (or [ɰ] in Eastern Efenol): represents a lenited <c> /k/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or possessive, in that case the /g/ sound is spelled as <g>. In Eastern Efenol, a lenited <c> before a front vowel (pronounced /tʃ/) yields /dʒ/ which may also be spelled as <j>. In this dialect, the digraph <cg> when pronounced /dʒ/ cannot be reduced to <g>, even if the word was preceded by a determiner or a possessive.
ç	/tʃ/	Only used in Eastern Efenol (although North-Eastern Efenol may also use it for Eastern Efenol borrowings). In Eastern Efenol <ç> may be used either to supplement <c> when /tʃ/ does not immediately precede a front vowel or as the only representation of /tʃ/, replacing <c>. The digraph <tç> is preferred in word-final position.
d	/d/, /ð/	Represents a voiced stop /d/ in word-initial position and voiced fricative /ð/ elsewhere. In Eastern Efenol both sounds are merged into a voiced approximant /ð̞/.
dd	/d/	Represents a voiced stop /d/ in non word-initial position. Not used in Eastern Efenol. Also used in Central Efenol to represent a word-final /d/ descended from a Spanish /nd/, corresponds to Western -hd.
dh	/ð/	Makes it possible to write words with an initial /ð/. Typically found as a lenited initial <d>. Not used in Eastern Efenol.
dj	/dʒ/	Only found in North-Western Efenol.
e	/e/, /ɛ/	Also <é> when stressed if not in the final syllable of a word. In Northern Efenol, the phoneme is pronounced as a mid vowel [e̞], in Central Efenol <e> is always an upper-mid [e] while in Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol the vowel is upper-mid [e] when stressed or lower-mid [ɛ] when unstressed.
ê	/eː/	Northern Efenol speakers pronounce /eː/ as [e̞ː].
ë	/ɛ/	Only used in Central Efenol.
f	/f/
g	/g/	Word-initially. Pronounced as a voiced-approximant [ɰ] in Eastern Efenol.
	[ç], [x], [g]	Word-finally, <g> is realized as a [ç] in Northern and North-Eastern Efenol, [x] in Eastern Efenol and simply as [g] in Central Efenol.
gg	/g/	Used in Central Efenol to represent a word-final /g/ descended from a Spanish /ng/, corresponds to Western -hg.
gh	/ɣ/, /x/, /ç/, /ʝ/	Represents a lenited, lexeme-initial <g> /g/. Pronounced as a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in Central Efenol; as a voiceless velar fricative [x] in Northern Efenol (with [h] and [ħ] as regional variants), as a voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ in North-Eastern Efenol and as a voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ in Eastern Efenol.
h	/x/	In Northern Efenol some speakers may pronounce <h> as /h/.
hw	/x/, /xw/, /ʍ/	Used in Eastern, Central and certain North-Eastern Efenol varieties to represent a mutated <pw> or /p/ descended from a Spanish /kw/. /x/ is the prevailing pronunciation in Central Efenol (where /xw/ can nonetheless also be found); /xw/ is more commonly found in Eastern Efenol although some speakers may use /x/ or /ʍ/ instead. Meanwhile, some North-Eastern speakers may use the phoneme /ʍ/ although <f> /f/ remains the most usual alternative in this dialect group. Some Eastern Efenol may conflate /kw/-derived /p/ and inherited Spanish /p/ entirely and use <ph> /f/ instead in case of rhotic or nasal mutation.
i	/i/	Also <í> if stressed and not in the final syllable. In Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol the vowel is pronounced [i] when stressed and [ɪ] otherwise.
	/j/	When next to another vowel.
î	/iː/
j	/dʒ/	Only found in Eastern Efenol (or, occasionally, in Eastern Efenol borrowings used by North-Eastern Efenol speakers). Typically reduced to /ʒ/ in word-final position.
k	/k/	Only used in Eastern Efenol as an alternative to <c> that always represents the /k/ sound.
kg	/g/ [ɰ]	Alternative to <cg> (when pronounced [ɰ]) in Eastern Efenol; not used in any other dialect (except as a symbol for kilograms).
kh	/x/	Alternative to <ch> in Eastern Efenol; not used in any other dialect.
l	/l/
lh	/ɫ/	Only used in Northern Efenol and by a small amount of Central speakers who haven't merged this phoneme with /l/. The letters may also be read individually as /lx/; an apostrophe may be used to unambiguously break the digraph.
li	/ʎ/, /lj/	The phoneme /ʎ/ and the sequence /lj/ are in free variation in Northern, North-Eastern and Eastern Efenol. The phoneme /ʎ/, distinct from /lj/, is represented as <ll> in Central Efenol.
ll	/ʎ/	Only used in Central Efenol.
m	/m/
mh	/v/	Represents a lenited <m> /m/
mm	/m/	Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /mb/. Only used in Central Efenol.
n	/n/	May assimilate to adjacent consonants.
nn	/n/	Only used in Central Efenol. Used word-finally to represent a former Spanish /nd/. Central Efenol speakers who merge /ŋ/ and /n/ may also use <nn> /n/ to represent a former Spanish /ng/.
ng	/ŋ/	Some Central Efenol speakers may merge it with /n/ or, more rarely, with /ɲ/. Always read as /ng/ [ŋg] in Northern Efenol.
ñ	/ɲ/	Only found in Central Efenol.
o	/o/	Also <ó> if stressed and not in the final syllable. Pronounced as a true mid-vowel [o̞] in Central and Northern Efenol and as either [o] or [ɔ] (depending on whether it is stressed or not, respectively) in the Eastern and North-Eastern dialects.
ô	/oː/	Mid [o̞ː] in Northern and Central Efenol; [oː] in Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol.
ö	/ø/	Not used in Central Efenol. In Northern Efenol, <ö> is pronounced as a mid vowel [ø̞] while in Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol it is an upper-mid [ø] when stressed and either an [ɛ] or an [œ] when unstressed (with the former realization being far more common).
öe	/øː/, /øi/	Both pronunciations are in free variation in Northern Efenol; the digraph isn't used in other dialects.
ò	/ɔ/	Only found in Western Efenol.
p	/p/
pb	/b/	Represents a lenited /p/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, in that case the /b/ sound is spelled . Pronounced [β̞] in Eastern Efenol.
ph	/f/	Represents a mutated /p/.
pv	/v/	Represents a lenited or <pw> /p/ that was originally a Spanish <kw>. Using <v> is a permissible (though not as popular) alternative spelling The digraph isn't used in Eastern Efenol where or <pb> are used instead.
pw	/p/	Represents a /p/ that descends from a Spanish /kw/. Not used in Northern or Eastern Efenol and rarely used (and optional) in North-Eastern Efenol. The digraph remains common (although also optional) in Central Efenol.
r	/r/	Word-initially
	/ɾ/	Non word-initially.
rh	/ʀ/	Not used in Northern Efenol. Some Central Efenol speakers merge /ʀ/ and /r/ into /r/. Those speakers may replace all instances of <rg> with <r> (if word-initial) or <rr> (otherwise). The letters may also be read individually as /ɾx/; an apostrophe may be used to unambiguously break the digraph.
rr	/r/	Only used in Central Efenol for non word-initial /r/.
s	/s/
sh	/h/, /x/	Represents a lenited /s/. Pronounced /h/ in Northern and Central Efenol and /x/ in Eastern Efenol; North-Eastern varieties may have either pronunciation although the latter is slightly more typical. In Northern and Central Efenol, the digraph <sh> is used for all instances of /h/.
ss	/z/	Not used in Eastern Efenol which merges the phonemes /s/ and /z/ into /s/. Some Central and North-Eastern Efenol varieties may also have this merger and spell accordingly.
t	/t/
tç	/tʃ/	Found only in Eastern Efenol as a word-final representation for /tʃ/.
td	/d/	Represents a lenited <t> /d/ unless the word is preceded by a determiner or a possessive, then the /d/ sound is spelled <d>. Pronounced [ð̞] in Eastern Efenol.
th	/θ/	Represents a mutated <t>, /t/.
ts	/ts/	Found only in Northern and North-Eastern Efenol.
u	/u/	Also <ú> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word. In Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol, the vowel is pronounced [u] when stressed or [ʊ] otherwise.
û	/uː/
v	/v/
w	/w/
wh	/v/	Represents a lenited <w> /w/.
y	/y/	Also <ý> if stressed and not in the final syllable of a word. In Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol, the vowel is pronounced [y] when stressed or [ʏ] otherwise.
ŷ	/yː/
z	/θ/

Northern-like orthographies have a more limited usage of interpuncts: they aren't used in Northern Efenol and they are only used in other dialects if the article triggers some kind of mutation on the initial syllable of a noun. Thus, in Eastern Efenol, the singular form of 'the hand', which features a lenition, is a·mhan but its plural form, 'the hands', which does not feature lenition, is a mein.

In addition to being used to mark contractions, in Eastern Efenol apostrophes are also used to indicate epenthetic schwas as in kör'n /ˈkøɾən/.

Optionally, an apostrophe may also be used to break instances where the letters <r> or <l> occur next to an <h> without forming the digraphs <rh> and <lh>. This would distinguish Central Efenol marh /maʀ/ ('lean, without fat') from mar'h /maɾx/ ('frame'). The sequence <rh> is unambiguously /ɾx/ in Northern Efenol (as it lacks the <rh> digraph) so it never requires a 'breaking' apostrophe. Similarly, word-final <rh> is unambiguously /ɾx/ in all dialects other than Central Efenol since they don not allow word-final /ʀ/. Similarly, breaking the <lh> digraph is only necessary in Northern Efenol as Central, North-Eastern and Eastern dialects lack the phoneme represented as <lh> sound.

