Æ
Æ /ɛ/ is a tonal Wiobic language.
Introduction
Æ is meant to be the tonal language which I always wanted in Tricin - one evolved from a nontonal, vaguely Germanic language. It has several obvious nods to Danish, such as the spelling, stød as part of a register tone system, and pharyngealized vowels.
Phonology
Consonants
p t tj k f s h m n nj ng l zj r v j /p t c k f s x m n ɲ ŋ l ɹ ʀ v j/
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | |
| Close | i /i/ | ir /iˤ/ | u /ɨ/ | ur /ɨˤ/ | ů /uˤ/ | ůr /uˤ/ | ||
| Close-mid | e /e/ | er /eˤ/ | ø /øˤ/ | ør /øˤ/ | o /o/ | or /oˤ/ | ||
| Open | æ /ɛ/ | ær /ɛˤ/ | æ̊ /œ/ | æ̊r /œˤ/ | a /a/ | ar /aˤ/ | å /ɔ/ | år /ɔˤ/ |
Tones
Æ has four register phonations or tones:
| Spelling | Tone | Example | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unmarked | modal | hæ̊ | /hœ/ | echo |
| ƨ | stød (weak glottalization) | hæ̊ƨ | /hœˀ/ | steep |
| з | breathy | hæ̊з | /hœʱ/ | to stretch |
| ч | checked (strong glottalization) | hæ̊ч | /hœʔ/ | to make a mistake |
Morphology
TODO: "erhua"
- hæ̊ч 'to make a mistake' > hæ̊rч hæ̊rч 'peccadillo'