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

Some consonants can be written with either digraphs or a non-ASCII monograph. Syllabic consonants are always written as digraphs, however.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		ɱ m		n n		ɲ ny, ñ	ŋ ng, ŋ
Stop	Voiceless	p p		t t	t͡ʃ ch, č		k k	ʔ q
Stop	Voiced	b b		d͡z dz, ẑ	d͡ʒ j		ɡ g
Fricative	Voiceless	f f	θ th, þ	s s	ʃ sh, š	ʎ̝̊ lh, ç	x x	h h
Fricative	Voiced	v v	ð d	z z	ʒ zh, ž
Approximant	Oral	w w		l l		j y
Approximant	Nasal	w̃ ňw, ũ		l̃ ňl, ł		j̃ ňy, ĩ
Vibrant				ɾ r			ʀ rr, ř
Click	Nasal		ŋ͡ʇ cn	ŋ͡ǃ¡ cňl, ċn		ŋ͡ǂ cñ, ĉn
Click	Tenuis		k͡ʇ c	k͡ǃ¡ cl, ċ		k͡ǂ cy, ĉ

Vowel digraphs can be written as such or with an ogonek on their initial vowel instead.

	Front	Near-Front	Near-Back	Back
Close	i i	ɪ ie, į	ʊ uo, ų	u u
Mid	e e	ə eo, ę	ʌ oe, ǫ	o o
Open	a a			ɑ ao, ą

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⟩. The toneless syllabic consonant /j̍/ is instead written ⟨ẏ⟩.

		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 ẏ
Approximant	Nasal	w̩̃ ňẉ		l̩̃ ňḷ	j̩̃ ňẏ
Vibrant				ɾ̩ ṛ		ʀ̩ ṛr

Tones

High tone on vowels 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⟩).

Mid tone on vowels 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⟩).

Low tone is marked with an apostrophe before the nucleus.

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.

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.

	Front			Near-Front			Near-Back			Back
	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low	High	Mid	Low
Close	í í	ī ì	ì 'i	ɪ́ íe	ɪ̄ ìe	ɪ̀ 'ie	ʊ́ úo	ʊ̄ ùo	ʊ̀ 'uo	ú ú	ū ù	ù 'u
Mid	é é	ē è	è 'e	ə́ éo	ə̄ èo	ə̀ 'eo	ʌ́ óe	ʌ̄ òe	ʌ̀ 'oe	ó ó	ō ò	ò 'o
Open	á á	ā à	à 'a							ɑ́ áo	ɑ̄ ào	ɑ̀ 'ao

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⟩.

Mid tone syllabic consonants are written similar to their toneless forms, but with overdots instead of underdots. The mid tone /v̩̄ j̩̄/, however, are written ⟨ẅ ÿ⟩.

		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˧ ÿ	j̍˩ 'ẏ
Approximant	Nasal	w̩̃˥ ňẃ	w̩̃˧ ňẇ	w̩̃˩ 'ňẉ				l̩̃˥ ňĺ	l̩̃˧ ňŀ	l̩̃˩ 'ňḷ	j̩̃˥ ňý	j̩̃˧ ňÿ	j̩̃˩ 'ňẏ
Vibrant								ɾ̩ː˥ ŕ	ɾ̩ː˧ ṙ	ɾ̩ː˩ 'ṛ				ʀ̩˥ ŕr	ʀ̩˧ ṙr	ʀ̩˩ 'ṛr

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 second letter.

Geminated syllabic consonants are marked by doubling the letter with the syllabic or tone diacritic. The syllabic geminate consonant /ʀ̩ː/ is only written with two marked ⟨r⟩s instead of two marked ⟨r⟩s and an unmarked one.