Mutation

Efenol makes an extensive use of both vowel mutation (or ablaut) and consonant mutation. These processes occur both diachronically (in the evolution from Spanish to Efenol) and synchronically (within the modern language as part of its grammar). For the most part, the same changes are involved in both cases (dia- and synchronically).

Vowel mutation

There are three main types of vowel mutation. Two of them are the result of a now-lost front vowel (either Spanish /i/ or /e/): strong i-ablaut and weak i-ablaut. Synchronically i-ablaut is used for plural forming where strong i-ablaut affects stressed syllables while weak i-ablaut affects the rest; diachronically only only one form of i-ablaut is found, typically affecting a vowel that preceded a a /CjV/ sequence. A third type of vowel mutation from an elided rounded back vowel: u-ablaut.

The following table illustrates the results of these three kinds of synchronic vowel mutation for the most common vowel combinations in Western Efenol. Notice that in this dialect <ë> and <ij> are read as /ɛ/ and /yː/ respectively.

Vowel	Strong i-ablaut	Weak i-ablaut	U-ablaut
a	ei	e	ò
e	î	i	ë
i	î	i	y
o	ë	ë	o
u	ij	y	u
y	ij	y	y
ë	ëi	ë	ëu
ò	oi	ay	au
â	ai	ai	òu
ê	î	î	ey
î	î	î	ij
ô	oi	oi	ou
û	ij	ij	û
ij	ij	ij	ij
ai	ai	ai	ay
au	ay	ay	au
ei	î	î	ij

Diachronic i-ablaut mostly coincides with modern strong i-ablaut, the main differences being that an i-ablaut /e/ and /u/ yielded short vowels /i/ and /y/ (respectively). It should also be noted that Spanish /we/ (which yields <ë> in Efenol) is i-ablauted to /y/. Meanwhile, diachronic u-ablaut differs on the result of u-ablauted /o/ and /u/ (as well as Spanish /we/) being a long /u/ <û> rather than leaving /o/ and /u/ unchanged as found in synchronic u-ablaut.

Diachronically, i-ablauted /o/ yields different results depending on the source of the mutation: it becomes <oi> if the ablaut comes from the depalatalization of a following consonant (<ch> or <ñ>) or <ë> if the ablaut comes from a moving /j/ (VCiV > ViCV):

Examples: moño > *moʲn > mën, noche > *noʲts > nét, historia > ithoir, ocio > oith.

Other Efenol dialects follow a similar vowel-mutation table with the following differences:

• The appropriate orthographic conventions are to be used. For instance, long /y/ would be written <ŷ> rather than <ij> in dialects other than Western and North-Western Efenol.
• Northern, North-Eastern and Eastern dialects replace instances of <ë> with <ö>.
• Eastern Efenol, North-Eastern Efenol and all varieties without a phonemic contrasts between /o/ and /ɔ/ replace <ò> with <o>.
• Strong i-ablauted <ô> yields <öe> in Northern Efenol.
• U-ablauted <ê> yields <eu> in Northern, North-Eastern and Eatern Efenol rather than <ey>.
• Northern and North-Eastern Efenol do not allow diphthongs with <y> as a second element, replacing <ay> and with <ai>. This is also true for some speakers of Central and Eastern Efenol.
• In North-Western Efenol, the diphthongs <ai>, <au>, <ey> and <oi> become <ae>, <ao>, <eo> and <oe>. The dipthong <ay> is preserved as such in writing although it's also commonly realies as /ao/ and some speakers may prefer to write it <ao>.

Consonant mutation

Efenol features three types of consonant mutation: soft mutation (usually referred to as lenition), rhotic mutation (or, perhaps more appropriately, liquid mutation) and nasal mutation.

As it was also the case for vowel mutation, consonant mutation occurs both diachronically (in the evolution of the language) and synchronically (as a morphophonemic feature of the modern language), usually with identical results. It should be noted, however, that these two processes are reflected differently in writing with the results of synchronic mutation having special spellings. For instance, a rhotic-mutated /p/ yields the phoneme /f/ both diachronically and synchronically but it will be spelled as a regular <f> /f/ in the first case (Spanish carpa > Efenol carf) but with the dedicate spelling <ph> /f/ in the latter (Efenol pan, 'bread', but e·phan, 'the bread' rather than **e·fan). In the case of lenition, mutated voiceless stops (which become voiced) are only written with the special digraphs <cg>, <pb> and if there isn't a preceding article or possessive pronoun.

The following table shows consonant mutation in Western Efenol, including the special spellings used when it occurs synchronically.

Consonant	Lenition / Soft Mutation	Rhotic/Liquid Mutation	Nasal Mutation
b /b/	bh /v/	bh /v/	mb /mb/
c /k/	cg, g /g/	ch /x/	ch /x/
ch /x/	No change
d /d/	dh /ð/	dh /ð/	nd /nd/
f /f/	No change
g /g/	gh /ʔ/ ~ Ø	gh /ʔ/ ~ Ø	ng /ŋ/
h /h/	No change
l /l/	No change
lh /ʎ/	No change
lw /ɫ/	No change
m /m/	mh /v/	mh /v/	m /m/
n /n/	No change
p /p/	pb, b /b/	ph /f/	ph /f/
pw /p/	bw /v/	chw /xw/	chw /xw/
r /r/	No change
rh /ʀ/	No change
s /s/	sh /h/	ss /z/	ss /z/
se /ʃ/	she /ç/	sse /ʒ/	sse /ʒ/
t /t/	td, d /d/	th /θ/	th /θ/
tc /tʃ/~/ʃ/	tdc /dʒ/~/ʃ/	tc /tʃ/~/ʃ/	tc /tʃ/~/ʃ/
th /θ/	No change
w /w/	wh /vw/	wh /vw/	ngw /ŋgw/
z /z/	No change

The result of these mutations is mostly consistent through the different dialects. Major differences include:

• The merger of voiced stops and voiced fricatives in Eastern Efenol which results in <d> /d/ staying unaffected under lenition and rhotic mutation.
• Eastern Efenol <ç> /tʃ/ shifting to /dʒ/ (spelled as either <cg> or <j>) under soft and nasal mutation and staying unchanged under rhotic mutation.
• Various consonant mergers, such as Eastern and Central Efenol merger of /z/ with /s/.
• Initial /p/ when descended from Spanish /kw/ (spelled <pw> in Standard Efenol) has a different behaviour in other Efenol varieties:
  • It behaves (and is spelled) as a regular /p/ in North-Western Efenol (lenited to /b/ and mutated to <ph> /f/ otherwise).
  • In Northern Efenol, /kw/-derived /p/ (written as a regular 'p') becomes <ph> /f/ under nasal and rhotic mutation but remains a <pv> /v/ under lenition.
  • In Eastern Efenol the pattern is identical as in Standard Efenol but the lack of distinction between /b/ and /v/ makes the distinction irrelevant under lenition.

Evolution from Spanish

The following section indicates how Efenol vocabulary can be derived from the corresponding Spanish-language terms. As elsewhere in this article, the content of this section applies to the Western Efenol dialect unless otherwise noted.

About the base Spanish variety

All forms of Efenol are based on (and supposedly descended from) the Spanish language as spoken today. The Spanish variety that serves as base for North-Central Efenol (ie excluding the Southern Efenol language) is an unspecified form of European Spanish with the following features:

• Preserving the distinction between phonemes /s/ (spelled in Spanish) and /θ/ (spelled as either <c> or <z>). This feature is known as 'distinción' and is found in most of Spain, contrasting with the merger of both sounds into /s/ ('seseo', found in most of the Spanish speaking territories) or the merger of both sounds into /θ/ ('ceceo', found in some regions of Andalusia).
• Preserving the distinction between the phonemess /ʝ/ (spelled <y>) and /ʎ/ (spelled <ll>). This feature (sometimes referred to as 'lleísmo') is relatively uncommon but can be found in some regions of Spain and South America, contrasting with the far more common merger of both phonemes (a feature known as 'yeísmo'). On the other hand, the Southern Efenol language (not covered in this article) either descends from a variety with yeísmo or adopted a similar merger early on its evolution.

This features suggest that Efenol would probably have originated somewhere in the northern half of Spain. Accordingly, Spanish regionalisms are preferred to Latin American regionalisms although neutral vocabulary found across the Spanish-speaking world is preferred to either.

Vowels

Monophthongs

As mentioned in the phonology section, Spanish pentavocalic system [ä e̞ i o̞ u] is mostly preserved (and expanded) in Efenol. When not in an unstressed word-final open syllable (where vowels are typically subject to elision) nor affected by ablaut, these five vowels (as monophthongs) evolve in the following way:

• Spanish 'a' [ä] remains as an <a> [ä]. This vowel is usually transcribed as /a/ in phonemic transcriptions despite it remaining a central low vowel (except for Hunzad, where it is indeed fronted to [a] or in Eastern Efenol where the vowel is fronted to [a] in unstressed position and remains central [ä] otherwise).
• Spanish 'e' [e̞] is raised to be a true upper-mid [e], spelled <e>. This is true except for Central and Northern Efenol (where it remains as a true mid [e̞]) or in Eastern/North-Eastern Efenol where vowel height varies depending on stress placement.
• Spanish 'i' [i] remains the same.
• Spanish 'o' [o̞] is raised to a true upper-mid [o] except in Northern Efenol where it remains an [o̞] or in Eastern/North-Eastern Efenol where vowel height varies depending on stress placement.
• Spanish 'u' [u] remains the same.

