Verse:Mwail/European Neo-Thean
In Angai, Thean (/ˈθiːən/, natively shreñ thiidh (tone?)) is a family of analytic monosyllabic tonal languages in the Trans-Sarnathian family, spoken in Æm Múr. Thean is head-initial and SVO. Modern Standard Thean is inspired by Gwich'in.
Thean is an exonym derived from the Kuam pronunciation of the autonym.
Thean is natively written with logographs.
Phonology of Modern Standard Thean
Initials
| Labial | Inter- dental |
Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | |||||||
| Stop (Tone unrestricted) | /p/ b | /tθ/ ddh | /t/ d | /ts/ dz | /tɬ/ dl | /ʈʂ/ dr | /tʃ/ j | /k/ g, /kw/ gw | /ʔ/ ʼ |
| Fricative (Only L and M class tones) | /f/ f | /θ/ th | /s/ s | /ʂ/ shr | /ʃ/ sh | /x/ x, /xw/ xw | /h/ h | ||
| Sonorant (Tone unrestricted) | /m/ m | /n/ n | /l/ l | /ɻ/ r | /j/ y | /w/ w | |||
Medials
The medial is optional. The only allowed medial is /j/ y which cannot occur after retroflexes and /w/.
Nuclei
i, e, a, o, u, ii, ee, aa, oo, uu (as in Gwich'in)
Finals
-t -k -n -ñ -dh -w -j -r /-t -k -n -(nasalization) -ð̠˕ -w -j -ɻ/ (null is allowed)
-ng is not as common as in the Sinosphere
Tone
9 in nonchecked syllables, 3 in checked ones