Lanikel orthography

Lanikel is a dialect of Iskel which is primarily distinct from the others in its phonology. Therefore, its orthography differs from other dialects for both romanization and native script.

Romanization

Basic Phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		ɱ m		n n		ɲ ñ	ŋ ng
Stop	Voiceless	p p		t t	t͡ʃ ch		k k	ʔ c
	Voiced	b b		d͡z dz	d͡ʒ j		ɡ g
Fricative	Voiceless	f f	θ th	s s	ʃ sh	ʎ̝̊ hl	x x	h h
	Voiced	v v	ð dh	z z	ʒ zh
Approximant	Oral	w w		l l		j y
	Nasal	w̃ ňw		l̃ ňl		j̃ ňy
Vibrant				ɾ r			ʀ rr
Click	Nasal		ŋ͡ʇ dn	ŋ͡ǃ¡ qn		ŋ͡ǂ qñ
	Tenuis		k͡ʇ d	k͡ǃ¡ ql		k͡ǂ q

	Front	Near-Front	Near-Back	Back
Close	i i	ɪ ie	ʊ uo	u u
Mid	e e	ə eo	ʌ oe	o o
Open	a a			ɑ ao

Gemination

Long vowels are written with a macron over the first letter. Geminated single-letter consonants are written by doubling their letter. Geminated digraphic oral clicks and affricates are written by doubling their first letter, and the other geminated digraphic consonants are written by doubling their last letter.

Geminate Romanization
Occlusive	Phoneme	ɱː	nː	ɲː	ŋː	pː	tː	t͡ʃː	kː	ʔː	bː	d͡zː	d͡ʒː	ɡː	ŋ͡ʇː	ŋ͡ǃ¡ː	ŋ͡ǂː	k͡ʇː	k͡ǃ¡ː	k͡ǂː
	Grapheme	mm	nn	ññ	ngg	pp	tt	chh	kk	cc	bb	ddz	jj	gg	dnn	qnn	qññ	dd	qql	qq
Continuant	Phoneme	fː	θː	sː	ʃː	ʎ̝̊ː	xː	hː	vː	ðː	zː	ʒː	wː	lː	jː	w̃ː	l̃ː	j̃ː	ʀː
	Grapheme	ff	thh	ss	shh	hll	xx	hh	vv	dhh	zz	zhh	ww	ll	yy	ww'	ll'	yy'	rrr
Vowel	Phoneme	iː	ɪː	ʊː	uː	e	əː	ʌː	oː	aː	ɑː
	Grapheme	ī	īe	ūo	ū	ē	ēo	ōe	ō	ā	āo

Syllabic Consonants

Toneless syllabic consonants are written with an overdot. On digraphs, the underdot is written only on the first letter (e.g. /ŋ̩ ʀ̩/ get written ⟨ṇg ṛr⟩). For the syllabic palatal nasal, the ⟨ñ⟩ is replaced with ⟨ny⟩, upon which the underdot can be placed ⟨ṇy⟩. Syllabic /ð̩/ is written with ⟨d⟩ instead of ⟨dh⟩, and so receives the underdot as ⟨ḍ⟩. Geminated syllabic consonants are only marked for syllabicity/tone on the final letter. The toneless syllabic consonant /j̍/ is instead written ⟨ÿ⟩.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal
Nasal		ɱ̩ ṃ		n̩ ṇ	ɲ̩ ṇy	ŋ̩ ṇg
Fricative		v̩ ṿ	ð̩ ḍ	z̩ ẓ	ʒ̍ ẓh
Approximant	Oral	w̩ ẉ		l̩ ḷ	j̍ ÿ
	Nasal	w̩̃ ňẉ		l̩̃ ňḷ	j̩̃ ňÿ
Vibrant				ɾ̩ ṛ		ʀ̩ ṛr

Tones

High tone is marked with an acute accent on vowels without a diacritic. On vowels with a macron (denoting length), the macron is replaced with a circumflex (e.g. /í íː/ are ⟨í î⟩). High tone syllabic consonants /ɱ̩́ ń̩ ɲ̩́ ŋ̩́ ź̩ ʒ̩́ ẃ̩ ĺ̩ j̩́ ɾ̩́ ʀ̩́/ have their underdots replaced with the acute accent ⟨ḿ ń ńy ńg ź źh ẃ ĺ ý ŕ ŕr⟩. High tone /ð̩/ is written with ⟨ð⟩ instead of ⟨d́⟩, and high tone /v̩/ is written with a ⟨ŵ⟩.