Examples: manzana > manthan, queso > ces, mito > mit, rosa > ros, mundo > munn.

Diphthongs and hiatus

Vowel sequences (diphthongs and certain cases of hiatus) evolve in the following way:

• Spanish <ai> becomes <ei>: aire > eir.
• Spanish <ae> becomes a long e, <ê>: aeropuerto > êrobërth.
• Spanish <au> becomes an open o, <ò> /ɔ/ except in Northern Efenol, where it becomes <ou> /ow/ in stressed position or is merged with <o> /o/ otherwise and in North-Western Efenol where it is always merged with <o> /o/: pausa > pòs (N: pous, NW: pos), auténtico > òténthig (N: oténzih, NW: oténthetc).
• Spanish <ea> becomes a long a, <â>: maestro > mêthor.
• Spanish <ei> becomes a long i, <î>: reina > rîn.
• Spanish <eo> and <eu> becomes <ë> /ɛ/ in Western Efenol: correo > corhë, euro > ër.
• Spanish <ia> and Spanish <io> behave differently depending on whether they are in the first syllable of a word or not
  • If they are, they remain as /ja/ and /jo/ which, due to an earlier historical development (when they were pronounced [ɪa] and [ɪo]) are represented as <ea> and <eo> in Western Efenol orthography. The /j/ may be lost under some scenarios, such as when following an s as the combination /sj/ becomes /ʃ/. It's also worth noting that an initial s (palatalized to /ʃ/) is added to word initial /ja/ and /jo/ in Western and North-Western Efenol (but not in any other varieties). Examples: piano > pean, violín > beolin, hiato > seat (but Northern iat), ionizar > seonithar (but Northern ionizar).
  • If there is a preceding syllable, then 'the yod moves backwards' resulting in an i-ablaut of the preceding vowel while the /a/ or /o/ of the original diphthong evolves as usual. Examples: vegetariano > bechedeiran (the ei arising from an i-ablauted a), nación > neithôn (this generalizes to all Spanish words with the -ción suffix, now expressed through i-ablaut and -thôn). There is a small number of exceptions to this rule, such as colombiano > colobean and fermión > fermeôn. Additionally, the Spanish suffix -ción does not trigger i-ablaut in Northern Efenol (nación > nazôn) while both forms are found in North-Eastern Efenol (thus both nazôn and neizôn may be found in the northeast).
• Spanish <ie> becomes a long i, <î>. In Western and North-Western Efenol, word-initial /je/ gets a prosthetic /s/. Examples: miedo > mît, hierro > sîr (but Northern irr or îrr).
• Spanish <iu> becomes an <y> /y/. This vowel is often lengthened if the resulting Efenol word is monosyllabic (the resulting long /y/ is written as <ij> in the Western Efenol orthography). In theory, a word with an initial /ju/ in Spanish would also get a prosthetic /s/ in Western and North-Western Efenol though no such words have been attested. Examples: ciudad > thydhadh, viudo > bijdh.
• Spanish <oe> becomes a long e in Western and Central Efenol, <öe> /øː/~/øi/ in Northern Efenol, <oe> /oe/ in North-Western Efenol and varies between <ê> /eː/ and <oi> in Eastern Efenol (in free variation, with the latter being more common in North-Eastern Efenol). Example: coherencia > cêrînth (but Northern cöerînz).
• Spanish <oi> remains as <oi> except in Northern Efenol where Spanish /oj/ (but not the hiatus /o.i/) becomes <öe>, pronounced as either /øː/ or /øi/. Examples: boina > boin (Northern böen), oír > oir (also oir in Northern Efenol, since the word has hiatus in Spanish).
• Much like <ia> and <io>, Spanish <ua> and <uo> behave differently depending on whether they occur in the first syllable of a word or not. This does not include the sequences <gua> and <guo> which are interpreted as corresponding to a consonantal /w/ followed by an /a/ or an /o/.
  • In the first syllable of a word Spanish <ua> and <uo> evolve to become <a> and <ô>. The missing /w/, however, can trigger a change in the preceding consonant. In all North-Central dialects (ie all Efenol varieties other than Southern Efenol) the sequenced <cua> and <cuo> become <pa> and <po>. Additionally, in Western and Central Efenol (and for some North-Western speakers as well) some voiceless onsets such as /s/ become voiced. Examples: Juan > Chan, duodecimal > dôdethimal, cuatro > páthor, cuórum > pôrum, suave > zabh.
  • If there is a preceding syllable, the /w/ is removed and the preceding vowel is u-ablauted (or lengthened if ordinary u-ablaut wouldn't result in a change). The sequence /kw/ in Spanish still evolves to /p/ (or /v/ if lenited). In Western and (most forms of) Central Efenol a preceding /s/ is still voiced to /z/ under this scenario. Examples: aduana > òdan, virtuoso > byrthô, acuarela > avarel, adecuar > adhepar, casual > còzal (alternates with còsal, derived by analogy from còs, cause).
• Spanish <ue> becomes <ë> /ɛ/ in Western Efenol. The sequence <cue>, however, becomes /pe/ in the Northern and Western dialects. Examples: puesto > pëth, cueva > pebh (but Eastern këb).
• Spanish <ui> becomes an <y> /y/: buitre > výther.

The first element of a hiatus in word-final position may be preserved with little change other than compensatory lengthening or, in the case of <eo>, a shift to <ë>. Examples: rocío > rothî, paseo > pahë (also found as pathë due to an early confusion with *paceo).

Elision of word-final vowels

Word-final unstressed vowels are usually elided in Efenol. Examples: mesa > mes, escape > echab, mono > mon.

Stressed word-final vowels become long vowels: Panamá > Panamâ, café > cafê, buró > burô. This is not true of monosyllables (mostly particles), where vowels remain short: de > de.

If the elision of an unstressed word-final vowel would result in an illegal consonant cluster in codal final position, the vowel is moved to break the cluster: CCV > CVC. This is the case for Spanish clusters with an L or an R as a second element (padre > pádher, cifra > thífar) except for <gl> and <gr> which evolve into Efenol <lw> /ɫ/ and <rh> /ʀ/ respectively, both of which also result in a u-ablaut of the previous vowel: siglo > sylw, tigre > *tyrh > tijr.

Other disallowed final clusters include L followed by a voiced sound (esmeralda > emeráladh, alma > álam) and, in dialects other than the standard Western Efenol, R followed by a voiced sound: barba > Western: barbh, Northern: bárav; arma > Western arm, Northern: áram.

North-Western Efenol, most Central Efenol varieties and a few Western Efenol varieties always break these clusters with the same vowel regardless of the value of the original vowel. North-Western Efenol uses the vowel <ë> /ə/ while Central and non-standard Western Efenol varieties use <a> /a/. Non-standard Western varieties also extend this behavior to the clusters that are preserved in standard Efenol. Examples: arma > Standard/Western: arm, Central and non-standard Western: áram, North-Western: árëm; padre > Standard/Western: pádher, Central and non-standard Western: pádhar, North-Western: pádhër; libro > Standard/Western: lívor, Central and non-standard Western: *lívar (alternating with lívor by influence of Standard Efenol), North-Western: lívër.

The clusters <mbr>, <ndr> and <ngr> are treated differently. In Western Efenol (and in some forms of Central Efenol) they evolve into <nv_r>, <ndh_r> and <nrh_r>, with the elided vowel moving before the R: hombre > ónver, tundra > túndhar, sangre > sánrher. Eastern, North-Western and most Central Efenol dialects preserve the /b/, /d/ and /g/ in those clusters unchanged as exemplified by Eastern ómber, túndar and sánger. Northern and North-Eastern Efenol also follow the 'Eastern' model (except for <mbr>, which yields <nv_r> in Northern Efenol) but they also lengthen the preceding vowel in these cases, resulting in Northern ônver, tûndar and sânger (often shortened to sâng).

Consonants

The lenition rule

Spanish voiceless plosives (/k/, /p/ and /t/) in intervocalic position may evolve into two different phonemes in North-Central Efenol: they may be retained as voiceless stops (/k p t/) or become voiced (/g b d/; /ɰ β̝ ð̞/ in Eastern Efenol). This is determined from their context by the 'lenition rule'.

The result depends on the vowels preceding and following the affected plosive according to the following table, where rows indicate the preceding Spanish vowel (or Vi- / Vu- for dipthongs with a final i or u) and columns indicate the following Spanish vowe (or iV / uV for dipthongs with an initial i or u).

Efenol lenition rule	-a	-e	-i	-o	-u	-iV	-uV
a-	Voiced	Voiced	Voiced	Voiced	Voiced		Voiced
e-	Voiced	Voiced	Voiced			Voiced
i-
o-	Voiced			Voiced	Voiced		Voiced
u-							Voiced
Vi-	Voiced	Voiced
Vu-	Voiced			Voiced	Voiced

One notorious exception is that word-final <-ico> and <-ica> are always inherited as <-ig> rather than <-ic> as expected from this rule.

Spanish B and V

As it is the case in all modern Spanish varieties (aside from rare instances of spelling-pronunciation), Efenol treats Spanish and <V> identically.

In word-initial position, a simple (or <V>) onset is inherited as /b/. Notice that Efenol stands for an actual voiced plosive [b] rather than an approximant [β̞] as it's typically the case in Spanish. Under Efenol grammar, this /b/ may undergo lenition or rhotic mutation to become <bh> /v/ or nasal mutation to become <mb> /mb/.

Examples: burro > bûr, vida > bidh, la vida > a·bhidh, en vida > mbidh.

