Attian/Phonology

General information

Main article: The Attian language.

See also: Attian Morphology and IPA for Attian.

This appendix describes the phonology and corresponding processes of the Attian language. The Attian language is an artificial a priori language, and has thus the freedom of a phonology created from scratch, quite irregular. The consonantal inventory is remarkable for being quite "alveolo-velar", lacking any labialconsonants. English speaker might appereciate that the phonemic pronunciation of ⟨r⟩ is /ɹ/, though.

Consonants

This is the complete consonant phoneme inventory of the Attian language. These are the sounds with minimal pairing effect on lexemes. The language is notable for one of the conventional plosive series, or rather a phonemic distinction of the complete bilabial place of articulation.

Please note that the bolded letters are orthographic representations.

• Consonant gemination is phonemic, and applies to all consonants but /h/, but never occurs initially. Gemination is marked by doubling the grapheme.

Consonant phonemes
		Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals		n [n]			m [ŋ]
Plosive	voiceless	t [t]			k [k]
	voiced	d [d]			g [ɡ]
Fricative		th [θ-ð]	z [s-z]		j [x-ɣ]	h [h-ɦ]
Approximant			r [ɹ]	y [j]	v [w]

Below is the full consonant phone inventory of the Attian language, including all allophones, which are written within rounded brackets. Here it is evident that the bilabial series do exist in the language, though in allophonic position.

Please note that the bolded letters are orthographic representations.

Consonant phones
		Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	coarticulated
Nasals	plain	n [n]			m [ŋ]	(ŋ͡m)
	pre-ploded	(ᵈn)			(ᶢŋ)
Plosive	voiceless	t [t]			k [k]	(k͡p)
	voiced	d [d]			g [ɡ]	(ɡ͡b)
	prenasalised	(ⁿd)			(ᵑɡ)
Fricative		th [θ-ð]	z [s-z]		j [x-ɣ]		h [h-ɦ]
Approximant			r [ɹ]	y [j]	v [w]

Phonological processes

The Attian consonants are subjected to a few phonological processes, leading to a number of mutations of intervocalic consonants. The language's consonants undergo processes like voicing and pre-plosion, as well as labiovelar coarticulation intervocalically. Initial pre-nasalisation is also a feature of the stops in the language.

These sound changes greatly expand the language's consonant inventory, some of them are allophonic processes, whilst some of them are phonemic. No process is ever marked orthographically.

The approximants [ɹ], [w], and [j] are invariable.

Allophones and processes
Phoneme		Pre-nasalisation	Labiovelar coarticulation	Intervocalic
				Pre-plosion	Voicing	Fricativisation
n	/n/			[ᵈn]
m	/ŋ/		[ŋ͡m]	[ᶢŋ]
k	/k/	[ᵑg]	[k͡p]		[g]
g	/ɡ/	[ᵑg]	[ɡ͡b]			[ɣ]
t	/t/	[ⁿd]			[d]
d	/d/	[ⁿd]				[ð]
h	/h/				[ɦ]
j	/x/				[ɣ]
z	/s/				[z]

Obstruents

Pre-nasalisation

Non-nasal stops are pre-nasalised, should the preceding word terminate in a nasal, such as /ŋ/ or /n/^{(ex. 1, 2)} . It is important however, that this only applies externally and only to plosives^{(ex. 3)} . Nasalisation is never marked.

• Only plosives are affected by pre-nasalisation.

1: thanainn an tajai		2: gavann an garya		3: theminen thanya gva
/ˈθanenː an taʝo/ → [ˈθanenː an ˈⁿtaɣe]		/ˈɡawanː an ˈɡaɹja/ → [ˈɡawanː an ˈᵑɡaɹɣa]		/θɛmɛnin θanja ɡwa/ → [ θɛmɛnin θanja ɡwa]
«I speak poorly»		«my sweet coffee»		«It is said that I see your mouth»

Labiovelar coarticulation

The labiovelar coarticulation, or simply labiovelarisation, is a process which only applies to the velar stops, that is /ŋ/, /k/ and /ɡ/. The velar stops are coarticulated with their labial analogue when preceded or followed by a rounded vowel. This causes the allophones /ŋ͡m/^{(ex. 5)} , /k͡p/ and /ɡ͡b/^{(ex. 4, 6)} respectively.

4: uggau		5: erumi		6: gva uggau egegi
/uɡˈɡø/ → [uˈɡ͡bø]		/ɛɹˈuŋi/ → [ɛɹˈuŋ͡mi]		/ɡwa uɡˈɡø ɛɡˈɛɡi/ → [ɡwa uˈɡ͡bø ɛɡˈɛɡi]
«fish»		«being flied»		«I fish fish»

Fricativisation

The two voiced plosives, /d/ and /ɡ/, are fricativisised into /ð/^{(ex. 7, 9)} and /ɣ/ intervocalic positions. The fricativisation also occurs should any of the plosives precede other hetero-organic plosives^{(ex. 8)} .