Because word-initial high tone words are most common, Iskel romanizes them differently to avoid extensive diacritic use: a high tone on a multisyllabic word is not written if there is only one high tone and it's word initial. Multisyllabic words with no tones are written as if they have a word-initial high tone.

Mid tone is marked with a grave accent on vowels without a diacritic. On vowels with a macron (denoting length), the macron is replaced with a caron (e.g. /ī īː/ are ⟨ì ǐ⟩). Mid tone syllabic consonants are written similar to their toneless forms, but with overdots instead of underdots. The mid tone /v̩̄/, however, is written ⟨ẅ⟩.

Low tone is marked with an apostrophe before the nucleus.

For polypthongs, tone (not including low tone because it has unusual romanization) and length are always written on the first vowel grapheme, so every vowel with a tone or length diacritic begins its syllable's nucleus. It is therefore unnecessary to use a diaerisis on such vowels.

		Labial			Dental			Alveolar			Palatal			Dorsal
		High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low
Nasal		ɱ̩˥ ḿ	ɱ̩˧ ṁ	ɱ̩˩ 'ṃ				n̩˥ ń	n̩˧ ṅ	n̩˩ 'ṇ	ɲ̩˥ ńy	ɲ̩˧ ṅy	ɲ̩˩ 'ṇy	ŋ̩˥ ńg	ŋ̩˧ ṅg	ŋ̩˩ 'ṇg
Fricative		v̩˥ ŵ	v̩˧ ẅ	v̩˩ 'ṿ	ð̩́˥ ð	ð̩˧ ḋ	ð̩˩ 'ḍ	z̩˥ ź	z̩˧ ż	z̩˩ 'ẓ	ʒ̍˥ źh	ʒ̍˧ żh	ʒ̍˩ 'ẓh
Approximant	Oral	w̩˥ ẃ	w̩˧ ẇ	w̩˩ 'ẉ				l̩˥ ĺ	l̩˧ ŀ	l̩˩ 'ḷ	j̍˥ ý	j̍˧ ẏ	j̍˩ 'ÿ
	Nasal	w̩̃˥ ňẃ	w̩̃˧ ňẇ	w̩̃˩ 'ẉ				l̩̃˥ ňĺ	l̩̃˧ ňŀ	l̩̃˩ 'ňḷ	j̩̃˥ ňý	j̩̃˧ ňẏ	j̩̃˩ 'ňÿ
Vibrant								ɾ̩˥ ŕ	ɾ̩˧ ṙ	ɾ̩˩ 'ṛ				ʀ̩˥ ŕr	ʀ̩˧ ṙr	ʀ̩˩ 'ṛr

Multigraph Disambiguation

Many consonant phonemes are expressed with multigraphs that have an equivalent cluster. They are differenciated orthographically with apostrophes placed between consonant graphemes in a cluster.

Polyphthongs are mostly written by simply juxtaposing vowel letters together, but in cases with vowels that use digraphs, an overdot is placed on the non-first grapheme(s) of a diphthong to distinguish them (e.g. /ɪ i͡e/ are ⟨ie iė⟩, and /a͡ʌ ɑ͡e a͡o͡e/ are ⟨aȯe aoė aȯė⟩). Since all two- or three-vowel clusters contrast with a polypthong, a diaerisis is placed on the non-first grapheme(s) of such clusters to distinguish them (e.g. /ɪ i.e/ are ⟨ie ië⟩, and /a.ʌ ɑ.e a.o.e/ are ⟨aöe aoë aöë⟩).