In word-initial position the clusters
and <bl> are also preserved in Western Efenol. The latter, <bl>, is reduced to <v> /v/ in Northern and North-Eastern Efenol, adding a coda <l> to the first syllable unless it already had a coda other than /s/ or /θ/ (this may result in a rhotic mutation of a neighboring plosive).

Examples: brusco > bruch, bloquear > blogâr (Northern: vol'hâr), blusa > blus (Nothern vuls), blanco > blanch (Northern: vanh).

In intervocalic position, and <v> are lenited to <v> /v/ (notice that Efenol V stands for a true labiodental fricative, unlike Spanish V which is also a bilabial consonant and usually and approximant). In Western and North-Western Efenol alone, any word-final <v> (after vowel elision) changes to <bh>, often realized allophonically as [β] although coexisting with [v].

Examples: vivir > bivir, ábaco > ávag, lobo > lobh (Northern: lov).

The clusters and <rv> evolve to become Efenol <rv>. The aforementioned rule about final <v> shifting to <bh> in Western and North-Western dialects remains in effect in writing, although in the spoken language the [v] pronunciation far prevails over [β]. Notice that any final <rv> cluster will be broken in dialects other than Standard Western Efenol.

Examples: árbol > árvol, barba > barbh (Northern: bárav), arveja > arvech, ciervo > thîrbh (Northern: zîrov).

The clusters <lb> and <lv> are inherited as <lv> except in word-final position (after eliding a final Spanish vowel) where Efenol phonology mandates that the cluster must be broken as mentioned in the evolution of vowels section.

Examples: albañil > alveinil, alba > álabh, malvado > malvadh, calvo > cálobh.

Non-initial Spanish
and <bl> clusters are broken by moving the second element to the coda of the same syllable. If the syllable already had a non-fricative coda, an echo vowel is added. This also results in the lenition of the original to <v> /v/. Notice that the sequences <mbr> and <mbl> are treated irregularly in some dialects.

Examples: abrazo > avarth, abril > *avirl > aviril, cobre > cóver, hablar > avalar, tabla > tával, hombre > ónver, emblema > envelem.

In Western Efenol, the Spanish clusters <mb> and <nv> become /b/ in word-medial position and <mm> /m/ in word-final position (after eliding final vowels). The latter alternates with <hb> /b/ in Efenol grammar, particularly in the formation of plurals.

Examples: tambor > tabor, invierno > ibîron, bomba > bomm, bombas > bëhb.

Spanish C

The Spanish letter C can represent three different sounds: a fricative /θ/ (which is merged with /s/ in most Spanish varieties but not in the ancestor of Efenol), a stop /k/ and an affricate /tʃ/ when in the digraph <ch> (which will be covered in the following section).

Before a Spanish E or I, where C is pronounced as a fricative, the phoneme is inherited as a /θ/ sound, spelled in western-like orthographies (including Standard Efenol) and <z> in northern-like orthographies.

Examples: cielo > thîl (Northern: zîl), maceta > mathed (Northern: mazedd).

The cluster <sc>, when pronounced /sθ/, is simplified to /θ/: escena > ethen.

It should be noted that the Spanish suffix -ción (corresponding to English -tion) always corresponds to -thôn with an i-ablaut on the preceding vowel (although Northern Efenol consistently omits the i-ablaut for this suffix).

Elsewhere, Spanish C is pronounced as a /k/. This phoneme evolves in different ways depending on its context. The following notes will assume that the phoneme is not followed by a /w/ (a Spanish 'u' forming a rising dipthong) as /kw/ has a particular behaviour that will be discussed in a subsection of its own.

Word-initially, when not followed by a consonant, Spanish /k/ is retained as /k/, spelled <c> in Efenol varieties other than Eastern Efenol (which may optionally use <k> instead):

Examples: calma > cálam (Eastern: kálam), cómo > com (Eastern: kom), curva > curbh (Eastern: kúrav).

Word-intial <cr> is also retained (optionally spelled as <kr> in Eastern Efenol). Example: cruz > cruth (Eastern kruz).

Intervocalic C is normally inherited as either voiceless <c> /k/ or voiced <g> /g/ according to the lenition rule. As mentioned before, Spanish words ending in <-ico> or <-ica> are an exception to this rule as they yield the ending <-ig> rather than the expected <-ig>, although the former can still be found in some excaptions such as rico > ric and México > Méchic (although the latter coexists with Méchig). Derivations of words with '-ico' typically preserve the /g/ or /k/ of the base word: música > músig => musical > musigal, but México > Méchic => mexicano > mechican.

Examples: opaco > obag (lenition rule indicates that the stop is voiced between a and o), ecología > ecolochî (lenition rule indicates that the stop isn't voiced between e and o), mítico > mítig (contrary to the lenition rule).

The above isn't true if the <c> is brought in contact with an <r> or <l> due to break of a preceding Cr or Cl cluster. In such cases, <c> undergoes rhotic mutation and becomes <ch> /x/.

Examples: república > *repúbhilca > repúvilch.

The same behaviour applies to instances of <c> preceded by <l>, <n> or <r> and followed by a vowel:

Examples: alcohol > alchôl, calco > calch, manco > manch, arco > arch.

Non word-initial <crV> (where V represents an arbitrary vowel) and all instances of <clV> are broken becoming <chVr> or <chVl> respectively. Notice that when this happens in the last syllable of a word some Efenol dialects may replace the original vowel (with /a/ in Central Efenol and with /ə/ in Eastern and North-Western Efenol). If the syllable already had a coda other than a fricative, the final <l> or <r> may be deleted.

Examples: ocre > ócher (Central: óchar), clave > chalbh, clima > chílam.

The cluster <sc>, when pronounced /sk/, becomes <ch> /x/:

Examples: mosca > moch, escape > echab.

In Eastern Efenol, any resulting /k/ followed by a front vowel (e, i, ö or y) are palatalized to <ç> /tʃ/. This does not affect instances of /k/ which were followed by a /w/ in Spanish (see next subsection).

Examples: coche > *cötc > çötç /tʃøtʃ/ (cf. Western Efenol cët, /kɛt/); cuerno > *cwörn > kör'n.

This does not affect i-ablauted plural nouns unless they also feature the /tʃ/ sound in it singular form. Some Eastern Efenol speakers, however, may palatalize all instances of /k/ before /y/, including those originated from an i-ablauted /ku/.

Examples: cama > kam, plural keim (not *çeim); cuna > kun, plural kŷn (for most Eastern Efenol speakers), çŷn (for a minority of Eastern Efenol speakers).

Spanish C as a non-word-final coda (particularly in the cluster <ct>) is elided and lengthens the preceding vowel. Any following consonant is unaffected by lenition. Word-final /k/ (found only in loanwords) is retained as a <c> /k/ except when preceded by an <l>, <n> or <r> which mutates the /k/ to /x/ as usual.

Examples: acto > ât, acceso > âthes, bistec > bithec, bloc > volch.

Evolution of /kw/

As in the evolution of many other languages, Spanish /kw/ (represented in Spanish orthography by <cu> followed by another vowel) evolves into a labial stop /p/ in Efenol. In most Efenol varieties the resulting /p/ (spelled <pw> in Standard Efenol) behaves different than a regular /p/ under consonant mutation.

Examples: cuatro /ˈkwa.tɾo/ > pwáthor /ˈpa.θoɾ/.

One key west/east isogloss across Efenol dialects concerns the evolution of the sequences /kwe/ and /kwi/. Northern, North-Western and Western Efenol (the standard language) apply the /kw/ -> /p/ rule first and have these sequences yield /pe/ and /pi/. However, in Central, Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol the diphthongs /we/ and /wi/ are simplified to /ø/ and /y/ before the rule applies, removing the necessary /w/ to trigger the change.

	Reflex of "cuerno" /ˈkweɾ.no/	Reflex of "cuidado" /kwi.ˈda.do/
Western (Standard)	pwern /peɾn/	pwidhadh /pi.ˈðað/
North-Western	pérën /ˈpe.ɾən/	pidhadh /pi.ˈðað/ or pidhao /pi.ˈðao/
Northern	péron /ˈpe.ɾon/	pidad /pi.ˈðað/
North-Eastern	cöron /ˈkø.ɾɔn/	cydad /kʏ.ˈðäð/
Eastern	kör'n /ˈkø.ɾən/	kydad /kʏ.ˈðäð/ or çydad /tʃʏ.ˈðäð/
Central	cëran /ˈkɛ.ɾən/	cydhau /ky.ðau/

It should be noted that the resulting /kø/ and /ky/ sequences in Eastern Efenol originally did not undergo palatalization as usual for a /k/ preceding a front vowel. However, an icreasing number of Eastern Efenol speakers have indeed shifted even these occurrences of /ky/ to /tʃy/.

Outside word-initial position, these /p/ phonemes evolved in a similar way to other voiceless consonants. When in intervocalic position, the phoneme is lenited to /v/ if affected by the lenition rule (although still considering that the following vowel is a uV dipthong).

Examples: acuarela > *apwarela > avarel (lenition rule indicates that the stop is voiced between a and uV), adecuar > *adepwar > adhepar (lenition rule indicates that the stop is not voiced between e and uV).

Any instances of these /p/ preceded by an <l>, <n> or <r> (including diplaced l's and r's from broken clusters) evolved to <chw> /xw/ which was then simplified to <ch> /x/ but affecting the preceding vowel with u-ablaut. The same change can also be found in words wher the original /kw/ is preceded by an /s/.

Examples: circuito > *cirpwito > thyrchit, encuentro > *enpwéntor > ënchénthor, frecuencia > *ferpwencia > fërchînth, escuadra > ëchádhar.