7: adan		8: egta		9: gva dana
/ˈadan/ → [ˈaðan]		/ɛɡta/ → [ɛɣta]		/ɡwa ˈdana/ → [ɡwa ˈðana]
«meal»		«door»		«eat»

Other

The glottal fricative /h/, has an irregular effect if preceding or following hetero-organic plosives. The hetero-organic plosive is geminated, or doubled, and the glottal fricative is deleted from speech.

Sonorants

Pre-plosion

The nasal stops themselves become pre-ploded unexclusively in intervocalic environments^{(ex. 10, 11, 12)} . The pre-plosion affects the phoneme inventory's sonorants, except the approximants /ɹ/, /w/ and /j/. Please note that the mutation is never marked.

10: rama		11: gva mithra dana		12: thanyannayya
/ˈɹama/ → [ˈɹaᵇma]		/ˈɟwa miθɹa ˈdana/ → [ˈɟwa ˈᵇmiθɹa ˈdaᵈna]		/θanjanːajːa/ → [θanjaᵈnaᵈja]
«one»		«door»		«My mouth exists»

Other

The only rhotic consonant in the Attian inventory is the alveolar approximant /ɹ/, which is heavily irregular in its pronounciation. The corresponding intervocalic allophone is pronounced differently concerning manner and place as well as secondary articulation - namely as a aspirated dental trill - [r̪ʰ].

Vowels

This is the vocalic phoneme inventory of the Attian language. All of the following phonemes are phonemic, however, due to severe allophony in most dialects, the inventory is somewhat larger. The Attian language has 10 basic vowels, whereof four rounded and six unrounded.

Orthography

This is the orthographic representation of the phonemic vowels of the Attian languages. There are five digraphs vowels,⟨au⟩, ⟨ou⟩, ⟨eu⟩, ⟨ui⟩ and ⟨ai⟩. The "⟨u⟩", indicates lip rounding of the corresponding vowel, the ⟨i⟩ absence of it. The ⟨ai⟩ and ⟨ui⟩ are ad hoc digraphs, and are pronunced /e/ and /ɯ/ respectively.

i	u	ui	o	ou	ai	au	e	eu	a
/i/	/u/	/ɯ/	/ɤ/	/o/	/e/	/ø/	/ɛ/	/œ/	/a/

Diphthongs

There are 12 phonemic diphthongs in the Attian language. They non-syllabic elements [i̯] and [u̯] are heavily allophonic with /j/ and /w/ respectively.

Rising						Falling
ya		[ɪ̯a]		ay		[aɪ̯]
ye		[ɪ̯ɛ]		ey		[ɛɪ̯]
yo		[ɪ̯o]		oy		[oɪ̯]
va		[u̯a]		av		[au̯]
ve		[u̯ɛ]		ev		[ɛu̯]
vo		[u̯o]		ov		[ou̯]

Vowel allophony

The Attian language's vowels exposed to a great deal of allophony, in different phonological circumstances and when subjects to stress... Vowels may change their quality when:

• Preceding alveopalatal, palatal or glottal consonants. This retracts articulation of front vowels, and leaves back vowels unaffected.
• Preceding rhotic consonants, i.e. /ɹ/. Vowels preceding the rhotic become supradentalised if back, and unaffected if front vowels.
• In a stressed syllable. The language has a moraic stress system, thus distinguishing the weight of syllables - the heavier the syllable, the greater chance of being stressed. Interestingly, the heaviest syllable is reinforced when stressed, which changes the vowel's quality or diphthongising it.

It is important to note that none of the diphthongs are affected by the allophony, and nor are monosyllables. V

Allophony
Grapheme	Unstressed	Before alveopalatals	Before rhotics	Stressed
i	i	ə	iː	e̯a
u	u		ʊ	oʊ̯
o	ɤ
ó	o
ai	e	ə	eː	e̯a
á	ø		øː	ə
e	ɛ	ə	ɛ	ɛi̯
é	œ		œː	ə
a	a	ɑː	aː	a̯ɑː

The allophonic pronunciation is not compulsory, but should be aspired for, to imitate a "native" pronunciation.

• And as previously described are monosyllables unaffected by the syllable reinforcement.

Phonotactics

C = Consonant
N = Nasal stop
V = Vowel or Diphthong

The Attian language's phonotactics, are quite restricted. The syllable structure is (C)(C)VC(C) initially in the lexeme, and (C)V(C)(C) medially and (C)V((N)(N)t/h/j/z) finally. In monosyllables, the maximum construction is (C)(C)V((N)(N)t/h/j/z).

This construction gives a language quite restricted in the number of onsets possible, in comparison to for example English. In addition to this, only some of the possible clusters are actually present as onsets in the language. The word codas are even more restricted. The words may only be terminated by either a nasal, a double nasal, the plosives [t] and [ʔ], or the approximant [j].

Since the language is a rather agglutinating one, a speaker should be wary of agglutinating morphemes. Should an affix be agglutinated to a stem, the affix normally loses its epenthic vowel. This occurs if a diaresis arises, or if the affix' consonant(s) is in compliance with the phonotactics.

