Ahakqau
INTRODUCTION
Trying to create a phonologically and morphologically less complex conlang.
PHONOLOGY
Phoneme Inventory
Consonants
Ahakqau has a total of thirteen consonants which according to WALS (the World Atlas of Language Structures) is a small inventory. The consonant inventory is notable for the presence of a lateral obstruent and an initial velar nasal.
Labial | Central Alveolar | Lateral Alveolar | Palato-Alveolar | Velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Voiceless Stop | /p/ | /t/ | /tɬ/ | /tʃ/ | /k/ |
Voiced Fricative | /v/ | /ɹ/ | /l/ | /ʒ/ | /ɣ/ |
Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ |
NOTE: While /ɹ, l/ are not phonetically fricatives, they pattern phonologically with the rest of the voiced fricatives.
Vowels
Ahakqau has a total of three short monophthongs, three long monophthings and six diphthongs making a total of twelve phonological vowels. Long monophthongs are realised as diphthongs but patterb with the short monophthongs. According to WALS, which only considers the quality of monophthongs, this is a small vowel quality inventory.
Short Front | Long Front | Short Central | Long Central | Short Back | Long Back | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
High Monophthong | /i/ | /eɪ | /u/ | /oʊ/ | ||
Low Monophthong | /ä/ | /əä/ |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High Diphthong | /ɔɪ/ | /iə/, /uə/ | /ɛʊ/ |
Low Diphthong | /aɪ/ | /ɑʊ/ |
Orthography
Ahakqau is written in the Latin alphabet. It is a phonemic alphabet which also reflects sandhi.