These words with a medial /kwe/ or /kwi/ in Spanish may often be found in forms like their Western and Northern equivalents (west of the isogloss) in dialects east of the isogloss. This is mostly explained through inter-dialectal influence. Thus, an Eastern Efenol speaker may use the inherited zir'hyt, enhönz'r and fer'höinz' (which resolve /kwe/ and /kwi/ as /kø/and /ky/), the western-like zyr'hit, önhénz'r and för'hînz or even clear inter-dialectal borrowings like fer'hînz from Western Efenol fërchînth.

Spanish Ch

As in English 'church, the Spanish digraph <ch> represents a an affricate /tʃ/. This phoneme is mostly lost in Efenol, although it later reemerged in many Efenol varieties (most notably in Eastern Efenol as a palalized Spanish /k/).

In Western and North-Western Efenol, a word-initial Spanish <ch> is inherited as <tc>, a combination that may be pronounced as /tʃ/ or /ʃ/. The same word-initial onset is inherited as /tj/ in Northern Efenol and as /sj/ in other varieties.

Examples: choza > tcoth (Northern tioz, Eastern sioz), China > Tcîn (Northern Tîn, Eastern Sîn).

Elsewhere (even when preceded by an <l> or <r>), Spanish <ch> triggers i-ablaut on the preceding vowel and becomes one of the following sounds:

• In Western, North-Western and Central Efenol: <t> /t/.
• In Eastern Efenol: /tʃ/ (spelled <tç> word finally or <c>~<ç> otherwise)
• In Northern and North-Eastern Efenol: <ts> /ts/.

Examples: noche > nët (Northern: nöts, Eastern: nötç), ochenta > ëtenth (Northern: ötsenz, Eastern: öçenz), marcha > meirt (Northern: meirts, Eastern: meirç), colcha > cëlt (Northern: cölts, Eastern: çöltç).

Some Western and Central Efenol speakers may replace the resulting <lt> and with <lth> and <rth>.

Spanish D

In word-initial position, a simple <D> onset is inherited as <D> /d/. Notice that Efenol <d> stands for an actual voiced plosive [d] rather than an approximant [ð̞] as it's typically the case in Spanish. Under Efenol grammar, this /d/ may undergo lenition or rhotic mutation to become <dh> /ð/ or nasal mutation to become <nd> /nd/.

Examples: dama > dam, la dama > a·dham, dólares > dëler, en dólares > ndëler.

In word-initial position the cluster <dr> is also preserved in Western Efenol.

Examples: dragón > draun, drama > dram.

In intervocalic position, <d> is lenited to <dh> /ð/.

Examples: dado > dadh, duda > dudh.

The clusters <rd> evolves to become Efenol <rdh>. Notice that any final <rdh> cluster will be broken in dialects other than Standard Western Efenol.

Examples: ardilla > ardhîl or erdhîl, gordo > gordh (Northern górod).

The cluster <ld> is inherited as <ldh> except in word-final position (after eliding a final Spanish vowel) where Efenol phonology mandates that the cluster must be broken as mentioned in the evolution of vowels section.

Examples: maldad > maldhadh, saldo > sálodh.

Any occurrence of

is replaced by <rl> /ɾl/. Non-initial Spanish <dr> clusters are broken by moving the second element to the coda of the same syllable. If the syllable already had a non-fricative coda, an echo vowel is added. This also results in the lenition of the original <d> to <dh> /ð/. Notice that the sequence <ndr> and <mbl> are treated irregularly in some dialects. Examples: edredón > edherdhon, madre > mádher, ladrón > ladhoron, almendral > alvendharal. Exceptionally, the name of the city of Madrid is rendered as Madirth rather than the expected *Madhiridh or *Madhiridh. In Western Efenol, the Spanish cluster <nd> becomes <d> /d/ in word-medial position and <nn> /n/ in word-final position (after eliding final vowels). The latter alternates with <hd> /d/ in Efenol grammar, particularly in the formation of plurals. Examples: comandante > comadanth, mundo > munn, mundos > mijhd.

Spanish participles -ado/-ido

In most Efenol varieties (including standard Western Efenol), Spanish participles (which typically end in -ado or -ido) evolve as expected: to -adh or -idh respectively.

Examples: cantado > canthadh, corrido > corhidh, partido > parthidh.

This is not the case in Central, North-Western and in a few non-standard varieties of Western Efenol, however. In Central Efenol, -ado and -ido in participles evolve into -au and -ŷ instead. The same applies to non-standard Western Efenol (with the endings -au and -ij).

Examples: cantado > canthau, corrido > corrŷ (non-standard Western corhij), partido > parthŷ (non-standard Western parthij).

In the North-Western dialect both -ado and -ido participles are regularized to -ao.

Examples: cantado > canthao, corrido > curhao, partido > parthao.

There is some variation in these dialects regarding whether nouns ending in -ado/-ada and -ido/-ida should be affected by this development or not. In general, Central Efenol tends to apply the change to nouns ending in -ado (-au, cuidado > cydhau) and -ada (-â, parada > parâ, but nada > nadh) while the written North-Western norm tends to only use the -ao ending for participles themselves.

Spanish F

When not followed by another consonant, Spanish <f> /f/ remains unchanged.

Examples: febrero > feverer, afeitar > afîdar, ánfora > ánfor.

Word-initial <fr> is avoided whenever possible: the cluster is broken (moving the <r> to the coda) as long as this does not result in an illegal coda.

Examples: fruta > furth, frescura > ferchur, francés > franthê (breaking the cluster would have resulted in *farnthe, with an illegal <rnth> cluster).

The cluster <fl> and non word-initial <fr> are always broken. If moving the <l> or <r> after the vowel would result in an illegal coda this consonants are deleted, often trigger a compensatory lengthening on the vowel.

Examples: África > Áfirch, zafral > *thafarl > thafâl, flotar > folthar, flor > *for'r > fôr, afluente > *afëlnth > afënth.

Spanish G

The Spanish letter G can represent two different phonemes: a fricative /x/ and a voiced stop (or approximant) /g/~/ɰ/. Additionally, /g/ next to a non-syllabic /u/ is often indistinguishable from [w] and is treated as such in Efenol.

Readers who aren't used to Spanish orthography should bear in mind that the sequences <gue> and <gui> represent /ge/ and /gi/; a diaeresis must be placed over the 'u' to prevent it from being silent: <güe> /gwe/~/we/ and <güi> /gwi/~/wi/.

Spanish G as /x/

Before a Spanish E or I, where G is pronounced as a fricative, the phoneme is inherited as a /x/ sound, spelled <ch> in western-like orthographies (including Standard Efenol) and <h> in northern-like orthographies.

Examples: generoso > chenerô (Northern heneros), ágil > áchil (Northern áhil).

Spanish G as /gw/

The sequences <gua>, <güe>, <güi> and <guo> are typically inerited as /wa/, /we/, /wi/ and /wo/.

Examples: guante > wanth, cigüeña > thiwîn, güisqui (also 'whiskey' or 'whiski') > wîch or wisci,

A word final /w/ (after vowel elision) is elided after lengthening and triggering u-ablaut on the preceding vowel.

Examples: antiguo > *anthiw > anthij, desagüe > *dehaw > dehòu, yegua > *sîw > sij.

The word "agua" is an exception to the above rule. It is inherited as au except in Northern Efenol where it is inherited as auz.

When following as Spanish <n>, the resulting <ngu> /ngw/ is inherited as <ng> and inherits u-ablaut on the preceding vowel. The Spanish word 'pingüino' (penguin) is an exception, as the expected result pyngin is mostly replaced by irregularly-derived pingijn. When the resulting <ng> is word-final (after vowel elision) in a Western Efenol noun, its plural form ends with <hg> /g/ instead.

Examples: lingüística > lyngíthig, lengua > lëng, lenguas > lëihg.

Spanish G as /g/

In word-initial position, a simple <g> onset is inherited as <g> /g/. Notice that Efenol <g> stands for an actual voiced plosive [g] rather than an approximant [ɰ] as it's typically the case in Spanish. Under Efenol grammar, this /g/ may undergo lenition or rhotic mutation, the result of which is subject to much variation across Efenol dialects, yielding either a glottal stop or a null phoneme in Western Efenol (written <gh> in either case). Under nasal mutation, <g> becomes <ng>.

Examples: gato > gad, el gato > e·ghad, guerra > gêr, en guerra > ngêr (or en gêr).

Intervocalic /g/ is lost, often resulting in a variety of diphthongs. The sequences /Vge/ and /Vgo/ also result in a change in vowel quality to /Vi/ and /Vu/.

Examples: mago > mau, a gusto > auth, aguerrido > airhidh, agarrar > *aarhar > ârhar.

The sequences <gr> and <rg> are turned into velar trills /ʀ/. In Northern Efenol (as well as some Central Efenol varieties) this phoneme is later merged with the alveolar trill /r/.

Examples: grueso > rhës (Northern: rös), gracias > rheith (Northern: reiz), mugroso > murhô (Northern: murros), órgano > órhan (Northern: órran).

Word-final /ʀ/ (after vowel elision) is only allowed in Central Efenol (except in varieties which merge the phoneme with /r/, as it's also the case in Northern Efenol). In other dialects (including the western standard) the trill is reduced to an alveolar flap <r> /ɾ/ and the preceding vowel is mutated: lengthened if a back vowel or u-ablauted otherwise.

Examples: magro > *marh > mòr (Central marh, Northern marr), logro > *lorh > lôr (Central lorh, Northern lorr), jerga > chër (Central cherh, Northern herr).