Geminate Romanization
Consonant	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	nyy	ngg	pp	tt	cch	kk	qq	bb	ddz	jj	gg	cnn	cňňl	cññ	cc	ccl	ccy
		Grapheme	mm	nn	ññ	ŋŋ	pp	tt	čč	kk	qq	bb	ẑẑ	jj	gg	cnn	ċnn	ĉnn	cc	ċċ	ĉĉ
	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	lhh	xx	hh	vv	dd	zz	zhh	ww	ll	yy	ňww	ňll	ňyy	rrr
		Grapheme	ff	þþ	ss	šš	çç	xx	hh	vv	dd	zz	žž	ww	ll	yy	ũũ	łł	ĩĩ	řř
Syllabic Consonant	Toneless	Phoneme	ɱ̩ː	n̩ː	ɲ̩ː	ŋ̩ː	v̩ː	ð̩ː	z̩ː	ʒ̍ː	w̩ː	l̩ː	j̍ː	w̩̃ː	l̩̃ː	j̩̃ː	ʀ̩ː
	Toneless	Grapheme	ṃṃ	ṇṇ	ṇṇy	ṇṇg	ṿṿ	ḍḍ	ẓẓ	ẓẓh	ẉẉ	ḷḷ	ẏẏ	ňẉẉ	ňḷḷ	ňẏẏ	ṛṛ
	High Tone	Phoneme	ɱ̩ː˥	n̩ː˥	ɲ̩ː˥	ŋ̩ː˥	v̩ː˥	ð̩ː˥	z̩ː˥	ʒ̍ː˥	w̩ː˥	l̩ː˥	j̍ː˥	w̩̃ː˥	l̩̃ː˥	j̩̃ː˥	ʀ̩ː˥
	High Tone	Grapheme	ḿḿ	ńń	ńńy	ńńg	ŵŵ	ðð	źź	źźh	ẃẃ	ĺĺ	ýý	ňẃẃ	ňĺĺ	ňýý	ŕŕ
	Mid Tone	Phoneme	ɱ̩ː˧	n̩ː˧	ɲ̩ː˧	ŋ̩ː˧	v̩ː˧	ð̩ː˧	z̩ː˧	ʒ̍ː˧	w̩ː˧	l̩ː˧	j̍ː˧	w̩̃ː˧	l̩̃ː˧	j̩̃ː˧	ʀ̩ː˧
	Mid Tone	Grapheme	ṁṁ	ṅṅ	ṅṅy	ṅṅg	ẅẅ	ḋḋ	żż	żżh	ẇẇ	ŀŀ	ÿÿ	ňẇẇ	ňŀŀ	ňÿÿ	ṙṙ
	Low Tone	Phoneme	ɱ̩ː˩	n̩ː˩	ɲ̩ː˩	ŋ̩ː˩	v̩ː˩	ð̩ː˩	z̩ː˩	ʒ̍ː˩	w̩ː˩	l̩ː˩	j̍ː˩	w̩̃ː˩	l̩̃ː˩	j̩̃ː˩	ʀ̩ː˩
	Low Tone	Grapheme	'ṃṃ	'ṇṇ	'ṇṇy	'ṇṇg	'ṿṿ	'ḍḍ	'ẓẓ	'ẓẓh	'ẉẉ	'ḷḷ	'ẏẏ	'ňẉẉ	'ňḷḷ	'ňẏẏ	'ṛṛ
Vowel	Toneless	Phoneme	iː	ɪː	ʊː	uː	eː	əː	ʌː	oː	aː	ɑː
		Grapheme	ī	īe	ūo	ū	ē	ēo	ōe	ō	ā	āo
		Grapheme	ī	į̄	ų̄	ū	ē	ę̄	ǭ	ō	ā	ą̄
	High Tone	Phoneme	iː˥	ɪː˥	ʊː˥	uː˥	eː˥	əː˥	ʌː˥	oː˥	aː˥	ɑː˥
		Grapheme	î	îe	ûo	û	ê	êo	ôe	ô	â	âo
		Grapheme	î	į̂	ų̂	û	ê	ę̂	ǫ̂	ô	â	ą̂
	Mid Tone	Phoneme	iː˧	ɪː˧	ʊː˧	uː˧	eː˧	əː˧	ʌː˧	oː˧	aː˧	ɑː˧
		Grapheme	ǐ	ǐe	ǔo	ǔ	ě	ěo	ǒe	ǒ	ǎ	ǎo
		Grapheme	ǐ	į̌	ų̌	ǔ	ě	ę̌	ǫ̌	ǒ	ǎ	ą̌
	Low Tone	Phoneme	iː˩	ɪː˩	ʊː˩	uː˩	eː˩	əː˩	ʌː˩	oː˩	aː˩	ɑː˩
		Grapheme	'ī	'īe	'ūo	'ū	'ē	'ēo	'ōe	'ō	'ā	'āo
		Grapheme	'ī	'į̄	'ų̄	'ū	'ē	'ę̄	'ǭ	'ō	'ā	'ą̄

