Tłkaw

Tłkaw is the most spoken modern Zoomic language, and became a lingua franca of Western Etalocin in the modern era before Clofabosin became more prominent in the information age.

Phonology

Consonants

A lot of clicks - voicing and/or aspiration is neutralized in post-tonal clicks, however.

Vowels

/a i u a: i: u: ai au ə/ a i u â î û ai au e

/ə/ is a common outcome of vowel reduction and can only occur in unstressed syllables.

Prosody

Intonation

Tłkaw has a distinctive intonation paradigm, similar to Irish English or Valspeak.

• In declarative sentences, the stressed syllable of the focus word (if there is no focused constituent, the last word) has a lower pitch than the immediately preceding syllable. ("...mid ꜜ LOW mid...") This originates from discursive uptalk in older forms of Tłkaw, which has since generalized to all declarative sentences. A few relatively isolated accents do not use this pattern.
• In interrogative sentences, the stressed syllable of the focus word has a higher pitch than the syllable immediately before. ("... mid ꜛ HIGH mid ... ?")
• In exclamations, the pattern is "... mid ꜜ LOW-HIGH mid ... !", possibly with a gradual drop to low pitch in the end. Angry or indignant questions also use an exclamatory intonation.