Similarly, the sequences <gl> and <lg> become <lw> /ɫ/ (as noted in the phonology section, the realization of this phoneme may vary). Most Central Efenol speakers and virtually all Eatern and North-Eastern Efenol speakers merge this phoneme with <l> /l/.

Examples: gloria > lwoir (Eastern: loir), alga > alw (Eastern al).

In Western Efenol, the Spanish cluster <ng> becomes <g> /g/ in word-medial position and <ng> /ŋ/ in word-final position (after eliding final vowels). The latter alternates with <hg> /g/ in Efenol grammar, particularly in the formation of plurals.

Examples: ángulo > águl, manga > mang, mangas > meihg.

The sequences <ngr> and <ngl> develop irregularly:

Examples: sangre > sánrher, inglés > inlê.

Spanish H

Spanish H, being silent, leaves no trace in Efenol.

The letter <h> is often found before word-initial dipthongs with /j/ as a first element which in Western and North-Western Efenol are treated the same as having a word-initial <y>, getting a prosthetic /ʃ/ or /s/ as a result.

Certain foreign words often spelled with <h> in Spanish may be inherited in Efenol with an /x/: hockey > chóci.

Even though the word 'hora' (hour) in inherited in all dialects as or, the letter <h> remains a common abbreviation or symbol for 'hour'.

Spanish J

The Spanish letter <j>, representing the /x/ sound, are inherited as /x/, spelled <ch> in western-like orthographies and <h> in northern-like orthographies.

Examples: juego > chëu, ajo > ach, mejor > mechor, aljibe > alchibh, forja > forch.

Any instances of a foreign <j> originally representing a /dʒ/ or /ʒ/ sound are treated as beginning with <y>. See the corresponding section for more information.

Examples: jacuzzi > seacijs, jeans > sîz.

Spanish K

Instances of Spanish K are treated the same as the corresponding regular spellings for /k/: <qu> (before 'e' or 'i') and <c> (elsewhere). See the corresponding sections.

Examples: kilómetro > cilómethor, Kaliningrado > Calininrhadh (or Calininrhardh).

Although the letter 'K' is not used in most Efenol orthographies (Eastern Efenol being the exception), the letter is still used in symbols for metric units (particularlly km for kilometers and kg for kilograms which may also be informally abbreviated k, although this latter use is often seen as incorrect).

Spanish L

Other than in the digraph <ll> (covered in the next section) and when next to <g>, Spanish L is inherited as an /l/ in Efenol.

Examples: león > leôn, lobo > lobh, balada > baladh.

When next to the letter <g>, be it in the clusters <gl> or <lg>, Spanish L becomes <lw> /ɫ/ as mentioned in the section about Spanish G.

When next to another consonant, L typically triggers rhotic-mutation (hence why it might also be referred to as liquid mutation). Clusters involving <l> as a second element are often broken by moving the <l> to the coda of the syllable; this is further explained in the relevant sections for other consonants (for instance, the section for P for the cluster <pl>).

The cluster <sl> is simplfied to <l> unless word-final (after vowel elision), in which case the cluster is broken:

Examples: eslavo > elabh, isla > ísal, muslo > músol.

In Western Efenol alone, instances of a word-final <l> /l/ preceded by an /i/ are pronounced as palatal lateral /ʎ/. This is not reflected in writing (where /ʎ/ is elsewhere found as <lh>). Thus mil (one thousand, from Spanish mil) is phonetically /miʎ/.

Special developments

The Spanish letter <L> developed irregularly in a limited number of grammatical words.

Most prominently, the Spanish definite articles 'el', 'la', 'los' and 'las' lose the L in all dialects other than Northern Efenol becoming e (which triggers rhotic mutation, as a side effect of the lost /l/), a (which triggers lenition) and plural 'o' and 'a' (which do not trigger any kind of consonant mutation). On the other hand, only the original /l/ is preserved in singular definte articles preceding a vowel initial noun: <l'>.

Examples: el caso > e·chas, la casa > a·gas, los casos > o·ceis, las casas > a·ceis.

This does not affect the third-person singular pronoun <él>, which is inherited as el in all Efenol varieties.

Meanwhile, the accusative third-person plural pronoun 'los' becomes lho by influence of the <ll> in the nominative form 'ellos'.

Spanish Ll

The Spanish digraph <ll>, pronounced /ʎ/ (and regarded as different from Spanish <y>, see the note about the base Spanish variety above) is mostly retained as /ʎ/ although written <lh> instead. In Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern Efenol /ʎ/ (written 'li') is in free variation with /lj/.

Examples: llorar > lhorar, hallazgo > alháthog.

In word-final position (after vowel elision), /ʎ/ becomes /l/ and triggers i-ablaut on the preceding vowel. This is not the case in Central Efenol (and in some non-standard Western Efenol varieties) where word-final /ʎ/ remains unchanged. Additionally, some speakers of these varieties use transitional forms where the final /ʎ/ is kept a palatal but the preceding vowel is affected by i-ablaut.

Examples: malla > meil (Central malh or meilh), cepillo > thebîl (Central thebilh or thebîlh).

It should be noted that, due to a later shift, word-final <l> /l/ preceded by an /i/ are pronounced as palatal lateral /ʎ/ in Western Efenol (regardless of whether they originated as such or not). This change, not reflected in writing, makes it so that meil and thebîl indeed retain a /ʎ/ sound. This is not true for other dialects, such as Northern meil and zebîl realized with alveolar /l/.

Spanish M

Spanish M /m/ is usually inherited as such.

Examples: mamá > mamâ, marco > march, América > Amérig, arma > arm (but áram in other Efenol varieties).

Exceptions include:

• When next to a

  , as /p/ is nasal-mutated to /f/ when next to /m/ and the resulting [ɱf] is spelled as <nf>: tiempo > tînf.

• In the sequence <mb> which, as explained under the section about Spanish B, may yield /b/: tambor > tabor.
• In the cluster <mn>, where the /m/ is lost: himno > in.
• Next to an <l> (which might have moved from a cluster at the beginning of the previous syllable); only in this case /m/ is mutated to <v> /v/: finalmente > finalventh, clemencia > *chelmencia > chelvînth. This mutation doesn't take place if there is an epenthetic vowel between the L and the M: clima > *chilma > > chílam.

It should be noted that -menth, from the Spanish adverbial suffix '-mente' (similar to English -ly when used to form adverbs), is often added to the Efenol form of the adjective rather than inheriting the adverb directly from Spanish. Thus 'slowly' is not *lenthamenth as expected from Spanish 'lentamente' but rather lenthmenth, combining lenth (the expected outcome from Spanish 'lento'~'lenta') and -menth. For adjectives ending in <l> as final, the form -venth is used instead. This is even the case for adverbs that didn't have a final L in Spanish: 'bellamente' (beautifuly) becomes bîlventh, from 'bella' > bîl and the suffix -venth.

The sequences <mn> and <nm> yield their second component: /n/ and /m/ respectively: amnesia > anîs, himno > in, inmenso > imez, inminente > iminenth.

Spanish N

As with M, Spanish N /n/ is mostly inherited as such.

Examples: nieto > nît, Ana > An, caimán > caiman.

Many consonants change due to nasal mutation when next to /n/. In some cases (such as <nd> and <ng>) the nasal might be elided. The place of articulation may also assimilate (for instance, /n/ becomes [ŋ] when next to other velars). See the respective sections (such as Spanish D for <nd>) for more information.

Examples: andén > aden, enjambre > enchánver, antología > antholochî.

The sequence <nn> is simplified to a single <n> /n/: innato > inad.

Spanish Ñ

Spanish Ñ, representing the palatal nasal /ɲ/, is only preserved as such in Central Efenol. In all other varieties it becomes /nj/ word-initially (usually spelled <ne> in Western Efenol) and /n/ with an i-ablaut on the preceding vowel instead. Some Central Efenol speakers may conflate word-final Ñ (after vowel elision) with N and apply i-ablaut on the preceding vowel as other Efenol varieties do. A transitional form which uses i-ablaut but retains word final <ñ> /ɲ/ also exists.

Examples: ñandú > neadû (Central: ñadû), gnomo ~ ñomo > neom (Central: ñom), mañana > meinan (Central: mañan), año > ein (Central: añ', eiñ or ein), niño > nîn (Central: niñ, nîñ or nîn).

Spanish P

Spanish P /p/ evolves in different ways depending on its context.

Word-initially, when not followed by a consonant, Spanish /p/ is retained as 'p' /p/.

Examples: pez > peth, pelota > pelod.

Word-intial <pr> is also retained. Example: primo > prim.

Intervocalic P is normally inherited as either voiceless 'p' /p/ or voiced 'b' /b/ according to the lenition rule.

Examples: opaco > obag (lenition rule indicates that the stop is voiced between o and a), equipo > egip (lenition rule indicates that the stop isn't voiced between i and o).

The above isn't true if the 'p' is brought in contact with an <r> or <l> due to break of a preceding Cr or Cl cluster. In such cases, 'p' undergoes rhotic mutation and becomes /f/.

Examples: increpar > *incherpar > incherfar

The same behaviour applies to instances of 'p' preceded by <l>, <m> or <r> and followed by a vowel:

Examples: pulpo > pulf, alpino > alfin, lámpara > lánfar, carpa > carf.

Non word-initial <prV> (where V represents an arbitrary vowel) and all instances of <plV> are broken becoming <fVr> or <fVl> respectively. Notice that when this happens in the last syllable of a word some Efenol dialects may replace the original vowel (with /a/ in Central Efenol and with /ə/ in Eastern and North-Western Efenol). If the syllable already had a coda other than a fricative, the final <l> or <r> may be deleted.