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. When using digraph notation, all of the combinations in the chart below are necessary to use, except those with the base ⟨cn ċn ĉn⟩. When using diacritic notation, only the base ⟨cn ċn ĉn⟩ combinations are necessary to use.

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⟩).

When there are two adjacent vowels with an overdot, both overdots are omitted. For example, ⟨aoe⟩ must always be read as /ao̯e̯/, and not rewritten as ⟨aȯė⟩.

The following chart provides the correct phonemic readings of all ambiguous digraphs, all ambiguous non-syllabic consonant trigraphs, and two exmaple vowel trigraphs.

Multigraph Disambiguation
Consonants						Syllabic Consonants			Vowels
Digraph			Trigraph			Digraph			Short Vowel Multigraph			Long Vowel Multigraph
Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes	Grapheme		Phonemes
Base	Distinction	Phonemes	Base	Distinction	Phonemes	Base	Distinction	Phonemes	Base	Distinction	Phonemes	Base	Distinction	Phonemes
cl	cl	/k͡!¡/	ccl	ccl	/k͡!¡/	ṇy	ṇy	/ɲ̩/	ie	ie	/ɪ/	īe	īe	/ɪː/
cl	c'l	/k͡ʇl/		c'cl	/k͡ʇk͡!¡/	ṇy	ṇ'y	/n̩j/		iė	/ie̯/	īe	īë	/iː.e/
				cc'l	/k͡ʇːl/	ńy	ńy	/ɲ̩˥/		ië	/i.e/
ch	ch	/t͡ʃ/	chh	chh	/t͡ʃː/	ńy	ń'y	/n̩˥j/	uo	uo	/ʊ/	ūo	ūo	/ʊː/
ch	c'h	/k͡ʇh/		ch'h	/t͡ʃh/	ṅy	ṅy	/ɲ̩˧/		uȯ	/uo̯/	ūo	ūö	/uː.o/
				c'hh	/k͡ʇhː/	ṅy	ṅ'y	/n̩˧j/		uö	/u.o/
cn	cn	/ŋ͡ʇ/	ccn	ccn	/k͡ʇːn/	'ṇy	'ṇy	/ɲ̩˩/	eo	eo	/ə/	ēo	ēo	/əː/
cn	c'n	/k͡ʇn/	ccn	c'cn	/k͡ʇŋ͡ʇ/	'ṇy	'ṇ'y	/n̩˩j/		eȯ	/eo̯/	ēo	ēö	/eː.o/
cñ	cñ	/ŋ͡ǂ/	ccñ	ccñ	/k͡ʇːɲ/	ṇg	ṇg	/ŋ̩/		eö	/e.o/