Multigraph Disambiguation (Short Phonemes)
Consonants						Syllabic Consonants			Vowels
Digraph			Trigraph			Digraph			Short Digraph			Long Digraph
Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes
Base	Distinction		Base	Distinction		Base	Distinction		Base	Distinction		Base	Distinction
ch	ch	/t͡ʃ/	chh	chh	/t͡ʃː/	ṇy	ṇy	/ɲ̩/	ie	ie	/ɪ/	īe	īe	/ɪː/
	c'h	/ʔh/		ch'h	/t͡ʃh/		ṇ'y	/n̩j/		iė	/ie̯/		īë	/iː.e/
				c'hh	/ʔhː/	ńy	ńy	/ɲ̩˥/		ië	/i.e/
dh	dh	/ð/	dhh	dhh	/ðː/		ń'y	/n̩˥j/	uo	uo	/ʊ/	ūo	ūo	/ʊː/
	d'h	/k͡ʇh/		dh'h	/ðh/	ṅy	ṅy	/ɲ̩˧/		uȯ	/uo̯/		ūö	/uː.o/
				d'hh	/k͡ʇhː/		ṅ'y	/n̩˧j/		uö	/u.o/
dn	dn	/ŋ͡ʇ/	dnn	dnn	/ŋ͡ʇː/	'ṇy	'ṇy	/ɲ̩˩/	eo	eo	/ə/	ēo	ēo	/əː/
	d'n	/k͡ʇn/		dn'n	/ŋ͡ʇh/		'ṇ'y	/n̩˩j/		eȯ	/eo̯/		ēö	/eː.o/
				d'nn	/k͡ʇnː/	ṇg	ṇg	/ŋ̩/		eö	/e.o/
dz	dz	/d͡z/	ddz	ddz	/d͡zː/		ṇ'g	/n̩ɡ/	oe	oe	/ʌ/	ōe	ōe	/ʌː/
	d'z	/k͡ʇz/		d'dz	/k͡ʇd͡z/	ńg	ńg	/ŋ̩˥/		oė	/oe̯/		ōë	/oː.e/
				dd'z	/k͡ʇːz/		ń'g	/n̩˥ɡ/		oë	/o.e/
hl	hl	/ʎ̝̊/	hll	hll	/ʎ̝̊ː/	ṅg	ṅg	/ŋ̩˧/	ao	ao	/ɑ/	āo	āo	/ɑː/
	h'l	/hl/		hl'l	/ʎ̝̊l/		ṅ'g	/n̩˧ɡ/		aȯ	/ao̯/		āö	/aː.o/
				h'll	/hlː/	'ṇg	'ṇg	/ŋ̩˩/		aö	/a.o/
ng	ng	/ŋ/	ngg	ng	/ŋː/		'ṇ'g	/n̩ɡ/
	n'g	/nɡ/		ng'g	/ŋɡ/	ẓh	ẓh	/ʒ̍/
				n'gg	/nɡː/		ẓ'h	/z̩h/
ql	ql	/k͡ǃ¡/	qql	ql	/k͡ǃ¡ː/	źh	źh	/ʒ̍˥/
	q'l	/k͡ǂl/		q'ql	/k͡ǂk͡ǃ¡/		ź'h	/z̩˥h/
				qq'l	/k͡ǂːl/	żh	żh	/ʒ̍˧/
qn	qn	/ŋ͡ǃ¡/	qnn	qnn	/ŋ͡ǃ¡ː/		ż'h	/z̩˧h/
	q'n	/k͡ǂn/		qn'n	/ŋ͡ǃ¡n/	'ẓh	'ẓh	/ʒ̍˩/
				q'nn	/k͡ǂnː/		'ẓ'h	/z̩˩h/
qñ	qñ	/ŋ͡ǂ/	qññ	qññ	/ŋ͡ǂː/	ṛr	ṛr	/ʀ̩/
	q'ñ	/k͡ǂɲ/		qñ'ñ	/ŋ͡ǂɲ/		ṛ'r	/ɾ̩ɾ/
				q'ññ	/k͡ǂɲː/	ŕr	ŕr	/ʀ̩˥/
			rrr	rrr	/ʀː/		ŕ'r	/ɾ̩˥ɾ/
				rr'r	/ʀɾ/	ṙr	ṙr	/ʀ̩˧/
				r'rr	/ɾʀ/		ṙ'r	/ɾ̩˧ɾ/
sh	sh	/ʃ/	shh	shh	/ʃː/	'ṛr	'ṛr	/ʀ̩˩/
	s'h	/sh/		sh'h	/ʃh/		'ṛ'r	/ɾ̩˩ɾ/
				s'hh	/shː/
th	th	/θ/	thh	thh	/θː/
	t'h	/th/		th'h	/θh/
				t'hh	/thː/
zh	zh	/ʒ/	zhh	zhh	/ʒː/
	z'h	/zh/		zh'h	/ʒh/
				z'hh	/zhː/