Examples: apreciar > afirthar, plomo > fólom, plata > falth, plan > *faln > fân.

The cluster <sp> also becomes /f/:

Examples: avispa > avif, especial > efithal.

Spanish P as a non-word-final coda (particularly in the cluster <pt>, when not already simplified to <t> in Spanish as in 'septiembre'~'setiembre') is elided and lengthens the preceding vowel. Any following consonant is unaffected by lenition. This results in a complete merger with the cluster <ct>; exceptionally the word 'apto' becomes òt rather than the expected *ât to avoid confusion with ât, derived from Spanish 'acto'. Word-final /p/ (found only in loanwords) is retained as a /p/ except when preceded by an <l>, <m>~<n> or <r> which mutates the /p/ to /f/ as usual. The cluster <ps> simplifies to /s/ word-initially.

Examples: rapto > rât, sinapsis > sinâsis, psicología > sicolochî, séptimo > sêtim, septiembre > setiembre > sedînver (rather than septiembre > sêtînver), rap > rap.

Spanish Q

Aside from loanwords, Spanish Q only appears in the trigraphs <que> and <qui>, pronounced /ke/ and /ki/ respectively (the 'u' being silent). In words from foreign origin, Q may appear in other positions but is also pronounced as /k/. This /k/ phonemes evolve as detailed in the section about Spanish <c> (which represents /k/ before other vowels). The result is typically either /k/, /g/ or /x/.

Examples: queso > ces, pequeño > pegîn, moquette ~ moquet > mocet, ataque > adag, toque > toc, tanque > tanch, alquitrán > alchithân, arquero > archer, esquina > echin, Qatar ~ Catar > Cadar.

Since native occurences of Spanish Q involve a /k/ followed by a front vowel, its reflex is often <ç> /tʃ/ instead of <c> /k/ in Eastern Efenol:

Examples: quedo > çes, moquette ~ moquet > moçet.

As an exception, the words 'qué' and 'que' ('what' and 'that') evolve to kê and ke (or <k'>) in Eastern Efenol rather than the expected çê and çe. This is explained as an effort to dissimilate these words from the reflex of 'quien' ('who'): çîn.

Spanish R

The Spanish letter R has two pronunciations: an alveolar trill /r/ and an alveolar flap /ɾ/. The former (the trill /r/) is represented by a single <r> word-initially and after the consonants <l> and <n> and as a double R (<rr>) between vowels. The flap, /ɾ/, doesn't occur in word-initial position (nor after <l> or <n>) and is represented as a single <r> elsewhere.

It should be noted that there are some compounds which retain a trilled /r/ in positions where a flap /ɾ/ would be expected. Spanish orthography fails to account for this; compare the
cluster in 'cubra' /ˈku.bɾa/ (with a flap, as expected) vs 'subrayado' /sub.ra.ˈʝa.do/ (with a trill, as in the prefixless word 'rayado' /ra.ˈʝa.do/).

Spanish R as a trill (r or rr)

During its evolution, Efenol, in addition to preserving the alveolar trill /r/, developed a velar trill /ʀ/ (typically from /g/ being in contact with a rhotic, usually the flap /ɾ/). However, many varieties later merged the resulting alveolar and velar trills at least in some positions.

Word initially, Spanish R is inherited as an alveolar trill <r> /r/. Outside the official standard language, most Western Efenol speakers (as well as nearly all North-Western speakers) merge this sound with the velar rhotic /ʀ/ but this is not reflected in writing. In other dialects (as well as in standard Western Efenol) the trill remains alveolar /r/.

Example: rosa > ros (pronounced /ʀos/ by North-Western and many Western speakers and /ros/ by speakers of other Efenol varieties).

Elsewhere, the trill is fully merged with velar <rh> /ʀ/ in Western and North-Western Efenol.

Examples: arrendar > arhedar (compare 'agrandar' > arhadar, showing the merger), Enrique > Enrhig, alrededor > alrhedhedhor (also found as alrhôr).

In other dialects, these instances of /r/ remain an alveolar trill /r/, written <rr>.

Examples (in Eastern Efenol): arrendar > arredar (compare with 'agrandar' > arhadar, showing the lack of merger), Enrique > Enrrig, alrededor > *alrrededor > alrrôr.

In word-final position (after vowel elision) trills are only allowed in Northern and Central Efenol. Elsewhere, /r/ becomes a flap /ɾ/ and the preceding vowel gains compensatory length.

Examples (in Standard/Western Efenol): guerra > *gerr > gêr (but Central: gerr), burro > *burr > bûr (but Central: burr).

Uncommon clusters such as the /br/ found in 'subrayado' are reduced to /r/ before evolving as usual: subrayado > *surrayado > surheisadh (but Eastern surraijad).

Spanish R as a flap (r)

Spanish /ɾ/ remains an alveolar flap (written <r>) in most contexts.

Examples: aro > ar, amar > amar, orfebrería > orfeverî.

Clusters involving /ɾ/ and another consonant evolve as explained in the section for the other consonant (for instance, see Spanish D for the evolution of <dr> or <rd>).

Spanish S

Spanish S /s/ evolves in a number of ways depending on its context.

Word-initially, 'S' is preserved as such. Under Efenol grammar, this /s/ may undergo lenition o become <sh> /h/ or rhotic/nasal mutation to become <ss> /z/.

Examples: burro > bûr, vida > bidh, la vida > a·bhidh, en vida > mbidh.

Examples: sábana > sávan, la sábana > a·shaban, sol > sol, el sol > e·ssol, al sol > *en sol > en sol or ssol.

Word-finally (after vowel elision; corresponding to a word final -sV in Spanish), /s/ is also retained as 's'. Spanish adjectives ending in the suffix '-oso', however, end in -ô except in Northern Efenol (and transitional forms of Northern-Efenol) which have -os as expected. Word-final /s/ is also kept in a limited number of monosyllables like 'mes' and 'gas'.

Examples: queso > ces, grueso > rhës, mes > mes, gas > gas, hermoso > ermô (but Northern ermos).

Intervocalic /s/ (other than in word-final position after vowel elision) evolves into /s/, /h/ or Ø depending on stress position:

• If the syllable before the /s/ is stressed, then the /s/ remains an /s/: música > músig.
• If the syllable after (including) the /s/ is stressed, the /s/ is lenited to an <h> /h/. In Northern and in most forms of North-Eastern Efenol /x/ is used instead, also written <h>. Example: limusina > limuhin.
• If the primary stress of the word does not fall on either the syllable before nor the syllable after the S, the /s/ is lost: visitar /bi.si.ˈtaɾ/ > *biitar > bîtar.

There are several exceptions to these developments. For instance, clear derivations with a different stress placement often develop the /s/ as in the original word: musical > musigal (rather than expected *muigal or *muical). This is also true for verb conjugations: visita (present tense form of 'visitar') > bît (as in the infinitive bîtar rather than the expected bihit). The word bihit does exist however as a noun (also 'visita' in Spanish). Spanish verbs ending in '-sar' and '-ser', however, do have alternating paradigms: pasar (to pass) > pahar but pasa (3s passes) > pas, toser (to cough) > toher but tose (3s coughs) > tos.

The Spanish 'superlative' suffix '-ísimo' (used as an intensifier rather than an actual superlative) is also affected by an irregular development, yielding -îm. This new suffix can be regularly applied to words with irregular 'superlatives' in Spanish: fuerte > fërth > fërthîm (rather than fortísimo > *forthîm), pobre > póver > póverîm (rather than traditional 'pauperrimo' which is instead inherited as a less-common adjective on its own: pòpérhim ~ 'lacking quality').

The cluster <ls> develops as <lz> /lz/. In dialects other than Western Efenol, word-final <ls> (after vowel elision) is either broken or replaced with the similar-sounding (and more common) /lθ/. The latter is occasionally also found in Western Efenol as well.

Examples: salsa > salz (Central: sálaz), Alsacia > Alzeith, bolsa > bolz (Central: bólaz or bolth, Eastern bolz /βolθ/), balsa > balth (shifted to /balθ/ in all dialects).

The cluster <sl> is simplfied to <l> unless word-final (after vowel elision), in which case the cluster is broken. In the latter case, the first element may be found as either /s/ or /z/; 's' is preferred in Standard Efenol.

Examples: eslavo > elabh, isla > ísal (or ízal), muslo > músol (or múzol).

The cluster <sm> may evolve in three different ways:

• If the syllable before <sm> is not stressed, the /s/ is dropped: esmeralda > emeráladh.
• The suffix '-ismo' (corresponding to English -ism) is typically left as '-îm': atletismo > athledîm, comunismo > comunîm, electromagnetismo > elêthormanedîm.
• Otherwise, <sm> is usually broken after voicing the /z/: smV > zVm: asma > ázam, istmo ~ ismo > ízom.

The cluster <ns> develops to <z> /z/ in Western Efenol, North-Western Efenol and some Central Efenol varieties. Elsewhere, <ns> develops to [nz]. Some words may alteranate a medial /nz/ with /z/ in Western Efenol.

Examples: manso > maz (Central maz or manz, Northern mans /manz/, Eastern mans /mans/), insecto > izêt or inzêt (Central izêt or inzêt, Northern insêt /in.ˈzeːt/, Eastern insêt /in.ˈseːt).

The cluseter <sn> is typically conflated witih Spanish <zn> and thus evolves to /θVn/:

Examples: asno > *azno > áthon, fresno > *frezno > férthon.

The cluster <rs> develops into <rz> /ɾz/.

Examples: persa > perz, arsenal > arzenal.