Vowel clusters

The Attian language allows 12 phonemic diphthongs. Any other clusters of vocalic phonemes form diaereses. Inserting an epenthic glottal stop between these vowels is a common occurrence, but should be avoided to decrease the risk of homophony with the glottal plosive, /ʔ/.

Exceptions to this are the allophonic diphthongs [e̯a], [oʊ̯], [ɛi̯] and [a̯ɑː], which arises as a consequence of stressed monophthongs. For more information, see the following section on stress.

Suprasegmentals

Stress

Attian's system of lexical stress is different to that of for example English. Unlike English, it's completely regular, however moraic. This means that the heaviest syllables are stressed, and the if the lexeme contains several equivalent syllables, the one second is emphasised. The Attian stress affects and reinforces the vowel phonemes' articulation. Should the syllable nucleus consist of a diphthong, it remains unaffected.

The morae of Attian are determined out of three circumstances, each of which represent one mora:

• The existence of a syllable coda is self-written only in native words.
• A long vowel or diphthong.
• The existence of a syllable onset.

The Attian phonotactics dictate that a syllable, and thus also a lexeme, may be realised minimally as VC, hence always receiving a syllable coda. The existence of a syllable onset substitutes over one mora and contrasts with null onsets:

First syllable stressed

• am - «blood», /ˈaŋ/ (monomoraic)
• yamina - «come», /ˈjaŋ.iːn.a/ (trimoraic-bimoraic-monomoraic)

Second syllable stressed

• yamnann - «my coming», /jaŋ.ˈnanː/ (trimoraic-trimoraic)

The existence of a geminated vowel or diphthong also reinforces the syllable weight:

• yamnay - «his coming», /ˈjaŋ.naj/ (trimoraic-trimoraic)

The following example details how geminate consonants actually are realised as double consonants in syllable boundaries.

• yamnannayya - «it is my coming» /jaŋ.ˈnan.naj.ja/ (trimoraic-trimoraic-trimoraic-monomoraic)

With these points considered, the conclusion is that the Attian emphasis always lies on either the first syllable, should the word commence with a consonant or diphthong, or on the second syllable, if the first phoneme is a vowel, or if both the initial and second syllables are equally heavy. This only concerns non-prefixed stems however. Stress in the Attian language is absolute and shows no inclination towards moving, regardless of any prefixing, unless the consonant template ischanged:

• gava - «to cut» /ˈgaw.a/ → magva - «knife», /ˈmag.wa/ → emagva - «knife» /ɛˈmag.wa/ not /ɛmˈag.wa/

Accent

The Attian language has an inherent pitch accent, simply called the accent. The accent is non-distinctive for minimal pairs, but is an essential part of the vowel articulation.

Stressed syllables differentiate two tones, often described as pitch accents, or simply accents. The actual realisations of these two accents would differ from dialect to dialect. In general, however, these accents are identified as high and low. These terms are avoided and most often replaced with sharp and matte, which is the general perception of the tones realisations, since the matte accent is characterised by a later timing of the intonational pitch rise as compared with the sharp accent.

The pitch accents are suprasegmental realisations of the front-back value. The system is quite simple. Back and central vowels are commonly associated with the matte accent, leading most often to a lower tone [˨, ◌̀], whilst front vowels inherit a sharp tone [˦, ◌́].

Sequences of vowels are influenced of the preceding or following, stressed vowel accent, rendering front-back vowels with a high-falling tone [˥˩, ◌̂]. Conversely, back to front sequences get low-rising accents [˩˥, ◌̌].

• am - «blood», /ˈáŋ/
• aznou - «heat», /ázˈnɤ̀/ → [ázˈnɤ̂]
• oman - «oman», /ɤ̀ŋˈán/ → [ɤ̌mˈán]

In longer words, the distinctive pitch accent looses its strenght rendering most syllables with a normal, mid pitch [˧, ◌̄]. These vowels receive a vastly faster voiced onset time, and are pronounced very rapidly. An exception to this is should the final vowel be front valued, which gives a final rising tone.

• mathunum - «speakers (pat.pl.)», [ŋâˈθùnùŋ͡m]
• emathunum - «these speakers (prox.pat.pl.)», [ɛ̄ŋâˈθùnùŋ͡m]
• emathunumann - «these speakers of mine (prox-pat.pl-1.encl.pat.)», [ɛ̄ŋâˈθùnùŋ͡mǎŋː]

Note that only the accent signature of the stressed vowel o ever transcribed, and that accent is ever distinguished in the most narrow transcriptions. This renders the final example like this:

• emathunumann - «these speakers of mine (prox-pat.pl-1.encl.pat.)», /ɛŋaˈθunuŋanː/ - [ɛᶢŋaˈθoʊ̯ᵈnuŋ͡manː] - [ɛᶢŋaˈθòʊ̯ᵈnuŋ͡manː]