cñ	c'ñ	/k͡ʇɲ/	ccñ	c'cñ	/k͡ʇŋ͡ǂ/	ṇg	ṇ'g	/n̩ɡ/	oe	oe	/ʌ/	ōe	ōe	/ʌː/
cňl	cňl	/ŋ͡!¡/				ńg	ńg	/ŋ̩˥/		oė	/oe̯/	ōe	ōë	/oː.e/
cňl	c'ňl	/k͡ʇl̃/				ńg	ń'g	/n̩˥ɡ/		oë	/o.e/
cy	cy	/k͡ǂ/	ccy	ccy	/k͡ǂː/	ṅg	ṅg	/ŋ̩˧/	ao	ao	/ɑ/	āo	āo	/ɑː/
cy	c'y	/k͡ʇj/		c'cy	/k͡ʇk͡ǂ/	ṅg	ṅ'g	/n̩˧ɡ/		aȯ	/ao̯/	āo	āö	/aː.o/
				cc'y	/k͡ʇːj/	'ṇg	'ṇg	/ŋ̩˩/		aö	/a.o/
			cnn	cnn	/ŋ͡ʇː/	'ṇg	'ṇ'g	/n̩ɡ/	ieo (example)	ieo	/ie̯o̯/
				cn'n	/ŋ͡ʇn/	ẓh	ẓh	/ʒ̍/		iėo	/iə̯/
				c'nn	/k͡ʇnː/	ẓh	ẓ'h	/z̩h/		ieȯ	/ɪo̯/
			cññ	cññ	/ŋ͡ǂː/	źh	źh	/ʒ̍˥/		iëo	/i.ə/
				cñ'ñ	/ŋ͡ǂɲ/	źh	ź'h	/z̩˥h/		ieö	/ɪ.o/
				c'ññ	/k͡ǂɲː/	żh	żh	/ʒ̍˧/		iëö	/i.e.o/
ċn	ċn	/ŋ͡ʇ/	ċċn	ċċn	/k͡!¡ːn/	żh	ż'h	/z̩˧h/		iëȯ	/i.eo̯/
ċn	ċ'n	/k͡ʇn/	ċċn	ċ'ċn	/k͡!¡ŋ͡!¡/	'ẓh	'ẓh	/ʒ̍˩/		iėö	/ie̯.o/
			ċnn	ċnn	/ŋ͡!¡ː/	'ẓh	'ẓ'h	/z̩˩h/	oua (example)	oua	/ou̯a̯/
				ċn'n	/ŋ͡!¡n/	ṛr	ṛr	/ʀ̩/		oüa	/o.ua̯/
				ċ'nn	/k͡!¡nː/	ṛr	ṛ'r	/ɾ̩ɾ/		ouä	/ou̯.a/
ĉn	ĉn	/ŋ͡ʇ/	ĉĉn	ĉĉn	/k͡ǂːn/	ŕr	ŕr	/ʀ̩˥/		oüä	/o.u.a/
ĉn	ĉ'n	/k͡ʇn/	ĉĉn	ĉ'ĉn	/k͡ǂŋ͡ǂ/	ŕr	ŕ'r	/ɾ̩˥ɾ/
			ĉnn	ĉnn	/ŋ͡ǂː/	ṙr	ṙr	/ʀ̩˧/
				ĉn'n	/ŋ͡ǂn/	ṙr	ṙ'r	/ɾ̩˧ɾ/
				ĉ'nn	/k͡ǂnː/	'ṛr	'ṛr	/ʀ̩˩/
dz	dz	/d͡z/	ddz	ddz	/d͡zː/	'ṛr	'ṛ'r	/ɾ̩˩ɾ/
dz	d'z	/ðz/		d'dz	/ðd͡z/
				dd'z	/ðːz/
lh	lh	/ʎ̝̊/	lhh	lhh	/ʎ̝̊ː/
lh	l'h	/lh/		lh'h	/ʎ̝̊h/
				l'hh	/lhː/
ng	ng	/ŋ/	ngg	ngg	/ŋː/
ng	n'g	/nɡ/		ng'g	/ŋɡ/
				n'gg	/nɡː/
ny	ny	/ɲ/	nyy	nyy	/ɲː/
ny	n'y	/nj/		ny'y	/ɲj/
				n'yy	/njː/
			rrr	rrr	/ʀː/
				rr'r	/ʀɾ/
				r'rr	/ɾʀ/
sh	sh	/ʃ/	shh	shh	/ʃː/
sh	s'h	/sh/		sh'h	/ʃh/
				s'hh	/shː/
th	th	/θ/	thh	thh	/θː/
th	t'h	/th/		th'h	/θh/
				t'hh	/thː/
zh	zh	/ʒ/	zhh	zhh	/ʒː/
zh	z'h	/zh/		zh'h	/ʒh/
				z'hh	/zhː/