The cluster <sr> simplifies to /s/. The name of 'Sri Lanka', the only word with an initial <sr> in common Spanish usage, becomes Sirilanch.

Example: Israel > Irhêl, disruptivo > dirhûtibh.

The clusters /sk/, /sp/ and /st/ turn to fricatives /x/, /f/ and /θ/.

Examples: escuplir > echulfir, esclavo > echálob, especial > efithal, resplandor > refaldor~refaldhor, estorno > ethóron, maestro > mêthor.

Other clusters such as the <sb> in 'esbozo' are commonly reduced by eliminating the /s/; this usually prevents the following consonant from undergoing lenition: esbozo > eboth, lesbianismo > lîbanîm, rasgar > ragar.

In Western and Central Efenol (and also for some North-Western Efenol speakers), a Spanish /s/ followed by a non-syllabic /u/~/w/ who would otherwise evolve to /s/ evolves to /z/ instead: suave > zabh.

Special developments

Some Spanish affixes involving the letter are subject to irregular developments.

Most prominently, the Spanish plural suffix for nouns ('-s' for most nouns ending in a vowel and '-es' otherwise) is replaced by i-ablaut. This is justified by the following chain of changes:

1. The singular form of a Spanish word loses the final vowel (if any): mano > *man.
2. The '-es' ending is applied to the new consonant-ending noun (even though the '-s' suffix might have been used originally): mano ~ manos > *man ~ *manes.
3. The '-es' ending is reduced: mano ~ manos > *man *manɪ.
4. The reduced /i/-like ending triggers apophony (the i-ablaut) before being elided: mano ~ manos > *man ~ *manɪ > *man ~ *maʲn > man ~ mein.
5. The new pluralization strategy is generalized.

The Spanish antonym-forming prefix 'des-' (correspond to the English prefixes dis- and un-) is inherited as de- in all contexts unless analyzed as part of the verbal stem. Thus 'desteñir' (to fade, antonym of 'teñir', to dye) becomes detînir (de- + tînir, the later being the reflex from 'teñir') rather than the expected *dethînir.

Verbs not affected by this rule include 'descargar' > decharhar (which was analyzed as a single lexeme rather than des + cargar, which would have yielded *decarhar) or 'despertar' > deferthar (whose stem is also monomorphemic in Spanish rather than des + *pertar).

Suffixes (including /s/) with irregular development include:

• Adjectival '-oso' becoming -ô in dialects other than Northern Efenol: perezoso > perethô (Northern : perezos).
• Superlative mark -ísimo and nominal -ismo which become -îm: grandísimo > rhanîm, liberalismo > liveralîm.
• The suffix -sión /sjon/ is replaced with the more common -ción /θjon/ by analogy: misión > *mición > mîthôn, pasión > *pación > peithôn.

Spanish T

Spanish T /t/ evolves in different ways depending on its context.

Word-initially, when not followed by a consonant, Spanish /t/ is retained as 't' /t/.

Examples: todo > todh, tabla > tával.

Word-intial is also retained. Example: tren > tren. Intervocalic T is normally inherited as either voiceless 't' /t/ or voiced 'd' /d/ according to the lenition rule. Examples: atorar > adorar (lenition rule indicates that the stop is voiced between a and o), hospital > ofital (lenition rule indicates that the stop isn't voiced between i and a). The above isn't true if the 't' is brought in contact with an <r> or <l> due to break of a preceding Cr or Cl cluster. In such cases, 't' undergoes rhotic mutation and becomes /θ/.

Examples: plata > *phalta > falth, concreto > *concherto > concherth.

The same behaviour applies to instances of 't' preceded by <l>, <n> or <r> and followed by a vowel:

Examples: alto > alth, alterar > altherar, antena > anthen, carta > carth.

Non word-initial <trV> (where V represents an arbitrary vowel) is broken becoming <thVr>. Notice that when this happens in the last syllable of a word some Efenol dialects may replace the original vowel (with /a/ in Central Efenol and with /ə/ in Eastern and North-Western Efenol). If the syllable already had a coda other than a fricative, the final <r> may be deleted.

Examples: estrusco > ethurch, otro > óthor, astral > *atharl > athâl.

The cluster <st> also becomes /θ/:

Examples: hasta > ath, estadio > etheidh.

The sequence <tl> (which in European Spanish always occurs across a syllable boundary, /t.l/) becomes <thl> /θl/.

Examples: atlántico > athlánthig, atleta > athled.

The clusters <ct> and <pt> simplify to /t/ with compensatory lengthening on the preceding vowel. Exceptionally, 'apto' yields òt to avoid confusion with acto > ât.

Examples: rapto > rât, actor > âtor.

Spanish V

See the section on Spanish B.

Spanish W

The letter <W> isn't used natively in Spanish but appears in several borrowings where it is pronounced either as a <v> /b/ (where it evolves the same as any other /b/, see the section on Spanish B) or as /w/ where it evolves the same as the sequence <gu> /gw/~/w/ (see the section 'Spanish G as /gw/').

Examples: web > webh, Wálter > Walther.

Spanish X

Natively, the Spanish letter <x> has three different pronunciations in standard Spanish: /x/, /s/ and /ks/.

The pronunciation /x/ (identical to a Spanish <J>) is only found in a few words, most notably México and Oaxaca. These words evolve as expected for their phonemic respellings 'Méjico' and 'Guajaca': Méchic and Wachag.

Word-initially, <x> is realized as /s/ (except in the surname 'Ximénez', which may also be pronounced with an initial /x/ as mentioned before). As usual for word-initial /s/, the phoneme is preserved in Efenol:

Examples: xilófono > silófon, xenofobia > senofoibh, xerografía > serorhafî.

Between vowels and word-finally <x> is pronounces as /ks/. In these cases, the /k/ is elided, the preceding vowel is lengthened and the /s/ sound is preserved. In Western and Central Efenol (and also for some North-Western Efenol speakers), a this /ks/ when followed by a non-syllabic /u/~/w/ to <z> /z/ instead.

Examples: axioma > eisom, anexo > anês, (tiranosaurio) rex > rês.

In clusters, the <x> is treated the same as an /s/, much like in usual European Spanish pronunciation.

Examples: texto > *testo > teth, extraño > *estraño > ethéiron, explicación > *esplicación > efilcheithôn.

Spanish Y

The Spanish letter Y appears both as a vowel (where it's equivalent to /i/~/j/) and as a consonant.

As a vowel (word-final Y), it evolves the same as 'i'.

Examples: y > *i > i, rey > *rei > rî, Paraguay > *Paraguái > Parawai.

Elsewhere, Spanish Y is treated as a consonant (typically transcribed as /ʝ/), with wide variations on its exact pronunciation. This is also reflected in Efenol, as different dialects handle this phoneme differently.

In Western and North-Western Efenol, consonantal Y is treated as a palatal sibilant /sʲ/ although this palatal quality is resolved by affecting the neighbouring vowels. Word initially, /ʝ/ becomes /sj/~/ʃ/, written <se>.

Examples: yate > sead, yunque > seunch, yin y yang > */sʲin i sʲang/ > sîn i seang, yeso > sîs.

Elsewhere, /ʝ/ evolves into /s/ and the preceding vowel is i-ablauted.

Examples: mayor > meisor, ayuntamiento > eisunthamînth, rayo > reis.

This also extends to the cluster <ny> /nʝ/, although the resulting /ns/ is often pronounced /nz/. However, it's common for the resulting words to lack the usual i-ablaut.

Examples: enyesar > ensîsar (influenced by yeso > sîs), inyección > insîthôn.

The following table illustrates the development in other Efenol varieties:

Efenol dialect	Word initial /ʝ/	Medial /ʝ/	Final /ʝV/	Cluster /nʝ/
Western	/sj/ ~ /ʃ/ yunque > seunch	i-ablaut + /s/ mayor > meisor	i-ablaut + /s/ rayo > reis	/ns/~/nz/ inyectar > insêtar
North-Western	/sj/ ~ /ʃ/ yunque > seunch	i-ablaut + /s/ mayor > meisor	i-ablaut + /s/ rayo > reis	/nz/ inyectar > enzêtar
Central	/i/~/j/ yunque > iunch	/s/ mayor > masor	i-ablaut + /s/ rayo > reis	/ns/ inyectar > insêtar
Eastern	i-ablaut + length yunque > ŷnh	/ʝ/ mayor > maghor	/jʒ/ rayo > raij	/nʝ/ inyectar > inghêtar
North Eastern	/ç/ yunque > ghunh	/ç/ mayor > maghor	/jç/ rayo > raigh	/nç/ inyectar > inghêtar
Northern	/j/ yunque > iunh	/j/ mayor > maior	/j/ rayo > rai	i-ablaut + /n/ inyectar > înêtar

Other sequences such as <by> are simplified to <y>: abyecto > *ayecto > Western eisêt, Eastern aghêt, Northern aiêt, etc.

Spanish Z

The Spanish letter <z> (in the European Spanish variety that serves as a base for Efenol) is pronounced /θ/ and is preserved as such in Efenol, written in western-like orthographies (including the one used in Standard Efenol) and as <z> in northern-like orthographies.

Examples: zeda (the name for the letter, preferred to 'zeta') > thedh (Northern: zed), zorro > thôr (Northern: zorr), azafrán > athafân (Northern: azafân).

Certain consonant clusters involving Spanish <z> are broken, including word-final <zn> (after vowel elision) and all instances of <zg>:

Examples; graznar > rhathnar, tizne > títhen, hartazgo > artháthog, juzgar > chuthagar (also simplified to chuthâr).